Seira

Leo squeezed me in his arms the moment he saw me outside the pharmacy and when he saw the state of my clothes, he snapped.

"What happened to you?"

I opened and closed my mouth, unsure of what to say.

"What did he do to you? Did he touch you?" Leo looked at me with painful eyes.

I shook my head and buried my head on his chest.

He held my shoulders and looked me in the eyes.

"Seira, what happened?"

I looked away, "I don't want to talk about it yet."

Worry crossed his features and I know he's dying to know what happened but chose to leave it alone and guide me to the car instead.

"Wait! I need to get back," I resisted.

"The phone you called me from just texted me. I think it's meant for you. They said, "Don't come back. We're leaving."

I looked down, "Oh. Okay."

Tension and silence filled the air inside the car.

I'm a coward. I let my emotions take over me and it almost got Mario killed. I almost got him killed.

A tear rolled down my cheek.

"I understand that you're in pain right now. But please understand that I need to know what happened," Leo pleaded.

I answered him with silence.

"Seira, we looked for you all night. We almost lost our minds. This silence is killing me. I thought I am your best friend, but why are you being so secretive to me?" he added.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Fine," he gave up trying to make me talk and drove me to my house.

Mrs. Goldberg, my sister, and my father already gathered in the living room when me and Leo arrived.

My dad spoke first, "Seraphim, where the hell were you? We were worried sick. What happened?"

I ignored him and continued to walk towards my room.

"Seira, don't you turn your back while dad is speaking. Do you have anything to say at all?" Georgia yelled.

I stopped in my tracks to face them.

"Why do you suddenly care about what happens to me? I'm sorry if I have inconvenienced you guys in any way. I'm alive and well so please can we just drop this so I can go to my room now?" I replied with disdain rubbing on my words.

"We're just worried about you darling. If you could please just tell us who did this to you-just that-so the police can throw them in jail. They need to be punished at once Seira," Mrs. Goldberg reasoned.

"Alright, I went out and met some trouble on the way. That's why I look like this. End of story. Good night or in everyone's case, good morning," I dismissed everyone and locked myself in my room.

They didn't bother me after that and stayed in until the sun went up and down again.

It's almost the middle of the night and I decided to drink a glass of water downstairs.

I didn't bother turning on the lights since the moon is high and bright.

Pouring myself a glass of water, a crash resounded outside the glass doors and stopped me in my tracks.

Fear is starting to engulf my body but I tried to not let it overcome me this time by instantly grabbing a kitchen knife inside a kitchen drawer.

With shaking steps, I slowly walked in the direction of the crash to investigate.

There I saw the same man that haunted me a few days ago in the ground with little debris around him.

He must've fallen through the roof and carelessly landed his arm first since he's cradling it and tried to minimize his muffled and painful screams.

I opened the glass doors and without thinking pointed the tip of the knife on the back of his neck in a threatening manner.

"Who are you, why are you here, and why did you do that?!" I asked him.

He froze and started to raise his arms in submission even through the pain.

"I-I'm sorry," he apologized.

"Answer me!"

He's started to tremble, "I-I'm sorry. I'm not here to do you any harm."

I added more pressure to the knife.

"I'm here for your sister! I'm not doing anything wrong. I love your sister. I was just here to watch her. Please don't kill me!"

Confused by his confession, I was about to interrogate him again when Georgia arrived at the scene.

"So you're the creep who's been following me."

Shocked, I looked to the culprit then to Georgia, "Wait, all this time you knew this creep was going in and out of the house and you didn't tell us?"

"He wouldn't have been captured if he knew I was onto him," Georgia admitted and takes out a taser gun.

The culprit begged for mercy, "Please no!"

Unhesitating, Georgia unleashed the taser gun until the guy was out cold.

I looked at Georgia with horror.

"Oh please, at least I'm dealing with my problems on my own and not dragging people into it," Georgia said as a matter of fact.

Feeling ashamed, I looked down to my feet.

"You know Seira, I don't know if you're stupidly blind or just selfishly pretending to be blind. You don't know how lucky you are. How fortunate you are. There are people who will gladly agree to be sucked into your problems just to help you. They're doing you a favor but are you? The least you could do is say thank you. You know who I mean," she advised and I could tell she's genuinely speaking out her mind.

She turned to walk inside the house without another word, probably to call the cops.

And I'm standing here in total shock while I try to absorb the words she said.