TORN FLESH

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE: FALLEN PHOTOGRAPHS

THE one thing Margo could say as she drove was that she could only think about Violet. She'd read the girl's note by now, but the one thing that weighed heavily on her was how she thought Violet might have reacted.

She felt bad for leaving her, but in her condition- despite the fact she'd just come out of that state- she didn't want to risk exposing the girl to the elements, or the stress, just yet. She would wait until she was completely better and healthy to bring her back out into the world, if she still wanted to.

The compound was a good place for her to grow up, maybe it would allow Margo to give some type of childhood to the child, she knew Violet deserved that much.

The roads were mostly smooth as she drove, a few abandoned cars littering the road like fallen debris someone had tossed out from their windows, she found herself thinking about the apartment in Rhode Island, the one she'd shared with Mitch for a little over two months, the quiet mornings in the kitchens where they'd just leaned against one another. Or where Mitch had wrapped his arms around her waist from behind and rested his head in the crook of her neck as they softly swayed back and forth.

A part of her felt guilty for not giving Mitch an opportunity to talk things through, but then she remembered that he'd had plenty of time to tell her, plenty of time to explain things to her.

She felt the guilt slip away from where it'd wrapped itself around her heart.

She wished things would go back to the way they'd been, before that terrible night in the bathroom, she'd thought about her brother as she'd done it, a feeling of dysphoria pressing into her as she thought through everything, she knew who she was, and at the same time, everything she told herself didn't seem to equate to the person she saw in the mirror.

There was one morning that stood out to her the most, one that hung on the edge of every thought she had of Mitch, she'd been sitting at the window with a cold cup of tea in her hands as she stared outside. Rain was falling, and it was magnificent to her, it ran down the window in small fast droplets that left little bits of water behind, she couldn't help but smile at the gloomy atmosphere before she felt a pair of hands slip around her waist and a set of lips softly brush against her neck.

"It's so dark outside." Mitch mumbled his head still pressed against her neck, Margo let out a soft sigh and carefully set her tea down- trying her best not to lose contact with Mitch- before leaning back into the man, "I think it's pretty."

Mitch smiled into her skin before pressing a small kiss to the base of her neck, "I guess it is, it's kinda calming."

She'd smiled to herself then, those moments were so rare and far for the two of them that it only felt right. She'd turned in his arms until she was facing him and placed a kiss on his soft lips, "can we just lay around?"

And of course, Mitch had nodded his head and accepted her request, how could he not?

Every moment spent with her was a nightmare that had turned itself into a dream as he'd gotten to know her.

One that he found himself obsessing over like a drug.

The days where she disappeared to go to work, or vice versa, he found himself wanting nothing more but to see her again, she was the light he'd found in the dark while he'd been the beacon of hope she'd seen in the despair that seemed to follow her around everywhere.

She wiped a tear from beneath her eye, she wouldn't think about Mitch, he didn't even deserve the time of day, much less the time in her thoughts. So instead, she thought of Ronnie.

There were small things that had come back to her since she'd first seen him, like his favorite color as a young adult, his favorite book, the confidence he carried around with him like a weapon, mostly to be used against their father.

She still couldn't work out why it was that he'd needed it, but she still couldn't quite figure out what had led to her snapping and killing him either, she knew Stan's answer couldn't have been right, that she'd plotted during the worst years of her psychological abuse and then finally acted on it in hopes of bringing her brother home.

That wasn't an answer she would accept.

Because then, she would be the exact thing Stan had been so adamant about her hunting and killing.

A monster.

Shaking her head, she put the thought aside and checked her map, from the looks of it, she only had three hours left, she had planned to explore her old home for a bit before heading back, except she'd planned to visit the apartment on the way back. It was the one thing she wanted to see again, the one thing she knew would bring her some peace.

Meanwhile, Violet was sleeping in her hospital bed, small snores leaving her lips as Mitch sat in the chair beside her bed half asleep. After their discussion with Stan, which entailed far more questions than he'd thought Violet was capable of asking, he'd found that he was too tired to make the trip back to his room and instead had stayed to keep an eye on the young girl.

He'd first begun to stir when the sunlight had started to creep through the blinds and across his face until it was directly in his eyes, turning his head to the side he'd attempted to hide from the light but instead found that the room only continued to brighten as the sun rose.

Shifting in the chair, Mitch let a sigh fall from his lips as he sat up. For a second he didn't remember the events of the last two days, and then he looked at Violet, and they came crashing over him.

He wanted to go back to sleep and forget it all for a few hours, at least then he could look at her and not feel some sort of guilt.

But he knew that wasn't possible, and if Margo never came back he didn't know how he'd live with himself, or around Violet.

He'd lose his mind, he'd end up abandoning the child out of pure insanity.

Which was something he wasn't sure he'd be able to do, even though he'd undoubtedly broken Margo's trust, he felt obligated to watch after the child, he felt that if she were to die, that it would more than likely be her parting wish.

One that he would do anything to fulfill.

Careful to not wake Violet, he slipped out of his seat and made his way out into the hall, he was hungry, and he knew Violet would be too, so he made his way in the direction of the cafeteria to get them both something to eat.

As he entered the cafeteria moments later he caught sight of Morgan sitting at a table with a few of her fellow workers, the two made eye contact for a brief moment before she stood and left the table to distance herself from the man across the room.

Without thinking about it, Mitch rushed to catch up to her, which he found to be a bit harder to do than he'd originally thought, despite this, he was determined, and after a few moments, he caught up to her.

As he gently grabbed her wrist, he reconsidered his decision to come after her, she seemed about as happy as one could be after being lied to, which wasn't very happy at all.

Morgan turned in his direction with a glare shadowing over her features. "What?" she questioned her voice edged as she stared him down, Mitch couldn't help but softly shake his head in her presence, he did genuinely feel bad for not telling her sooner, for her finding out the way she had.

It wasn't fair.

And it wasn't fair of him to ask for her forgiveness, not when he didn't deserve it, but he did want to try and explain himself, no matter how far-fetched it seemed.

"I'm sorry." he spoke, Morgan's glare only lessened by the tiniest bit, "I should've told you, as soon as we brought her here." he paused and met her gaze once more before continuing, "I didn't want to mess up what we had but at the same time I didn't want to mess up what I had with her before all of this."

Morgan sighed, "you could've talked to me, I wouldn't have been mad, we could've just ended things and kept up as friends." she paused and looked down at her hands, "but you lied to me Mitch, and significant others, much less friends, don't lie to each other." she looked up at him with what looked to be tears in her eyes.

"You broke my trust, and I can't just give that back to you."

Mitch slowly nodded his head, he'd been expecting something along those lines.

"I'm not asking for you to forgive me, or to give me your trust back, hell I'm not even asking for you to say what I did was okay because I know it wasn't. I just want your understanding."

Morgan didn't reply for a few long silent moments and Mitch was sure she would walk away without doing so, not until she met his gaze and nodded her head, "I get why you did it, and I can live with it, but, if she doesn't come back, will you be able to live with it?"

Mitch closed his eyes for a moment and shook his head, "I'm not sure, it's already been eating away at me, her not coming back would just be another stab to the heart."

The woman let a sigh fall from her lips as she gaze upon Mitch, "did you ever think that maybe you stabbed her in the heart? Because that's exactly how I feel."

His head lowered slightly and he found himself feeling guiltier than ever, instead of thinking about how he'd made either of them feel, all he'd been thinking about was himself, he was so consumed by the feelings residing within his own mind that he hadn't even tried to consider how either of the women felt.

God, how did Margo feel?

To find out that once again she'd been nothing but a forgotten shred of the past, that she'd been left behind again.

He felt stupid.

So stupid that he wanted to hit something, he wanted to lash out.

But staring back at Morgan with dreadful eyes, he felt that want slip away. He wanted to drop to the floor and cry, he didn't care how selfish it seemed, he just wanted to bawl on the floor and have his parents comfort him as they had when he was still a little boy.

Morgan was the first of the two to walk away, and it left Mitch feeling even more lonely than before, and despite the fact that he later returned to Violet's room with breakfast, even her company wasn't enough to lift his spirits.

But he did sport a good fake happy face, at least the best that he could manage, and whether or not Violet could tell if he was faking, she didn't voice.

With noon rolling around and the two of them sitting in Violet's bed playing chess, he wondered if this was what Margo had wanted for the girl.

A peaceful life, one filled with the aspects she'd been robbed of at the young girl's age.

He could already see Violet taking on similar bits of Margo, like the way she chewed away at the inside of her cheek while she thought.

He smiled.

TORN FLESH

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE: FALLEN PHOTOGRAPHS