The Secret

Chapter 5

It's a dark and gloomy night. Walking through the woods is a challenge. The crows are squawking, flying low over my head. I keep going, my white gown dragging across the muddy ground. My feet are bare and sore from all of the branches and thorns stuck to them. I keep walking through the pain. Suddenly I hear leaves rustling behind me. My heart beat quickens and my breathing shortens. I turn around slowly. Frozen in place. I can't move. The figure is walking towards me into the moonlight, where a baby face appears in the form of a mask. My mouth widens to form a scream, but no sound comes out. I try again. Nothing. He comes closer. I try one more time, opening my mouth begging for the sound to come out, but nothing does.

I can feel his hot breath on my face. The baby mask is so close to me and I can see his dark grey eyes. I don't bother to scream as it's completely useless. His hand is gliding over my arms softly. It feels like tiny needles going into my skin. His hands cup my breasts. Tears start streaming down my face. He looks me up and down and leans into my ear and whispers.

"It's funny that your wearing white, purity, you have to know that you're anything but pure, you are a whore"

He leans back to look at my face. My head starts to spin.

"YOU ARE A FUCKING WHORE AND NO ONE WILL EVER LOVE YOU" He shouts and grips my throat cutting off my airway. He lifts me off the ground, his hand still around my throat.

I see a silver object in his other hand. As it comes closer my vision blurs. The knife cuts into my heart.

I sit up quickly, my head rushing with blood. My pyjamas are wet with sweat.I lift my hand to my wrist. The feeling of my pulse has confirmed that I am not dead.

I get up and run quickly to my bathroom where I undress and step into the shower where the hot water hits my back. I'm so glad that today is Saturday. As I wash myself in the steaming water, memories of yesterday flood into my mind. Jax and I walked around for about an hour just talking. It felt good. He's actually sweet, I didn't think he would be because of his all-black attire, he looks like the typical bad boy. I guess I was wrong. He didn't ask me anything about my weird episode in class or why I kept a long distance between us as we walked, which I was grateful for.

He told me about him moving to Cork, and why he moved here. His father got a new job here and they moved all the way from Donegal. I also found out he's originally from Italy, which explains his olive skin tone.

I step out of the shower and wrap my hair in a towel and I cover myself in a dressing gown. I walk out of the bathroom to the voice of my mother calling me from downstairs.

"MAYA, COME DOWN HERE WHEN YOU'RE READY WE NEED TO TALK."

"OK" I call back.

That's not something you ever want to hear from your mother. We need to talk, could mean anything. I sigh and get into my leggings and a baggy t-shirt, letting my wet hair free from the towel.

I reach downstairs and look for my Mam, I quickly find her in the living room sitting with her legs up comfortably on the sofa. I take a seat in the armchair next to her.

"Good, you're here" My mam smiles widely at me. Ok, whatever she has to say can't be that bad. "We need to have a chat about your boyfriend" And suddenly it's worse than I initially thought.

I nod, unable to say anything. I can feel my palms begin to sweat.

"Soooo" she elongates the word. "What's his name?"

Oh My God. WHAT'S HIS NAME? Ehm Michael? No. James? No.

"Jax" I quickly blurt out and I curse myself right after. Why?

My mam scrunches her face. "Sounds like a dog's name."

I look at her with wide eyes, suddenly hurt by the disapproval tone in her voice. My mother seems to notice the expression on my face and her face softens.

"Look I can't judge anyone because of their name before I meet them." She says matter of factly. "You should bring him over then, next Saturday maybe I have too much work before then."

"He can't," I shout. Oops.

"But you didn't even ask" she eyes me suspiciously.

"He has football practice on Saturdays." I lie.

"Ok then Friday, bring him over straight after school."

I begin to say that he can't but I stop myself. It would be too suspicious.

"Friday" I confirm, I give my mam a smile and a hug before I go back upstairs and dive into my bed. What have I gotten myself into?

The rest of the day I spend chatting to Maddy on facetime since she's gone to Dublin to visit her cousins.

"It's hell here Maya, if only you knew," she says exhaust written on her face. In the background, you can hear a sweet young boy's voice asking to play. "No Nathan I'm talking to someone." She says irritably.

"Hey it's ok you can go and hang out with your-" I begin but am interrupted by Maddy.

"Don't, you're the only one keeping me sane here." she laughs. "I wish you could have come it would've been the best," she says sadly.

Maddy asked me to go over to Dublin for the weekend, but I denied and said that my mam wanted to have bonding time. The truth was I was scared that I would have a bad dream like the ones I have had every day ever since...

"Anyway, how have you been." Maddy's voice cuts through my thoughts.

I laugh "You saw me yesterday."

"A lot can change in a day," She says smiling.

Yes, it can.

After my call with Maddy ended. I went downstairs where I was looking for crisps. I spotted them on the counter already opened. Mam. We share the love of crisps. I grab them and as I was about to go upstairs I hear the sound of leaves shaking outside in the garden. Weird it doesn't seem windy, I can't really tell because it's dark out. I brush it off and go back upstairs to catch up on Riverdale. 

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