Broken by H.R. Davison (ebook reader color screen TXT) 📕

She pulls away from me shrieking. “No, no, no, please. Please don’t hurt me.” She is all the way on the other side of the couch from me now. Her knees are pulled up and she buries her face in them, wrapping her arms around legs. I can hear her sobbing. What has happened to her? Why is she like this? It is like she doesn’t even recognize I am here. Can she not see me?

I edge my way down the couch to where she is coiled. Once I am close enough I wrap my arms around her and pull her to me, enveloping her body against mine. I feel her stiffen and then finally relax. “Andy?” She asks. “Are you really here? In my dream?”

“Yes. I’m here.” I hold her close and caress her hair down her back, trying to calm her.

“I’m so scared he is going to hurt me again.” She mumbles against my chest.

I can feel my anger rising. I press it down. I don’t want her to hear anger in my voice. I don’t want to frighten her more. “Who hurt you?” I ask quietly.

“The bad man. He h-hurt me.” She says hitching her voice. “It was so dark, and he bit me, and clawed me, and…” She trails off unable to finish her sentence because of the sobs racking her body. She pulls herself into my lap and wraps her arms around my neck, like a child would do after a nightmare. Her face is pressed against my neck and I can feel the tears trailing down her face and dripping onto me.

I don’t say anything. I just hold her and rock her gently. I think of all the ways I will kill the person that has hurt her. Finally she settles down and stops crying. She looks up at me with puffy eyes and a tear streaked facing, making my anger diminish. “Kat where are you now?” I ask her. “I have been looking everywhere.”

“I don’t know. In a hospital. In a house.” She says. “I’m sorry Andy. I’m worthless. I can’t help anyone. Just let me die.” She looks down at her hands in her lap. Her bottom lip trembles, threatening another flood of tears.

I am shocked at hearing her say that. I place one finger under her chin and push her head up so she is looking at me. “Kathryn you are not worthless. None of this is your fault. Don’t think that. If you die, then I would die. You mean everything to me.”

“I-I do?” She asks with a sniffle.

I squeeze her gently to me. “Yes, you do. I love you, always.”

“You… you love me?” She asks. “Why? I am pathetic. I don’t even love myself.”

“No, you are not pathetic.” I tell her. Why would she even think that? “You are perfect and I will prove that to you when I find you. I will spend the rest of my life making you happy. I would move Heaven and Earth to find you and keep you safe. Can you tell me anything else that may help?”

She relaxes against me and reaches for my hand. I let her take it. She caresses the birthmark on my thumb. I remember the last time she did that. I was so insecure I ran from the room, unable to tell her what we are. What she is. What she means to me. A pang of guilt stabs my heart, knowing I had hurt her feelings by doing that. I am so deep in my own thoughts I didn’t hear what she just said. “What?” I ask her.

“There is a doctor. His name is Takahashi.” She says again. “He seems nice. He says he won’t let the bad man hurt me again.”

I intertwine my fingers with her and kiss the top of her head. “I won’t let anyone hurt you again.”

*************

I wake from dream feeling a million times better. Knowing that Kat is alive gives me strength to go on. I pull my phone out my pocket and open a search engine. I type in Dr. Takahashi. Over thirty thousand results are displayed. I narrow down my search location until I find who I am looking for, thank you Google. I input the address listed into the GPS and wait for Cody.

I think about how Kat reacted in the dream. She is depressed. Her captivity is taking a toll on her physically, emotionally, and mentally. I will need to be careful about what I tell her in that fragile state.

“Did you get any sleep brother?” He asks me, throwing a greasy bag in my lap.

I grin at him like a madman. “I did. And I saw Kat. She is alive and I know where we can find her.”

Publication Date: 03-25-2015

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