*(TW on this one)*

By the time I finished rambling about Fluffy, this guy probably thought I was in a relationship with a snake. If it wasn’t for Fluffy slithering off because he heard Mum open a container of food, I would’ve continued rambling. While we walked around, we passed by my old room. Not exactly a pretty or well kept place, but it still had a lot of old things I kept meaning to bring back home. Brendon seemed pretty interested in Fluffy, so I thought I would show him an old picture of when he was a baby, which was in one of the drawers by my bed. As I looked for the photo, he stood by the door. 

“It’s here somewhere,” I mumbled as he seemingly accidentally bumped into the door, causing it to shut. The hinges on it were all worn out and loose due to my many temper tantrums and when I used to slam the door. It never really shut all the way or stayed open all the way because of that. It would always be cracked open just a tad.

“Uh, broken door, much?” He came over to me, eyeing the dodgy door.

“I slammed it a lot as a kid,” I explained. “Broke the hinges a few times and eventually Dad gave up on trying to fix them properly.”

“Oh.” He got even closer to me. “Interesting.”

“As I’m sure you’ve already caught on, I got quite the temper.” I sighed. “I promise I can get it under control… I just need the time to adjust to others sometimes. You know… if it doesn’t scare them away first.”

“I see. Must be lonely with that, huh?” Slowly, he put his arms around my waist. “I don’t imagine people give you a lot of chances.”

A bit uncomfortable, I tried to push his hands off my hips. I couldn’t tell if this was his way of showing he cared or what his goal was. Whatever it was, it was causing that initial gut wrenching feeling to return. The whole time we talked, he was a bit touchy, but not like this. If it wasn’t for the fact he was empathizing with me, I would’ve snapped at him and shoved him away, but he was being so kind and seemed to understand me. I feared that if I did, he would get upset and I would lose something good I had going for me.

“Uh, could you, um, let go?” I mumbled quietly, frantically looking for that picture of Fluffy so I could show it to him and maybe get him to let go.

“Don’t you want people to give you a chance?”

“I do… but…” My voice trailed off as I felt him kiss my neck. He wrapped his arms tightly around my waist and started pulling me over to my old bed. I tried to fight back, but he was a lot stronger than I was.

“P-Please…! Let-” 

He pushed me onto the bed, getting on top of me. One of his hands covered my mouth in case I tried to scream. Not that anyone would be able to hear me. The house was so big that it was pretty hard to hear screaming, especially from the other side of the house. Tears welled up in my eyes as I realized what he wanted to do to me.

With an eager smile and a lick of his lips, Brendon pinned down my legs by putting his weight on them and loosened my dress and pulled down my undergarments slowly. The look he gave me… it was like a predator looking to devour his favorite meal. He pulled the shoulder of my dress down and slid a hand under my clothes, making me struggle and thrash harder. He was… touching places that only I had laid hands on before. It felt disgusting, and I felt violated as he groped around to see what he could find.

Suddenly, the man pulled his hand out of my clothes and looked me in the eyes, licking his lips again. He leaned down, pulled his hand out of the way, and kissed me over and over. All I could do was let out muffled screams and whimpers as my tears soaked my cheeks, but all my pleas and cries just went into Brendon’s mouth. His body pinned me down as one hand cupped my cheeks, and the other pulled my hair.

“I’m giving you a chance,” Brendon said, covering my mouth once again after pulling. “That is what you wanted, no?”

I let out a muffled scream as he pulled up my skirt and grabbed onto my thigh. His fingernails dug into my leg, causing me to squeal from the pain. 

“Well, Beatrice?” Brendon smirked, speaking in a condescending tone. “Don’t you like this, Beatrice? I know you refined ladies like this kind of play.”

“Mgh!!” I sobbed, trying hard to get away, but I didn’t know how. I felt stuck. Like in those dreams where something bad was happening, but you were unable to move. It didn’t feel real. I prayed I would just wake up and for it to be over. 

“I was pretty excited to hear your Mum wanted me to meet you.” He said, sliding his hand further up, allowing his fingernails to dig into my skin the whole way. “I much prefer a woman with some meat on her.”

As if to prove that point, he made grabs at thighs and belly. Grabbing everywhere until he slithered his hand further up my skirt until he came to… there. My heart sunk into my stomach and I regretted not trusting my instinct earlier. Leaning down, he whispered in my ear.

“I wanna hear you beg for me to do it,” Brendon hissed. “I know you want it. So c’mon, I bet you sound adorable when you beg.”

I started sobbing even harder and struggled around even more. No, not that. Anything but that! Disgust flooded my body when he started doing things-

THUD!

Something rammed into him, knocking him off the bed. Angry hissing was heard from the side of me, but I was still frozen there, still trying to process what had happened with a heaving chest.

“Damn snake!” He muttered angrily. Snake? Panicked, I looked over to see Fluffy. Sensing I was in trouble he came to save me. It had been years since I last saw him look so upset. Since the day I got him, in fact. He was bearing his teeth and hissing non-stop. Angrily, he swatted at Fluffy but missed. I saw that Fluffy was ready to strike and quickly sat up.

“Fluffy! No!” I cried, grabbing him and pulling him back. If he struck, that meant not only death for this man but the risk that Fluffy would be put down. Brendon looked at Fluffy angrily and looked ready to try and hit him again.

“Leave. Fluffy. Alone.” I hissed. Never mind what this man did to me. I would never allow him to hurt my best friend. I put on a touch exterior and glared at this monster, letting my eyes do the intimidating. As a kid, I was told they turned snake-like when I was upset, and I knew damn well how to use that to my advantage now that I was the one in control of the situation. “Get out of here.”

He took a minute before collecting himself and storming out of there. When he finally left, I slumped against the wall. Quietly, I sat there, not knowing how to feel. My hair and clothing were a mess, but I couldn’t be bothered to care. Anger and sadness were major emotions at that moment, but I didn’t know which one to express. Intrusive thoughts were trying to convince me that I deserved it and it was the best I would ever get for someone like me, but the emotional part was screaming how vile his actions were. Of course it would be the one person I let in that would hurt me like this! What else did I expect?! Tears soaked my cheeks once more as they streamed down my face. I felt so much and nothing at all at the same time. All I wanted to do was hide and make it all go away.

Knowing this was serious, Fluffy slithered off the bed to go get someone. Part of me almost didn’t let him, but I wasn’t sure I could do that. Brendon didn’t actually get as far as he planned, so maybe I was the one overreacting. If Fluffy hadn’t come in to save me, then it would’ve been worth telling someone. But… he didn’t. So it couldn’t have been that serious, right? Besides… It was my fault for not listening to my gut.

“...Wait,” I mumbled out to Fluffy, who paused and looked back at me. “How… How about we just go home, okay?”

Fluffy gave me a look of concern, shaking his head. He wanted to get someone.

“I can’t deal with this right now,” I said shakily. “Please.”

He shook his head and started leaving the room. This seemed it would be one of those times he wouldn’t listen. Panicked, I got up and ran towards him. He only slithered away faster.

“Fluffy!” I cried. Thinking about having to tell someone this only made me cry harder. “Please! I’ll let you have all the food you want when we get home!”

He hissed back, clearly disagreeing with me. For once in his life, he put something before the need to have a full stomach. Desperate to catch him before he found someone, I chased after him at full speed. My thigh was burning with pain from the previous events. Ghost hands were still all over me, making me feel like my stomach was still being grabbed and twisted to the point I felt ready to be sick. I had to hold my dress up myself to prevent the entire house from seeing my chest. Running was hard with my undergarments still down at my knees. But I didn’t stop. Unfortunately, I couldn’t catch up to the bastard. He made it all the way to the living room where Mum was sitting with Elizabeth and Angel. Why did both of them have to be there to see me like this?! Did the universe just hate me today?! The second I saw them, I froze. Fluffy looked back at me, sitting right in between both parties. 

“Big sis!” Elizabeth completely missed the look of fear on my face and ran over to me to attach herself to my leg like she normally did. The second she came into contact with my leg, my heart sunk. Even though I knew it wasn’t happening, I felt like I was reliving what just happened. The intensity of that ghost hands feeling increased and I wanted to scream. I froze up and couldn’t get myself to say anything despite the pressure building up inside me. It was like I forgot how to speak. 

“...Beatrice?” Mum’s smile dropped. 

All I could do was stare blankly at her as I felt more tears start rolling down my cheeks. I could feel my bottom lip start to quiver just from the thought of talking about it. Fluffy sensed how uncomfortable I was with Elizabeth on my leg, and slithered over to get her off of me. That gave her the clue to let go and back off. 

Slowly, Mum got up and came over to me. “Dear? What happened??”

“Your hair is a mess.” Angel pointed out hesitantly. “So is your dress… Did you get attacked or something…?”

“He- He-...” I could barely manage to speak through my sobbing. The lump in the back of my throat made it impossible, no matter how many times I cried to clear it up. I kept shaking my hands around as if that would do any good with getting words out. Fluffy figured I wouldn’t be able to say it, so he gently leaned over from Elizabeth’s arm and pulled up my skirt just enough to show the marks he left behind. Before they could get too good of a look, I pulled it back down. 

“He… Oh… Oh no…” Mum looked ready to cry. Quietly, she pulled me into a hug which made me freak out at first, but I needed the comfort so bad that I accepted it. “I’m so sorry, Beatrice.”

All I could do was cry on her shoulder. Mum sent Elizabeth to her room and got me to sit down. Angel asked if I wanted her there, and I was so exhausted at that point that I just agreed. The two were patient with me and let me take my time in explaining everything, even if I could barely explain it right. There were many times Mum would just apologize over and over for allowing this man to come over and even come near me, despite there being no way for her to have known. When Dad got home later that night, she let him know what happened, and he was very firm on his decision to get the police involved. He knew with his status, getting this man in trouble wouldn’t be too hard. My parents decided that it would be best that I stay there with them for a few days. They didn’t trust I wouldn’t do anything dumb, especially with my mood swings. I didn’t bother complaining and cried myself to sleep on the couch. My parents tried to convince me that they could clean up my room and let me sleep there, but I gave that a hard no. Going anywhere near my old room wasn’t something I wanted to do anything soon.