Mercy (MxM) (COMPLETED)

Chapter Fourteen- Dreams

Chapter Fourteen-

Elliot

*Flashback*

“Where the hell have you been?” Darren asks as soon as I walk into our apartment. It’s not a simple question. The way he said it sounds angry and like he’s accusing me of something.

“I went to the mall to go shopping with Hayes-”

“You were with him? What, you like him more than me now? He only wants to get in your pants.”

“It’s not like that. We’re just friends-”

“Don’t lie. I know that you two have had s*x before so why would now be any different? You just can’t contain yourself, can you?”

“That’s not true! I’m not a cheater.” I’m getting irritated by him interrupting me to jump to conclusions. I just want to explain myself without him getting temperamental like he always does.

“You disgusting f*****g w***e! You think I don’t know what you were doing with him? I should’ve known that you’d just cheat on me because obviously one d**k isn’t enough for you.” Darren snaps at me, making me glare and cross my arms over my chest. I’m used to his screaming by now.

“I didn’t cheat! Hayes is my friend, okay? It doesn’t even matter if we’ve done stuff before because we didn’t do anything together. I’m not a w***e just because you’re jealous.” I yell back.

I hate yelling. I hate doing it and hearing it. I know I shouldn’t fight fire with fire, but in this relationship it always feels like being loud is the same as being heard.

Darren walks closer and puts his hand on my chest to shove me into the wall. My head hits the wall roughly, even denting the drywall a bit. It’s not the first time it’s happened. Sometimes Darren will punch the wall until there’s holes in it. It scares me because I know he’s thinking about hitting me when he does it.

He keeps his hand against my chest to pin me against the wall so that I can’t move. “Jealous? Are you delusional? Why the f**k would I be jealous? You’re nothing a used slut anyway, so if he wants to have a go at you, then I couldn’t care less. You may just be a toy, but you’re mine. If you’re going to live here, you belong to me. Do you understand, Elliot? You’re my property, and I don’t want you around him anymore.”

My eyes start to water when he grabs my chin roughly so that I can’t look away. His grip is so tight that it’s starting to hurt.

“I’m not your property, and I’ll see my friends whenever I want. I’m an adult, Darren! You may be my dom, but you can’t control everything I do!”

Before I can process it, I see his hand swing out. Not a moment later do I feel the back of his hand smack me. The impact makes my head snap to the side and my lip bust open again. Surely there’s going to be a bruise too. It wasn’t even fully healed from the last time he hit me. It feels like he does it harder every time.

I shove his chest, weakly punching his chest as I start crying harder. “I can’t do this anymore! I’m not staying here. I’m leaving!”

“You can’t leave!” He screams, grabbing my back by my hair when I start to walk away from him.

I yelp when he yanks me back, causing me to stumble and fall on the floor. He kicks me in the stomach before wrapping his hand around my neck to pick me back up and shove me against the wall again, pinning me even harder than before. I wince and grab his wrist, trying to loosen his grip.

He glares and leans in closer. “I really f*****g hate you sometimes. Why are you always trying to ruin everything?”

“Me? You’re the one who can’t f*****g control himself! You’re like a child. I can’t even spend time with my friends without you overreacting.” I shout back.

He draws his fist back, making me squeeze my eyes shut, but I quickly feel the wind of his fist passing my face and hear the sound of the wall cracking right next to my head. I open my eyes, flinching every time he punches the wall. His knuckles are getting bloody and I can tell by the look in his eyes that he really wants to hit me again.

“Darren! You’re scaring me.”

He lets out a frustrated shout and grabs my wrist, yanking me into our bedroom while I claw at his arm, trying to get him to loosen his grip or let go of me. He doesn’t, and ends up shoving me onto our bed and laying on top of me to pin me there.

“Get off! I said I’m leaving. I can’t do this anymore. You said you wouldn’t do it again. Why do you keep hurting me? You keep lying. I can’t…”

“I’m sorry.” He answers, pulling away with a gentler look on his face. He rubs my wrist with his thumb while bringing his other hand up to wipe the blood off of my lip. “It’s all my fault. I’m sorry I lost my temper. I won’t hurt you again, Elliot. I promise I won’t. I’ll try not to get upset when you spend time with your friends too, but I don’t want you around that Hayes guy.”

“Darren… he’s my friend. Please just try to get along with him?” I plead.

Darren nods and stands up, lifting me into his arms to take me to our bathroom to start running bath water. He helps me undress, leaving little kisses on all the places that are starting to bruise, including my cheek, neck, chest, and wrist.

Once we’re both naked, I climb into the tub and sit down, leaving room for him to get in behind me before pulling me back against him. He holds me tightly and hums in my ear, leaving a soft kiss there.

“If you ever try to leave me again, I’ll lock you in the closet and set the house on fire.” He threatens, making me tense up slightly.

He’s just mad that I tried to leave. It’s my fault that he got angry. I shouldn’t have threatened to leave. He loves me and he doesn’t want to lose me. That’s why he was being mean.

He won’t hurt me anymore. I just have to be better. I can’t be flirty and I can’t yell anymore and I can’t do anything to upset him. Then he’ll stop hurting me. He promised he won’t do it again. I believe him. He won’t do it again.

“I love you so much, Elliot.”

I take a deep breath, forcing myself to relax in his arms, laying my head against his chest. “I love you, too.”

*End*

I sit up quickly and gasp, panting heavily with sweat covering my body. I glance next to me, expecting to see Darren, but my heart drops when I see Hayes laying there with no shirt on.

God, Darren is going to kill me. I reach my hand up to touch my cheek, tilting my head when I feel no pain there.

Things seem to rush back to me, making me feel stupid for even thinking of him. Darren can’t hurt me anymore.

“Elliot? What’s wrong?” Hayes asks, sitting up next to me.

“I’m fine. How did I get here?”

“We went to see a movie last night, but you fell asleep in my car, so I carried you up here. I’m still looking for a really nice penthouse in the city. For now I’ve just got this studio apartment so we had to share a bed.” He explains, making me nod along with him.

“And why aren’t we wearing clothes?”

“I woke up a few hours ago and you were sweating so I took your clothes off and put them in the washer. I turned the fan on too.” He responds, pointing at the ceiling. “Now will you tell me what’s wrong or are you just going to lie to me again?”

“I had a bad dream.” I pull my legs up to my chest, wrapping my arms around them with a frown before resting my chin on my knee.

“A dream?”

“A memory.” I clarify, knowing what he meant without needing much context.

“About him, right? Do you want to talk about it?” He asks, sitting up while making sure to keep his distance from me. We got really close during the period of time with the trial and court cases. He knows that I’m a little skittish after having flashbacks like that.

“You took me shopping because I was feeling sad and when you dropped me off he was so mad at me. He was just screaming at me and calling me names. He thought I was cheating on him. I would never do that to him.”

“I know you wouldn’t. He only yelled at you?”

“No he… he hit me when I yelled back at him. He shoved me and pulled my hair too. He kicked me and choked me also, but not like he was trying to kill me. He just wanted to keep me there so that I couldn’t leave. He got so pissed when I tried to leave. He punched the wall so hard his knuckles started bleeding. I told him that he was scaring me and he calmed down a little.” I admit, feeling my eyes well up with tears.

All of this stuff is in the past, but talking about it and thinking about it still hurts so much. Part of me still thinks it’s my fault. I shouldn’t have pushed his buttons. I shouldn’t have yelled back. I shouldn’t have provoked him. It’s my fault that he lost his temper. I pushed him too far and he snapped.

“He did what he always did. He hugged me and said he was sorry. He promised that he’d never hurt me again and said he’d try not to lose his temper so much. He ran a bath for us and told me that if I ever tried to leave him again that he’d set the house on fire with me in it.” I confess.

I never mentioned that before. Even during the court case and even when I was questioned repeatedly by the police. I never told them that he threatened to kill me if I tried to leave. I’ve always been scared of fire, but that just made it worse. Maybe that’s why it’s a hard limit now.

“It’s okay though. It made me stronger.”

“It doesn’t matter if your trauma made you stronger, Elliot. You didn’t need to be strong. you needed to be safe.”

“He said he loved me. Do you think he was lying? Maybe he just didn’t know how to show it right. Maybe he-”

“It doesn’t matter, Elliot. He hit you. I don’t care if he thought that was showing love. I don’t care if he was f****d up in the head. I don’t care he thought you were okay with it. None of that is an excuse to treat someone the way he treated you. It was not your fault.” Hayes insists, scooting closer to slowly wrap his arms around me and kiss my cheek. “I’m sorry that you have to live with those thoughts in your head. You didn’t deserve any of that.”

I hug him back and rest my forehead against his chest. I feel safe with Hayes. When he hugs me, it’s more like he’s holding me. He’s not trapping me so that I can’t get away. He’s not being possessive as if I’m property. He’s just letting me find comfort in him.

“Thank you.”

“For what?” He asks, putting his hands on my back. Teagan’s hands are always warm, but I like the way Hayes’ fingers feel cool against my skin, sending goosebumps up my spine as he gently rubs my back comfortingly.

“For being here. You’ve done so much for me, y’know? I’d probably still be with him if you didn’t convince me that the way he treated me was wrong.” I confess.

That’s the sad truth. I thought it was normal. Because of how I’d always seen love, I thought it was normal to be treated like that. For a long time I thought it was my fault that I was being abused. I thought I provoked him or that I must’ve made him think that I wanted that. I still sometimes think that part of it was my fault. I should’ve been strong enough to leave.

“You don’t have to thank me for that, Elliot.”

“I know-” I get cut off by the sound of my phone ringing. I reach over to check the caller ID, seeing that it’s Teagan. “Sorry, it’s Teagan. Give me a minute.”

I climb out of Hayes’ lap and leave his bedroom, answering the phone once I’m in the hallway.

“Hello, Master. What’s up?” I ask.

“We’re going to the club tonight. I was going to ask if you’d like me to pick you up on the way or if you’d rather drive yourself.”

I hum thoughtfully before responding. “I think Master Hayes could bring me. I’m at his house right now.”

“Why?”

“We went to a movie yesterday night and I was tired so he let me sleep here.” I admit. Although Hayes and I are good friends, Teagan is my dom. I probably should’ve mentioned that.

“Let me get this straight. You spent the night with another dom without asking me, or even letting me know? Did you sleep in the same bed?”

“Yes, Master, and yes we shared his bed.”

“So you not only stayed the night with him, but you also slept in the same bed as him. Did you do anything else I should know about?”

“W-Well I was sweating in my sleep so Hayes took my clothes off so I could cool down but we didn’t do anything s****l, Master. I’m sorry for not telling you.” I mumble quickly.

I hear a sigh of frustration come through the phone before Teagan speaks again with his angry dom voice. “Have fun with your friend today because when you get to the club tonight, I’ll make sure you won’t be able to sit for a week.” He tells me before hanging up.

“You got yourself in trouble?” Hayes asks from behind me.

I laugh softly and turn around to face him. “Master Teagan doesn’t like sharing with other doms. I know that so I should’ve let him know that I was going with you to the movie. It’s not nice to eavesdrop though.”

“Yeah yeah. Let’s find something fun to do before you have to go to the club for Teagan to punish you.”

“Deal.”