The Silenced Victim

Chapter 2 Sage

After I hugged my sister and a few of her friends joined me, I was calmer.

“Thank you guys for calming me down.” I said to them. They all nodded.

“It’s no problem, Sage,” Lilith said to me. I nodded. We all said bye and I went to class. After school, Lilith went straight to work like she normally does and I went to my friend, Ocean’s house.

Me and Ocean were up in their room when their mother Sky came up to tell us food was ready. So we went downstairs to eat when I smelt something burning.

“Excuse me, is something still cooking?” I asked Sky.

“Yes, why?” She responded and asked.

“Uh… Because I smell something burning…” I said with hesitation. Sky looks worried and hurries over to the food. She pulls the food out and sees that it is burnt.

“How did you smell that it was burning before anyone else did?” She asked. I looked away, hesitating to answer her.

“My mother died in a house fire so I know what something smells like when it’s burning due to that.” I say responding to her question.

“Oh my dear I’m so sorry for your loss”, She told me. I nodded in response. I then realized I had my sleeves up, before anyone saw my Self-harm marks I pulled them back down, and acted like I was slightly cold. Lilith doesn’t even know about them or why I have them. I don’t have the heart to tell her, I was sexually assaulted by one of my closet friends, Ace. When he did it I was 15 and Lilith was 17 and Ace continued to assault me and I was too scared to tell anyone anything.

***

After about six hours, around midnight, Lilith comes and picks me up from Oceans house. Sky, their mother, talks to Lilith for a few minutes, then we leave. On the way home, Lilith asks a weird question.

“Hey Sage, do you have any cuts on you?” Lilith asked. I sat there in shock for a good minute, then answered.

“No, why?” I responded. Lilith looked at me in the car mirror and said,

“Sage, don’t lie to me, if you do tell me, I’m not gonna ship you to some mental hospital.” Lilith said and I could tell she meant every word.

“Okay, I have a few cuts on my arm and thighs.” I said.

“Can I know why?” Lilith asked as we pulled into our driveway.

“Maybe, when we get to the house,” I responded. Lilith nodded. Once we got into the house and sat down on the couch, Lilith wanted to know.

“Can you please tell me the reason now?” Lilith answered with low-patience.

“Well, you know Ace was one of my closest friends and now he’s not right?” I asked. Lilith nodded.

“That’s because he's s-sexually assaulting me….” I said with a stutter. Lilith is wide-eyed on the couch, ready to commit a murder.

“HE DID WHAT TO YOU?!” Lilith asked while yelling, to which I flinched.

“H-he’s s-sexually assaulting me….” I say with stutters again, but it was due to me being scared of the yelling.