Scarred and Wanted

CHAPTER5

JACE PRESENT DAY

My phone vibrated on the table next to my bed and without opening my eyes I answered it.

“Yeah?” “Jace , I need you to get here now,” Dante said. I sat up quickly, suddenly wide awake. “Why? Is Rayna okay?”

“No, she is freaking out. She's scared of me, and Jace...she can’t see anything. They said she is temporarily blind.” My heart stopped for a second as the horror of that statement settled into my mind.

She's blind? How? “What do you need me to do?” I asked him.

“Just get here, maybe she will calm down if you're here. The violence team is coming around today to talk to her. They want to make sure she won’t try to hurt herself again before they release her. Also, the cops were here asking her questions. She wouldn’t admit to anything, but the cops could tell she was holding back. They asked me who I thought was hurting her and I said they should speak to her father since he was the one who had a tight leash on her. They said they haven’t been able to contact him for two days now. Something isn’t right.” Dante rambled on.

“Okay okay, I’ll head there now,” I told him, hanging up quickly.

I quickly stood and wandered around grabbing random pieces of clothing and pulling them on. I rushed out of the door and down the stairs passing the living room where Axel and Noah were watching TV.

“Hey! Where are you going?” Noah asked. "Is it Rayna? Is she okay?

“Dante wants me to go to the hospital. Rayna is awake and she is scared of him. She...they said she is temporarily blind, and she is sort of freaking out.” I said quickly as | pulled my shoes on.

“Ok, we'll come too,” Noah said, getting to his feet and grabbing his wallet and keys.

Axel did the same and we were out the door and piling into the car in record time.

We arrived at the hospital and the nurse led us to Rayna's room. I heard screaming and rushed past the nurse to get to Rayna.

When I entered she was thrashing around like crazy but her eyes were completely closed. I glanced to the other side of the room and saw Dante watching with genuine concern, but he seemed unsure of what to do.

“What happened?” I asked, standing as the others quickly joined us. We stood beside Dante and out of the way as the nurses tried to calm Rayna.

“They gave her some pain meds and it helped her fall asleep then she woke up a few minutes ago screaming and crying, she seems to be stuck in a nightmare.” Dante said, running a hand down his face .

“Can’t they give her something to calm her down?” Noah asked, his voice laced with panic.

“They need her to stop thrashing around long enough to inject it, but as soon as someone touches her, she freaks out” . Dante said, wringing his hand together.

“No! No! Stop, please ! I don't want to!” Rayna cried out her face drenched in tears

Two more nurses rushed into the room to help hold her down and it was finally enough to inject her with something. Her body started to relax but she was still whimpering as the nurses stepped away.

The other nurses who had come to help started to leave and Rayna began to fall still .

“She should be able to rest now.” The remaining nurse said as she adjusted Rayna's blankets.

“What happened?” I asked her

“She has experienced a lot of trauma and earlier she had mentioned that she has trouble sleeping a lot of the time. I think she should speak to the therapist today as soon as she is awake again.”

Dante nodded in agreement and the nurse left us alone .

“Man this is messed up, She is worse off than we knew”. Noah said .

Axel and Dante silently pulled their chairs to Rayna's bed and sat quietly watching her rest , this whole situation had really shaken them, and I was in awe at how sad they all seemed. Noah always seemed calm and unaffected by things, but even couldn't hide his emotions . He stood against one of the walls with his eyes fixed on Rayna as well.

The Reapers watching over one special girl. That's something you don't see everyday.

We spent several hours sitting with Rayna taking turns, getting coffee, waiting for her to wake. I would glance at each of my friends occasionally and would catch them watching her with regret and

guilt in their eyes. After all these years of tormenting her, they were regretting everything they had done and so was I.

This had knocked some sense into us but it was also a reminder that there was a part of us that was still...human. We had been playing like we were cold and uncaring for a long time, but that all ended the moment we heard that gun shot go off.

Rayna started to move around a bit a couple of hours later and we all shot to our feet.

“Hello?” She asked in a panic. "Who’s there?” We glanced at each other not knowing what to say

“It's me, Dante and the other boys are here too”. Dante took a step closer to her and rested his hand

On the bed close to her hand but didn't touch her .

I could hear her breath becoming quick and shaky and she started to move further back in the bed even though there was no more room for her to move to. Her face changed from fear to sadness as tears began to fall from her eyes.

“Please just leave me alone. People will know if you guys do something to me.” She said with a swallow.

I copied the motion swallowing down the lump in my own throat. The others looked equally as hurt by her words. She was petrified of us, and with good reason.

“Rayna none of us wants to hurt you, but we also don't want you to be alone”. I said moving closer to her. She let out a small whimper, “Leo?”

A smile formed on my lips because she almost sounded relieved. I took this chance and wrapped her in my arms. "Yeah, it’s me. I’m so sorry Rayna. So sorry.”

She didn’t fight me, instead, she hid her face into my chest and cried quietly. I held her tighter and whispered calming words into her ear. Then and there I promised her that I would never hurt her again and I would never let anyone else hurt her either. She wrapped her arms around my waist and continued crying until her body relaxed and she fell back to sleep. I didn't move , not even an inch.

“What’s going on in your head Jace?” Noah asked. He didn't look to be teasing me, he looked genuinely serious.

“I can't leave her again, I hurt her too badly before, and she has no one. I can't leave her again”

“I told the doctor that we would take her to stay with us while the police investigate her abuse and try to find her father”. Dante said.

He stood over to brush a strand of hair from Rayna's face. The action was so gentle that I would have never believed it happened, if I hadn't seen it myself.

I watched him in fascination, I had never seen him act in such a gentle way and I was almost like he hadn’t even realized he was doing it. Noah and Axel noticed it too and they watched him slightly wide-eyed.

“She was so scared of us, I am afraid she will never trust us enough to let us take care of her,” Axel’s expression was stoic but there was a hint of disappointment on his face.

“We just have to prove to her that she can trust us. After everything they told me happened to her, there is no way we are going back to the way things were. She needs us to protect her.” Dante said with finality in his voice

Just then the door to Rayna’s room slammed open and an angry middle-aged

man in a suit was standing in the doorway.

“Get your hands off my daughter”. He yelled