Revealing Secrets

Chapter 2

Luke sighed, gave up thinking and went to his car. As he opened the door, someone jolted awake and started freaking out. Then he remembered the woman at the hotel.

“Please don’t hurt me, please,” the woman begged as tears kept rolling down her face.

“Hey, hey. Calm down miss, I’m not going to hurt you,” he said, panicking a little bit.

The woman calmed down for a little while but she was still crying. Luke stared at her for a little while before gently telling her to stop crying.

“Hey, miss. Stop crying, okay? I’m not going to hurt you. Nobody’s going to hurt you,” this seemed to work because she looked at him, stared for a little bit. He knew she was doubting him.

“You don’t need to worry about anything miss, alright?” he reassured her. The woman slowly nodded and started to relax.

Luke smiled at her and sat on the driver’s seat and turned the car’s engine on. As the car roared to life, he can’t seem to keep his eyes off of her. She just kept her head down and hugged her knees.

“What’s your name?” he asked, but he got no reply from her.

‘Maybe she’s asleep,’ he thought.

“Where do you live, I can take you back th--” Luke tried asking again but before he could even finish his sentence, the woman suddenly started crying again.

“Please don’t, please, I beg you. They’ll kill me. Please don’t let me go back there,” the woman begged him.

Luke was surprised at the woman,s reaction. ‘What the hell happened to this beautiful woman?’ he wondered.

He couldn’t find way to calm her down. They were still a long to his house. He decided to stop at a hotel and leave her there. He was about to ask he if she was okay with staying at a hotel but, she was suddenly quiet. Gone was her stiffled sobs. He looked back at her and saw her sleeping. Her head was leaning on the window. Luke stopped the car and stared at her for a while.

‘Poor girl, she creid herself to sleep,’ Luke thought.

With that thought, he started the car again and drove off, with a little smile on his face.

She looked like an angel but, very fragile. He was suddenly enveloped with the desire to protect her. ‘What were you thinking? You can’t just leave this poor woman by herself,’ he scolded himself.

With that thought, he started the car again and drove off, with a little smile on his face.

***

It was so quiet, so peaceful, so calm. It was so unusual and that was what woke her. She abruptly sat up from her lying position. Her eyes scanned the room. She was not in their house anymore and was definitely not in her room. She was confused and scared at the same time.

Even though the bed was very soft and comfortable, she can’t relax. Memories of yesterday came rushing back at her. She started panicking. Her hands shook and her lips trembled, tears started to flow and she sobbed softly. She looked outside the indow and saw that it was still dark. Fear crept further into her as the event of yesterday came rushing into her mind.She remembered the man asking her where she lived so that he would return her.

‘Oh God,’ she thought in despair, ‘Did he return me to that man?’

This made her even more scared, she hugged herself tightly and just sat there silently crying and feeling sorry for herself.

She snapped at the door when she heard it open. Her hair covered most of her face and her sight was blurry due to all the crying that she has done. All she could see were the legs of a man. She was sure of that.

In fear, she sank herself lower in her place. She cried even harder and started begging the person not to hurt her. She was shaking and having a panic attack. She screamed as loud as she could when the man touched her shoulders.

“Hey, hey. It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you,” the man said. This made her look at him. It wasn’t the man she was with at the hotel, rather, it was the man who helped her get away. The same man who asked where she lived.

He had his arms up in surrender. “Look, I won’t hurt you, I promise,” the man said again. His voice was so gentle that made her calm down a little bit. She was still a wary of everything around her.

She looked around one more time. The room was beautiful, probably the only beautiful room she had ever been in. Then, she looked at him again or more like, stared.

As she stared, he put on an uncomfortable smile.

“Are you okay now?” he asked. She just nodded in response and looked away.

The man put his hands down, and as he did that, she flinched and tightly closed her eyes, as if waiting for him to hit her. But to her surprise, nothing came. She slowly opened her eyes and looked at the man. He just stood there, hands in his pockets staring at her worriedly.

She was very uncomfortable with this. Most of the time, men would stare at her lustfully. Most of them would try to take advantage of her. She looked away from the man and just sat there. Both of them were very silent until he broke it by clearing his throat.

“My name’s Luke,” Luke started, “What’s yours?”

She just looked at him, hesitating if she should tell him her name.

“I promise, I will never hurt you okay?” Luke reassured her. “We can be friends if you want, is that all right?” he asked.

She stared at him, then slowly nodded at him, agreeing. Luke smiled at this.

“Now that we’re friends, can you tell me your name?” he asked.

She was silent fro a little while. ‘He promised right? He promised her won’t hurt me,’ she told herself. ‘But, what if he’s lying?’

“You can trust me miss. I will never hurt you, I promise,” Luke said, as if reading her thoughts.

“P-promise?” she asked, stuttering.

“I promise,” he said.

“P-pinky p-promise?” she asked again.

Luke chuckled at this. She just looked too cute as she said that. “Pinky promise,” he said and held out his pinky finger to her.

She let out a small smile and hooked her pinky finger with his and both of them sealed it with their thumb.

“Now, will you tell me your name?”

She went back to being silent and started fidgeting with her hands. “I-I c-can’t tell y-you,” she said.

“Why?” Luke asked.

“Th-they’ll kill me.”

Luke was bewildered. There was more to this than he thought. It was more than just a s****l assault case. She was scared, he could tell. She was also very scared of everything around her. She was just too fragile.

“Who will?” he can’t help but ask.

“Bad people,” she answered softly.

“Do you know who thye are?” Luke asked. “If you tell me I can help you.”

The woman just shook her head and hugged her knees. She was still shaky and he can tell that she was weak. She was pale and thin.

He knows that if he went near her, she would freak out again. But, he just had to touch her and comfort her. So he did, and as expected, she flinched and moved away from him and started crying again.

“Hey, hey,” Luke said as he grabbed her arm as she thrashed around, trying to get away from him. “It’s me, I will never hurt you, trust me,” he said. He he pulled her closer and hugged her.

She was practically a stranger but Luke didn’t mind taking care of her. He wanted to take care of her, remove her worries and make her smile. It looks like this woman had been through so much already. He had this inexplicable urge to protect her.

“Shh,” he whispered. “I won’t hurt you, trust me,” he said over and over again until she calmed down. It took a long time time but he was able to calm her down. Luke had her sit on his lap and her head rested on his chest. Luke was caressing her hair, which helped calm her down. After a while she was silent. He looked down at her face and saw that she was sleeping peacefully like a baby. There were tears on her cheeks which he wiped away with his thumb. He just sighed and promised to himself that he would protect this woman, whatever it takes. She was just too fragile in his eyes and he was willing to do anything to protect her.

“Whoever made you like this will pay. I promise you that,” he whispered in her ear as he kept stroking her hair.

Strangely, just being with her was too peaceful that eventually, he too, fell asleep.