No Innocent Love

The Regret

...

'Mmnn... I hear knocking.'

After that thought there was a long silence.

"Sammy, can I come in?" Its Riley. He came to me again. "Your father said you can come out now."

"Riley... Help me." I don't dare to open my eyes. I know where I am, the girl is looking at me. I don't dare look. "Please."

I feel the wind blow from Riley opening the door at great speed, it must have almost hit my face. I carefully open my eyes and look up at my savior. He is carrying his first aid kit, he must have assumed I was injured. He is facing the ground, his fiery red hair covering half his face. "I knew it." He started shaking. "That bastard hurt you again."

Riley works for Mr. Laurin. He is the one who fixes up all the injured guards. Sarah, Riley and I are the only ones our age so we have always been close. Riley started working here a year after Mr. Laurin adopted Sarah and I. He has a contract to never speak about anything that happens while at work. If he ever broke that contract. Something could happen to him or his family. They could 'mysteriously' go missing. I know it kills him, he can't save us.

He crouches down and examines my leg. "I don't remember what I did," I whispered. "why he stabbed me."

"Sarah told me one of the maids secretly brought a cat to work today." Riley opens his first aid kit and moves around the contents, "The cat scratched her, Sarah didn't want the maid to get in trouble so she told your father she found a cat in the yard and it scratched her when she tried to pet it."

"What does that have to do with me?" I asked. I pulled myself up slowly to lean myself against the wall.

"I'm guessing it wasn't meant to punish you, it was to punish Sarah." Riley took a disinfecting numbing gel and gently rubbed it around my wound and carefully pressed it into the wound as well. "According to your father, Sarah went outside without permission. As you know, he can't harm her so-"

"I get it." I choked. The pain slowly went away. "He made her watch me being hurt to punish her, poor Sarah."

Riley twists the lid back on the gel and leaned down, his face just above my wound. "Poor Sarah?" He said before he blew on my leg. "You're the one being beaten."

"That's true," I think of how to explain my thoughts. "I'm happy to take the beatings if it means Sarah is left unharmed. But imagine the guilt she feels watching me, not being able to help."

"Yeah, not being able to help you." Riley digs around in his first aid kit again and pulls out a needle and thread. "I can understand that." He motions for me to move closer to him.

"Don't be silly," I say, moving my leg on to his lap. "You are helping me, doc. You always fix me up."

"I just wish I could prevent the pain in the first place," He lets out a small chuckle. "Speaking of, is the numbing gel working?"

"Yes," I say while readjusting my leg. "See, doc. you are preventing pain.

 Riley then brings the sewing needle close to my skin and chuckles one more. "But that's the thing about pain, isn't it? It demands to be felt."

"Yeah." I gasp as the needle pierces my skin. Riley is always there to fix me up whenever I'm injured, I'm very grateful. I wish I could prove that to him, but I know what it's like not being able to save someone, you'll always regret and always feel like you didn't do enough no matter what anyone says. I could have done more. I could have helped mommy, I could have stopped daddy, I should have saved them, but I was frozen.