Part 1 of He Saved Me
Trinity was sitting in her room on her bed with her knees pulled up to her chest, reading an old book. Managing to sneak back into her room earlier that day when her step-father had stormed out of the house was almost a relief for her. ‘Bang! Bang!’ Trinity’s head jolted up with wide, scared eyes as the sound of someone angrily pounding their fist on the door and the jiggling of the doorknob made fear envelop her. The door slammed open and a brown, messy haired man with stains on his shirt and bloodshot eyes stormed in. It was her step-father. His eyes darted directly to her and sneered, “There you are, b***h!” he barked.
Instantly trying to scramble away, Trinity tried to get away from him, but her step-father stomped over to her and grabbed her arm, yanking her up roughly, and dragging her forcefully out of the room. “No...no!” she screamed as she was being pulled through the kitchen into the living room. He threw her onto the couch, Trinity just barely landing the edge. She looked up slightly with tears streaming down her cheeks, shaking, “Please…” she pleaded quietly through her dry throat.
“Donna!” her step-father called rather loudly. Trinity’s mother walked in from the kitchen with a cup of water in one hand and a small bowl with some sort of...powder mixture, in the other. The clear bowl made Trinity gulp as she could see the substance. Her eyes widened with terror as her mom poured the mixture into the cup of water. She stumbled, scrambled, to try and move away, but her stepfather was quick when he was drunk and tried to hold her still, pushing her onto the grimy carpeted floor. He called Donna over and she bent down, trying to get Trinity to drink the substance that was just mixed.
Trinity screamed in protest and knocked the cup out of her mom’s hand, kicking her step-father away from her, and scrambled out the front door, grabbing her shoulder bag on the way into the cold, rainy night. She was not going to return home this time. She was done with all of her parents yelling at her, accusing her of things she didn’t do, and all of the physical and mental pain. The stuff that her mother put in her drink, she had done that for a long time. It was some type, or multiple types, of drugs that made her go limp and fall asleep in about ten minutes. Trinity didn’t even know how she could live with all of the combination of drugs her mother had managed to somehow give her.
‘I was twelve then…’
She didn’t know how long she ran, but by the time Trinity had finally stopped running, she had no clue as to where she was. She was in the middle of an alley, that much was clear. The rain had finally stopped, but air felt really muggy now. It was dark and gloomy, not to mention almost dead silent except for the occasional dripping of water from the pipes and stairs landing in puddles. Stairs scaled up the side of the building in front of her.
Trinity panted heavily as she looked down the left and right of the alleyway, her back hunched forward and hands on her knees: silence. It seemed to her that she was completely alone. She sniffled, straightening her back and letting her arms dangle at her sides. Her legs shook as dried tears stained her face. Trinity let her back hit the building behind her, sliding down the grimy wall, her knees against her chest and arms wrapped around her legs.
‘I’m all alone now...’ Trinity thought. She then just let herself sob and sob until her tears ran dry and all that was left was a broken teen wracked with dry, heaving sobs.
‘That’s when he found me...’
Boots clicked on the cement in the alley and stepped in a puddle, his steps slowing as he came closer to Trinity. He stopped in front of the young, crying Trinity and looked down at her, “You okay there, kid?” he asked. His voice was deep, a bit husky, but very ominous and mysterious.
The voice sounded familiar to Trinity. She sniffled and slowly lifted her head up to the man in front of her. His eyes were piercing green and his hair was thick and wavy, just barely hitting his shoulders. Her face expression softened a bit in surprise as she recognized him. “You’re...that boy--that guy who helped me hide from my mom a couple of times…” she said with a cracked voice.
The man sighed, his posture relaxing a bit. “I don’t consider myself a boy, kid,” he mumbled.
“H-how old are you, then, if...I can ask?” Trinity asked slowly.
“17,” he replied. “I don’t care if you know how old I am.”
Trinity’s eyes widened a bit in shock. “Eh?” she gasped. “You’re kidding me, right? No--no way you're 17 by the way you look,” she explained.
The man smirked, “This part of the town can do that to someone like me,” he explained. He then looked at her with a little bit of a scary look, “Do I look like someone who kids around, kid?” he asked in all seriousness.
Trinity chuckled slightly, almost faking it, showing a small, weak smile, “I don’t know...I can’t tell with that poker face of yours...” she replied.
He huffed with a small smirk, “Smart kid,” he said. The chilly January wind blew against the guy and Trinity, and she brought her bare knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them to try and keep warm. “Kid...go home. You don’t belong out here in this part of the town,” he explained.
Trinity was silent. She tightened her grip around her legs and breathed in deeply, “I guess...I don’t belong anywhere...” she mumbled.
“Hmm?” he looked down at Trinity with curiosity, “What was that?” he asked.
“My parents hate me...” Trinity started. “I couldn’t take their abuse and yelling anymore, so...I ran...I just...ran...” she explained in her quiet, sad voice. Her eyes started to burn from more tears wanting to appear.
The man looked up at the brick wall and pushed his hair back with his right hand. He took a deep breath in and sighed, turning his head to the left and right to make sure no one was coming down the alley. He looked back down at Trinity, “So...what’ll you do now, kid?” he asked.
“I don’t know...” she managed to say in a cracked, pathetic voice after a moment, “What can I do? I can’t exactly go back home.”
The man bobbed his head a bit, looking up as he thought. “Well...you could,” he turned his left hand out a bit as he spoke, “but you don’t want to,” he explained. “You don’t want to continue being locked up in that house with your abusive parents like a prisoner.”
“Get out of my head...” Trinity mumbled.
“That’s the funny thing...I’m not in your head,” he said, kneeling down, letting his elbows and forearms rest on top of his thighs while his hands dangled in the air, getting in her face, “It’s written all over your face.”
Trinity, unsure of his motives, could not bring herself to keep looking at the man that had saved her more than once already. “I suppose that must be true,” she said slowly, quietly. She was sure that her face was a crumpled mess, sopping wet from the tears that had been raining rivers from her eyes. In those eyes was a fear of the future, isolation from everything she knew, uncertainty about what she would do and where she would go now. An entire array of emotions swimming in those eyes still brimming with tears that would no longer fall. “Why are you here?” she asked thickly, unable to think of anything else to say.
“To ask you what you’re going to do now,” he replied, that grin, so like that of a Cheshire cat, still plastered on his face as he say perched on the balls of his feet before her.
“And I told you I didn’t know,” she replied with a sigh that seemed edging on irritable.
“Then maybe I can help with that,” he said, his grin growing, if it was even possible, broader. He stood so suddenly it seemed like he should lose his balance and stumble, if not fall, backwards. But he didn’t. Of course. He held a hand out to Trinity, she just stared at it. “Come on, kid, you say you can’t go home. Where else would you go?” he said with a slight laugh in his voice.
“I don’t even know where I’d be going if I went with you,” Trinity noted vaguely, her voice disinterested.
“I’m trying to help you, kid,” he said, sounding exasperated now.
Trinity looked back down at the ground, “It seems like your trying to save me…” she grumbled.
The man let his arm drop to his side, sighing. He shrugged his shoulders, “Maybe I am, maybe I’m not,” he narrowed his eyes, pointing at her, “That’s your decision, though, kid. It’s your choice with what you want to believe. Especially…” he pointed to himself, “someone like me.” Trinity didn’t move, not sure what to do. He let his arm drop again, “Look, you have two options here, kid: either stay here and face all of the danger this neighborhood has to offer…or,” he held his hand out to Trinity again, “take my hand and lead you the way to some shelter...at least for the night,” he explained.
Trinity still didn’t move. The man was getting a bit impatient, glancing to his left and right to make sure no one was walking toward them still. He looked back down at her, “Just ask yourself this, kid: do you trust me enough to keep you safe for at least one night?” he asked.
Trinity slowly lifted her head up, biting her lip. Their eyes met: his toughened green colored eyes, and her innocent, distressed blue eyes. Her eyes lowered to look at his hand. Deciding that at this point she didn’t really care what happened either way, and just wanted to make sure she never saw her parents again, took the offered hand and allowed him to help her up. With her finally on her feet and off of the wet and grimy cement ground, he opened his arm out and let her step to his side, wrapping his arm around her shoulders. He looked down at her with a smirk and rubbed her arm to try and warm her up. Then, he led her out of the alleyway, to a new life.