Page 59 of Ruined
Before I could respond, he was already walking past me down the hallway. The bathroom door closed behind him a second later.
Staring in that direction for another minute, I guessed at what personality that was. “…okay, then.” Weird,but whatever.
I leaned against the counter and grabbed another bottle ofwater from the fridge. Twisting the cap open, I took a long drink. My eyes drifted down to the counter and settled on his phone. It was there, right where he’d left itunlocked. Picking it up, the screen instantly lit up. Part of me considered hiding it, just to cause trouble. Another part was trying to convince me to just put the phone back down. The gremlin part of my brain pushed me to go through it and find out more things about Silas on my own.Thatwas the side that won, like always.
My thumb swiped across the screen, and the messages opened. Kinsley’s number popped up immediately at the top of the app, because that was the last message sent. Opening a new text to her, I started typing and watched my thumbs move across the keyboard before I could overthink it.
I’m alive. Long story. Don’t freak out.
I stared at the words for a second, debating whether or not to send the message in general. Half of me knew she was already freaking out, and the other half believed she hadn’t even noticed I was gone. I was about to hit send when something else on the screen caught my eye.
A folder, right beneath the messages.
A folder withmyname.
EMBER V.
My brows knitted together as my heartbeat picked up. Knowing Silas, this could be so many different things. I took one steadying breath as I tapped the icon and watched the screen instantly fill. At first, I only saw photos, but then videos started to loadin—allof me.
My stomach dropped, like I’d just stepped off a ledge I didn’t realize was there. “What the hell?”
Looking through the beginning, the first few images appeared to be screenshots. I stared at them, trying to make sense of what I was looking at. It was my room, with me sleeping in my bed. The angle was familiar enough that it took me a second to place it. My eyes narrowed in, tilting the phone closer. The TV mounted in the corner of my room, that was what this was from.
A slow breath left my lungs.
Okay.Weird, but not exactly shocking from him.
I already knew Silas had been watching me, he admitted to it—that part wasn’t exactly new information, but I still didn’t like the feeling it caused. As I tried to shrug everything off, I found another photo, but this time, it was something small with numbers.
Shaking my head, I swiped through the rest of the album before coming to the videos. My pulse started to race, beating faster as I stared at the screen. For a moment, I considered not opening them, but the gremlin won again, and I pressed play.
The video loaded, and I was viewing my room from the same angle, but this time, the lighting was different. A dim glow cascaded down from my lamp and spread across me and the blanket I was under. I watched myself sleep, shifting slightly every few minutes.
At first, that was all the video was. A few minutes passed, and it was still just me and the darkness, but then there wasmovement. Someone entered the frame, and my entire body stilled when a man stepped quietly beside my bed. His moves were slow and careful, like he knew exactly where every creaky board was.
My pulse started to hammer in my chest as the figure reached down and gently pulled the blanket away from me. At this point, I could hear my heartbeat in my ears, but I kept watching anyway. My eyes stay glued to the screen as a hand reached out, grazing my leg.
No.
No, no, no—
The hand moved slowly upward along my thigh and then dipped between them. The sight of it made my chest tighten so painfully it almost knocked the air out of me. I paused the screen, clicking on it over and over again, as if it would erase what happened.
Eventually, I moved on to the next one. I watched as the same figure returned on a different night. This time, I was on my stomach, watching him spread my legs wider to play.
Each video blurred into the next, the pattern becoming sickeningly clear. Each one was worse than the last, every video making the knot in my stomach pull tighter.
Realization slammed into me, and all other thoughts left my head. Not only had Silas been watching me, but he—thiswas something else entirely. He hadn’t just been coming into my room, standing over me. He violated me,touched me.
The water bottle slipped out of my grasp before I evenrealized my fingers had gone numb. I didn’t watch it hit the floor because I’d lost all control of my body. The sound of plastic cracking against tile echoed around the kitchen as water burst across the floor, splashing outward in a sudden small wave. I didn’t notice that either, not when my hands were shaking so badly that the phone threatened to slip from my grip.
My chest was too tight, like a vice has been placed around me. Each breath came faster than the last, like my lungs couldn’t pull in enough air to keep up with the panic surging through my body.
A body that had been taken advantage of, over and over again.
I never saw his face in the videos, it was always hidden with a hood, but I knew it had to be Silas. There was no one else itcouldbe. I held on to the counter as more dread filled my mind. At one point, my legs threatened to give out over the fact that I’d just let him—because I had thought that—
I swallowed a scream that was threatening to explode from the inside. Opening up the dial pad, I debated calling the police.But how was I supposed to explain this?How could I defend sleeping with him?Even now, I was still in the same house with him.
