Chapter 5

"Wake up, sweetie."

Anabel blinked awake. She rubbed her eyes, groaning lightly. The room was dark; she didn't recognize it at first. Then her eyes focused on the person sitting next to her in bed. Mrs Martin smiled at her.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

Anabel nodded. "Yea. How long have I been sleeping?"

"About three days," replied Mrs Martin. She lowered her voice a little and added, "but your parents told me to let you rest for a little longer because they wanted to talk to you about something important."

Anabel nodded her head. She stared at Mrs Martin silently for a few moments.

"So...what is it?"

Mrs Martin paused. She placed her hands gently on Anabel's forehead. Then she examined her daughter carefully with her eyes and nose. She pressed her finger lightly against her tongue and took her time inhaling and exhaling deeply. She frowned slightly as she continued examining Anabel. Finally, she gave her an encouraging nod and smiled.

"How do you feel, dear?"

"I feel...okay." Anabel paused again as a slight smirk appeared on her face. "Well...I guess I feel pretty sleepy too."

Mrs Martin chuckled lightly, nodding her head.

"I bet. And how do you feel about going to school tomorrow morning? Your mum said that you'll need to come to classes if you're feeling better. Are you hungry?"

The brunette thought about it for a moment. After a few seconds, she shook her head.

"No...not really. I might eat breakfast later, though. I think I could use something warm and fluffy to eat."

Mrs Martin laughed softly.

"That sounds lovely," she responded with a smile.

"It does, doesn't it?" Anabel asked with a smile. 

Anabel suddenly felt exhausted. She yawned and stretched. Her body ached a bit, but not nearly as much as before. Mrs Martin watched Anabel curiously for a minute, before asking, "Is everything all right, sweetheart? You seem a bit tired..."

Anabel nodded.

"Yeah. I'm fine, Mum. Don't worry about it," she answered. She paused for a second, before adding: "Actually, maybe I should go to bed."

"Oh, yes. Of course. Go ahead. I'll wake you up when dinner's ready."

"Thank you, Mum."

Anabel climbed out of bed and made her way over to the bathroom. She quickly brushed her teeth and washed her face. When she was done, she returned to her bedroom and crawled beneath the covers, sighing deeply in contentment. Almost immediately, however, she began shivering once more, her breathing starting to grow rapidly and laboured. She curled up, trying her best to make herself as small as possible as her breathing grew faster and faster. Soon enough, Anabel found herself screaming silently in fright.

After what seemed like hours to the brunette, her screams eventually died down, only leaving her with a series of small gasps for air. Anabel lay motionless under the blankets. Her breath was still shaky and fast, her chest rising and falling erratically.

Suddenly, Mrs Martin walked into the room. She sat down in the chair beside the bed, watching Anabel intently. She remained quiet for another moment, before speaking up.

"Annie...do you want me to leave the room and turn off the lights?" she inquired.

"No...no...please don't go..." she answered weakly, her words almost a whisper.

"Do you want me to sit here with you until you fall asleep?"

"I...I think so. Maybe...if that's not too much trouble..."

"Of course not. That's no problem at all," replied Mrs Martin, smiling kindly.

She stood up, removed the tray that had been resting next to Anabel's side, and placed it in the corner of the room. She then turned back and sat down facing Anabel, her back leaning against the wall. Anabel closed her eyes for a moment. She tried to slow her breathing to relax, but it wasn't working.

"Mommy..." she breathed in a trembling voice. "Why am I so scared?"

"Sweetie, I don't know. Maybe you're just a little nervous. Maybe you've never met anyone else who lives in this house. Or maybe it's the fact that you were attacked last night. You were very brave and you survived, Annie. Nobody can say that you didn't do anything to deserve being rescued. And nobody could ever be angry with you either. There will always be people who will look at you and see that you're a strong girl who has grown up to become a wonderful woman," explained Mrs Martin in a soothing tone. "You didn't do anything wrong. And you are perfectly safe here. I promise you that."

Anabel looked over at her. She didn't respond to her mother, instead choosing to stare out the window, where she saw the darkness outside begin to fade into the bright sunlight. She sighed quietly.

"I hope you're right."

"I am. Now, why don't you try to get some more sleep? You've had quite a long day."

"Okay."

Anabel closed her eyes again, and within minutes, she fell asleep. However, many other disturbing dreams were swirling around in her head. She dreamt of her attacker, standing in front of her. He raised his arm above his head, before striking her in the stomach repeatedly until blood started seeping out from between her lips. His mouth contorted in anger, his red, glowing eyes boring into hers. She woke up abruptly, gasping and panting. It was only after a few seconds that Anabel realized it was nothing more than a nightmare. She relaxed and exhaled heavily. For a few seconds after, she remained still, staring blankly at her ceiling. Then, she slowly reached a hand down towards her stomach. Slowly, she touched the area that her assailant had struck. It still hurt badly, as if she had been hit by something. She winced in pain.

A loud knock came from the door, causing her to snap out of her thoughts. She jumped slightly, before quickly grabbing the blankets and covering herself up.

"Who's that?" she questioned, her voice shaking slightly.

"It's me, darling."

There was some shuffling around. A few moments later, her father entered the room. He smiled when he saw that she was awake.

"Good evening."

She nodded in reply. He moved over to the side of the bed.

"What happened to you, dear?"

She shook her head. "Nothing bad. I had a little accident earlier in the afternoon, so I got sick. I had a hard time walking home afterwards because my legs were sore and I couldn't walk any further than that. But it was nothing serious."

Mr Lewis glanced over towards her midsection. She shifted uncomfortably under his gaze.

"Did you throw up?"

"Um, yeah, a little," replied Anabel.

"How did you handle it?"

"I didn't throw up. I threw up water, though."

He hummed in response. Then he leaned closer.

"Are you sure that's all that happened? If it's too painful for you to remember, we can always take your temperature later. But you may not want to mention anything if it isn't important, alright? I don't want you getting worse. We don't want that."

Anabel nodded, although she knew she wouldn't have thrown up if she hadn't gotten sick. She knew the pain wouldn't come back anyway; not that night or even the following one. Nevertheless, Mr Lewis seemed to have noticed the change in her facial expressions. So, without saying anything more, he left the room. Just as soon as he was gone, she let out a soft sigh and laid her head back on her pillow. She smiled faintly at the image of her parents standing beside her bed. They both looked concerned and worried, despite the smiles that they were trying to hide. Suddenly, she felt extremely sleepy. The images in her head started fading away and she could barely keep them open anymore. As she slowly drifted off again, a strange sensation flooded her senses, a sensation that somehow reminded her of what she had read on her first day at school.

Before her mind even finished drifting away, she found herself sleeping peacefully.

"You shouldn't stay out all day today," Mrs Thompson reprimanded her daughter, looking sternly at her.

"Well...it was raining yesterday. My mum didn't feel comfortable letting me come out to play all day, though," Anabel answered, pouting slightly.

Mrs Thompson stared at her daughter for several moments, before frowning a bit. After a few more silent moments passed between them, Anabel spoke once more.

"Please come inside with us sometime tomorrow. Daddy would love to spend some time alone with you both," she said in a low whisper.

Her mother considered the proposal for a moment. Then, she nodded, a small smile appearing on her face.

"All right. Yes. We can spend some time together tomorrow. How does that sound? Is that okay with your dad?"

"Sounds great. Thank you."

"Go inside, then. Dinner's almost ready and it smells delicious," Mrs Thompson urged gently.

"Okay!" exclaimed Anabel happily, turning around and heading back towards the kitchen. She went straight inside, grabbed an apple from the bowl on the table, took a bite out of it and ran back outside again, heading towards her bicycle.

As Anabel approached the driveway, she spotted Ben sitting underneath a tree, looking deep in thought. At first, he seemed distracted, as if his brain was somewhere else entirely. In reality, he was thinking of how he could spend the rest of his day. He'd already completed most of his school work and he would need to start practising his piano again. However, even if he had practised every single piece in the book for weeks, he still wouldn't be able to practice enough to perform for their anniversary. He sighed deeply. He missed dancing and singing and playing the violin. All that music filled him up inside. Not to mention, his family was going to have to celebrate that anniversary whether he liked it or not. The thought made him frown. Suddenly, he heard a noise behind him. He tensed up instantly and turned around to see Anabel approaching him, her bike slung over her shoulder.

"Oh hello," he greeted pleasantly.

"Hi..." responded Anabel, putting down her bike at the edge of the grass and taking another bite out of the apple that she was holding. "Hey...uhm...did you get anything done?" she asked after swallowing.

"Mhm! Just some music homework. Nothing interesting," he lied, giving her a fake smile.

"...Oh. That sounds...interesting," Anabel replied with a faint smile.

Ben frowned, wondering whether it was his fault that Anabel couldn't stand his lies. He tried to change the subject.

"What are you doing out here?" he inquired.

"Me? Uh, I was just taking a short break. I'm pretty tired after riding my bike around so much," Anabel told him. "So, I'm kind of hungry, too," she added.

"Do you wanna eat something?" he asked, gesturing to the kitchen behind him.

"Yeah."

Ben nodded, and he stood up. Then, he headed over to the door, while Anabel followed closely behind him. As she stepped inside, she glanced back at her bike.

"That thing doesn't look very comfortable," she noted. "Can I borrow yours, maybe, while I eat dinner?"

"Sure," he agreed, shrugging. "Why not?"

After placing her backpack next to the kitchen table, Anabel walked over and sat down on the chair that Ben was sitting on.

"Thanks," she murmured, glancing around the spacious living room.

"No problem."

He watched as Anabel opened up her bag and placed everything inside. Soon, she shut it, picked it up and carried it over to the kitchen counter. While Ben waited patiently for Anabel to finish putting everything inside, his brows furrowed ever so slightly. He wasn't sure exactly what Anabel was doing at his house. He figured that she must have been coming by to ask for help with something. Although he wanted to ask her, he also felt slightly nervous to do so. Maybe she needed money or something, and he should offer to give her some. Or perhaps she might've just needed someone to talk to. There weren't many people in his life who were good friends with him. 

He knew that there was no point in forcing himself to be friends with anyone, even if that person was his best friend. No matter how close you became with someone, they eventually ended up betraying you. Besides, he doubted Anabel would accept any form of friendship from him - at least not now, anyway. What he knew about the girl was that she hated being treated like an outsider. She didn't even believe that she fit into his family group of friends. It seemed like whenever he brought up anything remotely related to his family, she would immediately become quiet and withdrawn, as though she was trying to put up her guard. This behaviour had worried him initially, but after seeing the way she interacted with everyone else, Ben knew that there probably wasn't anything to worry about. And, in a way, he was glad that she was keeping her distance from him. He would never understand her if she started acting as he did. Besides, he preferred spending time with those he knew well rather than having strangers around. Sometimes, he wondered how someone who had been through so much could suddenly turn out to be so calm and collected. But then again, he didn't expect to be this happy either. A part of him hoped that Anabel's change might make her less reserved, although he suspected that might not be the case at all. 

"It seems like you're done. Can I help you with anything?" asked Ben, watching as Anabel pulled out her laptop from the top of her bag.

Anabel shook her head, a faint smile forming on her lips.

"Nope. If you want to watch TV, we could do that. I know mom is going shopping. It looks like she won't be back until late tonight, so I think we'll be fine here," she explained.

Ben nodded slowly.

"Alright."

The two of them headed upstairs. Anabel led him into her bedroom. She went over to her closet, which was full of clothes and shoes, picked out some pyjamas for him to wear and a pair of pyjama pants that she would normally wear as well, and handed them to him. Ben accepted them but didn't really know what to do with them. They weren't the most appropriate clothes for a sleepover, but they were still quite comfortable and he could always use the spare pair. Besides, they were only some jeans and T-shirts and they were nothing special. So he shrugged and put them on. Afterwards, he returned downstairs again, feeling somewhat uncomfortable since there weren't that many things to choose from. There weren't many choices at all. In his opinion, his closet was more colourful than most teenage boys. His collection was filled with colours that were brighter and shinier than most teenage boys. Most of them seemed plain and boring to him. Nevertheless, when his eyes met Anabel's gaze, he noticed that the girl had also changed into pyjamas, as she was lying down on her bed now, staring straight ahead without saying anything. He frowned as he looked at her for a brief moment before he quickly went downstairs again. Once more, he sat down on the sofa, leaning his back against it. He decided to watch some television with Anabel since there really wasn't anything else to do.

A few minutes later, after he'd finished eating and drinking tea, Ben's father came back.

"Where's mom?" he asked, making sure to sit down beside Ben, instead of across from him.

"Shopping, probably," answered Anabel in a neutral tone.

Both her parents exchanged a glance, exchanging knowing smiles. They understood each other perfectly without needing words. Both their hearts were beating fast because of what they were thinking. They hadn't spoken about it yet; neither had they mentioned marriage to one another. Still, they knew. They knew how they felt about one another. Their relationship was perfect. Ben and Anabel might sometimes argue and fight a little, but that was okay because it usually happened when they were both angry and upset when their feelings got involved. Ben had said the same thing to his father the previous night after his mother had left. It had given him the strength to finally tell his father the truth and to let him know how he truly felt about the situation. It was the only way to end that particular fight once and for all, and now he could take a step forward and go back to the way he used to feel. He smiled faintly at the thought. It was the first day they officially announced their engagement to their friends. They had invited them all to come over earlier today to meet them so that they could celebrate the engagement properly. It wasn't just the four of them. Their other best friends, including Anabel's twin brother, were also present along with Anabel's older sister and her boyfriend. Everyone was excited about it. Even Ben was excited.

He couldn't wait to spend the rest of his life with this girl whom he loved dearly.