Free Save Me From the Dark by Réna Edward Page B

this, and something else. Ace turns around and smiles.
    “Hey baby, did you sleep well?”
    “Fuck you!” I hiss as I storm out the door.
    This time I don’t care what attention I draw to myself. The quickest escape possible is all I care about right now. My speed isn’t up where I need it to be because of my sore and achy muscles from all the throwing up I did. Just as I round the corner of the building, my arm is grabbed.
    “Let me fucking go!” I scream as I punch him.
    “I can’t. I won’t,” Ace says, holding me tightly.
    I try to knee him, but he quickly blocks me. Between the punching and the struggling to free myself from his grasp, my energy is slowly decreasing. The sudden weakness brings tears to my eyes and I sag into his hold.
    “Don’t run from me, please.”
    “Why can’t you just leave me be?”
    Ace pulls back and looks at me shocked. “Why are you asking me to?”
    “This isn’t your fight.”
    “But I’m trying to help find a solution so you can start living.”
    “This isn’t your problem to solve, Ace. Not everything has an easy solution, this is one of them.”
    He drops his hands, paces away a few feet while he runs his hands through his hair. Honestly, I am just tired of this whole thing. Maybe it is time to tell someone why I let this happen to me.
    “My mom died protecting me. She jumped in front of a bullet that was meant for me. If I wasn’t there when those robbers came in… These beatings are the least I can take for taking my mother before her time,” I say softly.
    “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Ace roars walking towards me. “You blame yourself for your mother’s death. So, what, you think this is your just deserves?”
    “Yes. I’m not weak, Ace. Maybe I was when I was younger, but I can handle myself now. My mom should be here, not me. So if being treated like this by him and the people at school is what I have to live with…then I will until I can leave here with my diploma in hand.”
    “What does your diploma change?”
    “I don’t know. Maybe that I suffered long enough? Maybe that it’s my proof that my life can finally start fresh? I don’t know, Ace. Nevertheless, I do know that as long as my father has to see me, he deserves to have an outlet for his remorse. His loss.”
    He cups my face in his hands, looking me in the eyes. “Baby, do you hear yourself? You do not deserve this. None of it. What happened, though tragic, is not your fault. You were a child. She was protecting her child. I would do the same thing for my children and I’d be very upset if they blamed themselves like you are doing. You’re making it seem like your mother died to torture you. She died protecting you, so you could have a chance at life. What have you done with that chance? Think about it logically for a second, not emotionally. Remember the person your mother was, would she want this for you?”
    Tears fall as I slightly shake my head. “No,” I squeak out. “But I need her with me, every day I need her and she’s gone because I was there that day. I miss her so much,” I sob.
    Ace gathers me in his arms, holding me tightly. “Missing her is normal, baby. But missing her and blaming yourself are two totally different things. You didn’t fire the gun that shot the bullet that hit her, did you?”
    “No.”
    “You didn’t break into the house to rob the place, did you?”
    “No.”
    “You didn’t stage it all so she’d die, did you?”
    “No,” I sob.
    “Then baby, it isn’t your fault. You should not feel guilty. You’re just as much the victim here as she was. You have to let go of this guilt and claim the life that your mother selflessly gave you the chance to live,” he breathes. “You want to live, don’t you? To see what life has in store for you?”
    “Yes,” I sob harder. “But it’s so hard.”
    Ace pulls me tightly against him, kissing the top of my head repeatedly. “Then take it baby! Claim it! What do you want?”
    My tears