Jay Jay's POV
I dragged my body off the bed, the oversized fabric of Keifer's shirt sweeping against my bare thighs. Every step felt like walking on shattered glass. I moved into the small bathroom, clicking on the dim overhead bulb to face the mirror.
The reflection staring back was unrecognizable. My lips were swollen, bitten raw from his relentless, selfish rhythm. I slowly unbuttoned the top three buttons of his shirt, letting the heavy dark collar pull away from my collarbone.
A sharp breath hitched in my throat. Fresh, deep purple marks and dark hickeys littered the pale skin of my neck. Deep finger-shaped bruises were already darkening around my collarbone where he had violently pinned my fragile frame down.
I quickly buttoned the shirt back up to the very top, my hands shaking so violently I could barely loop the fabric over the plastic. I couldn't look anymore. I stepped out into the hallway, trying to swallow the lump of anxiety in my throat.
But the moment I turned the corner, I froze dead in my tracks.
"Jay!" Honey called out, standing at the end of the hall. She was Angelo's girlfriend, but to me, she had always been like an older sister. Her eyes instantly locked onto me. "Angelo told me Keifer was storming around earlier. Keifer come here right?"
"No," I lied instantly, my voice cracking as I pulled the oversized collar tighter around my throat. "He wasn't here."
"No?" Honey stepped closer, her eyes narrowing as she scanned my face. A small, knowing smirk tugged at the corner of her lips, her tone turning into a playful tease. "Then why your skin glowing that much? Look at you, you're practically radiating."
"I... I just took a warm bath," I stammered, taking a panicked step backward.
"Oo, at 6:00 AM in littraly nigh—"
Honey's smile instantly vanished as she stepped right into my personal space. Her sharp eyes dropped to the heavy fabric of the shirt, noticing how it swallowed my frame. As I shifted, the collar gaped slightly, exposing a fresh, dark hickey blooming brightly against my pale neck.
Her playful mood shattered. Her face hardened into pure, protective anger as she began scolding me.
"Removed your clothes, Jay," Honey commanded, her voice sharp and unyielding.
"No," I whispered, gripping the edges of the shirt desperately.
"Why?" Honey demanded, her voice rising in frustration. "Show me what's under that shirt right now!"
"You can't see me without clothes, Honey! Just leave it alone!" I cried out, my voice laced with pure panic.
Honey stopped, staring at me as the ugly realization hit her. She crossed her arms, her tone dripping with bitter sarcasm as she shook her head.
"Oh, yeah," Honey whispered, a mix of frustration and anger shaking her voice. "It's only Keifer's right? Only he has the right to see you like this. And am I right, right? Only he gets to touch you!"
"Honey, please, don't," I begged, the tears finally spilling over my eyelids.
"Don't what, Jay?!" Honey scolded, her voice cracking with deep worry. "Look at you! He literally just used your body to quiet whatever madness is in his head, and then he just tossed his shirt to you and walked out! He treats you like a disposable tool, and you're still standing here defending him!"
I squeezed my eyes shut, her words cutting deeper than any physical blow because I knew, deep down, she was...rig—no she was wrong. I refuse to accept her version for him. I will never let her my mind make against the only person who truly sees me.
I will never blame keifer for using my body for his needs. Not when he is the same man who stays awake all night just to make sure I am breathing, holding my hand through the darkest terrors of my nightmares.
Not when he always tolerates my wildest tantrums without a single spark of anger, absorbing my chaos and giving me nothing but absolute peace in return.
He is the one who routinely risks his own life for me, who has bled for me, and who has sacrificed every single shred of his own happiness just to keep me safe.
He is the exact same person who holds me tight in his arms until the entire world goes completely silent around me..just me. I am the one who sleeps heavily on his chest just to feel safe, never once worrying about how his own body gets entirely numb through the night, because his only priority is pulling me deep into his chest and shielding me from reality.
They look at him and see a predator, but they didn't see him weep when I was broken. They didn't see him piece my shattered soul back together with trembling hands, whispering that I was worth saving when the rest of the world had discarded me. If he takes from me, it is because I have already given him everything willingly. My body, my breath, my loyalty—they all belong to the only heart that ever beat in sync with my own.
Let them call it madness. Let them call it a trap. I would gladly burn in his fire forever rather than survive one single freezing second in their perfect, loveless world.
"Jay, please listen to me!" Honey shouted, stepping closer as her protective instincts took over. "You are running on pure blindness right now. This isn't love, it's madness! He is draining the very life out of you, using your body and your heart as his personal comfort, and you are just letting him do it because you're too terrified to see him for what he really is!"
"He didn't just use me, Honey!" I cried out, my voice cracking as I gripped the cuffs of his oversized shirt. "You don't understand. He lost his memory! He doesn't even know who he is right now!"
"No! Honey, he loves me!" I shouted back, the tears streaming down my flushed cheeks as I tried to force her to see the truth. "I know he does! The real Keifer is still in there. He's just trapped behind the fog in his mind. I need to stay with him. I have to stay close to him so I can help him recognise us... his peace... me! Help him remember everything we had!"
"Jay, look at me," Honey pleaded, stepping forward.
She gently grabbed my shaking shoulders. She forced me to look her in the eyes. Her protective anger faded into deep, painful worry.
"Even if he loves you somewhere deep down, you cannot let him keep hurting you like this while he figures himself out," Honey whispered urgently. "If you're going to stay with him to make him remember, you have to protect yourself first. You can't let him use your body as a battlefield every time the madness takes over."
"I don't care!" I screamed, pulling away from her grip. My voice cracked with raw, agonizing desperation.
Honey shook her head, tears filling her own eyes. "Jay, please, you are losing yourself—"
"You don't understand!" I shrieked, the emotional dam breaking entirely. "If he wants me, I will let him use me! Not just one time. If he needs me to survive his darkness, a hundred times, a thousand times, I will let him take whatever he wants from me! I belong to him!"
I gasped for breath, but the sheer exhaustion from the trauma and physical strain of the night finally caught up to me. The room began to tilt wildly. My eyelids grew impossibly heavy, weighed down by the tears and the overwhelming fatigue crushing my fragile frame.
"I just need... to make him see..." I mumbled.
My voice trailed off. My knees completely buckled. Honey caught me before I hit the floor, her arms wrapping around me securely to absorb my weight.
She gently guided my limp body back into the bed. She tucked me tenderly under the heavy covers. As I sank deep into the mattress, still wrapped tightly in Keifer's heavy, cologne-scented shirt, Honey's gentle voice faded into the background.
"Don't let him destroy you, our reckless, strongest manace," Honey whispered.
She smoothed the damp hair away from my forehead. My eyes fluttered completely shut.
"Please, don't let him ruin the heart that loves him," she breathed.
"Please, don't let your pure heart become the collateral damage of his madness," she muttered i can hear her voice in my dreams.
"And Please, don't let the darkness he carries now consume the very warmth the real keifer once planted in your heart," she breathed.
Within seconds, the dark pull of sleep dragged me under, leaving the lingering scent of Keifer as my only true sanctuary.
Honey's POV
The bedroom door clicked shut, sealing out the crushing weight of the world, but my hands were still shaking. I leaned my back against the hard wood of the door, staring blindly down the empty hallway. The silence of the house felt suffocating. Inside that room, Jay was losing herself to a beautiful, terrifying delusion. Outside that room, I was completely falling apart.
My phone vibrated violently in my tight grip, the screen flashing Angelo's name. I pressed it to my ear with trembling fingers, but before I could even clear the tightness in my throat, his voice cut through the line, heavy with exhaustion and dread.
"Honey? Is she okay? Did she fall asleep?" Angelo asked immediately, his tone laced with that desperate, protective panic we all shared.
The moment I heard his voice, the strong front I had been putting up for Jay completely shattered. The tears I had been choking back came rushing out in a violent, broken sob.
"I can't see her like this, Angelo," I choked out, pressing a hand over my trembling mouth to muffle the sound of my crying. "I just... I can't do it anymore."
My chest heaved violently as I remembered the raw desperation in her voice. I promised her I would never tell Angelo, I thought, a bitter sob catching in my throat as the dark reality twisted inside my chest. I can never tell him how far this has gone. I can never tell him that she has surrendered her entire body and soul to Keifer's darkness, she is willing to let a man trapped in madness use her over and over again just to save him.
I have to carry this secret alone. It is a heavy, suffocating burden, knowing that Jay is willingly throwing herself into a fire that will consume her.
"Honey, talk to me. What happened?" Angelo's voice grew sharper, more urgent. I could hear the background noise of his surroundings fade as he focused entirely on my breakdown. "Did Keifer hurt her again? Tell me where you are."
"She's asleep," I wept, sliding down the door until my knees hit the floor. I pulled my legs to my chest, hiding my face, letting the tears fall freely. "She fainted right in front of me, Angelo. Her body is completely exhausted. She's running on pure trauma, and she won't leave him. She screamed at me. She screamed in my face that she doesn't care about the danger, that his shadow is the only place she feels safe."
There was a heavy, suffocating silence on the other end of the line. I could hear Angelo's ragged breathing, his anger vibrating through the phone even without him speaking.
"She said that?" Angelo whispered, his voice dangerously low, thick with a mixture of heartbreak and fury.
"She said if he needs her to survive the darkness, she will stand by him a hundred times, a thousand times," I sobbed, twisting the truth just enough to protect Jay's secret while letting Angelo feel the weight of her dangerous devotion. "She's so blinded by her love for him. She keeps saying the real Keifer is trapped behind the fog in his mind, that he lost his memory and doesn't know who he is. She thinks she can save him by destroying herself."
"Damn it, Keifer," Angelo cursed under his breath, the sound of a fist slamming against a hard surface echoing through the speaker. "He's going to kill her, Honey. If the madness doesn't take his life, it's going to take hers."
"That's what I told her!" I cried out, my voice cracking under the agonizing worry. "I begged her. I smoothed her hair while her eyes were closing and I pleaded with her."
"And what did she do?" Angelo asked quietly.
"She just fell deeper into sleep, smelling his cologne on his oversized shirt like it was her only sanctuary," I whispered, wiping the hot tears from my face, though new ones replaced them instantly. "Angelo, she's losing her mind. She's completely losing her sanity for a man who doesn't even recognize her right now. If we don't do something, there won't be anything left of our Jay jay to save."
"Listen to me, Honey," Angelo said, his voice dropping into a firm, grounding tone, though I could hear the cracks of heartbreak in his own delivery. "Stay right there. Don't leave her side. I'm coming over. We are going to protect her, whether she wants us to or not. She's always fighting for everyone else—it's time we fight for her."
I nodded out no words, leaning my head against my knees as the call ended. I stayed on the floor in the dark hallway, listening to the faint sound of Jay's shallow breathing from behind the door, praying that tomorrow would bring a piece of the girl we used to know.