@empathreading “I’m here- I’m here, now." / for belle ! prompt | accepting
she’d decided early on that there wasn’t much of a way out of this. if she’d learned anything about rae in the last few weeks it was that she knew nothing about the woman, this only proving it. she’d never seen rae as much more than just another teacher, but now that she’s been locked in her basement for a week, belle’s starting to think less positively of her. tied in a corner, nowhere to go and nothing to do. bruises from rae have mixed with bruises from cheerleading, belle no longer able to distinguish what injuries she had before all of this.
belle never intended for there to be so much bad blood, had never realized brooks was married. but of course she should’ve realized something was up, should’ve noticed the obvious signs, but she was a seventeen year old girl who just wanted to believe that the adult man showing interest in her was actually a good guy, actually cared about her. recent events had proven just how wrong she’d been.
she can hear him before she can see him, his mind running a million miles an hour. but even if she hadn’t been listening for his thoughts she would’ve known he was there, the boy not exactly subtle in the way he seemed to frantically move around the house, clearly having no idea where to go and seemingly running on borrowed time.
when he finally gets to the basement belle’s relieved, of course she is. the sight of eldon always made her feel safe, always made her think things would be okay. but it wasn’t that simple this time. he looks just as scared as she does, his eyes drift to the bruises littering her body and the ropes tying her down before they drift to her face. he’s terrified, and somehow that makes her scared too.
it takes a moment before he’s rushing in to untie her, the sight of her like this clearly leaving him a little shaken. she can’t blame him for that much, she’s sure he can feel the fear radiating off of her just like she can hear the mess of thoughts going on in his head. the moment her hands are untied she’s practically leaping forward into his arms, pulling him in and holding him as close as possible. their grips on each other tight, eldon coming in to be her hero as he so often did.
“i’m okay.” words are quiet, no need to speak loud when they were this close. “it’s okay.”