She stayed quiet for a long time before leaning back in my arms and catching my stare. Her eyes were narrowed and full of hazel fire. “We use the online world to protect us. We’ll post videos—not only about climbing and survival tips but also the truth about what happened to you. The ease at how children are abducted every day. How this isn’t something crazy that happened but something that occurs all the time under people’s noses. We are all responsible for letting this happen to you. People need to see rapists hiding in their midst. They need to know that their husbands and wives going on long ‘work trips’ might not be who they think they are.” Her cheeks pinked. “We’ll help Jareth, not by telling the police that there are others out there but by telling normal people. We’ll tell them to keep their eyes open, to suspect and not be afraid if they see something that makes their instincts prickle. We’ll teach them to help protect anyone who’s been trapped and abused...just like you protected your family.”
* * * * *
I inhaled lush, green air and lay back in the damp grass. It wasn’t exactly warm and the sun cast autumn shadows, hinting that in another hour or so, darkness would once again descend. However, I hadn’t felt peace like this in a while.
Three weeks I’d lived at Gemma’s house.
Three weeks of taking my meds, attending a therapist session, and sleeping on the couch or in the backyard, depending on my nightmares. I’d hoped the filth inside my head would’ve stopped by now. I was happy. I had Gem. The cops hadn’t returned, and I hadn’t been forced to touch other strangers.
Yet...I couldn’t shake the memories that struck the moment I fell unconscious.
Gem had been undeniably patient with me. She didn’t ask me to sleep with her, even on the nights where we ended up in her bed after enjoying rather aggressive sex. Those nights were the hardest to banish myself to the couch when all I wanted to do was stay curled up around her.
I’d changed a lot in the past few weeks.
I’d read new books, learned how to exist outside the valley, and became acquainted with pieces of myself I’d never really met.
Gradually, the sex Gemma and I shared evolved too. I would never be fully tame when it came to physical gratification, and I still couldn’t touch myself any longer than a few seconds, but we shared a range of pleasures these days.
Aggressive and explosive, along with slow and meaningful. The first time we’d had gentle sex, we’d both fought to get closer. To touch everywhere at once, to kiss and drown in each other’s taste. But I forced myself to stay gentle, to fight the anger inside me, and just be.
That night was the first night I’d had a dream instead of a nightmare.
A dream of Gem. Of us. Of our simple, stress-free life together.
As far as our lives were going, they were pretty fucking amazing.
Yes, it remained just the two of us—apart from the regular pop-ins by Joshua and her mother. And yes, I felt the beginnings of a panic attack at the thought of going somewhere crowded, but I was no longer the Fable kid or the monster from the valley.
I was...Kas.
Gem’s fiancé, recovering slave, and a guy who’d finally accepted that freedom didn’t have to mean leaping into the world straight away. I didn’t have to be comfortable with music festivals and noisy restaurants. For now, we were in our own version of normal. And that was more than okay.
Lately, even my headache didn’t seem quite so bad. Whiteness didn’t flicker as often, and I felt...stable.
Stable in my love for Gem and her love for me.
Stable in my mental and physical safety.
I still thought about my family and what sort of pain they were enduring. I worried about Jareth and his bloody mission. I felt guilty and useless, but I also felt grateful.
Grateful to be stable, sane...normal.
And the faster I was normal, the sooner I could do something meaningful and try to help—not just my family but so many other kids who’d been trafficked, abused, and stolen.
As the days passed and I improved, Gemma returned to her usual routine that’d been neglected since she’d found me. She returned to work, going to her local climbing gym and filming technical videos to post on her channel.
Those evenings were my favorite. We’d go to her gym when no one else was around, I’d sit and watch her scale walls so effortlessly, we’d go home, have sex the moment we slammed the door, and then curl up together. Me reading a book, her editing raw content, adding voice-over, music, and teaching me how to upload, surf online, and do a bunch of stuff I never imagined was possible.