Page 5 of Butch

Butch grabbed her face, his hands covering her ears. Panic sliced through her as his mouth started to move, but she couldn’t hear a word he was saying.

Rae tried to read his lips, but with how dark it was, she couldn’t make out a single word. The past three years had been hard for Rae, but she had been able to determine a couple of words by reading people’s lips when she couldn’t rely on her left ear.

But having both ears covered, even lip-reading wouldn’t be able to help her.

Butch continued to talk, and Rae clawed at his hands, trying to get them off her. Edmund did the same thing whenever he wanted to play a sick joke on her. When he wanted to torture her and show her that she was nothing.

“Please,” she choked out. “Let my face go.”

He immediately let her go, and she took a heaving breath in, trying to calm down the anxiety inside of her. Flashbacks of Edmund putting things over her ears so she couldn’t hear anything. The things he would do to her to keep her always on guard and expecting the worst.

Butch grabbed her hand and placed it on his chest, right over his heart. She could feel every single time he took a breath, and she tried to match it.

“Good girl… Well,” he said.

Tears ran down her face as she stared at him. Would he mind that something had changed drastically with her?

“…lynn.” Her eyes moved to his mouth.

Frustration grew in her as he talked, but she couldn’t hear full sentences. This was how her life had been for the past three years. Rae was full of frustration as her life had drastically changed, and there was nothing she could do about it to make it better. Edmund wasn’t going to pay for any procedure she needed, and she didn’t have any money right now.

“How…hear… Rae?” Butch said. “…Fairy?”

She closed her eyes and hung her head in defeat. She needed to leave before he found out. Before things got worse, and bad things started to happen. But she wanted to hear his voice call her his nickname he’d come with when they first met. One she had desperately hated back then, but loved now.

It wouldn’t be fair for Butch to have to deal with her. To either never have her understand him, or him always having to write things down so she could fully understand. It was exhausting, and she didn’t want him to have to go through it.

Rae also didn’t want to find out whether his personality was going to change or not. Would he turn out to be just like Edmund and get angry when she didn’t understand? Or would he be compassionate and want to help her?

She hadn’t seen him in years… Since she was eighteen. A lot could have happened and changed since then, and she didn’t want to find out whether he was different from how she remembered him.

Blinding lights turned on, making Raelynn whimper and close her eyes. Too many things were going on, and she was getting very overwhelmed. Fingers gently touched her shoulders, and with her right hand, she held it above her eyes so she could look up at Butch.

“Everything… okay,” he said. “Doctor…”

But she didn’t catch anything else. Her eyes moved across the room to find someone standing behind her. When had he gotten there, or had he never left?

His mouth started to move, but Raelynn couldn’t pay attention or make anything out. She was never this bad, but waking up exhausted must be playing into why she was having much more difficulty than before.

Rae looked at Butch, who was already staring at her, his eyebrows drawn up as if he was waiting for her to reply. His hands started to move, and she knew what he was doing.

Sign language.

But Rae didn’t know any sign language. She had tried looking up some videos whenever Edmund wasn’t home, but he had quickly found out and changed all the passwords to every electronic device so she wouldn’t be able to do anything or learn anything. Edmund wanted her as helpless as possible, so she would always rely on him and never leave.

Raelynn stared at him with a blank face as he moved his hands. She didn’t know he had learned sign language. He definitely didn’t know it when they were in high school, so why did he know it now? It didn’t take him long to realize that she knew no sign language. Which meant he knew her secret.

“How?” he asked and pointed to his ear.

She gripped the sheets as tightly as she could and shook her head. “I need to go. I need to leave. You need to let me leave.”

Butch shook his head and pointed to his ear again. “Tell… Want… know.”

“Then can I leave?” she asked.

If she had to tell him in order to leave, that was what she was going to do. It wasn’t like he was going to keep her here after he realized that he wouldn’t be able to communicate with her easily. Edmund had reminded her that no one from her past or future life would ever want her once they found out how damaged she was. But he would always want her. Always take care of her as long as she stayed in his house and complied with his every single rule and command.

But it was no way for somebody to live because there was no way she would be able to follow all the commands and rules he had when she couldn’t hear half of them, and he wouldn’t write them anywhere. The number of times she had been beaten because she couldn’t hear him, and the sickening smile that would spread across his face.