Vulnerable by Elise Pehrson Read Free Book Online

and looked like it had been crusted around her eyes for more than a few days.
    “You just don’t understand,” Millie said through bitter huffs and gritted teeth, “ You always showed your emotions to… Father…” She looked up hesitantly, “and you weren’t punished like I was.”
    “Well, maybe you shouldn’t have let yourself get so…”
    “So what ?”
    “Vulnerable…” Haley’s dark brown eyes grew black; her lips curled in a sinister grimace. Millie’s eyes felt sunken in, hollowed, like her heart, her childhood, and her life. At least, until she met Michael; she felt something in him—something she couldn’t understand; something she’d only felt once before: when she was in the orphanage in Russia.
    “What?” Haley asked, clearly annoyed. Millie snapped back into the present.
                “Are you really blaming me?” Millie asked, “We always helped each other; we were each other’s refuge.” Haley’s eyes softened and guilt swarmed her expression.
                “No,” she said, “I just…don’t know…”
                “Well, when’s he coming back?” Millie repeated. Haley looked up and almost trembled as much as Millie’s legs were under the table. Tears dotted her eyes and she turned away to blink them away.  “Tell me,” Millie pleaded, but Haley remembered and she didn’t want to tell. If she told, he’d hurt her… maybe worse… he’d really gotten to her lately. She stared out into the night.
                But she could never betray her older sister.

                “Soon,” she replied, “Too soon.”

Chapter Seven
     
     
                The morning of the retreat, Michael woke up early, being unable to sleep the night before due to anticipation, like a child on Christmas Eve. He looked in the mirror and finally did something with his mangled mess of dark hair. He liked the stubble, so he didn’t shave, and he applied a good amount of cologne—not too much, not too little.
                He scanned the pantry after getting ready and throwing together a few things in a duffel bag he found in one of the closets that decorated the house. He grabbed a couple granola bars and headed out the door. He shoved them in his mouth on the way over to the apartment complex he’d visited a few nights before.  
                He walked towards a rather large plaque that read “Wilting Leaf Apartment Complex” and headed up the steps to the second floor. After reaching the correct room number, he knocked eagerly and waited.
                And knocked again.
                And waited again.
                And it wasn’t until the next-door neighbor came out that he didn’t stop knocking and waiting.
                The man looked at Michael with a face that looked like he had just seen something amazing take place. “Why… are you here?” he asked Michael, who just furrowed his eyebrows in clear confusion.
                “Um,” he tried to figure out how to answer such a question, “For… Millie?” He cocked his head like some sort of nervous twitch. The man now looked both amazed and confused, with a hint of raving shock.
                “Haley’s blonde friend? Real blonde friend? Are you serious?” He piped in an uncomfortably high pitch. “But,” he cleared his voice, returning it to its natural timbre, “You’re… never mind.” He turned the key in his doorknob and jerked the door open. “Well,” he nodded, “See you around.” With that, he whizzed into his apartment before Michael could even open his mouth to respond.
                That was strange, he thought to himself. He turned around timidly, staring at the door. Apartment 258 written in gold glared blazingly into his eyes. He lifted his wrist and rapped at the door. There was a moment of unsettling quiet before Michael heard something—or