Save Her by Abigail Osborne (novel books to read .txt) 📗

It was just before Christmas and Wenceslas Square was alive with festive spirit so an explosion of colour assaulted their eyes. Every building was adorned with fairy lights. Golden lights twinkled in the night sky. The artificial lights bathed the tall buildings and enhanced their majesty. The smell of charcoal and chocolate was thick in the air. There were people everywhere bustling between the different stalls, but there was not a miserable face in sight. Sophie had to drag Flora away from a collection of hand-painted Christmas baubles after fifteen minutes of her standing there awe-struck.

They repelled the cold with a cup of velvety smooth hot chocolate and soaked up the gorgeous scenery around them. When they reached the Christmas tree near the famous clock, they both stopped and stared. There were no words, only pure joy as they watched the tree’s light display matched to the Christmas song from Home Alone. It was magical.

That first night was perfect. The next day even better. They walked five miles to a cat café. Then they did the traditional tourist stuff, walking over Charles Bridge. Flora had once read a book called A Year and a Day which included a legend that if you touched a specific part of the bridge and made a wish, it would come true a year and a day later. Flora had waited patiently, but Sophie refused. She already had everything she needed.

There wasn’t an inch of Prague they didn’t explore. They walked for miles, stopping to look at the John Lennon wall and all the padlocks on the bridge. They left an engraved padlock on Charles Bridge inscribed with the words Sophie and Flora 2009. Everything was perfect until they stopped at a bar to try some chocolate beer. Sophie relenting on her lifelong drinking ban to try a sip. It was disgusting and not worth the extortionate price.

No matter how many times she revisited the moment in her head, she never figured out exactly why she had needed to follow Flora to the bathroom. Sophie was supposed to be watching their drinks at their table, but she had been compelled to follow Flora.

What she had found would forever haunt her memories. At first, she could not process what she was seeing. A greasy, brown-haired man was pushing Flora up against the wall in the corridor leading to the bathrooms. One hand was restraining Flora’s neck, pinning her to the wall. The other was roaming around trying to undo her trousers. ‘Last Christmas’ was blasting out from the speakers in the pub, drowning out Flora’s pleas for help. She was scratching at the man’s hand, trying to break free. Without thinking, Sophie turned and ran back to the bar. Her heart thudding in her chest, she could barely breathe.

Spotting an empty pint glass, she grabbed it and raced back to Flora. Flora’s top was now ripped, and the man was gyrating against her. His clothes were dirty and stained, his hair dishevelled and matted. Tears streamed down Flora’s face, her eyes closed against the terror of what was happening.

Without thinking about what she was going to do, Sophie brought the glass down on the man’s head. All of her strength went into her swing and he crumpled to the floor. She looked at the glass, it was mottled with blood. In her shock, she let go and watched as it bounced onto the floor and rolled away, fleeing the scene.

Flora slid down the wall hyperventilating and rubbing her neck.

Sophie stepped over the man and pulled Flora to her. ‘It’s okay,’ she soothed, rocking Flora gently. Her fury at the man was unbridled. If she wasn’t holding Flora together, she would have turned around and kicked the man until he no longer resembled a human being. Any minute, someone would come around the bar and down the corridor. She didn’t want to have to explain what had happened. Who knows what the law was in this country? They needed to leave. Gathering Flora up, she helped her to her feet, and they walked quickly out of the pub, stopping to grab their coats on the way.

Back at their flat. Flora fell to pieces. Her neck was a violent shade of red and she kept clawing at it as if the man’s hand was still there. They didn’t leave the apartment again until their flight home the next day.

It had taken many months for Flora to ‘deal’ with what happened to her. They had never talked about it again. Just day by day, Flora returned to her normal self. Sophie wanted to talk about it. Sometimes she could still hear the sickening thud of the glass against the man’s head. But she would not cause Flora suffering by forcing her to relive one of the most traumatic moments of her life. After all, Flora was the one who had been violated in the worst possible way. Even though he had not got far, he had still made her feel powerless and terrified. Just the thought that it could have happened was as traumatic as the action itself.

Sophie had squashed her need to talk and was slowly getting better at locking away the whole thing. It went on a shelf in her mind, where the other secrets were stored, locked in boxes that would shake and jump around as the contents fought to be released from their prison.

‘I can imagine. Do you want to talk about it?’ asked Sophie, hoping that this was the moment she would finally get to expunge the ghost of the man from her mind and hear the vindication she so desperately needed.

‘No. I don’t ever want to think about that again.’ Flora shuddered and looked out of the window. ‘Shall we go, then?’

Inside, Sophie screamed with disappointment. She glanced in the rear-view mirror to ensure that her face was devoid of emotion. She boxed up her feelings and all the words she had been planning