Nine.

Mystery POV.

I couldn't shake the feeling that I recognised that girl from somewhere, I was racking my brain for any form of memory but nothing came up clear. It was, just a feeling I had. A familiar feeling that washed through my brain as I stared at her eyes, her beautiful eyes. She struck a chord deep within me. Like I had felt strongly for her in the past, I remembered everything. It was my best and worst skill wrapped into one.

I could remember every detail of the girl at the bottom of my stairs that morning, every single little detail. Which replayed in my head on loop constantly. She would come to me in my dreams, face battered and bruised, begging me to help her. My nights had been sleepless. As I make my way to the booth to meet Alex, I hoped that would change soon.

"Hey man" Alex grabs my hand and pulls me to his chest to bump, a casual greeting of the guys in the house. "I know you called this impromptu meet-up, but I've got to get something off my chest" His eyes were wide, panicked, filled with guilt. I felt my stomach drop to the pits of my feet.

Was he about to confess to me? Had it been him all along? Had I glared at Logan across the dinner table and made a fool out of myself for no reason?

I felt anger rise within me as I tried to calmly take a seat across from Alex, I remind myself he hadn't admitted anything yet. I couldn't pummel his face into this table until the words left those disgusting, disgraceful lips of his.

God Alex? He was the last one I would ever expect.

"I- I didn't go visit my family, I was running-" He takes a deep breath in before I see his eyes well with tears. I had never seen any other guy in that house cry and Alex was the last one I would expect to cave first. He was so strong, so emotionally unattached from everything. What the hell was going on?

"I- I think Logan did something to my friend, Ace I-" He freezes up, his eyes scanning over to the coffee shop door. He stands quickly, fleeing himself towards the entrance and grabbing a girl by her shoulders. He speaks rapidly, nodding his head and shaking her slightly as he talks.

I watch the familiar girl start to gesture wildly with her hands, she looks pissed off to say the least. I recognise her as the girl from earlier, walking with the brunette who sparked the feeling of deja vu within me.

"Ace, I think its best we speak with Amelia here too" Alex returns, taking a seat next to me with the pretty looking blonde. She looks nervous and stressed. Her lip is pulled between her teeth and she seems to be looking for a quick get away from the situation.

"Alex I- I shouldn't be here. You don't understand how deep this goes, okay?" She speaks quietly to him, her words are rushed and as she tries to stand, he grips her wrist and stares at her pleadingly. I watch on, confused.

"Amelia, please. I know-" He pauses. Seeming to fight with himself over what he is about to say. "I know what happened okay? I've seen signs, I- I saw her at the hospital I-" He keeps stuttering for words, I've never seen Alex this worked up before. "I've seen this before, Please, sit down" The pleading tone of his voice seem to convince the blonde haired girl who I've learned is Amelia, as she takes a seat and stares at me unwaveringly.

"You live in that hell hole too?" Her words at lit with anger, deep situated anger.

"I-" I go to answer her words, unknowing of the root of her anger its hard to know how to approach this question.

"He does, but, he's like me and Asher Mel, he's not in on all that stuff" Alex's words lit her anger further as she whips her head in his direction, poking his chest madly. I flinch in my seat, a tiny bit scared of this small bombshell of a woman.

"You said that about Logan, look where that got us" She grits out between her teeth. My brain starts to whir instantly, so Logan? This is what's going on here? He hurt her too?

"Did- Did he hurt you?" I ask out, both pairs of eyes turn to me, wide. I blink at them, waiting for them to reply. They turn to each other, seeming to have a silent conversation before Amelia sighs and looks over at me dejectedly.

"No he-" she pauses and breathes deeply, I see the pain in her eyes and brace myself for impact. "He raped my friend" I watch as a tear falls from her eye, then another, another and another. Until all at once here face becomes a flood of tears, a choke escapes her throat and she wipes her face quickly.

"I'm- I'm really sorry I just- I've never really said it, or thought about it. Or accepted it. I just- I wasn't there for her, we weren't there for her" Her sad eyes turn to Alex and I realise I had never seen a girl so broken before. She looks worn down, torn to the very little pieces of human she had left.

She looked, completely and utterly destroyed that she couldn't help her friend.

But I could've, and I didn't. I didn't storm the stairs, I didn't beat the crap out of Logan. I didn't help her, follow her, get her home safely. Convince her to go to the police, help put her pieces back together.

I didn't.

Instead, I sat with him, laughed with him to keep up appearances. Watched as he lived his life, moaning his girlfriend of the month hadn't phoned him after the disaster of a party. He called it the worst party yet, he was disappionted hed thrown such a lame party.

He said it had ended early, everyone had fled and he'd been in bed by 11.

I should've called him out. That he wasn't alone in bed. That maybe his girlfriend wasn't phoning him back because he was a worthless piece of shit. I should've beaten him to within an inch of his life, let him feel the pain I was sure she felt.

But I didn't. I let him live his life, with no consequences.

As I stare at the girl in-front of me I feel guilt seep into every single inch of my body. I stare at her deeply, like she was the answer to all of my inner grief. All of the feelings eating away at my soul every moment of the day. But she wasn't. Her friend was.

I needed to make this right. With her, by her. I needed to see her.

Meet her, tell her. Apologise and make it right,

I would give my soul to fix hers, I would watch myself break down piece by piece to fix her. Fix Logan's mistakes and watch her grow.

"Can I meet her?" The words slip from my mouth before I can think of what it would mean. What it would do to me, what it would make me feel.

I unknowingly signed my own death sentence with those words. God, If I had known what would happen in the next 2 weeks. I would've swallowed those words down and found a different way.

But I didn't. I met her and I watched my world burn to ashes as punishment.