Circles | Jody & Tyler | The Dumping Ground

Grave

Jody POV

He was a ghost of a man, his pale complexion almost continuous with the clouded sky and even his rugged beard couldn't hide the hollowing of his cheeks. I studied him carefully noting the bruises on his hands, his nails bitten down and bleeding.

Finally, I let myself meet his eyes and was taken aback by what I saw. Regret.

Luke was doing all the talking in the background, trying to justify himself to me but I couldn't hear him. Not a single word. Instead, I kept my eyes trained on the hunch of a man besides him, seeing how he shivered in the breeze and how he was so keen to avoid my gaze. Not shifty.

Just guilt.

I wondered to myself exactly what had changed. The man I knew was no longer a man than an outcast. And despite his horrid appearance, he seemed more scared of me than I was of him. In fact, he seemed genuinely frightened.

"Jody, let's go."

My insides turned to jelly as Tyler locked his fingers into mine, and turned to leave. I turned my head towards him, but my eyes didn't reach his as my legs turned to stone. I couldn't move.

It was as if the only way I could go was forward. Towards him.

"Jody?"

The numbness spread to my arms as my fingers dropped from his. It struck me at last, the gravity of the situation... the chance that I now had. We were stood in a graveyard, in a place that we could conclude.

An ending.

My whole life, all the fighting and all the hurt... I wanted to change. I wanted more than this, more than the same old mistakes and the constant turmoil in my head. Why I was the way I was.

Arthur Gray.

I hadn't wanted to believe he existed. The knowledge that I came from someone so beloved and treasured. Someone who'd lost all hope in ever seeing us again, his children. Children who he would've loved regardless.

We had one last chance.

The sad truth was, you only had one life. One life to live to the fullest, to amend wrongs and put the past behind. I watched the two men stood before me, torn apart and broken.

They were me.

And I was them. We'd all suffered. I didn't ever forget the hurt they'd caused me, the pain I'd lived through but perhaps I just wanted an ending. To know where I stood and to put the bad to rest.

It's what Dad would've wanted.

My head swirled as I realised that perhaps I was Amelia. To him, at least. I was someone with potential to do amazing things. Someone who would love and be loved in return.

Someone who was willing to stop the fighting. To find peace.

Tyler POV

Her fingers were twitching as though she still had something left to do. Something to finish. I watched her eyes drift over Kingsley and Luke one last time, she was reconsidering.

Hesitating.

I stepped in front of her hoping that I'd be of some reassurance as she finally let out a shaky breath. She was more afraid than I'd ever seen her, and so was I.

Not caring who saw, I tilted her face towards mine. "Hey..."

She smiled as her hand inadvertently came up to hold mine. The wind seemed to howl around us but I stayed firm, she needed me. Jody's eyes met mine, all shiny and glazed with unshed tears.