Chasing the Night || a moey au

Chapter Twenty

-Chapter Twenty-

"Meghan?" His voice wasn't sweet and kind anymore. It didn't have that soft, empathetic ring to it, it didn't bring a smile to my face and a redness to my cheeks, it didn't make everything around me feel like a cloud, it didn't lift me up. Instead, it made a pit in the bottom of my stomach. It made my breath catch in the back of my throat and my eyes move from side to side, thinking of anything to lighten the situation.

I brought one finger up to touch the picture, as if to determine whether or not I was in a dream, whether or not this was really happening. I wished that my finger could somehow sink right through the paper and fall into a void of nothingness, and then I would follow. I wish that my eyes would shoot open as I lay on my bed, in Los Angeles, with sweat still stuck to my forehead. I wish that everything could reverse in time and I'd wake up with everything just like it was before. Before I met Joey in the city, before he kissed Tiffany, before I ended up here. I looked up at Joey, trying to read if there was anyway he would listen to what I had to say in his eyes. "Joey, I-"

"What did you do?" His hand fell from peeling back the flyer that was covering the wanted sign- my wanted sign. I flinched from the sudden movement of his hand, thinking for just a second that he would hit me. It was simply habit from all the times Riley had hit me unexpectedly. His voice was stern, and he didn't look like he had enough patience to hear the whole story, and frankly, I didn't have enough strength to tell him.

"I didn't know it could kill him" I looked away from his stare, seeping into my skin as if he shot flaming arrows out of his pupils. I felt tears trickle my bottom waterline, but most of all, I felt my face beat red with anger.

"What could kill him? Who!?" His voice started getting sterner and louder with every word, his breaths touching my heated skin with every exhale.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," a small voice came from behind us. I turned my head to see the same girl who helped us at the front counter. "I have your keys here if you'd like me to lead you up to your room," Joey shot me one last glance of anger, before kindly accepting the offer and following after the lady.

I followed at least a a safe foot behind Joey the entire way to our room. We rode 3 floors up an elevator in complete, awkward silence. The only noise that accompanied us on our way up was the soft tapping of the girl from the front desk's foot hitting the floor repetitively and the quiet dings of the elevator. I kept my eyes glued to the cieling, but even then they darted around the wooden elevator ceiling as if they already anticipated something worse to happen. I didn't know if the sudden shake in the world was from that enclosed box or from my own nervous body but I still clutched the gold painted railing to steady myself, my heart practically beating in my throat.

The doors finally opened and I breathed in, unsuccessfully calming my nerves or getting fresh air. Everything seemed so claustrophobic, whether I was inside a tight space or not, I felt so much like screaming but knew I couldn't. This made anger boil on my lungs and rush through my blood, making my face beat with the red blood flowing through my heart. My cold, hard heart.

We walked down the hall, my hands clutched to my sides, my palms clammy. As we entered our room, I hesitated in the door frame, my legs shaking as I fell out of rhythm behind Joey's steps. I reached behind me for the cold doorknob, cooling the middle of my shaking hands. The soft click behind me indicated that the door was closed, making me feel, in a way, trapped.

Joey was sitting at the very edge of the bed, his head in his hands, fingers running through his hair which was currently flat against his forehead. I took a step towards him uncertainly. I watched carefully as his arms slightly flinched when I moved, uncertainty shivering through my body, leaving me paralyzed. They say when one of your senses becomes limited, another sense takes dominance over the lesser one. And as my ears rang with silence, I felt as if I could see the pain in Joey's face magnified, and in that moment, I agreed completely with that statement.