Moving In With The Enemy

Chapter 18 ~ "I Feel Like It's My Fault"

I'm soaked by the time I get back to my place, all I can think the whole way there is 'please don't let Walker be there when I get home'. I look like a mess and she told us to go spend the night with someone we love. I need a lot of support right now and I need to go home to get it.

I open the door, to the apartment, stepping inside and out of the rain. I wiggle out of my raincoat and toss it and my bag on the ground. I felt empty inside.

"Annie?" I hear and Walker pauses loading the dishwasher. I look at him and my eyes lock with his, my lower lip wobbles, tears leaking down my cheeks. "What happened to your clothes?" He asks, sounding concerned. "It's only forty degrees out, did you walk home like that?"

I feel more tears coming on, I can feel the sob burning in my throat. I swallow hard trying to keep it down, but it won't stay. I let it break, kicking off my sandals, my toes are numb and I can't even think. My mind is full of terrible images and awful sounds.

He quietly walks over to me, stands in front of me and places his hands on my shoulders.

"Sweetheart, what happened?" He asks quietly and burst into tears, wrapping my arms around him. He surprises me by letting me do it and holding onto me tightly, holding my head on his chest. 

He smelled nice, so nice and it hurt so good. It made me think of Saturday night, it made me feel safe, like I was somewhere familiar.

"My god, you're freezing." He mumbles and I wrap around him tighter, unable to calm down. "What happened?" He asks and I take a sporadic breath in.

"S-something bad happened at the pool." I whisper. "I-I think someone died." I add, letting out a sob and he does something that surprises me. He easily lifts me up off the floor, putting his hands on my waist, urging my legs to close around his waist. 

He walks to the couch and sits the two of us down, putting one hand on my back and the other at the base of my skull.

"Why do you say that?" He asks and I shake. 

"Because she wasn't breathing by herself w-when they.....took her." I whisper, feeling my body shake. "I should have done something, I should have-"

"Annie, breathe." He whispers and I feel my lower lip wobble, keeping my arms around him. "I'm not going anywhere." I nod quietly, thankful to have any sort of support at all. "You need to change out of this, you're going to freeze."

"I don't care." I mumble, closing my eyes. I didn't want to move an inch, I felt slightly better right now and I wouldn't be giving that up. He pulls a blanket off the end of the couch and pulls it around me, letting me cry.

It took me a while to calm down, longer than any other time in recent memory. But he didn't leave, he stayed the whole time like he promised.

"I should call my mom." I mumble, pulling back. "Have her come get me."

"What?" He asks and I nod.

"My supervisor told us to go be with someone close to us for the night, that we shouldn't be alone." I respond and he shakes his head.

"You won't be, I'll be here the whole time." He whispers and I shake my head.

"This isn't your problem, it's too much for me to handle on my own and I should just call her." I mumble and his hand snakes up my body and lands on the side of my face, carefully skimming my cheekbone.

"I want you to do whatever's best for you." He says quietly and I nod. "But I.....I don't mind helping."

"Really?" I ask, wiping a tear away from under my eye. "This doesn't seem like your area of expertise."