Beyond

Hurricane

Adam stuck his hand out at the old wooden doors, but when they wouldn't open fast enough, thrust them open and slammed them behind him.

The clouds had been swallowed up by the darkness, and the rain had only come down harder since he'd last seen Seraina.

Karen had jumped a bit from her seat on the stairs, her eyes wide with confusion. Karen took one look at him and walked across the room briskly, until she was only a few inches from his face, glaring at him.

She already knew from the look on his face what had happened. Karen brought up her hands, curled into fists that doubled as hammers. They struck the wall on either side of Adam, leaving behind cracks and dents. her knuckles were scraped and bleeding, but she hadn't noticed.

Karen only took her bleeding hands and slapped him silly, bringing a bit of light gray to his pale cheeks. her palms matched her knuckles in color, and she stomped her feet around on the carpet, kicked everything in the room and could still not cope with a huge pain of the worst kind.

Adam hadn't moved, potentially hadn't even breathed since he'd come inside, and was watching Karen take everything out on the foyer.

Then, her gaze set on something else. She had suddenly remembered Adam standing in front of the wall by the doors, and came straight for him.

Adam tensed, remembering how hard she'd slapped him earlier, but he didn't move- Karen was already angry enough.

He waited for a pain that never came.

Karen had wrapped her arms around him so gently that it was as if nothing was touching him at all, which surprised him because of how she'd just been acting.

"I'm..." Karen sobbed, bringing him in closer. "I'm so sorry!" She squeezed her eyes shut tight and cried into Adam's statue until the clouds were revealed once again to be causing the rain outside.