What If He Didn't Die?

Chapter 35: The Waiting

(Flashback contd...)

A murder was written in that house that night. But I wasn't willing at all to wait and watch the outcome of Jack's drastic comeback. I was not willing to stand there and watch Daniel kill him. I wasn't even ready to decide if he deserved it.

I was not ready for any of it. I only needed to leave, so I accelerated my steps.

When I crossed the threshold, I had no idea if Daniel was still following me but my gut said he wasn't. It was confirmed when I heard him answer Jack with what sounded like the cruellest and the scariest words I'd ever heard him speak.

"Speak once more of my father with that dirty tongue of yours and watch me destroy you and all your families with one click of my finger. Then we'll see, who deserves to be chained and thrown behind the bars."

His words echoed all around the house until I left the roof behind me. I didn't stop after crossing the front door, nor did I stop when I reached the road. I kept running and so did tears on my cheeks.

I wasn't even ready to judge his words and how right or wrong they were. I wasn't ready to know what I felt anymore after all I'd seen that night. I didn't want to know whose side I was.

I knew I was on one of the two sides but I didn't want to know which.

He'd threatened my family. That was all I could think, but I had to dismiss that thought too. I was angry. I was not in a state to think or judge anyone. I wasn't in a state to form an opinion.

So I kept crying. Crying continuously in the hopes that all of it would just drain out of my eyes with the tears. All the pain, all the hurt, all the judgements, all the opinions, all the memories, all the sadness, all those words. Everything about that night.

I kept crying and running.

When I came back home, everyone was gone. The lack of any extra cars in the parking lot told me so. The place that held all those angry yells and fights a few hours ago was now only holding a deep deadly silence.

I walked down the stone pavement to the front door and hit the doorbell. I obviously didn't have the keys on me. Our housekeeper opened the door. It was a relief. I didn't really have the strength to face Eric or any of my parents at the moment.

I smiled at her and she smiled back. I was glad to see that. She was not there when it all happened and I hoped it was all over before she came back.

She locked the door behind me as I walked in weakly.

She stood there watching me, raking me up and down with what looked like confusion. I gave my eyebrows a very slight raise to break her gaze. "Oh, sorry dear," she muttered under her breath. "Shall I bring your dinner to your room?" She asked sweetly but her suppressed hesitation seeped through her eyes.

"No," I replied almost too fast and the way she caught it, it only became clearer that she knew what had happened. And if she knew it wasn't far from possible that my parents knew too. I didn't know how they would take it or how I wanted them to take it. The boy I love threatened them and their best of friends. It sounded so insane.

"It's- I, I'm not hungry. Thank you." I told her and made my way to the stairs.

The lights were all dimmed for the night and the sight of shining white floor tiles made me recall the blood-stained ones in the kitchen.

I fought the urge of going straight to the kitchen to check if it was still there and walked up directly to my room slamming the door behind me.

I'd thought that hours of running alone on the streets would help me clear my mind up but I was terribly wrong. My breath was heavy and exhausted and my heart was pounding in fatigue but my mind was far from done. It was still crowded and blocked. Peace seemed like an unaffordable luxury to me.