Deadly Night Shade

Chapter 26

I heard the name escape my lips and opened my eyes. “Jason,” I said again, my voice more urgent. I leapt out of my bed and ran out the door, my hair flying out behind me. I ran through twisting and turning streets bordered by high-rise buildings and didn’t stop until I reached the largest intersection in the city.

My bottled up fear, sadness and anger about the past few days was starting to seep through the cracks in my sanity. The only form of instant relief I could think of was fighting, giving in to the undeniable urge to destroy anything and everything that was still happy in its life because I was an emotional train wreck.  

Suddenly I realised that my emotional state was far worse than I thought. I was about to collapse when a strong hand held onto my arm and helped me back up. I turned to thank whoever it was before I saw the infuriated emerald eyes that belonged to Jason. “Oh no…” I mumbled as he pulled me off with him.

I was dragged through the crowded streets and pulled into an empty alleyway. His hands held my wrists against the rough brick wall and he loomed powerfully over my, his rage seeping out of his pores. “How. Dare. You.” He snarled, pinning me harder against the wall, making my wrists scrape against the rough bricks causing a trickle of blood to slide down my arm.

An image of Matthew flashed in front of my eyes and he was standing over me in a similar way. “Jason can’t protect you now,” I heard the sickening voice echoing through my mind. I started to shake and was brought back into reality with Jason.

He was looking at me but his eyes were now a strange mix of worry and anger. His grip loosened from my wrists and the blood from my scraped arms mixed through his fingers. “I’ve beaten you up much more than this, so why are you so afraid?” he asked, his voice surprisingly laced with worry.

I shook my head and tried to push the horrid memory of Jason's father as far away from my mind as possible. “Don’t touch me,” I growled, protecting my confusion with anger. I threw his hands from my wrists and glared daggers at him.

He grabbed my wrists again, his fingers over the gazed skin and slamming them back against the wall, this time injuring his fingers instead of my wrists. He moved his body against mine in such a way that made it almost impossible to move. “I’ll get off you once you tell me what’s wrong,” he growled.

Another memory engulfed me and instead of Jason's hands holding me still, there were ropes, tying me down on a king sized bed. Unwanted hands roamed my body before the dark figure looming over me trapped me under him, bringing his lips to my ear, “I’ve wanted to do this for a very long while,” Matthew’s sick voice murmured against the soft skin on my neck.

“No,” I whispered. I was shaking again and looked up to see Jason with the same mix of confusion, anger and worry clouding his eyes. “Please” I begged, “let me go.” Maybe if Jason was gone, these images, memories would stop coming back from the recesses of my mind where I had locked them away.

He let go of my wrists and I was about to make a run for it before I felt Jason's arms wrap around me. I automatically relaxed into his arms, not really understanding, or even trying to understand why he was doing this. I wrapped my arms around his waist and burying my face in his chest.

We stood in silent peace for about a minute with Jason’s thumb tracing soft circles in my back before he suddenly went tense. The sudden realisation hit me and I as well went completely still. We broke away from each other and glared at one another in anger and confusion.

“Why does this feel so right?” Jason yelled at the sky. “I don’t know,” I growled angrily, “but we need to sort out this stupid thing between us so that we can go back to hating one another.” His eyes narrowed but he nodded in agreement, “Fine,” he said with force, “How?”