Dead Love

Chapter One.

The world ended one scream at a time. I remember the chaos, the news, and how they told us to evacuate immediately. To go somewhere safe, but the truth is, there was nowhere to run to. There was nowhere to go because they were everywhere. I remember how my mom packed a bag and filled it with her things, and then shouted at me to pack one too. I remember leaving behind my pet turtle, Shelly, whom I rescued from a park. I threw a huge fit about leaving her, I cried and begged my parents to let me take her, but they refused and dragged me out of the house. We drove as far away from the city as we could, and halfway there, we met with my father's best friend; Glenn. I remember him too, the backstabbing traitor who killed my parents. And his son, Atlas, who I once loved. We stayed in an old broken down warehouse, Katy, Glenn's wife told us she had found that place a while back, it was an old factory before. It was far away from everything, the rippers would come sometimes, but my dad would shoot them in the head. Atlas came up with the name "rippers", he said because they ripped you to pieces, and I would scold him for being so crude. Atlas and I hung around the warehouse, sometimes we snuck outside, into the woods to explore or make out behind a tree. But when we were inside he would sometimes read to me, I would lay my head on his lap as he read out loud. I stared up at him in awe, at how his black eyebrows furrowed when he didn't understand a word, or when he figured out who was the murderer at the end. His green eyes moved everywhere, as if he was living in the book, he expressed the emotions of all the characters. His black hair, which was fluffy and messed up would make me smile, id reach my hand to his head and feel the softness of his hair.

I remember that day, the day I died. We were in his room, he was reading me a book. There was a storm that afternoon, you could see the lightning from the dirty windows. My father was inside cutting wood to make a fire. Thunder clashed, and lightning struck, making me jump. Atlas chuckled softly and shut the book, he wrapped his arms around me.

"Scared of thunder now?" he asked, nudging me a bit. I smiled a bit and looked down.

"I hate it when it thunders this loud" I responded.

"Well" he sighed and placed a soft kiss on my bare shoulder "you have nothing to worry about" he trailed kisses to my neck "I'm here and I won't let anything happen to you"

I felt my cheeks turn red, I tucked a piece of brown hair behind my ear. We sat there in silence before I broke it "Is your dad alright?" I asked curiously "he's been acting a bit off".

He sighed as I turned my head to face him, his head resting on my shoulder as he sat next to me. "I'm sure he's fine" he cleared his throat and moved away from me "Probably stressed"

I frowned "Stressed?" I asked "With what? It's not like he has work or something"

AT my response Atlas sighed and leaned his head back on the pillow, "I don't know Layla" he said "You know it can be hard living here sometimes, we're running out of food"

"well that's why we hunt," I said leaning my head on his shoulder to rest.

I felt him chuckle a bit "You're not the one hunting though, are you?"

I rolled my eyes at his response "Fine" I sighed, I sat up, listening to the loud thunder crash, and from the window, I could see how the sky lit up. But I wasn't scared anymore, he was with me.

"I'm bored," I said as I faced him, he shrugged "You're always bored, what do you want to do now?" he lifted up an eyebrow

I smiled "I want to go outside, I want to feel the rain"

he sighed a bit and chuckled "Rain is water Layla, you've felt water before" he ran his hands down my short hair.

"Yeah" I shrugged and looked down "but it's different"