Love Save the Empty

Five

"I'm tired of being what you want me to be,

Feeling so faithless, lost under the surface.

Don't know what you're expecting of me...

Every step that I take is another mistake to you."

Numb - Lincoln Park

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Bella slowly walked to her house, taking in what has occurred in the amount of time that she has been here. So far, her life has been a living hell, and there was no doubt about that. But there was only one thing that could put a smile on her face and she didn’t even know why.

Bella has become drawn to Harry in a very short period of time. But she can’t help but think, why is everyone else so afraid of him?

Little did she know that the side Harry greeted her with was a completely different side of him, always hidden behind brick walls of hatred, anger, pain, and solitude. This dark side of Harry has become dominant, his weaknesses are barely shown to anyone. Harry is at the top of the food chain. He is envied by the lads, wanted by the gals, and feared by all.

Bella is completely ignorant to this certain side of Harry, because the side he primarily showed her came to him naturally. Never had he met someone so weak and vulnerable to everything around her. His immediate response was to protect her from any possible danger. Anything and everything.

But what Harry didn’t realize was that he was a danger to Bella.

The door creaked open as Bella walked through the door cautiously. Brent’s car was not anywhere in sight, but she still took precaution. All she found was her no-good lazy aunt sitting on the couch watching the news as waves of smoke rose from where she was sitting. The television was blasted loud enough so Bella could escape unnoticed, but as she was grabbing a drink from the fridge, something on the 3 o’clock news caught her attention.

“Earlier this afternoon, a man who was said to be involved with a drug deal was found beaten and battered in the back of an alleyway. This man was supposedly collecting the illegal drugs, and the unknown man who was soliciting the drugs had lashed out on the man and left immediately after. Here is the victim himself.”

Bella almost had to cover her eyes at the sickening sight before her. A man who looked somewhat old, about mid twenties was present on the screen. He was covered in his own blood, some scattered on his white shirt. His nose was slightly crooked and a scrape was placed across the entirety of the left side of his face. Although she didn’t know who this man was, she could tell his upper lip was swollen too.

“We were just going about regular business like we usually do. Me buyin’, him sellin’,” the man spoke sloppily, trying to use hand gestures with along with his words but restricted from the handcuffs locked on his wrists, “But today he looked pissed, ticked off at something. His breathing was a lot heavier. So I asked him, I said ‘hey what’s up your arse?’ and that’s all it took for him to slam his fist into my nose and drag my face down the brick wall. He just wouldn’t stop. I thought I was dead for sure.”

Bella’s full attention was on the TV, interested and petrified.

“But all the sudden, he just stopped. He mumbled things to himself, I think about some chick, then took the money out of my pocket and ran, just leaving me there.”

“No one knows who he is,” the man continued, “his face is always hidden in the darkness or covered up somehow. Today he was wearing a grey hoodie. His voice is deep, but young. And I coulda sworn I saw some brown hair underneath that hood.”