The Stolen and The Gone

Two

Author's note:
Hey guys! So I'm gonna apologise like this every chapter but... sorry for the long wait. I promise longer chapters and more explinations and more drawings! Please don't forget to comment and vote, tell me what you think. If there are stuff that you're fond of, or stuff that you absolutely love, tell me about it. And enjoy the chapter.

Adrenaline and fear shot through her body, causing her to sit bolt upright. Her heart was beating like a sledgehammer and her body was shaking. Sweat beaded on her face and her blankets were soaked. Her breathing sounded as if she'd just ran a five kilometer race.

She closed her eyes and tried to get some sort of grip onto her sanity. It's not real. Just a dream. Cameron consentrated on her breathing for a moment. In through the nose, out through the mouth. It was shaky at first, but when she got control of the breathes coming out and in of her lungs and the beating of her heart drummed slower in her chest, she threw herself back onto her bed.

Opening her eyes, she took in the familiarity of her room. It smelled of an elegant citrus fragrance that she'd always worn since she was little. Her eyes wondered over the beautiful brown wood drawer and hanger cupboard where she stashed her clothes and personal barings along with her hygienic possessions. There was a door next to the two cupboards that lead down the stairs and otherwise into the attic. Her bed stood next to that door. A bean bag chair and small night stand along with a television set took up the rest of the room. A single window gave the dark room some light. Another door led to a small bathroom she'd come to know as her own.

She switched in the lamp on her bedstand and checked the time on her little digital clock. It read four thirty in the morning, Friday, June.

She moaned, knowing that she was the only one who could hear. She didn't know if she could take one more hallucination, one more nightmare, and one more day without her best friend. It's been exactly a month since he'd died and of course it still pulled her heart strings.

She hadn't gotten out since then, other than the funeral, she hadn't gotten out of bed. The pain was close to feeling sick. Except the aching wasn't just physical, but emotional as well. Her body had given up on her and refused to hold down any food she tried to eat. Every time her father would arrange an appointment with a psych, shrink, or doctor she just would not co-opperate with them.

All this time there was a thought in the back of her head she could not ponder over. A memory. The last memory.

She knew she would have to face it, and that her and her father's relationship would never be the same. But she couldn't face it so soon. She had no choice but to be a coward than to see the outcome of this situation and its consequences.

She closes her eyes and began to hum a tune from the saddest song she knew. It's melody and words reflecting her predicament.

She started to sing after the second verse.

"If you promise not to cry,
Then I'd tell you just what I would say,
'If I could be with you tonight,
I would sing you to sleep,
never let them take the light behind your eyes"

So she whispered softly to herself as the tears ran down her cheeks until the last line brought her to the dreamless sleep she'd only ever dreamed of.

"The light behind your eyes."

*

"Cam?"

Her eyes fluttered open at her fathers voice. The first thing she noticed was the light coming through her window causing her to squint. Those curtains have been closed for weeks now and having them open should not have made her felt like she was forgetting.

This was her first thoughts when she woke up every morning. She thought of Piers and her aching and her needing. The therapists her father had taken her to had all said the same thing: to feel pain. Because it was normal and it was okay but also keep in mind that the pain will fade away like a wound in the healing process. First it hurts, and then there is a scab. That scab is the recovery, and after the scab comes that normal feeling of being healed like the wound had never happened.

She was scared of that. Of healing because she could forget and the last thing she wanted was to forget about her best friend. The person she'd known since her young years, the person she'd grown up with.

She could still remember how he'd looked back then. Always had a scar on his face, or if not on his face on some other area because he was so rough. His hair a greasy mess because he would never agree to take a bath or brush it out. He had that stern and stubborn expression on his face where ever he went. Those eyebrows never lifted more than two centimeters from his big, brown eyes. Growing up she was a tough tomboy herself. They'd wrestle and fight and it would be more fun than getting dolls, which she hated but kept her mouth shut because that was how she was raised.

Now thinking of those unforgettable memories made her heart hurt so much.

"Hey, mate, wake up." Her father's thick Scottish accent was clear in his voice as he shook her shoulder lightly.

"Morning," she mumbled. Her voice was croaky and harsh like sand paper in the back of her throat. But she sat up and looked at her father with a small smile on her face.

Her father was skinnier than her, which was strange because he had the appetite of a bear. His blonde hair, a shade lighter than hers, was short and pushed up at the front.

His sea green eyes smiled when she hugged him a good morning.

"Yer feelin' better, chap?"

She nodded her head. "A wee bit. I slept well the last few hours I guess."

"That's great. I hope that wee bit'll influence ye te go out and find a job?"

Cameron shook her head, her smile growing wider. "Why should I go if you don't?"

"I'm only skipping out because me baby needs a watchful eye." He raised an eyebrow. "If yer really feeling better, then I could go te work?"

"Yes, of course."

He smiled and looked down at his watch. "It's eight, maybe I can still make it." He stood, gave her a kiss on the forehead and walked out, pausing just by the doorway. He turned around and furrowed his brow "Yer gonna be alright here alone?"

She nodded. "I'll be fine."

He nodded as well and grinned, showing all his teeth. He paused again before heading out the door. "Phillip called. Said all yer friends are gonna be over today and was wonderin' if ye'd come."

"I'll call him. Now go to work, Daddy, before you change you're mind." She gave him the biggest smile she could form on her lips and that seemed to do it. He waved and went down stairs, his footsteps echoing in the wooden house.