Watercolour

Twenty Three

Jace's P.O.V

I stirred, the sound of the wardrobe shutting waking me. I opened my eyes just enough so that I could see and tilted my head slightly. Scanning the room, I tried to get my eyes to adjust to the darkness and when they had I noticed Alana was knelt by the door putting on her shoes.

"Al?" I croaked.

"Yeah?"

"It's, like, four in the morning; where are you going?"

"Home," she replied, continuing to tie her laces.

"It's four in the morning," I repeated.

"I know."

"So why are you going?"

"Home."

For a moment I thought she might have still been asleep and had gone back to her old habit of sleepwalking and talking, but I soon realised that it was highly unlikely.

"I said why; why are you going?"

"Oh, I need to get some things and I'm actually going to do some work today."

"But," I paused, sitting up. "But, Al, why now? Why can't you just go after breakfast or something?"

"I couldn't sleep... so I might as well go now."

"I'll come with you," I said, throwing off my duvet covers.

"No, it's four in the morning - go back to sleep," she replied, zipping up her hoodie. "I'll be fine."

"Fine, how long will you be gone?"

"Well, I'll probably stay at home and work so I'll come back after lunch. Maybe 2-ish?"

"Okay, I get back from training at 3 so I'll see you then."

"Yup, okay," she said before leaving the room

"Stay safe," I added, before snuggling back down and falling back to sleep.

Alana's P.O.V

The streets were quiet. No-one was around and the only noise was the occasional car passing by but there wasn't going to be any daylight for another four hours or so.

I turned onto my road and walked up to my front door; the white door that I had been going in and out of all my life. The same door that I had left two nights ago; Jace and Charley beside me. Everything had been so good - Alex and I were pretty much back to normal and he had also started to get along with Harvey again. But 3, 2, 1 and everything had changed.

And it had all happened too fast. Alex being overly drunk, vulnerable and almost baby-like. I'd tried to help but it had only seemed to make the situation worse. He had been uncontrollable and it was a night that I had been trying so hard not to relive.

I shook the memory from my mind as I turned the key in the lock and swung the door open. Barney was sat waiting on the other side of the door and I could tell he was about to start barking.

"Hey Barney," I said softly, bending down to his level to stroke him hoping that would calm his excitement - the neighbours would kill me if he started up now. "Did you miss me?"

I shut the door behind me, dropped my keys on the table and sat down to take my shoes off before heading up to my room, Barney following at my heels.

*

I could feel myself slowly becoming more and more hungry so decided to go and make myself some lunch. I opened the fridge to take out the butter, lettuce, tomatoes and cheese. I then opened the cupboard and took out two slices of brown bread. As I was spreading the butter onto one of the slices, I heard the front door swing open; leaving me confused and slightly terrified.