A Small Town Lie

༎Nineteen༎

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The ride to the garden was silent and eerie, I was full of dread. I would never forgive myself if anything happened to them...

I shook my head as if the grave thoughts would stop flooding in if I did that, they defied me, barging through my mind. Elias was speeding but if felt like forever before we finally got there.

My grip tightened on the glock, the familiar feeling rushing through me. My father had started forcing me to learn how to shoot at the age of five, he would use live targets, sometimes a bird, even a cat or a dog.

"You're a Palmer. You have to be immune to the sight of blood." He would say, his face stiff and expressionless.

In the darkness, we heard someone screaming for help, it sounded like Celine's voice. My heart flew to my throat as we raced towards the sound.  Celine was kneeling on the floor, José in her arms.

I saw a figure running into the darkness, I raised the gun at the figure. Despite everything, it was still my father's voice I remembered, when he was teaching me how to shoot.

"Feet apart, relax your shoulders. You aren't supposed to hold a gun in fear or it would be a weapon against yourself."

I fired, the sound wasn't too loud due to the silencer at the mouth of the Glock. I heard the figure let out a curse, I had definitely hit him. It wasn't Shadow because Shadow wouldn't be easy to hit and José would probably be dead by now. Father was just sending a warning.

I turned to duo on the floor, José was bleeding from her nose.

"What happened?" Elias managed to ask Celine.

"We...were both taking a walk, then...then that man tried to hit me but... José took the hit for me." The rest of her words ended in sobs.

"It's okay, Celine. She's just unconscious, she'll be fine." I tried to comfort her.

Celine nodded with a sniff then frowned. "What's going on? Is that a real gun? Did you kill him? Why are you with a fucking gun?!"

I looked at her not knowing where to start from.

Elias came to me, his gaze serious. "What's going on Sylvia?"

I turned away from them. "I need to leave tonight."

Elias turned me around so I was face him again. "Leave? To where? Don't tell me you're going back to your psycho father."

I shrugged off his hands from my arm, then began walking away. "I'm leaving to go abroad, I was supposed to go tomorrow so I'm just going a little sooner anyway."

I could hear his footsteps behind me. "You're leaving? You're leaving and you didn't think to tell me?" Hurt evident in his voice, I couldn't turn around to look at his face. I was afraid I would change my mind.

"It's for the best, Elias."

I didn't hear his voice and that was when I noticed that he wasn't following me anymore. Was he letting me go? I should sigh in relief, after all, it was for the best. But my heart felt heavy, I bit my lips so I wouldn't cry, my nails digging into my palms.

"I love you."

I paused. It was a whisper but I heard it.

"I love you." His voice got louder. "I fucking love you, Sylvia."

I turned to face him. "Love? Do you know what love is? You barely even know me."

"You're right, I barely even know you. But I think of you when I wake up in the morning, you evade and occupy my thoughts throughout the rest of the day. I long for you like the air I breathe. If that's not love, then I don't know what else to call that. So please, don't run away, we can figure this out together." Elias was panting by the time he was done.

I shook my head, I couldn't be swayed but I found myself taking steps forward, towards him. We were standing so close to each other.

I lifted my hand to caress his face. "What if it's something we could never figure out?"

He held my gaze and I could see an intense weight of determination in his eyes. "Then we would run away together."

I was touched that I didn't know that tears had started to drop from my eyes until Elias began to wipe them with his thumbs.

"I can't let you do that for me." I said, it would be totally selfish of me.

Elias shook his head. "It's not just for you, but also for myself. Remember when you asked me what I was doing back in this town? I ...I ..."

"It's okay." I interrupted, not wanting him to share what he wasn't comfortable with.

"I want to tell you. It's just kind of embarrassing to say. I found out somehow that my father was coming back here so I came back just to prove to him that ...I grew up fine without him. It's stupid I know."

I smiled a little. "I can totally understand."

"But you're right. This town holds very few good memories for me and I think it will do me more good than harm to leave for good."

"What about the hotel?"

Elias gave a small shrug. "I don't mind selling."

I tipped on my toes, pressing a sweet kiss on his lips. His arms wrapped around my waist until we were practicing hugging.

"That was beautiful guys, but José's awake." Celine interrupted our moment. Elias and I had totally forgotten about them, we detangled from each other to turn to them.

I rushed over to where Celine and José was. "How are you feeling?" I asked José.

José gave me a brief glance. "Not good obviously." She was fine indeed, she and her snarky comments.

Elias called Max over the phone and the next thing I know, Max came in tow with Alex and Steve.

I looked at Elias. "What's going on?"

"I think we need as many hands as we can get." He said simply.

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