The Mystery Of Eastbrooks High

Chapter Thirty: It's Okay

NORAH COULD CRY WITH RELIEF. Her hands gripped the doorframe as she bent to catch her breath, her eyes on Austin throughout the entire time, scanning him for any signs of bruises. His green eyes were dilated, almost swallowed up by the pupil. She could see the stark emotions flitting through his face, making her think of the hell they'd been through in the previous days.

The past days reminded her of the feelings one would experience after seeing a horror or a scary thriller killer movie. After seeing a particularly scary movie, there is a terrible feeling that follows before you go to sleep, morbid thoughts keeping you awake for hours. Thoughts that make you wonder if there really are horrible people or bad entities out there, if they'd ever catch ahold of you, making you wonder about their victims. Everytime you glanced at the dark, fear would start to bloom in your chest as you start remembering the scenes in the gory movie. Nighttime was worse, it was the time when fear preyed upon one's silly thoughts.

But during the past few days, those haunting thoughts were her constant companion. The most frightening part was that all of it was real. Everytime she saw or read a novel about serial killers or psychos who killed people in the most brutal, cruel manners, she had believed it was fiction. Even after seeing scary movies, though the fear shadowed her slightly the night after she saw the film, she always had the comfort that it was fiction. But now, that safe space had been broken for her. The division between fiction and reality had melted, leaving her experiencing the things those horrifying things she saw in movies. Her safe bubble had shattered– nowhere was safe anymore, not even her own mind.

Austin fell to his knees, his eyes locked on hers as relief enveloped his features. Norah rushed forward and threw herself onto him, her arms twining around his neck in a bruising hug. The sound of their heavy breaths filled the room as Norah tightened her hold on him, sliding her fingers into Austin's hair as she closed her eyes tightly: he's alive, he's alive, he's alive, her heart chanted happily.

She bit her lip as she drew back, inspecting him more closely now that she was sure he was not in any grave, immediate danger. Serious green eyes regarded her as her eyes roamed across him: from the dirt streaked golden blond hair, to the face bearing several cuts, his bleeding cut lip, pausing at the sight of blood welling up from a thin, neat, careful cut across his neck. Beads of blood slid down his neck and disappeared down his chest, staining the fabric of his shirt a grave red.

Her jaw tightened, her eyes springing up his face to meet his. Norah hesitantly put a light finger on the cut, dark rage enveloping her when she thought of Shane and Tamaya hurting Austin. "It's okay," he murmured, wrapping his hand around hers that was skimming his neck. "It's okay. Everything's gonna be okay," he said again as Norah started to anxiously scan the rest of his body for any other signs of physical bruises. His clothes were mud-streaked, torn at some parts, shallow cuts marring his skin everywhere. And the blood droplets from the cut on his neck seemed to reduce slowly.

She met his eyes, and everything inside her stilled when she saw a drop of tear leak out of his green eye. "I'm fine," Austin hurried to say just as another tear followed. "It's just– I'm alive, and it's finally over. I never thought I'd–" Norah cut him off by tightly hugging him, careful not to hurt him.

The careful lid she'd put over the barrage of emotions she'd felt before burst, triggering her to start crying. While Austin was a silent crier with a few tears dripping down his cheek as the wave of emotions hit him, Norah was a noisy crier– sobs wracking out of her body as tears streamed down her face, her body trembling all over.

Both of them held on tightly to each other, grounding each other to this world and their reality. She wasn't sure who was comforting who right now. All that mattered was the comfort she received in the arms of this guy who was completely alright. Austin's tears stained Norah's T-Shirt while Norah sobbed into his chest, with Austin rubbing Norah's back comfortingly while Norah ran her fingers through his hair soothingly.