After Elliot

34: Sweet Dreams

A/N: Sorry for being completely MIA. It's still not that long, but it's enough to feed your craving, I suppose.

Analise

Brian steps back and massages his forehead with his fingertips, as if I'm exasperating him.

"Are you sick of me too? Go ahead and leave me here," I demand, my voice wavering as more tears begin to fall.

"I'm not sick of you, Ana. I'm sick of the way you see yourself," He says, and then leans down to pick me up. "Touch me and I'll scream," I weakly threaten. "I want to be alone."

"I'm not leaving you out here. Especially with Kade's friends on the loose. You're coming back to the house." "No."

"Why do you have to be so stubborn? I'm calling Liam." "Don't," I plead as he whips out his phone, "I don't want to see him."

He sighs and runs a hand through his hair, "Just come to the car, alright? We can go home."

"I told you I don't want to!" I fire back, pushing myself to my feet and pressing my sweaty skin into the prickly brick behind me for stability.

"You don't have a choice!" "I'm eighteen, I'm an adult. You cannot force me to go anywhere. Just--leave-me-alone!"

With the last word, for good measure, I shove him backwards. He stumbles a couple feet away; I'd caught him off guard.

"Fine!" He raises his hands in defeat, "but if something happens to you, it's your own fault!" He shouts and storms back down the block towards his car.

A sense of warm relief floods me, but soon the cold truth slaps me back into reality-I'm not with Liam anymore. I'm-free? Yes. Free.

Free to do whatever I want, to be with whomever I want, and to act however I want.

With a breath of fresh air cycling through my lungs at that thought, I begin to walk in the direction of The Stratfords.

You could go back to Prom? Ha, not after that dramatic exit.

No, what I need is a good bath, spandex and a large t-shirt, and Netflix.

Yes, that sounds perfect. As I pass a particularly sketchy building, hands suddenly wrap around my throat and mouth before yanking me into the darkness.

My nerves tingle when I'm slammed into the side of the cement building and I press myself closer to the wall and squeeze my eyes shut.

Don't show them you're afraid. "Annie," Comes his gruff voice and my eyes fly open. "Elliot?" My voice is barely a whisper and his features begin to clear up in the dim light.

"Why are you walking alone at night?" I become so ecstatic, that I begin to answer honestly, but an overwhelming thought consumes me, He didn't want you before.

"Why do you care?" Leaves my lips instead, the harsh reality settling over me again.

"Because," He runs a finger down my cheek, "I'm sure if I rescued you that means I want you safe. This is not safe."

"Why? Kade and Wilder are in jail." "Devon too." "I've spoken to him. He isn't out to get me. He actually said-" "That he'd keep Wilder away-I know." "How do you know that?"

"I just know things, alright?" "How are you alive?" The burning question flies from my mouth and right here and now is the moment of truth.

His hands slide from the wall behind me and onto my shoulders.

"I can't tell you that," He murmurs, his eyes finding a spot in the brick.

"Hey," I firmly say and grab his face with my hands, forcing him to look me in the face. "Since when do we keep secrets?"