Nine Lives

Chapter Six

I felt faint all of a sudden, my legs turned to jelly on the spot “w-wife Hayden?”

“Yes, my wife. I love you Lexa and I promise I always will, please say yes?” I looked down in his pleading eyes, I knew the answer he wanted me to give him and the answer I knew in my heart of hearts was different.

Yes I loved him but that wasn’t the point he was making. He was asking for my hand in marriage because of one little line in the whole holy matrimonial ceremony;

Til death do we part.

It was pretty obvious but you had to know Hayden like I did to see past his evil schemes

“I- I can’t marry you, I’m sorry Hayden… I don’t think you’re proposing for the right reasons”

“What do you mean I’m not asking you for the right reasons? I love you, surely that’s the right reason for wanting to marry someone?” I could hear the hurt in his voice, and I couldn’t blame him for being a little upset. I had just rejected his marriage proposal.

“I’m sure you do love me, I just think that maybe you love me a little too much…” I said, trying my best to choose my words carefully to avoid angering him more than he probably was.

My eyes watched him as he begun pacing back and forth across the room with the occasional kick towards a random item of furniture. “How do you expect me to take this Lexa? After five rejections?! But yet I’ve always been stupid enough to think that maybe the next one you’ll say yes”

It was true, there have been four more proposals and each one I had replied with the same answer. Personally I don’t understand why Hayden has stayed as long as he has, it could be because there’s truth behind his statement.

“Do you even love me Lexa?”

I could feel a mixture of emotions flooding my body in a number of seconds. Hurt, anger, rage, the list goes on but those were the main three.

“Of course I do, how could you even ask that?”

He sighed, before he turned his face towards the wall “Then why are you pushing me to my limits.. I love you but you are pushing your luck, the rejections, the fights…” He paused before he continued “.. It just feels like I’m pouring my heart into this relationship and you’re lapping it all up like a dog…”

“If that is how you truly feel then why have you stayed with me!” Rage reflected in my voice while tears filled my eyes threatening to flood out, I wasn’t sure if it was because Hayden had called me a dog or because he was insinuating that I didn’t love him at all.

“Because I love you Lexa… I can’t breathe, or eat, or anything when you’re not near me…”

Normally on different circumstances I would have found this statement cute but in my current emotional state I found it clingy and annoying and this was the breaking point for me.

“Oh my god Hayden, can you hear yourself? You’re acting like an immature baby who can’t look after himself” It was harsh but I thought it was necessary, he needed to wake up and realize we’re in the real world and not in his boyish fantasies.

Hayden turned slowly to face me; his normally beautiful face was red and puffy, covered in long trails of tears.

“Can you blame me for being this way? When you were always the one who would run of to bed with whoever showered you with the most compliments? I would stay up all night waiting for you to come home from a wild night out with your girlfriends and you never came home, not once.” He used to look at me with so much love that if he showed anymore it would pour out, now his eyes were filled with something far from affection.

“Hayden-“

“I’m not finished!” He bellowed, which made me jump at the amount of hostility in his voice. “Then around three in the morning I would receive a drunken phone call from you, whilst you were in bed with another man. Do you have any idea how shattering that is? Of course you don’t, you only think of yourself Lexa. It always been about you, you never loved me at all”

I was shocked, at the accusations, but also at the hatred in my Hayden’s voice when he spoke to me.

“Nothing to say, what? Has the cat got your tongue, Lexa?”

I sighed; this was by far the worst argument we have had.

“That was two years ago Hayden, I don’t do it anymore because you are so insecure you force me to stay in every night with you” I was determined not to let him shake me, he would calm down soon anyway and everything would be fine again.

“If it was two years ago then why did I receive another phone call last week of the same sort? Coincidence? Nah, there is no coincidences around you”           

“That wasn’t me”

“Wasn’t you? I’m not stupid Lexa.. I know that was you and for once I’m going to stand up for myself and walk out that door and never come back because you don’t deserve a guy like me, you never did” his tone had a threatening note to it, almost daring me to try him.

“Well, if you want to do it then go ahead and do it already instead of bitching about it” as the words trembled through my lips I feared the worst. I did love Hayden, but like they say: if you love something then let it go

He said nothing to me after that before he walked over to the door and slammed it behind him.

My body became heavy as soon as the door ‘slammed’ shut and my knees no longer could support the weight of my upper body and fell to the ground as I begun to sob into my hands from the loss of my soul mate. However, it was my fault that I lost him and I admitted to it.

I shivered at a sudden temperature change and slowly lifted my head to examine my surroundings   

A large, cloaked figure stood before me and laughed manically, knocking back its long black hood to reveal a pasty white, smooth skull as it looked at me through empty eye sockets

“Who are you?” I recognized this figure from somewhere and then I realized

DON’T YOU KNOW CHILD? I AM DEATH, the figure stated, his voice loud and almost window shattering. I found it strange that although there was no way his lip could move from his skeletal features that defined his skull, the words were appearing in my head

“D-D-D…. Death?” This was the first time I had seen him in person, so I didn’t want him to see me as a threat.

YES, the skull said I’VE BEEN LOOKING FOR YOU, LEXANNE DRAYTON.

“Why me? You took my brother away from me and got his soul in exchange for mine... A soul for a soul, does it matter if you switch around?”

OF COURSE IT DOES, he replied, FOR THE UNIVERSE TO REMAIN IN PERFECT BALANCE I HAVE TO TAKE THE SOULS OF THE PEOPLE WHO’S TIME IS UP

“Why me though? Why does it seem that you stalking me?”

YOU ASK WHY I’VE TAKEN AN INTEREST IN YOU, LEXA? AND WHY I TAKE THE THINGS YOU LOVE AND CARE ABOUT. I’LL TELL YOU, I DO IT BECAUSE I’M BORED, a rough chuckle escaped and danced around in my head, NO OTHER REASON