Saving Rose

Sirens

(This chapter picks up EXACTLY where the last one takes off)

When I finally slowed my crying, I noticed that a bunch of the guys were surrounding Jaime and I. He was talking to them about Reilly. They all looked sad. Terrified of my ex.

I stood up, Jaime's arms dropping to his side, clearing my thoughts, and Jaime looked at me with wide eyes. "Hey, where are you going?" He asked, and I shook my head. I need to be alone.

"Don't follow me," I say, my voice scratchy and raw from crying. I sound pretty terrible. Jaime looks at me sadly, nodding. "Don't hurt yourself, Rosie. Please," he begs, and I nod. No promises, though.

"I just need some space. A walk. I need to calm down," I explain, and am gone before he can reply. I rush into the forest, making random turns.

I'm moving quickly deeper into the forest. It's getting worse. I'm ruining lives. This isn't just a walk.

My phone rings, and I answer without looking at the caller ID. I have a feeling I might know who's calling. I keep walking.

"How's it going, Rose?" Reilly says coldly, and I hold back some more tears. And I was just calming down.

"Why'd you kill her?" I say, cutting straight to the point. My voice sounds terrible. Reilly chuckles, an evil sound that practically hurts my ears.

"'She looked like you. I thought you wanted me to leave you alone, anyway," he says in an annoyed tone. I shiver, even though it's barely cool. So it was my fault. That girl was killed because she looked like me. I feel horrible.

"Why are you doing this to me?" I ask shakily, begging for an answer. It takes a while. He doesn't answer right away. When he does, it crushes me.

"Ha, selfish bitch. It's not always about you.

It's fun. I hate you. I'm making you suffer. How's it working?"

I wipe my eyes with the edge of my sleeve, getting deeper and deeper into the forest. I'm lost, but I keep going. I should die. Maybe then he'd stop. My death would save lives.

"Awww, did they just now tell poor little Rosie? That's so sad," Reilly sneers, and I bite my lip so hard I begin to taste blood. Not even close to the pain of the girl he killed. I bite harder. I can barely feel the pain.

"You know, her last words were... sweet. All that 'please don't kill me, I'll do anything, just please don't hurt me,' was annoying. Hopefully the next short girl with green eyes and long blond hair doesn't say all that crap," he complains, and I choke on tears and fall to the ground, curling into a ball. I crawl over to the nearest tree, dragging myself up.

"You know, I told her why I was going to kill her. She said that you should go to hell and you should kill yourself before I kill another innocent girl. I agree. You know, clock's ticking!" Reilly says, somehow sounding happy and upbeat. I can't take it anymore. As I'm about to hang up, Reilly speaks again.

"Well, I gotta go. TTYL?" He says jokingly, then hangs up. I freeze, thinking about the girl whose death was all because of me. I drop the phone and let it all out. I'm bawling now. It's the only thing I can hear in the quiet woods.

I grab the nearest stick and slide it across my wrist instinctively, painfully slow. The blood gathers in sticky beads. I do it again. It's like my own kind of therapy somehow. And again. The mental pain is starting to fade. And again. The rich red blood flows from the cuts. And again. I'm feeling dizzy. And again. Thank God I'm sitting down. Over and over. The blood's covering my entire arm. I move on to the other one. One by one. The cuts are crooked. Some are bigger than the others. The pain feels good. I can't stop. Soon, my world begins to go black. I relax and lean against the tree, closing my eyes.