Beautiful Disaster

Chapter 22: Stairway To Hell

Stairway to Hell

As I stepped back I could feel gravity kicking in as I tumbled down.

"Chloe!" I could hear Cap yell in the distant background. But even as I was tumbling to my doom I could only think one thought. I was dating a vampire.

Adrenaline surged through me as I realized I was falling. And if I reached the ground I was going to be dead. It was simple as that.

"Cap!" I screamed and seconds later I felt arms rapping around me. My heart beat rapidly as I encased myself around my saviour. I knew it was Cap that saved me. I didn't even doubt it. I'd know that Tom Ford cologne anywhere.

I closed my eyes tightly and seconds later I could feel his feet connecting with the ground.

My feet touched the ground reluctantly and I stared into his eyes, encased with worry.

"Don't you ever do that to me again, Chloe!" He said, his hands tightly gripping my wrist.

My eyes blinked tears always from them and I gulped. I tried telling him that that wasn't intentional, but I couldn't find the strength. I was too much in shock. No human could've saved me from a fall like that.

An hour later I got out of his Jeep. He had driven me to his regal home after what had happened. The saying 'the silence was deafening' couldn't have described the moment any better. Cap hadn't said a word to me the drive home and I couldn't manage the strength to saying anything to him.

"You know, I could've lost you. You could've been dead by now, Chloe. I can't go through that again. Do you know how painful it is to lose the most important thing in the world to you? Do You?!" He hissed in distress as we stood in the entrance hall.

"I'm the most important thing to you?" I said in a breathless whisper.

He stopped and turned around.

"Of course you're the most important thing to me, Chloe! I don't think you can even begin to imagine how much you mean to me, how much I need you!"

I gulped, trembling as he touched the bare skin of my arms. "Cap I wasn't trying to kill myself, if that's what you're thinking!"

"I know that, Chloe. But you could've been more careful when stepping away from me in repulsion," he said. He began stern and stable but his last few word were nothing but a shaky whisper.

"I'm not repelled by you!"

"Really? Because you looked pretty repelled. You should’ve seen the fear, the uncertainty, the repulsion in your eyes. And it's understandable. I'm a monster. A freak of nature. I should have died decades ago."

"Don't you ever say that!" I said, stepping closer to him. "If you died decades ago I was never going to meet you, Cap! I personally don't know how I survived before I met you. I love you, Cap, and do you know what that means?" His eyes shifted to the floor in shame. I took that as a no. "It means that don't care what you are! It means that I'd love you even if you were a fricking werewolf, Cap!"

"You don't mean that. Even as you stand here I can feel you uncertainty. I can feel your fear. I can practically see how your mind's thinking of ways to exit if I went... savage. You're more confused as ever," he said and I couldn't deny it.

Below my certainty was uncertainty. I was terrified of what he was. He was more unpredictable than ever. And that unpredictability had brought on fear and weariness.

What if this feeling lasted forever? What I could never accept what Cap was? What if I never looked at him the same? Were thoughts I was sure was swirling around in his mind as he stood there analysing my every move.

"Okay, I'll admit it. I'm terrified of you. I don't know if I'd ever think of you as the mysterious boy with the deadly secret again. I don't know if I'll feel this way tomorrow or the day after that. I don't know about our future anymore. I don't know if I'll ever grow old with you. I don't know if I'll ever embrace your vampirism. But what I know is that I love you and that will never change. Cap, you saved me countless times. I mean, you could’ve let me fall but you didn't. You could've let the rail fall open and get rid of me right there and then, but you didn't."

"I would never watch you die if I could stop it!"

"Exactly my point, Cap. You may be a textbook monster but I don't see you as one."

"But I am."

"I don't care. I love you, Cap. And all I ask is that you tell me the whole truth. Open up to me, Cap."

"Are you sure, Chloe? Because if you're going to be with me then you're on a definite stairway to hell."

"As long as I'm with you."

"But you already know too much."

"I don't care."

He sighed in defeat and asked, "What do want to know first?"

"How did you become a vampire?"