The Monster [H.S.]

Chapter 55

"Just come to bed." Harry moans, rolling over and burying his face in the pillows.

"I can't!" I shout, the vivid nightmare of Harry wrapping his hands around my throat and me not being able to stop it stained on my brain. "You're going to kill me Harry! Tonight, tomorrow, next week, it's inevitable!"

"I am not going to kill you!"

"You told me yesterday you 'didn't know'. So don't make false statements."

"I don't know when the voices are screaming in my head and I become something I'm not. I do know when I'm sitting here looking at you." He shouts back, sitting up and letting out a loud breath as he runs his fingers through his hair. "Will you come here? I'm crippled and can't get up."

"You can't heal yourself or something? Oh wait no. You need me- no. You need my heart to do that! I forgot." I grunt.

"Belle stop it!"

"How can I when I'm sharing a bed with the man who can't control his murderous urges!" I scream. "This is impossible Harry. It's never going I work it's-"

"I thought we were past this shit! We both knew what we were getting into when we did this. We didn't exactly come in blind did we? What's changed?"

"Everything! Everything has! I used to live in the past, hating everyone, then you taught me how to live in the present and so I taught myself how to live in the future and I don't see one! There is no point in this. We'll never get married, or have children, or a house in the city and send them to school. Never have Christmas dinners with the family or days lying in bed listening to the radio. We'll never have that. We'll either be dead or in battle." My voice is calm by the end but his face looks like I just broke his metaphorical heart.

There's a silence as he lies back down, his eyebrows furrowed and he's speechless like how he was when I first met him - always thinking, always reserved, almost ways frowning.

"But I'd give you everything." He suddenly says, his voice cracking and my heart drops to the floor. "I'd give you everything I have." He says again and I sit on the bed next to him, wrapping my arms around his body as he lies down, my head resting on his chest.

"I know you would."

"This future your seeing is a fantasy Belle. Leaving me won't change it. You'll never have that with me or without me. That's a thing of the past and this is the world now."

"It's not just that. If you don't kill me they'll find a way to make you. They'll never leave us alone!" Tears brim my eyes as I realised the grim reality of my future; it's non existent.

"I don't know what you want me to say Belle." He says and I can hear the hopelessness in his voice.

"You can't say anything. No one can." I let out a shaky breath.

There's a silence as we are both deep in thought and I realise I had been too harsh on him when he said he didn't know. It's not because he wants to, it's because there's no other way out. Until he takes my heart this will be the world forever.

"Let's talk about something else." He says eventually, sighing as he does so.

"Yes please." I roll my eyes and he sniggers.

Suddenly I feel his hand on my leg, his fingers trailing up and down sending chills down me and my heart beats faster. I look up and he looks down, our lips connecting and the kiss becoming deeper and deeper. I sit up and straddle him, running my fingers through his curls and his hands grip my backside.

This is it, I'm sure.

I pull at his top and he reaches down, pulling it off his head and I take a moment to look at him, my fingers running over his hundreds of scars and cuts and bruises, his battered body more beautiful than I'll ever see.