To Love a Broken Heart

Chapter 15

It was getting dark and I had been exploring the streets which were unknown to me for a good hour. I still had no idea where Louis was. We were so far away from our homes that the option to walk back was out of the question. He could be anywhere. I know it was dangerous to roam the streets at this time of night especially with this kind of darkness – one that could easily cloak someone in it, preventing someone from seeing their features; a kind of darkness a thief would like to have when they planned to rob a bank or a shop.

I was walking down the main road, cars rocketing past me causing a cold breeze of air to dash through me. I didn’t have the right attire to protect myself from the chill of the wind and I began to shiver incessantly. The small orange glows that emanated from the street lamps which littered the road allowed my vision to survey my environment: it was completely nature. There were no buildings around me and the only thing that stood erect from the ground were the trees to my right. The orange glows from the lamp gave the leaves a murky yellow colour which made the tree itself seem dead. The smell of car fumes and smoke were profuse in the air and I found myself coughing at certain intervals of my weary walk down this interminable road.

I would have phoned my mum to come and pick me up but I knew Louis was still out here. I couldn’t leave him, no matter how cold and hungry I am. It was my fault he ran away in the first place and I feel completely bad for flirting with Jack right in front of him. He had an understandable reason to be with Eleanor and I didn’t… I was flirting with Jack out of spite.

The sky was completely covered with clouds and no light managed to break through the thick layer of the clouds. If it weren’t for these street lamps I would be enveloped in darkness. My gait became ungainly and I had tripped over my own foot a couple of times. I was pretty sure my knees were bruised and grazed but I persisted and carried on.

The fact that no cars had decided to pull over and offer me help was both reassuring and annoying: one part of me convinced myself that no one’s true desire in this world is to help, but to exploit, yet another told me that there were some whose incentive was purely to help others. Still, I wouldn’t accept any notion of help unless Louis was beside me, safe and sound.

There was a T-Junction at the end of the road and I contemplated my options. ‘Right’s always right’, right? Well, I decided to follow that saying and turned right. The number of street lamps on this road was far more limited and scattered; there were small sections of the road which was in complete darkness. The chill dug deeper into my skin and I began to shake furiously. I rubbed my hands against my arms to get some heat back but all my efforts were in vain. Each breath would past my lips in the form of mist and I desperately fought to keep my eyes open, fighting against the tired feeling that dawned upon me.

I became increasingly wary as I got further down the road, the lamps in front of me began flickering and the wind stilled. Total silence screamed down the road at every direction and I tumbled forwards, falling to my knees in the middle of the road. I felt nauseous and wanted to throw up, I endeavoured to keep it down but soon enough the contents of my stomach were onto the cold concrete floor of the road. Its colour a dark green under the ominous orange light that flickered above me, and lumps of undigested food were evident in the pool of what used to occupy my stomach.

Then everything came back like fireworks: fast and all at once. The cold wind slashed across my face, sending an intense chill down my spine causing me to enter a fit of shivers and the light above shut off. The darkness swallowed me. I began pushing myself back up and off the floor and headed towards the small ball of light in the distance. I could feel the hair on the back of my neck start to rise and fear began to pump through my icy veins. Paranoia soon took over and I’d find myself looking back every few seconds, scared of the unknown that surrounded me.