Love and Lies

Chapter 15 - The Shadows.

A month passed by. I ignored Jonah’s warning, as any other sane person would. Any sane person in my situation, that is. What did he even mean? ‘I know what they are planning’. Gosh, he must be going mad, I mean it’s not like he’s planning to hurt me himself is it? I forgot that day ever happened. Forgot his immaculate hair, his striking brown-green eyes, his perfectly tanned skin…everything. And focused on William. His immaculate hair, his bright blue eyes, his strangely pale skin…everything. Our relationship blossomed. I didn’t get clingy as such... Just a mild addiction.

Everything about him was perfect; from the set of his eyelashes, to his voice, to the way he poured his heart out when he was with me, to how he blushed when I said his name. He made me feel protected. Loved…almost. Just something wasn’t quite right. His eyes were everywhere when we went out. He felt paranoid. I understood… if people followed me, I would be scared too. But, that month, nothing happened to him. No beatings, not even a scratch. By the end of it, he was getting pretty confident they had gone. Now that I was there. ‘My good luck charm’ he called me. His angel.  According to him, I protected him from any harm. I looked after him. And he even fooled me into thinking it too.

Everything was fine. Running smoothly…until that day.

We had been to the cinema. To watch some boring action movie that William had been dying to see. We’d come out and gone to the bus stop. That’s when I felt it first. A presence, stood around us. William felt it too; he stiffened, but we carried on regardless, playing with each other’s fingers. The bus came and we jumped on then continued to two seats and sat down. I looked at him and smiled. He smiled back. But still, I couldn’t get that weird feeling to disappear. It was like someone was observing us, watching us even. I quickly turned around to examine the rest of the people on the bus, but they all looked engrossed in their own worlds. Ugh… no one was looking, I was just feeling paranoid. Calm down.

I linked my fingers through William’s, and rested my head on his shoulder and immediately calmed down. He was so warm and smelt so nice and his hand was ….shaking?! I recoiled to see his whole body trembling

‘What’s wrong?!’ I whispered.

‘N..n..nnnnothingg’ he stammered  back, staring around the bus, his eyes frantically searching every person, terrified.

‘shh…’ I cooed and put my arms around him. Even in my arms he was still shivering violently.

‘The shadows.’ He said quietly to me. ‘They are here.’

I let go…. What?

‘Who?’

‘Them. Them. You know the ones who follow me…’ he said, petrified.

‘OK, OK calm down, we’ll get off at this stop. I’m feeling a bit weird too actually..’ so I pressed the stop button and stood up, taking his hand in mine, and lead him down to the door as the bus stopped. But about half the bus stood up too, all ready to get off.

‘Thanks’ I quickly muttered, hoping the driver would hear as I rushed out.

Unfortunately, the stop was quite far away from our houses. But I didn’t mind, as long as it meant we were off that bus. Some of the people behind had gone away, but the others, the ones in black, followed us. A shiver ran up my spine. But they were just normal people, trying to get home. I dragged him through the green, down the main road and started down the alley way. William had stopped shaking luckily. The alley way was long and thin, but this was the fastest way home.

‘Are you sure this is the right way to go?’ William asked, to which I did not reply. I just started jogging, pulling him faster. Something about this part of the town made me feel uneasy. Very uneasy.

A man in black walked towards us, I ignored him. But as he approached us, he slowed down, trying to block our path. Suddenly, another one appeared from somewhere. And another and another. All in black with balaclava’s covering their faces.  I turned around and started running the other way, dragging William, but more men walked towards us. Suddenly, William’s hand went limp. I span round. He had let go and was falling to the floor. I caught him, just in time, my arms under his arms, and lifted him off the ground. One of the men had hit him. They surrounded us, and William let out a small whimper.

‘Excuse me’ I said, hurrying and pushing to get out of the alley, out of their circle, but they stood steady, and pushed back. They all formed a line in front of us. They looked strangely like an army, all in this weird black uniform, with their eyes and hands their only visible body parts.  A man squared up to William, then slapped him right across the face.

‘Hello Sam.’ the man said, spitting the words out. William cupped his right cheek and rubbed it.

‘Get off him.’ I said, feeling incredibly protective. The man glanced at me then back to William.

‘Oh, you’ve brought a pretty girl this time, eh?’ He looked down expectantly at William before laughing and walking over to me.

‘Hello darlin’. What a pleasure to meet you. I’m Jack. The leader of the Shadows.’ He said, in his thick cockney accent, as he picked up my hand and kissed the back of it.

‘How very nice to meet you, Jack. Now, William and I were just on our way home, so if you could please move out of the way..’ I said, taking my hand from his grasp.

‘Ohh, are they all this posh 'round here? She’s a keeper, Sammy’ he looked at William and winked.

‘Oh lovely.’ I muttered sarcastically under my breath then went to walk past Jack.

‘Not so fast, honey. We’ve only just got started.’ He replied as he pushed me back to stand next to William.

‘Let us go.’ I replied, my voice rising to a shout.

 His grey eyes bore into mine. I held his gaze, challenging him. His mouth twisted up into a snarl and the rest of the 20 men behind him just stood there, staring at me. Apart from one. He was twitching, jittering, in his black leather jacket. I swear I’d seen that somewhere before… He stood forward to whisper something into Jack’s ear. Jack muttered something back then nodded.

‘Sweetie’ he took my hand. I pulled way. ‘You see this boy here?’ He pointed at William. ‘He’s bad. Very bad. Get away from him. It’s not right for a attractive young lady like you to have to see her boyfriend being beaten up, is it? So go with my good friend’ He pointed to the boy in the jacket, ‘and get away from here.’  I just stared back, for what felt like eternity then answered, 'No.’

‘Fine, take her away.’ He told the boy in the jacket. And he did what he was told. He wrapped his arms around my waist and started walking backwards, pulling me with him. I looked down at his hands. Tanned. Everything felt so familiar, his hands curled around me like he’d done it before. He started walking, but my eyes were glued to William.

‘NO NO WILLIAM! WILLIAM! RUN!’ I screamed as I was being dragged away, but his body had given up. He looked back at me with pure defeat shining through those gorgeous blue eyes. I struggled and kicked and screamed out but I got dragged further and further away, until He was just a dot in the distance. My phone. I could call the police. I reached for it, but the boy had taken it away. He let go of me.

‘I told you.’ He said, slightly annoyed. I knew that voice from somewhere…

‘GET OFF ME!’ I screamed hoarsely, and pulled myself away from him. I reached to grab my phone from his back pocket when he threw it as far as he could. He ripped off the balaclava, revealing his face. The leather jacket. The tanned skin. That voice. No…

‘I’m sorry’ he said, pulling me into him and his lips crashed down on mine. He kissed me with such passion, like he’d been meaning to do it for months, yet it wasn’t forceful. I retaliated and shoved him off.  I looked up at his face, into those stunning brown-green eyes. It all fell into place.

Jonah.

___________________________________________________________________________________

 :) comment fan and vote! Thanks to all the new readers and to those who have been with me since chapter 1! <3