Make Me Stay

Chapter Nineteen

Atlantis' hands are pressed against the office chair as she spins around in circles, staring at the ceiling.
Aaron had told Atlantis the night before, not to go into his office. But she was bored and when boredom comes into play, things become unavoidable. So there she sat, spinning in his comfortable desk chair still bored. A mess of papers littered along Arron's desk and Atlantis wanted to go through them, to clean them up, but she had dismissed the returning though many times. Now, as she continues spinning, something the young girl had been doing for a long while now, she decides to take a duffle through the papers.
It's not like she could help herself, they sat, so tempting on the desk. As she stopped spinning and gathered herself, her vision and head both spinning from the pressure of stopping so suddenly, she tries to focus on a document that rests on the top of the pile. Atlantis' vision focuses and the headline makes her gasp.
Boy drowns in car wreck off a bridge while family survives.
She collapses a hand over her mouth, memories flooding back to her. It had been so many years ago when her so called parents wrecked the car off a bridge. They saved her, but didn't even go for him. It was a hard time for her as he was her only biological family. He's been gone for years and she's still not over his death, she still hasn't moved on.
Atlantis shuffles through the papers, reports and documents filling her eyes and mind.
Man arrested in Toronto for abuse of his foster daughter.
A picture of Atlantis father in a prison uniform decorated the cover of the newspaper. More papers, emails, taxes, reports. All on Atlantis, her family, her life. Tears stream from the young girls eyes as the feeling of betrayal fills her. How could Aaron do this? He got her father arrested, she trusted him with everything she ever told him, but it's like he didn't believe her. Her personal files sit on his desk, as though he was looking through her life to try and find more about her.
She now understands why he didn't want her to go in his office. Why he had been acting secretive at recent, staying out late at work since the incident. He was investigating her.
Atlantis' shaky hands press themselves against the desk as she steadily stands up. No matter how steady and calm she may seem, she is shaking, from hurt, anger, fear. She's vulnerable, that's all she had ever been. A toy, someone to examine.
All the emotions come back, drowning her as she cries out. She has never been so invaded in her life and she couldn't feel it more than she can in the moment. Personal documents, and she has no idea how Aaron could have even gotten his hands on them. But why? Why would he have to look into her in such a manner? Atlantis' mind comes to a decision and a place, a set decision that she knows she won't turn back on. Something that she had been contemplating for so long, so she sets her plan into action. The young girl shuffles through the desk of papers and finally comes upon a blank piece of power and a pen. As quickly as the words come, she writes them down, filling out the small piece of paper with a letter of explanation to Aaron. She didn't want to write it. She wanted to leave him in the dark like he had so clearly done to her. So as she places the note on the desk and walks out of the apartment, leaving everything behind, she doesn't feel sorry.
Atlantis doesn't feel upset for what she is going to do. She doesn't feel sorry for the way she is going to make Aaron feel. She doesn't feel anything. And then her phone rings.
"Hello?" Her voice is hard, concentrated.
"Atlantis? Where are you?"
"Making bad decisions, much like you had done." She hangs up the phone and continues to walk. She walks, and walks, her mind set on her destination.
Aaron, being the worried man that he always seems to be, flies out of the apartment. His papers had been shuffled, gone through, messed up. Atlantis had seen them. She would never believe that he was learning everything he could shout he history, everything he wouldn't tell her, so that he could win the court case if her freedom. No, she wouldn't believe any of the words that came from his lips for he had betrayed her
Thoughts rush through Aaron's head and all he wants to do is punch a wall, so he punches the steering wheel of his car. He knows exactly where she's going, what she's going to do. How could he have been so stupid? Letting his personal habits get ahead of what he truly cares for.
The roads are busy as the rain pours down and all he can hear are the sound of car horns. Unable to wait any longer, he pulls off the road and parks on the side, where he gets out and begins to run. The rain drenches him, his suit, his hair. At that moment, he doesn't have a care in the world besides finding Atlantis. And so he runs, like the girl he loves had done only moments before.
And then it comes into vision,. The Golden Gate bridge. It's empty, having been closed down for construction only a month prior. Aaron trips over his feet as he runs towards the centre of the bridge. Tears treating down his face as a figure comes into view. Atlantis stands on the railing, holding onto one of the large suspension cables, looking outwards at the water and city that scape below her.
"Atlantis?" Her head turns towards him and he can see the heartbreak behind her eyes. Aaron had done this, he had caused this. The situation that plays out before them, it's all his fault.
The shaking across his body is visible and the debates going on in his mind were fighting so hard. He took a step forward, towards her, towards the one that had saved him. And then she fell.

End