The Shadows of Memory Lane (Book 2) [Gxg]

Chapter 33

Kira spent the night out. Yeah... the last time she'd done that was what had resulted in this mess. But she badly needed a breather. A slight drink. A walk around the park. Staying at a hotel, to take in a new environment, before she re-entered her life. She washed her face in the bathroom. Her head was pounding. She was tired. She was at her hotel, and honestly she just wanted to collapse on the bed. The weight of tomorrow was weighing down on her shoulders. She was going to have to tell Jordan. Only then would all of her secrets completely dissipate. She walked over to the comfortable mattress and lay her head on a pillow. It gave in under the burden that was her head. She switched off the lights and let the darkness creep on to her skin, as the incandescence of the lamps slowly faded away.

...

Jordan hugged his pillow tight. Rocking back and forth. 

"Kira..." he muttered, "Kira," a little louder, "Where are you...?" His breath speed increased. His heart started pounding. The pain, the agony, erupting from his heart. The beats grew stronger, then weaker... his breaths became shorter. His eyes blurring. His hands, the ones that had been trembling, settling to a slight shiver. The pillow fell away. He stopped rocking. The veins in his arms were protruding. The million scars that Haley had spent her time to heal over the years were all red, visible and re-opened. The affliction was increasing. Spreading throughout his body like bacteria annihilating his left over sanity in seconds. Screams. Of torture. He thrashed. As the burns inside increased. A fire in his heart. In his heart that had become cold over the years... left in a cage. The cage who's key had disappeared along with Haley. And after all the suffering... his mouth was able to utter, "Kira, my light..." almost... desperately. 

And it ended. His head dropped. His eyelids lolled on his eyes. The movement halted immediately. The feeble beating of his heart... fading away... fading away with the lights that Kira had switched off miles away from him. She had promised to be the light in his life. The person that would hep him through his darkness. But she'd turned the glow off. She'd extinguished the flame. And now the candle was all alone in the darkness, with melted wax and a wick that had been burnt completely. 

'You are my light in the darkest of times,' he'd given it to her so long ago... the pendant she'd clutched when she'd 'died'. He clutched it in his hands now. For she'd left it behind...

...

She climbed the stairs, one step at a time. Anxiety was gnawing at her nerves. She inserted the key in the door and twisted it open excruciatingly slowly. She heard each click as the door unlocked, the gears turning, the mechanism working. She pried it open slightly and slid in. It was dark. That wasn't that odd. Jordan was a late-riser. And it was 9.a.m. She couldn't comprehend the feeling that was making her eyes burn. Why was she so scared? She'd always known that one day she'd have to tell him. But she'd never realised that he'd be in this state of mind when she did. 

She opened the door to their bedroom.

"Jordan...?" 

He was asleep, tucked in his blanket. Facing the other side. 

She smiled and crept over to him and place her hand gently on his face. She kissed his cheek so softly that she wondered if he'd felt it. But he didn't stir. She shook him a bit. And that's when she realised that something was wrong. Something was out of place. His chest wasn't rising nor was it falling. It was still. She held her hand near his nostrils, praying for the warm air to perk her sensory receptors. But she received no stimuli. She was frantic now, shaking him. 

"Jordan. Jordan sweetie, please wake up."

She had tears streaming down her face. She flopped on the bed next to him. Burying her head in the pillow, sobbing. She clasped their hands together... his cold- colder than usual- and pale. She squeezed it, hoping with all her might and will for a response- nothing. She nudged the side of his head with her own. Feeling his soft hair brush over her face.