He's always watching. His thoughts and emotions ruling my life. I only have to look out my window and he's there. If he catches me, I may never be the same again.
He's always watching. He wants me for his own. His wants, dark and sinister. If h...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
His heart threatened to beat out of his chest. He couldn't control the shaking that his body was doing.
When he felt the tears on his cheek, it confused him. He couldn't remember the last time he cried. No matter how horrible his life had gotten, he'd learned even as a small boy that tears solved nothing. None of that matter now, he hadn't even realized he was crying until his face was completely damp. His arms were clamped around his waist as sobs were wrenched from his throat.
Her fear, her pain would be his undoing. Over the years he's learned how to deal with a lot, but he couldn't deal with this. Never this.
"Jay, you're scaring me. Tell me what's going on?"
He couldn't speak. He couldn't shake the horror of what was happening.
Paisley. He hadn't even allowed himself to speak her name in years. The last time he saw her she'd been ten. The way she looked that day would be forever etched in his brain. Jeans and a blue plaid shirt. Red sneakers and braided pigtails. She'd walked three miles to get to him and had found him sitting on a park bench.
He couldn't even remember which set of foster parents he'd been living with there had been so many of them back in those days, but he could remember how she had looked.
Sad. Thin. He hadn't eaten in days; she looked like she'd hadn't eaten in weeks. Her eyes were red from crying. She handed him a sandwich and an apple.
He wanted to tell her she didn't have to come, but he knew that she did have to. Just like he would have to go to her if she ever needed him.
There was no need to ask her how she felt. He knew. He always knew.
For all his childhood, she'd been the one bright light in his life. Feeling her happiness. Her peace. When he was young it had been so easy to pretend that those feelings were his. Then later it didn't matter that his life was crummy because through her he got to see the other side as well.
Even her father's death couldn't forever dim the bright light that lived within his Paisley. And it was this bright light that had gotten him through many hardships.
That day there'd been no happiness within her. No peace or joy and he had known it was all his fault.
What did you say to a girl who could feel everything you were feeling? He'd never figured out the answer to that.
That day in the park a police offer had found them. Soon after Paisley's mother had shown up besides herself with fright because her daughter had been missing for hours.
That was the last time he saw her but the last time he felt her he was just barely fourteen. By then his life had gone from really bad to worse. And he couldn't do that to her anymore. He couldn't be the reason why her light didn't shine.
All he's ever wanted to do is protect her from his life.
"Jay! Say something!"
It was several more miles before he could get some shred of control over himself. She was asleep. Her fear calmed to a storm instead of a typhoon beating at him.
He'd give up his very life if it meant he could get to her in this moment. That wasn't possible, so he needed to pull himself together because he would get to her and nothing would stop him.
"Go faster." Jay ordered Kels as he dried his face.
His voice after all this time startled her and they nearly went off the side of the road. "What the hell is going on? What happened to you? Shouldn't I be taking you to a hospital or something?"
"Home."
He wouldn't get very far without some cash. Some wheels.
"Jay, I swear to God you better tell me something."
"I have to go to her."
She took a long look at him before turning onto the gravel road that lead to his house. He didn't know what she saw but whatever it was; she stopped asking questions.
His hand was already reaching for the door handle before she'd even stopped.
"Call me. I mean it, Jay. Call me and let me know you're okay.
