Broken Faith ✓

Chapter 31: Beautiful Nightmares

My back was pressed up against a wall. All I could see was dark charred walls around me, the smell of burning assaulting my nose, like a fire had consumed what was once someone's home. 

It was massive. The living room and kitchen combined. All abandoned and covered in thick black soot. It was like I could hear the echoes of what once was a lively home.

There was nothing in the corners to my right and left except for burned and discarded sheets of broken plywood.

In the left corner diagnal from me there were units lining the whole corner, a meek table with some metal chairs around it with ripped leather as the back support. Some sofas lay in front of the table and chairs.

In the corner on the right was a more elegant and larger wooden dining table with matching wooden chairs. A shiver passed through me as I heard the echoes of laughing children.

But in front of me on the other side of the massive room was a gap, a door frame where a door was supposed to be, but was missing. I could see the run down state of the stairs outside that probably lead to the outside world after a few flights.

What was I doing here? Why was I here? And why did it hurt so much?

Suddenly a figure was making its way up the stairs and stopped at the doorframe with purpose. He looked straight at me. I couldn't make out his face. He looked dark and mysterious, completely dressed in black with a dangerous aura around him. Light was shining down around his dark frame giving the illusion that he was glowing.

I crossed my arms in front of my torso in defense as I realised he was the devil.

He did not look anywhere else but me as his gaze held my own. His face contorted with seething anger. Fear coursed through my veins making every muscle in my body tense up and making my every limb rigid.

With everything burning around me and simultaneously not, there was only one explanation. I was in hell with the devil focussed on me.

He stalked towards me, taking long strides to reach me quicker. As he neared me within a few seconds I recognised the green embers of his eyes that were blazing.

"Ryder!"

He had come to save me from this hellhole.

But he did not say a word as he marched right toward me. And within a second his lips were on me, hard and fast as he cupped the sides of my face.

My whole body sighed in relief as I kissed him back and held him tightly to me as he awoke every nerve in my body. He pinned me against the wall and lifted me up wrapping my legs around his waist with his hands.

As fast as his kisses had began on my mouth he moved to my neck, I could feel his breath coming out in short, fast bursts as he kissed my skin roughly and bit and licked to soothe the now irritated skin. 

He was taking care of me and giving me exactly what I needed in this moment. Maybe it would have scared any other girl, but I needed this rough assurance that he was here with me and that he would find me no matter how lost or alone I was. He would trail the most unlikely of places to find me.

But he stopped what he was doing and pulled back so he could stare into my eyes, he gazed long and hard like he was capturing me in his memory for one of the last times. His jaw clenched tightly, his eyebrows furrowed and his forehead creased with the slightest lines. It was such a troubled look that was marring his whole face but especially his eyes. 

He uttered into the silence "I have to leave you"

And my heart broke and shattered. He couldn't. He couldn't leave me. Why would he have to? What would compel him to make him leave? I knew he wouldn't unless he had to, it was etched into every inch of his face that this was out of his hands.