Love, hate and everything in between

~Chapter 9~

"Shoot her!" The man screamed in my ear for at least the 15th time. I held the gun in my hands, but there was no way in heaven, hell, or earth I was not pulling that damn trigger. Ahead of me sat Brooke. She was tied around a pole with tears pouring down her face. She was trembling and begging for her life that was hanging on it's last limb.

"No!" I screamed back at him.

"Shoot her or I'll shoot you!" The man shouted again.

"Go ahead then! I'm not shooting my pregnant wife!"

"Fine! I'll just shoot you both!"

I heard the gun go off and watched the life immediately leave Brooke. I didn't have time to scream or cry before another gun shot was fired..killing me as well.

___________________________

4:27AM. I jumped from bed trembling at the nightmare that I had just experienced. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and slid against the wall. This isn't happening. This can not be happening. She's still here. She has to be. But she wasn't. I knew that. This whole situation was making me lose my mind faster than anything. I tiredly climbed back into bed and pretended she was in my arms. Like she was still in my arms. Like I could still smell her vanilla perfume and feel her warm lips on mine. Unfortunately, I didn't smell vanilla or feel anything on my lips. It was empty. I drifted back into sleep avoiding the direction of the nightmares.

*****Brooke's POV*****

Sleeping by a tree definitely wasn't on my bucket list. I got about an hour and a half of sleep before I started seeing sun peek up over the horizon. As tired and hungry as I was I practically bolted up. I let my phone charge under the little light it had. I only needed the slightest percentage to see where I was. Eventually, I was able to turn on my phone. Though there was only a 3% charge I quickly checked my map. Luckily I was still in California, but I was in a small town. I followed the maps road and saw I could walk to a near gas station and be there in about an hour. I quickly exited the app and dialed James number with 2% left.

"Pick up, pick up, pick up!" I said nervously while listening to the many rings.

"Hello?" Mumbled a groggy, yet sexy, James. I could barely say anything.

"James! Baby it's me!" I practically yelled into the phone.

"Brooke?!"

"Yes! James! It's me! Listen, I can't talk for long! I'm in a small town in California. About 50 miles from you. I'm walking to the gas station now! I'll see you soon."

"No Brooke! Please stay!"

"I can't. My phone only has a percent left. I'll see you soon."

"Okay, okay. I love you so, so much!"

"I love you too!"

And with that the phone call ended and my phone again went black. So I started off down the road in the direction of some actual life. I just had to get there before Troy found me. It was no longer dark. It isn't as easy to hide now. I do know that this was going to be my only chance to escape. I couldn't screw this up. Not now.

*****James' POV*****

I threw myself out of bed after the phone call with Brooke. I ran around my room throwing on my clothes and shoes and styled my hair as quickly as possible. As I bolted out of the room I stuck my phone and my wallet in my pocket. I had no time to write a note or tell anyone I was leaving. If they wanted to know where I was that badly they could call. With that I ran out the door and sprinted to the car turning the ignition and pulling out as fast as possible. I turned on the radio hoping to distract myself. Luckily, I kept to the speed limit and had lowered my heart rate. 50 miles. There were a ton of gas stations in that 50 miles. I would just have to drive that distant and wait for a call from her. She could make it. She could do it. I knew she could.

•Ello. I have 8 more days of school left!! :D which means finals. Which means I won't update as much. But it really isn't that long, so...

"Starting to love you" actually reached 30,000 reads! This is almost at 700! So if you could all keep voting and commenting that'd be perfect!<3 If it honestly weren't for the great comments you all leave I would've taken both stories down a LONG time ago. I've definitely gotten negative feedback, but it's all been from people I personally know. And it's so fun being able to pull up wattpad and pull up one of you guys' comments and saying "tell that to my 30K readers"!!(: It really is the highlight of my day knowing that I've only had wattpad for about a year and I have more readers than I ever would've dreamed of getting! So thank you to every single one of you! I love all the haters and all the supporters!:* •