Unlocked Heart || A Garrence/Mystreet Fanfiction

Chapter Nine

The rest of the night goes by in a strange, foggy haze. Someone knocks on my bedroom door, but I don't answer, and they don't come in. I can hear the low murmuring of two voices, which must belong to Laurence and Zane, on the landing. I expect they're talking about me, but at least they seem to understand I want to be left alone.

I backtrack a little in my thoughts - Laurence talking to Zane? Or, more importantly, in this case, - Zane talking to Laurence?

Oh Irene, I hope he doesn't say anything stupid. What if he--

...No, he must have enough sense to know not to tell Laurence... Right?

I have to hope he does.

I don't want to go out there, but I also don't want to stay sitting on my bed, running over nightmare scenarios in my mind. I guess my only option is sleep. I get changed into my pajamas and sink under the covers, burying my face in the pillow and pulling the bedsheets over my head. I let the smell of clean linen flood my nostrils and fill my head as I try to sink into the welcome relief of sleep.

It doesn't come easily. But then, nothing ever does.

*

Darkness. I can't tell if my eyes are opened or closed, my whole world is pitch black. I can feel two arms wrap themselves around my waist, fingers dancing gently across the small of my back. There's a slow, steady hum of breathing by my right ear, and somehow I can tell who it belongs to, just by the weight and speed. I've been surrounded by that breath for years, I'd be able to pick Laurence's breath out from millions.

But something's different. The fingers aren't dancing gently, they're desperately crawling and slipping, trying in vain to stay in place. The breathing isn't slow and steady, it's quick and shakey and panicked.

I open my mouth to speak to him, but I stop when I hear the sudden sound of boiling water pouring onto something soft and vulnerable. The sound of sizzling mixes with the strangled yelping in the air. Everything around me feels like it's on fire, but inside me everything is so, so dark. My senses are numbed, and one word echoes in my head over and over again, like a scream: Laurence, Laurence, Laurence-

I feel the arms around me go limp and start to slip away as they are dragged back into the suffocating black emptiness that surrounds me.

Laurence, Laurence, Laurence. My head echoes with the scream, like a cultish chant.

I am alone, Laurence is gone, swallowed by the void, and I didn't save him. I just stood there, as he slipped away.

Laurence, Laurence, Laurence.

I'm so alone.

Laurence, Laurence, Laurence.

So alone.

Laurence, Laurence, Laurence.

Alone.

Laurence, Laurence, Laurence.

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