Cryptic

Last Chapter- The End?

I did everything in my power not to run over pedestrians and other cars on my way home from the hospital where I left Liam bleeding out after pulling out his IV. I expected my mother's car to be in the driveway and her standing at the front door with her arms crossed, possibly a gun in her hand. What I did not expect, however, was the front door knocked off its hinges, all of the windows busted, and a tree caught on fire. I glanced around wondering if anybody had noticed the trosity in the front yard or if they were just hiding away, scared that the person who created this mess was still here about to take it out on them.

I made my way through the hole of where my front door should have been, finding the mess much worse on the inside. My eyes looked over the words written in blood along the walls: Help me and kill her.

Kill my mother?

A sudden noise behind me caught my attention, I turned around quickly to see the cause of it. My eyes grew as I looked over Sofia, she wore a full white dress with blood stains on every inch of the fabric, and she held a gun in her left hand.

"Sofia?" I gradually stepped closer to her with my hands held up.

Her eyes stayed wide with a blank stare to them until I repeatedly called her name three more times. They then changed from the wall with bloody words on them to me, and it was as if she was seeing me for the first time. The gun dropped from her hand and she ran to me, wrapping her arms around my neck.

"Oh Harry! I am so sorry for everything!" She cried into my shoulder.

"Sorry about what? Where is my mum?"

Her arms loosened, bringing me to ask the question again, but this time with a sense of fear in my voice. "Where is my mum, Sofia?"

She glanced back at the hallway past the kitchen that led to the basement and pointed. "In there."

I tried to move past her but she stepped in my way. "Harry I don't think you should---"

I looked back at her. "---She is still my mother Sofia."

"Who tried to kill me." Her eyes darkened. "Let's just leave."

My eyes flicked back to where she had pointed to earlier. Maybe she was right, but

she could be wrong.

"I need to know everything, from the beginning."

"Harry." She tugged on my arm towards the door but I removed my arm out of her grasp.

"I am not leaving until I get the truth. I am tired of being lied to, of being so confused. I don't know who to trust because everywhere I turn someone is trying to kill me. Now tell me the truth."

A saddened look crossed over her face. "I can't really explain Harry."

I was taken aback, not the response I had expected to hear. "What do you mean can't explain it."

"It's hard to," she whispered.

"Then try! Was my mum out to get you or not? Or were you planning this from the start just to mess with me or to break up with me?" My voice raised causing her to flinch.

"I can't tell you Harry!" She yelled back. "But what I can say is that we need to get out of here, far away from this house and this town as soon as possible. After that...I will explain to you everything the best that I can. I promise." She reached out her hand to me.

I only stared at the offering. "And my mum...did you shoot her?"

The hand dropped. "No."

I stared at her. "Then where is she?"

Her eyes glanced around as if the answer was going to come out of the sky or something.

"Sofia!"

"I don't know okay!" She dropped to her knees. "I...I don't know."

"You don't know? Then why did you have a gun in your hand?" I pointed at the steel weapon laying on the tiled floor.

"Harry. There are just some things that cannot be explained, which is why we need to get out of here, and immediately. Where your mother is, I have no idea. But what I do know and can say is that she is out and about, and not finished with me. She is going to finish what she started and that means killing me."

She stood and reached out her hand to me. "I refuse to leave you again."

She was right, I needed her as much as she needed me. I should not hesitate or question this, I should just take the opportunity of being with the one I loved like I wanted from the beginning. Her 'fake dying' proved that much to me.

We walked out to the front lawn towards my red convertible but before we reached the walking pathway she turned back.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"You can never be too careful," she replied before throwing a lit lighter into the house. The house was instantly filled with flames.

"What the---"

"---I put gasoline on the floor before you got here."

I did not question. Just watched the whole house engulf in flames next to her. Surprisingly I suddenly did not care about the truth anymore. Only Sofia.

It was always about her.