Toxic (H.S.)

35*

Flashback

Harry

I laid back in bed looking up at all the small stars I had glued to the ceiling of my bedroom and smiled at how I had shaped them out to spell the name, Emily. As if my wish came true, my phone rang. "Hello?" I answered.

"Harry, meet me at the park at ten." She hung up but I knew that voice anywhere.

I got my shoes on and my jacket leaving the house to go see her. When I saw her sitting on a swing at the park I went behind her and put my hands over her eyes. "Ow." She squealed.

I turned to look at her face, my mouth suddenly went dry. "Darling what happened to you!?" She began crying immediately. "I- it's going to be okay." She shook her head pulling off her sleeve. There on her pale skin was two red burn scabs.

"He told me I was worthless, that I was nothing and burned me, Harry!" She sobbed into my arms. "I hate him! I wish he was dead!" She cried harder.

"Oh, darling one day we'll get out of here-"

She shook her head. "No he'll always be in control, I want him dead! Who does this!" She pointed to her scars. "Who hits someone they love!"

Funny, I asked myself that question a few years later.

End flashback

"Harry?" I looked up and saw Marlene standing beside me in the snow. We were going home today and after the news about Emily, I had been thinking too much.

On the morning of Christmas Eve Emily walked into her father's office and took his gun from his safe, walked up to his bedroom, shot him in the chest four times and then herself in the head. Her mother was on vacation for the week like she always was during Christmas. It was the maid who found them and called the police.

At least that's what they told me had happened.

She had left a note for me, for Oliver, and even for Marlene. Marlene had yet to read it but insisted we stay for a few extra days to see if they would have some type of burial. But I just wanted to be back home for New Years. "Let's go," I told her taking her hand in mine.

"You alright?" I nodded. "No you're not, look at me." I turned to her.

"I said I'm fine and when I say I'm fine I mean it!" She looked at me for a minute, her reaction to my threatening tone didn't faze her in the slightest. She was silent all the way back home, only speaking to Ollie every now and then. Oliver knew something was wrong and was being very well behaved the whole way back on the plane.

When we did make it home I took everything in while Marlene put Oliver to bed. She seemed a bit annoyed when she walked into the living room and stared at me.

"Are you going to read your letter?" I shook my head. She walked over and sat down beside me. "It's okay to cry Harry, you spent seven years with her-"

"She beat me and called me names-"

"But she gave you Oliver, she was your first love, Harry." She ran her thumb under my eyes and pulled me in to kiss my cheek. "It's okay to feel sad my love." I leaned into her and I began crying into her shoulder. She pulled me into her and kissed my cheek.

"I'm mad at her, she took her life so she wouldn't have to get clean or try." Marlene looked down.

"I don't think that's why she did it, Harry, she had a lot of issues that maybe she thought in her mind she couldn't fix. She needed help, but her parents were just so terrible and she couldn't rely on you anymore, she gave up."