You Watched Me Fall {A Novella}

X: Who He Once Was

Copyright © M.T.Wilson 2012 - All rights reserved

Sorry for taking so long to update, I've been on holiday and haven't had much time to write. Hopefully you'll enjoy this chapter. :)

X: Who He Once Was

 

    We didn’t wait to see what would happen.

    Maya cursed and grabbed my arm, dragging me away from the window.

    “I knew we should have just run,” I heard her mutter.

    I sprinted after her through the trees, the branches lashing at my skin and face and hair. My arms were pumping by my side and my breathing was harsh. Eventually I overtook Maya; I had the superior stamina.

    I didn’t know what was going to happen. Would Ollie manage to persuade Harley that he’d seen me? I doubted that but there was nothing stopping him coming after us himself. That was something I could imagine him doing; he’d looked pretty angry, even more so when he spotted us. I only hoped that if he did follow he wouldn’t find or catch up with us.

    My limbs burned and it was getting hard to breathe; my head throbbed. I slowed to a stop and Maya came staggering after me.

    “Why…have we…stopped?” she wheezed after a couple of minutes.

    “We must have gone far enough by now,” I said.

    Maya shook her head and took a couple of deep breaths before replying. “No distance is far enough when Ollie is in the mood he’s in now.”

    “She’s right, you should have kept running.”

    Strong hands grabbed hold of me and I was flung into a nearby tree, my body smashing into the trunk. I fell to the ground with a thud and groaned. My whole body ached, partly from the run and partly from my collision with the tree. I looked up to see Ollie advancing towards me. I tried to clear my head and stand but I felt so weak and the adrenaline pumping in my veins was making me shake.

    “Leave her alone,” Maya lunged forward and roughly shoved Ollie away from me. He only took a couple of steps back, but probably more from surprise than from her strength.

    “You,” he spat, “I can’t believe you. You betrayed me!”

    “Betrayed?” Maya repeated. “When have you ever earned my loyalty?”

    “You’ve been helping them, haven’t you?” He said, evading her question. “It was you, wasn’t it? You were the one who told them I was coming.”

    “Yes, it was me,” Maya admitted. There wasn’t much point in denying it. “For once, I did the right thing rather than what you wanted me to do.”

    “What’s that supposed to mean?” Ollie demanded, taking a step towards her.

    I pulled myself up off the ground and held onto the tree for support.

    Maya took in a shaky breath and I could see the tears brimming in her eyes. “If you wanted something doing or something finding out you’d always come to me. And I would always do what you said because I was too afraid not to. But I don’t have to, I never had to,” she laughed and wiped away the tears on her cheeks. “Because you don’t own me. You have no power over me, not anymore. Not since you changed.”

    “Changed?”

    Maya continued as if he hadn’t interrupted her. “I loved you, Ollie. I don’t anymore. This person you’ve become, it’s not you anymore. It’s as if someone else has taken over your body. I want the old you back.”