Imagine Us

Chapter 16: Blood-Lust

I sat in my room, tears endlessly streaming down my face.

Noah was the one who broke my seemingly never-ending eye contact with Caiden as he gently took the gun away from him. I then recall watching Chase as he delivered the final blow that rendered Riley totally unconscious. I felt my breath pace yet again and so I ran to my room, having been excessively overwhelmed by what just took place.

I sat alone in pitch darkness, trembling and crying. Too many things were going through my mind - too many for me to process.

I then heard my door slowly creak open and a streak of light enter into my room. I saw someones shadow at the doorway. 

"Alexandria?" I heard a quiet voice say. I slowly turned around to see Jonathan with worry in his eyes. He looked as if he was about to cry too. It just added to the list of things that I didn't understand. "Can I please come in?" I didn't respond. I felt weight on the other side of the bed. "I can't tell you how sorry I am, Alexandria." His voice trembled. "I know it's obvious that I've been avoiding you only because my first impression of you was really scary. I'd hate to admit to everyone else but on top of being the youngest in the gang, I freak out way too easily. I'm sorry to disturb you at time like this but I needed you to hear it from me."

Through my tears, I sniffled. "Hear what?"

Jonathan took a deep breath. "The Corleones never trusted Riley to go to meetings and I'm too young so we're always left here with each other. He's betrayed us before. Caiden always secretly assigns me the task of keeping an eye on him but much closer this time because you were here. I listened in on some of the times Riley warmed up to you but didn't think much of it since I thought it was about time someone treated you nicely around here." He began to speak faster. "It wasn't 'til last minute that he completely turned on you and so I immediately ran to where Caiden and the boys were because if I tried to take him down on my own, we'd both be screwed. I only found Caiden and told him that Riley was trying to hurt you and so he told me to go find the others and he dropped everything and ran here. When I got back here with the other two, thats when I saw - oh, God." 

He paused. I looked back and saw Jonathan cupping his face. He then looked back up, tears streaming down his face and breathing heavily. 

I was so shocked.

I crawled over to him and knelt beside him. "Jonathan, thank you for telling me." I sniffled and wiped my tears away.

He looked at me with his sad, crying eyes. "Alexandria, I can't tell you how sorry I am. I should have stopped it way earlier. I'm so, so sorry." He cried even more and we pulled each other into an embrace. 

Despite all that had happened, I was still so grateful for Jonathan. I felt horrible for him. He felt so guilty when it wasn't his fault.

"It's not your fault, Jonath-"

"It is. It always will be. If Riley ended up - if he - God, if he - I wouldn't know what to do with myself."

As Jonathan cried, I rubbed his back and the back of his head, while shedding some tears of my own. "Hey, Jonathan. Look at me. You were there and you got Caiden for me and so it didn't happen. That's all that matters." He just looked at me with his sad, sad eyes. Everyone here is so different. You'd think that all the guys a part of one gang would have the exact same vicious mindsets and all, but no - not the Corleones. They really are all different. "And please, Jonathan, if anything, I'm supposed to be scared of you guys - not the other way around. At first, I was just super tense and I'm sorry for scaring you horribly the time I screamed at you." I slightly chuckled through my last few tears and so did he. "Now listen, I need to speak to Caiden, okay?"