Stolen (Sequel To Capture)

Sixty-Seven

A million questions whizzed around my head as I stared at Liam standing, perfectly alive, in front of me. "How?" I asked struggling to say more than that. "How is this possible, you died."

"I didn't." He whispered still holding on to me. "I may as well have been. Every day, every moment, without you was unbearable."

"I don't understand. Where have you been all this time?"

"It's a long story."

"You just showed up out of the blue Liam, risen from the dead, I deserve to know everything." I snapped.

His hands slipped up my arms and cradled my cheeks softly. "I will tell you everything, I promise." I stared at his dark mocha colored eyes, the sunlight sparking gold flecks inside them, they looked just like I remembered.

"I'm not dreaming am I?" I asked softly. "This isn't just some painful fantasy that I'll wake up and cry about is it?"

Liam took my hand in his and pressed my palm into his chest, above his heart, I felt his heart beat against it. "I'm real." He whispered back before leaning down and kissing me once more.

I stepped back pulling myself away quickly. "I'm sorry, it must be weird, kissing someone after all this time." Liam apologized as I looked up to him with tears in my eyes thinking of Niall for the first time since seeing Liam. Suddenly I remembered our fight from this morning, how I hurt him, I knew I'd hurt him again if he knew I had kissed Liam twice already. "Hey, it's ok, I'm here now, I'm not going anywhere." He thumbed away my tear tracks from my cheeks.

I shook my head wiping my tears away. "You died Liam."

"I'm right here Em."

"No, Liam you died," I cried loudly trying to get him to understand. "I died too." He frowned shaking his head not understanding me. "I had to let you go Li, I let you go."

He stepped holding my hands as he pressed his forehead into mine. "I'm sorry." He whispered with tears in his own eyes.

The front door opened as the bell chimed once more. I turned to see Niall who, upon seeing me holding hands with Liam, froze in his step. His eyes darted from Liam to me and back again, I recoiled from Liam's touch quickly as if Niall had just caught us in the act. I could see the hurt in his eyes as he studied me.

Glancing back to Liam I could see the understanding of what I was trying to explain to him dawning on him. He drew back and rake his hand through his hair with a look of shock. "I should go." He headed towards the door brushing past Niall quickly.

"Liam!" I called after him. He didn't stop moving but I followed him until Niall's hand slapped down on my wrist holding me back.

"Let him go." He breathed helplessly. I snatched my arm free and continued to follow Liam out the door and down the street leaving Niall behind. Liam had come back to me, I couldn't just let him walk out the door again.

When I woke up this morning I never thought I'd end up chasing Liam down the street. It was the farthest thing from my mind and yet, here I was straining to catch up to him. I tugged on the back of his shirt as I finally reached him, "Liam!" I breathed softly. "Please stop."

He turned to face me tears in his eyes stuffing his hands in his pockets as if he was preventing himself from touching me back. I felt my heart break just looking at him, he was like a child, lost and hurt, I wanted to siphon away all his pain but I was part of it in that moment. "Talk to me." I whispered.

There was a playground behind us with no one around, I steered him into the gates as I took a seat on the swing set, he sat in the swing beside me. "I can't believe you're alive." I whispered looking at him, studying him, as if I was trying to find the flaw. The one shred of evidence to let me know that it wasn't him, just a really convincing copy.