Blamed

Chapter 48

Crimson didn't move from her spot for a couple of minutes. Her hands rested by her side in the grass and I could feel the ground shake slightly. I stayed behind her, not sure what to say.

Even though Prospero and I didn't see eye to eye on things, it was kind of hard to watch him go. Lucifer most likely killed him. He had betrayed his ruler. The devil.

"Lucifer will kill him." I heard her say to herself. I raked my brain for anything to say.

"He... He wouldn't just give up like that. He would..." she rambled.

"Crimson—"

"When I first met Prospero, he was... different," she started, cutting me off.

"He came into the diner with an air of mystery and arrogance around him. He didn't even order anything before he left out. Later that same day, he helped me handle a customer that was harassing me." She took a deep breath.

"Ever since then I couldn't shake him. Everywhere I looked, he was there. The store, the park, the diner... I found him extremely creepy. At first." She blew out a breath, standing to her feet.

Her hair was hanging just a few inches above her butt and it looked untamed and uneven. There were small cuts throughout her pants and shirt, providing only a slither of skin to show.

"Then... I began catching feelings for him. He seemed like a good man. He was a good man." Her head hung down and the ground shook again. My heart started to tingle slightly at her words.

"Even when he showed me what he really was. I didn't turn him away. Yeah, I called him a monster of Hell and possibly tried to kill him, but he didn't take it to heart. He showed me that being a demon didn't necessarily make him evil. He showed my grandmother compassion, and he showed me love. Then that night happened."

She turned around and I took a deep breath. Her eyes were trained on me and she refused to look away, even as her lips trembled and her shoulders heaved with emotion. Her dark lashes brimmed heavy with tears, and her hands clenched into shaking fists, in a desperate battle against the grief that showed on her face.

"He was the only person I could call. The only one I trusted to hear me out. Shaw wouldn't have understood. He probably would have thought the wrong thing happened. I thought he would help me. Help me figure out what the hell had gone down. He couldn't even give me a straight answer." She said.

"I started to accuse him of what happened. Saying that because I fell in love with a demon, God was punishing me. I yelled and cried that I regretted loving a creature like him. Yet, I lied. I didn't regret it. Not one bit."

"Crimson..." I trailed off, clearing my throat. Her breathing became shaky.

A lone tear traced down her cheek, and just like that, the floodgates opened. She wept, tears streaming from her deep brown eyes, loud, heaving sobs tearing from her throat, and still, she did not look away.

It was like she wanted to me see her breaking down.

"This... This is all my fault, Paxton. E-Everyone I love dies because of me!" I walked towards her and her body crashed into me.

She sobbed into my chest unceasingly, hands clutching at my shirt. I held her in silence, rocking her slowly as her tears soaked my chest.

A tiny lapse let her pull away, blinking lashes heavy with tears, before she collapsed again, her wails of misery worsening. The pain must have come in waves, minutes of sobbing broken apart by short pauses for recovering breaths, before hurling her back into the outstretched arms of her grief.