Heartbreaker

Surviving

Elle POV

School was dismissed early due to the fire. Kennedy called Uncle Damian and told him what happened before she and Rita left to talk over some cheer thing they had coming up in a couple of weeks. I was just glad that the distance from the school to the house wasn’t much and that my phone had a GPS because I still didn’t know anything about London.  I plugged in the address and started following directions to go home. I passed through some really nice stores and then stopped when I looked at a bookstore. I checked how much time I had left to get home and it said fifteen minutes so I decided to walk in and take a look.

A half hour later I had some harlequin novels in a bag and resuming my walk home. I passed by an alley and froze when I saw a guy pointing a gun at another guy with curly hair. Curly was being surrounded by three, two guys holding him down, one with red hair and the other with black hair.  They seemed annoyed, so who I think was the leader of the group, Gun guy, punched Curly in the stomach. I cringed, as Curly stumbled back into the wall. Then, it all went out. Curly would hit Ginger and then Black would hit him and then the leader would go and take a hit. There was so much blood. I felt sick at the sight, so sick, that I had to lean into something.

Bad idea.

That something was a trash can top and when I leaned in it fell making a lot of noise. Everything froze. I immediately looked up and everyone was looking at me. Then Curly threw a punch at Black and I heard the nose breaking under his fist. That was all it took for me to start running. I ran as fast as I could.

I ran down the street not knowing where I was going. My leg muscles burned and my lungs screamed for air but I couldn’t stop running. I was about to cross a street without looking when I heard a bang. I was expecting to feel pain or something but that never happened. Instead I was pulled out of the way. I smashed into someone’s chest. I was about to apologize but I was met with green eyes. Angry ones at that.

“We have to go. Run!” He commanded as he turned around holding my wrist tightly in his hand and began to run dragging me behind him. We ran until we reached his black Range Rover. He opened the passenger door for me, pushed me in and then slammed the door so he could get in. He turned on the car and sped away.

“Put your damn seatbelt on.” He yelled as he gripped the steering wheel. I quickly did as I was told not wanting to die in a car wreck. He didn’t slow down until we were far away from wherever we were before.

*****

I groaned. My head was throbbing and my eyelids didn’t want to cooperate.

“Glad to see you’re awake, sleeping beauty.” My eyes flew open and I found myself in a pale blue room. A man was by a bureau, his back to me. I quickly jumped off the bed getting dizzy but somehow I managed to keep my balance.

“W-who are you?” I asked standing in the corner of the room. The stranger had taken me to his apartment. From the 30 minutes we have been together I haven’t seen his face once. He had dark brown curls, was at least 6 feet tall, there were a few tattoos on his forearms and wrists and he was dressed in a black shirt and dark jeans. Then he turned around and I recognized him.

“You know who I am, Elle.” He said, his voice was familiar.

“I-I’ve seen you but I-I don’t know you.” I stuttered too shocked and scared that he actually lived next door to me. He looked at me for a while before he smirked showing a dimple on his cheek.

“I’m Edward.” He said taking a step closer to me. I took one back.

“You don’t have to be afraid of me, Elle.” He said looking into my eyes.

“H-how do you know my name?” I asked him.

“Come on, now. We’re neighbors.” He smirked as if that will give him the right.

“Only close friends and family call me Elle.”

“I thought you didn’t like Noelle.”

“I don’t.” He chuckled. He was standing right in front of me by now.

“It seems to me that you need to make up your mind.” He whispered in my ear. I held my breath. “You know, usually people who are saved by someone say thank you.”

“Um, thank you. Now let me go.” I said quickly my eyes locking with a protruding tattoo from the neckline of his shirt. He tsked.

“I can’t do that sweetheart. You see,” he said turning around. “You were at the wrong place at the wrong time and you saw something that can hurt me, therefore hurt people I care about. I can't let you go.”

“So you’d rather keep me hostage?”

“Would you rather I kill you?” He asked raising an eyebrow at me.

“Depends on the conditions of why I’m here you jerk!” I knew it wasn’t wise to antagonize him but I was angry, I was tired, I wanted to go home and forget anything ever happened.

“Watch your language, princess.” He warned, nostrils flaring.

“Or what, asshole?” I spat. He took a gun out of the back of his jeans and pointed it at me. I looked at the gun and then back at him, walking towards him slowly until I was inches from him.

“Do it.” I dared him. I didn’t have anything. My life got torn to pieces. I was almost killed today that should be warning enough that life is never there to please. There are no happy endings. Ever.

Edward looked taken aback. I guess he expected me to be in tears by now begging for my life, but if there’s one thing I learned from my father is that the enemy must be surprised so that you could have a chance at surviving.

“How can you not be afraid of death?” he whispered. There was my chance of surviving. Thank you, papa. At his thought, my eyes watered. I remembered everything, The pain. The heat. The loud boom followed by the cracking noise of wood burning. The smell of smoke.

“When your parents get blown to pieces in front of you and you get taken away from everything you know, there’s no reason to live.”