Fallen

Chapter 4

Three slammed doors, her room, the house, the car.

The first, loud, angry, leaving a shattered boy in her wake.
The second, hard, determined, coursing through her veins.
The third, weak, broken, alone.

Each connected her to the people she loved. She severed those ties.

As she ran down the driveway, tears of rain traced her being, pelting down on her withered soul. The cold penetrated her sopping apparel, her bones shook at the slap of the icy precipitation.

The ignition key turned. The engine growled to life. The girl slammed a foot down.

Despite the deep pain gnawing at her insides, the drive was smooth. She was accustomed to the gray Merc from countless lessons with her father up and down their street. But this time she was alone, and oh how lonely it was.

Slowly, she pulled into his driveway. The only one that could save her now. Her only hope.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

"Deena?" Surprise held his voice.
"Landon." Her sad eyes met his.
"It's pouring out here! What are you doing?" He fought to be heard over the storm, further proving his point.
"I came to see you." She smiled, weak from her numbed state.
"Come inside, you must be freezing. I'll get you some dry clothes."

"Wait."

"Yeah?"

"I came here to ask you something. It's very important."

"Whatever it is, it can wait until you're not in this drenched state."

"It can't, Landon, it really can't."

A soaking girl, a worried boy, a burning question between them.

"I've been waiting literally my whole life to ask you this..." deep breath. "You know how prom is coming up?"

"Yeah" a soft smile.

"Go with me?"

Silence. Only eye contact and the rain upon the roofs could be heard. Then, everything, broken. The eye contact, as their faces closed in upon each other, the sound of storm faded away as their lips embraced, that burning question lit a flame in each that was tangible, you could feel the heat as they stood as one.

Deena was on fire. Her entire body felt hot, and any trace of cold from the frigid outside temperature was gone. The two stood on the porch for what seemed like an eternity to Deena, an eternity that she wouldn't mind living, and kissed for just as long. Just then, as Landon stumbled backwards into the house, Deena hit the ground. Hard.

The air raced out of her lungs as her body struck the hardwood floor. Her head was spinning and she found breathing an almost impossible feat. Once she found the strength, she lifted her head, expecting to see Landon, brows knitted together in worry, waiting to see if she was ok, but something else was awaiting her. She saw the darkness, the kind that had been plaguing her for years, slowly devouring the room around her. Landon stood above Deena, smiling tenderly, waiting for her to take his hand. She tried to tell him, to warn him of the pool of shadows that was now rapidly rising at his ankles, but no words escaped her mouth. Her eyes widened, as she tried again and again to speak, to shout, to scream, anything to warn Landon who was quickly being covered in the darkness. As if on cue, he whirled around to see the looming mist waiting to swallow him whole. He screamed. He let out a sound so loud, so haunting, that the walls shook, what was left of them anyway. The whole room seemed to scream with him, and suddenly everything was making a cacophony of loud and painful cries. The wails echoed through the halls of her mind like nails on a chalkboard. It seemed everything could express the pain, except Deena. She was mute in a world gone mad with the absence of silence.

She lay there, paralyzed on the ground at Landon's feet, she couldn't reach out to help him, she couldn't save him, she couldn't even save herself. She looked up toward the boy, to say she was sorry, so unexplainably sorry, that this was her fault, that she was the evil, she was the cause, but he only smiled as the words caught in her throat once again, and she couldn't breathe.

He looked manic, like he'd lost any grip on the reality that surrounded them, rather, the reality became him. He was grinning so wide she saw the blood of his lips as they tore at the edges, his eyes were empty, but she could still feel them on her, they burned, so hot that they left scorch marks across her arms and legs, her skin bubbling and searing from the immense heat. She really was on fire, and wanted, needed, to scream, to let the world know her pain, but the words were stuck, lodged fast in her windpipe. She couldn't breathe, she tried to inhale, urgently, she was running out of air, and her lungs burned. The fire tore its way inside her and encased her organs, it was eating every piece of her body, and the pain was unimaginable. Her whole body shook, she knew there was no escape, she knew there was no way out, that she was charred beyond recognition, so she longed only for the pain to set her to rest, for her body and mind to give in, she needed so desperately to pass out, to stop feeling, but no such luck came her way. She was forever condemned to feel her body blister at the tongues of the flames, as they whipped her and branded her, and tortured every fragment of her soul.