Page 59 of It Never Was

Only this wasn't a dream, I should be feeling it, all of it. But my mind was past the point of caring. Turning my body to where Parker was still standing watching me, studying me. His eyes were gentle as he stared at me, but I caught a glimmer of pain in them too. He didn't say a word, he just let the door handle slip out of his grip. The door slowly closed. Him disappearing behind it. The look never wavering in his eyes.

My mind spins, the sound of the latch clipping into place, and I feel my knees hit the cool tiled flooring. The faint sound of a scream hits the walls.

Why would Parker be screaming?

A numb chill creeps down my cheeks. It's only when I reach up and feel my cheeks wet and the burn deep in my throat begins that I realize it's me who the scream is coming from.

My mind is racing with clips of memories, one I have shoved down so far in the depth of my mind to keep myself from having to remember the pain. But Devon cracked the dam I so carefully built. The flood gates were open, and I couldn't help but drown in the agonizing scenes.

"Don't you dare try to run away from me again!"

I shake my head violently, grasping my hair at the temples. My body starts to shake with the impact of these memories.

The feel of hands on my head clasping me to them, the pull of my hair keeping me in place.

I can't stop the flashes of faces, my chest starts to cave in. The breaths of cold air burn with every gasp I attempt. I keep trying to swallow them down, but my throat feels raw and constricted.

I know I won't be able to control this one. So, I let the thoughts take me over, pulling me down into the deep end. A place I have tried to escape and avoid for years now. I allow the pain to course through me taking over every nerve of my body.

Hot tears sting my cheeks as I scream my agony at the walk-in walls.

31

Parker

I wasn't thinking, or rationalizing.

I knew it would end badly.

But that didn't stop my feet from moving, from my hands shoving the back door to the coffee shop open. My eyes scanned the parking lot, empty.

But a dim light caught the corner of my eye, just around the curb of the parking lot.

It was a cigarette burning as the figure took a deep hit.

It was him. I knew it was this creep the minute I stepped into the lobby. The same guy I watched in the parking lot the day I followed Ryen back to work.

The bad feeling I got was an accurate feeling, the way he was talking and touching Ryen made my blood boil.

It took all my willpower to not suffocate him when my hand was around his throat. The only reason I didn't was because I didn't want to scare Ryen.

I didn't even know his name, just knew him as fucker. But when I heard him say he was Ryen's 'boyfriend' the jealousy that ran through me was like nothing I have ever experienced.

With my target insight I stride towards him, he is leaning with his back against his douchebag of a car, his legs looked like they were just as off balance as they were moments before.

I am sure my presence is known, it's not like I'm trying to be sneaky. My fist grows tighter by my side with every step closer I get to this piece of shit. I feel the sting in my palms as my nails dig into flesh.

"O-oh look who it is…" he inhales another hit of the burning tobacco, "mister-er knight in shining fucking armor." Smoke covers his face as he exhales each word slowly. "Tell me Sir-ir Knight-t…" he waddles in places, "do you make a hab-it of rescuing girls who have boyfriends? Is that your-r kink-k?" He throws the cigarette at my feet as I come up right in front of him, he is looking at me through narrowed eyes, giving me a lopsided grin. "Like fucking them too?"

He is really fucking up his chances of walking out of this without something broken. But then again, he did seem like the type of guy who would shove his whole foot in his fucking mouth.

"Hurting girls must be yours?" I state flatly as I take a step invading his space. I begin to see red as I remember the bruises on her wrists, the way he touched her just now, how she flinched at my touch when I tried to comfort her.

I grab his shirt with both hands yanking him swiftly towards me, my face in his. "You just get off making her scared just now?" His feet give out at the sudden movement, but he catches himself quicker than he did in the coffee shop. His eyes widen and before he can answer, before I can get another word out there is the sound of bones crunching over and over. Warm wet liquid coats my hand.

"You think it's fun to put your hands on her?"

"Who—" I can't hear him anymore.

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