Page 32 of Capturing Ava
“Hello, little beast.” Her face pales as she stands stiff, just staring into my eyes. I’m not sure if she remembers me, but she remembers the name I gave her while I was watching her.
“It was you.” She gasps. “The whole time? It was you.” I just nod. “Couldn’t give me your name back then, but now, now you give me your name.” She screams.
“You remember me?” I ask in shock.
“I wish I could forget.” She whispers as tears fall down her face. “I wish I could forget everything.”
“Ava.” I reach out to touch her, but she moves away from me like I’ve got a disease.
“Don’t fucking touch me.” She spits back at me. “Don’t ever fucking touch me again.” And just like that, the sweetness, the softness that I had experienced with Ava is gone and all that is left is hate. The hate I see burning within her eyes as she glares at me.
“Why?” she whispers. “Why?”
I run my fingers through my hair. “In the beginning, I wanted, well, I wanted, to get you back. What you did, I couldn’t forgive and when I found out you were here, I just wanted to get revenge. Show you that every action has a consequence.”
“Well, congratulations,” she sniffles. “You got me. You made me believe you cared, but that was a lie. All you cared about was your stupid revenge.” Tears stream down her face. The sadness that I wanted to avoid was staring me in the face.
“I don’t care about that.” I gasp. She turns her back on me. “I care about you.” I scream out. She shakes her head and walks away.
I’m not sure why I’m surprised. What did I expect her to do, jump in my arms and forgive every horrible event I had put her through? Now, I was back to square one, alone with my obsession, and all that was left was the memory of her. The memory of what once was, but I knew that was a lie because our entire dynamic had been a lie.
Ava might hate me now, but she couldn’t leave. I couldn’t let her leave. Even if she hated me, she would understand, and one day she would understand. That what I did today. It was all for her.
Everything I had done was for her.
And I wouldn’t apologise for that.
12
ABLASTFROMTHEPAST
AVA
I thought he was my saviour, it turned out he was the evil that lurked in the shadows.
I wasn’t sure what his name was. Darn, I never even possessed it. I was just a dumb kid. How was I meant to realize he would hold on to those feelings ten years later? Who even held onto something for that long? Psychos, psychos held onto something for that long, and he was a psycho.
I wanted to explain to him the reason behind my theft, but he wouldn’t believe me. I could see it in his beautiful crystalline blue eyes when they looked at me with so much hatred.
I had never encountered a man as beautiful as him. When I saw him all those years ago sitting in the bar, of course, I was attracted to him. Who wouldn’t be? That’s not what caught my attention. It was the sadness that something shrouded him in. In a setting like this, it would seem that none of them owned a soul. It was like it carved them from the black abyss, spit out and just told to join human society, to fit in. Certainly, they presented themselves as normal, but upon closer scrutiny, the darkness entwining their souls was discernible.
He was different. There was something about the way he carried himself that intrigued me. That somewhere deep inside of this beautiful creature lay some humanity.
He talked little, but during our walk in the frosty night air, he did something unexpected. He displayed to me some kindness. I wanted to call it a night and leave with my dignity intact, but as I looked around, a sleek black vehicle followed me everywhere, watching my every move. I was aware I couldn’t do that do that. It was him or me.
I hated myself for years. It burned the image of the man who had given me more in one night than anyone had given me my whole life into my brain. I wanted to make him aware that when he had given me that damn rose, but every time I opened my mouth, the words got caught in my throat.
What would I tell him, anyway? If I didn’t take what was yours, Nikoli would kill me. He would end my miserable existence. I would have preferred to be dead, but after the kindness he had shown me, I saw a sliver of humanity had crawled across my soul. He had shown me kindness in a cruel, dark world and even though I knew what I had done to him was wrong but I would always remember him as the kind stranger that I kept locked in my heart, never to be seen again or that’s what I thought.
Standing there looking back at the man I had held in my heart for all those years. He didn’t look any different. I struggled to grasp the concept. He possessed a few lines that lay by his eyes, but other than that, he was still the same. Shrouded in sadness as he looked at me, the man who seemed so kind had tortured me to the brink of insanity, all to teach me a lesson. Something that I didn’t even want to do. I understood that the repercussions from Nikoli would leave a lasting mark on my soul.
I walk away from him with his words lingering on my back. The words crawl across me, but all I can think of is lies. How was it possible for him to say he cared when he had done that, made me feel something for him? I trusted him, let him into my home, and he had done it all for revenge.
Now I was alone, but the threat I had feared all along had been living with me. The tears drip down my face at the realisation that he had in the end won. He got his revenge because he broke my heart. I had trusted him and now, in return, he had broken me.
When I get to the kitchen, Audrey is sitting there looking sullen with a cup of coffee in her hand. I stand there, awaiting the next surprise. She looks at me with a sympathy like she already knows, but how is it possible for her to know? How could anyone be aware?
“You knew.” The words fell out of my mouth, surprising me more than her because they were too close. She brought him here. It was the only thing that made sense. Was she aware of everything? She must do because she’s looking at me with guilt written across her face. “Audrey, speak to me,” I shout louder.
