Samantha’s True Love “Don’t do that,” Samantha cried. “Please, please, I beg you! Don’t kill her. Just don’t.” Jarrod was so into the moment, that he didn’t hear her pleas for several seconds. She sang it over and over, until it broke into that barrier of his sanity. He looked up at her, taking into account the fear in her eyes, the way one of her hands were suspended in the air and the other around her throat, as though she was literally in Lolita’s place and wanted to die in her place. Jarrod stared at her, remembering that he hadn’t disposed of her yet. Why was she so lucky? Why had he so neglected her when he could have easily been done with her in the first place? She didn’t need to spoil the magic that he was about to perform right that minute. “Do you want to take her place?” he growled, his knife still on Lolita’s throat. “Is that what you’re aiming for?” Samantha did not even hesitate. “Yes. Yes, I want to take her place.” The anger in him festered so quickly, it n
Grief “What did you do?” Lolita’s words floated out through the haze of her dream. “What… what did you do to her?” Jarrod began to panic. This had not ended the way he wanted it to. He watched Samantha helpless on the floor, the knife stuck in her chest. He wasn’t sure which part of her chest got stuck with the knife, but the way she was gurgling, he knew she wouldn’t last long. Lolita crawled to her, her own sorrows forgotten. She raised Samantha painfully into her thighs, her hands shivering above her. “No, no…” she slowly touched the surrounding area. “Should I pull it out? Jarrod, should I pull it out?!” “Yes,” Jarrod called back, distracted. What would he tell Tessa now? She wanted to make the kill and now he had snatched it right off her. Lolita’s hands curved around the knife, intending to pull it out. Samantha weakly placed her hands on Lolita’s, stopping her movements. Her breaths were slow and long, like it would be the last thing she’d ever do. “No,” Lolita said, her
The Memories Of One Who’s Lost It was the day after Samantha died. Lolita clung to her in her sleep, dreaming about good things. When she held Samantha’s body, she was lured into the deep, dark abyss where everything seemed okay. It was dark, but at least Samantha was with her. Samantha was her sunshine, the bright hay in the sack. She was the reason Lolita still stayed positive about her dead toe. “See? It’s never going to get infected,” Samantha said, patting the empty spot where Lolita’s toe should have been. “He wrapped it up pretty shabbily but it’ll do.” “Tell me about your childhood,” Lolita crooned, leaning in towards her. “I want to hear about it again. What were your parents like?” Samantha rolled her eyes. “Oh you know, they adored me. They gave me so much that I'd never be able to work in my entire life.” “True.” She giggled at her friend’s words. “But working seems hectic, right? I want to work. Sitting around can be so idle.” “Yes. That’s why I involve myself in s
Present Time Tessa closed the metal door and bounced down the stairs. Jarrod was in the living room, chugging down a bottle of strong vodka. She tied back her messy hair into a bun with a band she found at the table. “We can’t let Lolita get her way,” she finally told Jarrod, unable to hold back her fears. “We need to send Sammy away to her family. I promised that I would—” Jarrod turned slowly to look at her. “You promised that you would, what?” “One time, I promised Sammy the best burial she could ever have. I promised to send her to her family and keep a black rose in her grave.” Jarrod looked incredulous at her answer. “Okay, so? What has that got to do with me?” “You buried that knife in her chest! Don’t act like this isn’t your problem as much as it’s mine!” He stood up, wobbling on his feet. His eyes were bloodshot and his gait were predatory, but Tessa stood her ground. Jarrod cocked his head to the side as he studied her. “Tess, if you think Samantha’s corpse is my p
Wedding Present “I’ve booked a hotel for you in New York,” Jarrod was saying. “You just have to go there. Say, you guys don’t mind sharing a room?” “Of course not!” Mrs. Adams gushed. “We don’t mind that at all. We’re so happy you both are finally taking these steps!” “Is Lolita there?” Alex spoke into the phone, interrupting his mother. “No, but she’s getting ready. She can’t pick any calls now; she’s stressed enough as it is. I will be the one handling your transportation to the venue,” came Jarrod’s explanation. “That’s cool but we thought she’d speak to us herself.” “Alex, she’s stressed. Let it be,” Mrs. Adams rebuked him. “Where is this venue so we might come there directly?” “Don’t worry about it. You just get to the airport on time and I’ll have Dr. Banners waiting to take you to us. You don’t have to do anything.” “Who’s Dr. Banners?” “Just a friend of mine. He’ll wait for you at the airport and take real care of you. There might be a change of plans but he’ll be th
New Plans Hayden raised the phone to his ear. He’d had Lolita’s number before, but he had never thought of calling her. There were so many loose ends, so many questions he wanted answers to. When Samantha had reached out to her in his house, why had she gotten through? He could swear that Sammy had spoken to Lolita on the phone before embarking on her ominous journey. The line was ringing. He was as stiff as the hands that clutched the phone, but Hayden remained composed. He wanted to hear her voice, and he would. Just when he was about to give up, the line clicked, indicating that someone had answered the call. “Hello?” came the voice. It was high pitched, breathy and female, like the person on the other end had been dancing before he interrupted. Hayden tensed, willing for her to speak again. It sounded like Lolita, but with a weird undertone. “Hello?” came the voice again, now impatient. “I don’t have all day, what do you want?” Hayden sucked in a sharp breath. It was Tes
Love Gone Sour Rocky was a simple man, who liked to follow simple rules. He based his life on the set of rules his superiors set for him, not because he liked having superiors, but because he wanted to protect his peace. Who better to protect his existence if not the very men he worked for? He liked being in a gang. All he had to do was kill or maim someone and be done with it. Killing people wasn’t entirely satisfying, but it was for the greater good. In that case, Rocky won’t particularly call himself a killer. He was a savior, saving mankind from stink that threatened to overpower them. If only his boss would learn to use him more. Rocky hadn’t even realized Hayden’s full identity until he appeared out of the blue and gave him a mission to find Jarrod Dane. Finding Jarrod Dane was easy, but discovering that his boss had a whole new identity other than the one they knew was incredible. It was pleasing, in fact. Rocky wanted to punish him for it, and so he made the progress of the
Garden of Life Hayden had never driven so hard in his entire life. He was well over his speed limits, and yet it wasn’t enough. He wished Rocky would just stop tormenting him and give him all the necessary information he needed. Who was dead and who wasn’t? How fucking hard was it to answer the damn question? He’d slapped his steering wheel over and over, but it wasn’t enough. Rocky needed to give him answers, and Rocky needed to give it to him now! “Answer the phone, damn it!” he screamed when his call went unanswered. “I know I abandoned the gang but I’ve got my life and shit to deal with! If you could just stop torturing me for that one tiny mistake—damnit!” He stopped by the side of the road and turned on his map. Rocky was smart enough to use the situation to his advantage, but he wasn’t smarter than him. Like all of his tricks, Hayden had put on a tracking device on one of the men assigned to Rocky. Two of them actually, but he only needed to find one to get to the rest. He f
The End and the Beginning Lolita sat at the porch of her house, waiting. It had just rained. She liked the dewy grass that sprouted from the ground. She started to touch them, but then drew back. She didn’t want to get her hands dirty. She had been turned into a neat freak by Hayden’s influence. She waited for him now, wondering if he would show up. It was Saturday. They had agreed to visit Samantha’s cemetery together. The last time she’d gone, she had been alone with Izan. All she thought about was him. She worried that her telling him off might have affected his relationship with Samantha. It was a silly excuse, and when he showed up two days later, he made it clear that he didn’t have to see Samantha every single day. A car parked in front of her house. It was him. Lolita refrained from jumping up and running to him like some little girl. He got down from the car and ran his fingers through his hair. It was a sensational habit of his, and he looked incredibly hot while doing it.
Bed of Thorns “I have been thinking about you,” Hayden answered quietly. “Every night, every day, every minute. All I think about is you.” Their eyes locked and held. Lolita bent her head a little forward, intrigued by the soft calm of his voice. “Tell me what you think about.” “Good thoughts. Bad thoughts. Terrible thoughts. All sorts of things about you.” He paused for a minute and reached for a glass of water. “Sometimes imaginations bleed into reality. I don’t know what’s real and what’s not real.” They were wrapped in each other’s world now, the food forgotten. Lolita was lost in his eyes and he was lost in hers. “It’s different for me,” she told him. “I know what’s real and what’s not. I dream.” “What do you dream about?” “At first, it was about Jarrod.” Her voice was surprisingly strong when she mentioned his name. “I tried seeing some doctors, but the dreams would not leave. It went on for six months.” “Yeah? So what did you do next?” “I started to dream about Samanth
Bound The doorbell rang. Lolita was in the bathtub. She blinked, realizing she’d been in the tub for over an hour. The water was cold now. She slowly stepped out of it and reached for a pink robe. Her bathroom was the only clean room in the whole house. It was where she sought her solace, where she slept the most. She went to the front door and opened it, her hand stiffly removing a strand of wet hair from her face. When her vision cleared, she immediately stiffened. Lolita was taken back to a year and several months ago, to the very first time she saw Hayden alone. He was standing at the door then with a small smile on his face, just as he was now. She’d been naked back then, from head to toe. He had pointed it out to her, his eyes laughing while she rushed inside to change. Lolita’s arms circled around her body. She wasn’t naked today. She was wearing a pink robe, so why did she feel intensely embarrassed—like she’d been teleported to the past and history was repeating itself? Sh
The Trials of Lost Love Hayden stood up slowly. They stared at each other for a moment, none of them taking a move. Lolita’s eyes quickly scanned the environment, discovering that Izan was not around. Her eyes went back to him. He looked leaner than before, but still built. He’d grown out his hair; they flowed past his neck and around his shoulders. His face was clean, neat. He looked like a god standing before her, taller than she’d last imagined. He still had that oppressive aura around him, the one that made her fall to her knees for him. Lolita looked at him and all she could see was just Hayden, lost in his own mind. He regarded her as she regarded him, but he still didn’t make a move towards her. She remembered the last time she saw him, in her hospital room. He looked mad back then, as though the earth would stumble over him if she didn’t let him touch her. Lolita didn’t know what to say. The air was calm and awkward at the same time. “I’m sorry,” he mumbled, so low that she
Time Heals No Wounds Lolita swirled her coffee around with her spoon. She stared into the cup, lost in the swirls of the deep brown. It had no sugar, no milk, just plain coffee. She still hated coffee, but now it was different. Now she liked the burn and the bitter taste that traveled down her throat. She sipped it slowly, savoring its taste. It reminded of everything that had happened, everything she had lost. Her thoughts scared her the most. Sometimes she lay up in her bed, staring into her ceiling and wondering if Samantha was still out there. Her brother caught her many times lying outside on the dirt, looking up at the sky. “I was waiting for Samantha,” she would say if he asked. “But she won’t come. The skies are starless tonight.” Her family was scared for her, and understandably so. When they tried to take her to meet more psychiatrists and therapists, Lolita had to incessantly beg them that she was fine. They didn’t believe her, of course so she decided to pretend for a
Farewells and Backtracks “I’m sorry,” Hayden responded quietly. “Do you want me to leave? I can leave right now.” “Yes, please.” He stood up on a shaky foot. He walked to the door, then stopped. When he looked back at her, his eyes were shimmery with tears. She’d almost forgotten how beautiful he can be. How stunning and incredibly attractive, even though he looked broken. “It’s three in the morning,” he said to her. “I don’t think it’s safe for me to leave just yet.” “For me or for you?” He was shaken by her answer. Hayden leaned on the door and watched her instead, preferring the space between them instead of just out rightly leaving. Lolita sat up slowly on the bed, her eyes on him. “Is he here?” She asked. His forehead creased at that question. “Who?” “You know who.” Hayden looked down at his feet, but before then she saw shame and fear cross his face. Lolita’s heart spiked again, alerting the machine. She glanced at it in horror, wondering if it was going to alert the b
Dreams Lolita woke up again, this time more refreshing than the others. The oxygen mask was thankfully out of her mouth. Her arm was still stiff, but at least she’d had a nice change of clothes and bandage. Her leg was on a cast above her bed, but the nurse who’d shown up the previous night promised that she’d start physical therapy as soon as possible. Lolita didn’t mind. She really didn’t need her legs; she wanted to remain in this bed for as long as possible, staring at the unstained room. She liked the emptiness it denoted. She felt seen, even if it was by an inanimate object. Her family showed up more frequently than she would have liked. Her mother sometimes slept with her and held her hands. Lolita didn’t like it. It made her hand sweaty and twitchy. She would have loved to draw it away without waking her mother, who would in turn alarm the whole hospital. She just wanted to be left alone. Samantha never showed up. She began to seek her out in her dreams, but they were so
Flowerbeds and Lilies Lolita was reliving her nightmares over and over. It sometimes started out as a fantasy dream, where she was a fairy and she was flying high above the clouds. In the middle of admiring the beautiful nature below, she would then see a large black bird rushing towards her. At first it looked like a crow, but when it grew closer it grew into a larger, terrifying bird. It was ten times bigger than her. It would grab her off the air with its claws, cutting into her arm and abdomen. She would scream in pain and try to break free, only to discover that the claws had materialized into hands, and that it belonged to Hayden, who in turn changed into Jarrod. Every single time, she would try to break free and pull herself from the abyss of pain, but all she encountered was a dull emptiness. There was nothing to pull herself into, no rope to drag her back to the light. All she knew was emptiness; dark and dull. She had begun to grow accustomed to it. Perhaps she would even
Grief and Byes Hayden woke up with a gasp, as though he’d been drowning forever and something just tugged him out from the deep end of the ocean. For a second his vision was blurry and gray. The gleaming white of the room hit him like lightning, immediately hurting his eyes. He winced and closed them back immediately, trying to relax his tense muscles. “He’s awake,” he heard someone murmur in the room. It was Rocky. Hayden reached out a hand, his fingers twisting for comfort and assurance. He needed to know he was alive and not in that bleak, dark blue he’d been in since forever. A cool, large hand touched his, squeezing it assuredly. “It’s not in my job description to coddle you, sir.” Hayden opened his eyes. It was definitely Rocky. He was standing at the side of his bed with a young, charming nurse who was obviously flirting with him. Hayden was too tired to make jest of the situation. Rocky turned to the nurse with a smile, signaling her that it was okay for her to leave. Whe