The Boy in Black

T W E N T Y - T H R E E

His blood pulsed through his injured, bruised fists as he stood just a few inches from the front door with a strand of his charcoal black hair down his face.

It was so quiet that he could hear his heart beating and his blood running through his own veins. He listened some more, and only heard the slick sound of his tongue sliding across his bottom lip. And right then, he knew it was time.

He told himself many times that Mattie would be his future, his path to something that would add a light to his world that was so, so dark.

It was like a tunnel and he was walking through it. Dark from the start but bright at the end, the end where Mattie was waiting for him with open arms. Jaxson was in the middle of it now, fighting his way through just to get to that damned light that he needed to feel on his skin and take in his arms.

Jaxson slowly reached his hand to the doorknob before sticking the key in the slot with caution and patience. He got it from the plant pot lying on their porch from seeing Mattie's mother putting it there just a few days before.

He had to push his fingers through the moist, recently watered dirt under the yellow flower sprouting from it to retrieve it. And when he did he smiled and moved his finger across a soft yellow petal, watching it fall onto the dirt afterward.

Jaxson bit his lip after finally unlocking the door to Mattie's home, and walked in with wide and alert eyes before taking in the smell of Yankee candles surrounding the home. 

The living room was dark, the only light present being from the candles and the moonlight that shone from the thinly curtained windows. Jaxson enjoyed the sight, mentally getting off to the thought of Mattie standing exactly where he was just hours before. He thought he could smell her, for her smell was something nobody could ever forget.

It was always cherries and vanilla. Each time he kissed her neck it was all he could smell, and he took his time to inhale her scent that he practically got high from when he hugged her to hopefully get her smell on his clothes.

Jaxson inhaled and exhaled softly, carefully taking step by step across the floor until he got to the stairs. He climbed them slowly, not making a single creak.

Her smell seemed to be getting closer, causing him to bite the inside of his cheeks and clench his fists before walking a tad bit faster just to get closer sooner.

Her room was at the top of the stairs, and her door was closed.

He stood in front of it and closed his eyes, praying that the door would not make a sound. And as he opened it, only one creak sounded through the hallway on top of the stairs, however Mattie sleeping in her bed did not budge.

He watched the covers rise and fall with each sleeping breath she took, and it calmed him.

Jaxson walked over to her bed, breathing softly and more easily now that he was in her presence. He admired her full, parted lips and held back the urge kiss them.

Instead, he turned around and exited her bedroom to do what he came to do.

He closed her door with darkened eyes, liking the way his black clothing blended in with his dark surroundings.

Jaxson held onto the railings as he walked back downstairs, squeezing the wood at the thought of Mattie's hands doing the same thing every morning before going to school.