Sink Into Me

"I give up having this argument with you. I can't seem to get through to you no matter what I say."

Silence stretched between us. Have I slipped into some alternative reality? Am I even awake? 

"I'm sorry."

"You're not." I said as I shook my head and stepped toward him. "Why didn't you tell me?"

He sighed and lifted his hands to cup my cheeks. "I wasn't allowed."

"Who said so?"

"Who do you think?"

"Was it Ana? Because I can respect that, but if it was Kate I will surely murder her."

"It was Ana, luckily. And I am sorry."

I gazed into his green eyes for approximately six seconds before saying, "You're sorry about not telling me but you're not sorry about Tate."

He dropped his hands, his eyes hardening. "No, I'm not."

"You're going to kill him aren't you?"

He brushed by me without an answer. 

So that's that. They were going to kill him and the rest. Tate didn't freaking deserve it. 

From what I could see through the fog, the sun was slowly setting. Katherine smiled sadly at me before leaving through the front door with Nicholas. Pam gave me a hug and a kiss on the cheek and John also hugged me. Michael was last.

Everyone had left the house, all waiting outside. Although the look in his eyes was still hard and emotionless, something was buried behind it. 

"Stay safe and inside."

I couldn't promise anything. Not a thing. But I nodded anyway. 

He curled his hand around the back of my neck and pressed a long, lingering kiss to my forehead. I clenched my jaw and shut my eyes as he landed another kiss to my cheek. 

"Don't do this to him." I couldn't help but say. "He doesn't deserve to die."

Michael sighed but still didn't speak and it was beginning to grate my nerves.

"He's my friend." I pleaded. "Give him a chance-"

"You knew this would happen," He stepped back, his eyes burning with anger now. "Your 'friend' has been watching you basically since you've been coming here. Your 'friend'," He lifted his hands in quotations. "Threatened to hurt your brother and, oh, look what happened. He ended up in hospital."

"You knew, and you said yourself that he had nothing to do with it. What in Gods name happened to that understanding Michael instead of this condescending asshole I used to be familiar with before we were together."

His nose flared and I noticed just how angry he was because his pupils were starting to pulse. 

A knock from the open door surprised both of us. John walked in with crossed arm and stepped toward us. "Evie, we have to go. You can fight when Michael gets back."

"But when he gets back, there won't be anything to fight about because he'd of done it."

John glanced between us obviously at a loss for words which was a huge surprise. He left the house without so much as a mutter. I turned my gaze to Michael, suddenly seeing the side that he'd been hiding. 

He was sad. I wasn't sure why because he left before I could ask. And I couldn't shake the feeling something was wrong. 

***

Six o'clock. They'd been gone for half hour. And my decision whether to go outside and check whether Tate could be wondering around out back was slowly going toward the 'do it' area. 

I stood up from couch in the study and stared out the window absentmindedly touching the necklace Michael had given to me.

My nerves were shot. My bottom lip was swollen from how much I'd been biting it. 

I groaned and roughly ran my hands through my hair. I couldn't let them kill him. They couldn't. They can't. 

Then do something about it.

But if I do, I'd be betraying the man I love and my friends. 

But if you don't, your friend dies...

"Shit." I ran upstairs to throw on my grey hoodie and my converse. I tied my hair up in a loose pony tail and ran back down and out the sliding back doors. I started walking further into the trees cursing the damned fog. It was gloomy, not completely dark but almost. I could still see everything ahead and behind me but the house had disappeared. "Tate?" I yelled. "Tate, are you here?" 

I still hadn't seen him since he'd left that nice note on the porch. Meaning I hadn't had time to scold him about it.