When It Comes To You [√] BOOK TWO

66

Harry

I knocked on the door and waited patiently.

I knew that it would take him a while to open because he always tried making himself look presentable before seeing visitors.

The door opened a few minutes later.

"Harry. It's you." He said when he saw me.

He looked terrible. I could see the dried up tears on his face and the red in his eyes gave him away.

"May I come in?" I asked.

I didn't comment on his appearance mostly because I was probably worse.

I hadn't eaten or slept properly after Camila's disappearance.

Guilty and terrified aren't words that are raw enough to describe how I felt but that's the only way to describe it.

I was so utterly and completely devastated.

I felt incomplete.

I felt like a failure.

I felt pain.

Both physical and emotional.

"What are you doing here? You're supposed to be resting." He told me as we walked into the living room.

I winced. Memories of sitting in that room before taking Camila out on our first date flashed in my mind.

I ignored the reminiscent feelings and answered Drey's question. "I know. I just needed to get out of the house and well, I didn't know where else to go."

He glanced at my crutch but didn't say anything. I was glad because I really didn't need his pity.

After Hunter had attacked me, someone found me and called the paramedics.

I had been hurt. Really bad. Apparently Hunter's spell had sent some kind of waves to my brain that caused me to have a stroke and unfortunately, my bottom half had become paralyzed.

Fortunately the paralysis had only been temporary and for a couple of weeks, I had to use a wheelchair.

I was walking around with a crutch the day I went to visit Drey.

"If you say so. Uhm, sorry. I was just looking at some old things." He said when I noticed the photo album on the couch.

He reached down to move it out of the way so I could sit but I stopped him.

"I'd like to see. That is, if you don't mind. May I?" I asked him.

He looked like he was about to refuse so I just took it from him.

I knew that he wouldn't wrestle with an injured person.

I flipped it open as I sat down and found a blurry photograph of a little girl. Her long hair reached her back and her bangs brushed her eyes. Her toothless smile and puffy cheeks were the definition of cute.

"Camila." I whispered, stroking the photograph.

Andres came to sit next to me.

"That's the only picture I have of her as a child. I found it lying around in our house back in Mexico." He said.

The next picture was of the two of them dancing on the street. It wasn't a really good picture but I liked it. They looked happy.

I flipped through the album and listened as Drey told me every picture's story.

I knew about Camila's past because she'd told me but as I sat there looking at old pictures with her brother, I felt like I understood her a lot better.

Andres would tell me a little about each photograph as I paged through the album but when we came across a particular one, he was silent.

The picture was nothing special. It was of Andres dressed up as Superman. Camila was standing next to him, doing a weird kung-fu pose. I chuckled slightly at her expression.

"Who is she dressed as?" I asked Andres.

He didn't answer. I turned to face him and saw that he was staring at the photograph with a dreamy look. A tear silently escaped from his eyes as he stared at it.

"Drey?" I asked.

He looked at me then back at the photograph. "Uhm, she was dressed as Go-girl. It was a superhero she made up."

He wiped the tear away and let out a chuckle. "I still remember. I came back from work one evening and found her doing her homework. She was in second or third grade. I greeted her and everything and then, I made supper.

We ate and then just before bed, she told me that she wanted to show me the story she'd written. I took the paper and read it aloud. Of course some of the words were spelt incorrectly and there were terrible grammer errors but I remember the basic words.

Once upon a time there was a girl who was best friends with Superman. Superman loved her and protected her and was the bestest person ever. One day the girl went to school. No one liked her. They were mean to her because of her accent and the way she wrote. They pushed her in the bathroom and tripped her in class behind the teacher's back. Superman was great but he couldn't protect her in school. She was all alone. She was always scared to go to school but she didn't say anything to Superman because she had a plan. When the mean kids wanted to bully her, the little girl would scream and fight back. She was tired of being bullied and being scared and so she became her own superhero. She became Go-girl."

I smiled sadly as he finished the story. He seemed to hold that memory close to his heart.

"It was the first time that I realised she didn't need me anymore. She wanted to be her own superhero and although it hurt, I was proud.

I was proud that she was becoming a strong young woman who knew how to defend herself.

That picture makes me feel better about all this because I know that my Camila is strong. She's soft-hearted and kind but she's strong."

I nodded. He was right. Camila was strong.

"You're right. Camila will come back. I know it. I can feel it." I said.

We spent the rest of the afternoon there, sharing stories about her and remembering the good times.

The laughs and smiles were a distraction from what we really felt inside. It was a distraction from the hopelessness and the emptiness we felt inside.

We laughed. We cried. We supported each other.

I had to leave eventually and so after turning down countless offers to take me home(from Drey), I climbed into a taxi.

During the ride home, I felt my head pound. The guilt within me grew like a snowball going down a mountain and picking up more snow as it goes. I had lied to Drey by telling him that I had no idea what had happened on the night of her disappearance.

The truth was that I remembered everything. Hunter had taken her somewhere but I had no idea where.

I was stuck between confusion and anger and desperation. Hunter wasn't human—that much I knew but nothing else made sense.

I had gone back to his house to try and find clues but I couldn't understand the language that everything was written in.

After a whole month of trying to decipher the strange symbols and signs, I had sent a book to a guy that claimed to know about supernatural beings that walked amongst humans.

The dude might just have been telling the truth but he was most probably just a nutjob. Either way, I still hoped that he'd get something.

I really needed to find Camila.

I needed to see her.

Touch her.

Hear her.

Be with her.

I missed her more than I am able to describe.

Camila was somewhere out there. Whether she was on another planet, the moon or even in some underground cave, I would find her.

I wasn't going to let her down a second time.