Tears streaked June Marchs face as she ascended the steps of her front porch, her lips being pulled down by a frown. Every few moments she would suck in an involuntary shaky breath in an attempt to ease the pain rippling through her diaphragm, but all it did was remind her of the blistering headache she had. She approached the door with a sick feeling, her eyes burning as she turned her head in every direction, just to make sure no one was out there. She pushed her key into the door, her hands shaking as the terror of returning home alone gripped her again.
This was somehow worse than being broken up with, knowing that even JJ didn't believe her. She felt anguished at the fact that Kiara had told him she loved him, but even that fact couldn't hold a candle to him not trusting her fears. And maybe he was right, maybe she was reading too far into things, maybe she was just a bad person and she was paranoid and she had no right to be afraid. Maybe she was afraid of nothing, maybe she was missing the bigger picture. Maybe it was all her fault because she hadn't told anyone...maybe. She started directly up her steps, her body feeling emotionally drained and incessantly overwhelmed.
When her fingers gripped her doorknob she got a eerie feeling deep in her bones, her gut telling her to turn around and leave. It was almost as if all the little voices in her head were screaming at her to get out of there, the coldness of the knob making her furrow her eyebrows. She stopped, turning her head slightly and looking down the hallway. At the end of the hallway was a light, coming from the office upstairs. She sucked in a shaky breath and shook her head, figuring she had probably left it on before. Her brain pounded the thought of her not being alone into her consciousness, and she felt that terrifying feeling in every bone in her body. She was not alone. Her mind returned back to what JJ had told her, the darkness of the house assisting her in replaying the memory.
You're being dramatic, no one is after you. You are not the important one here.
She felt like all her muscles had turned to stone, her body refusing to open the door. But she was more afraid of the light in the hallway than the confines of her room. She considered sucking it up and disappearing out of the March home and crashing on someone's couch. But she didn't, she just assumed it was her paranoia again. She held her breath as she turned the doorknob, pushing the door open before anything. It creaked open and she had been correct in assuming someone else was here, her breath falling out as she felt genuine relief at who was standing in her bedroom.
Tyler.
"Jesus Christ you scared me. Where have you been?" June still stepped in warily, her eyes raking over him repeatedly. The bad feeling had gone away when she saw him, the air in the house dropping about 10 degrees as she entered the room. He was standing by her vanity, his head having turned when she had opened the door. Her eyes caught onto something in his hand and she immediately stopped, swallowing heavily as she looked from his hand to his face. He was holding the medallion. "Where did you find that?"
"So this is it huh? The medallion that's the last key to everything?" The edge in his voice gave her a surge of discomfort, her eyebrows furrowing as she watched his eyes lift from the medallion to her face. The look in his eyes was a bit much, projecting trust and reassurance and genuine curiosity at her.
"Where did you find it?"
"I was actually going to ask you the same thing...because you're the one who had it." She felt a ripple of panic through her as he took a step in her direction, and she hoped she was wrong about all of this. That bad feeling had returned to her body and she felt the paranoia creep into her. It couldn't possibly be him, could it? Her eyes flickered to the closet and then to the window, that unsettled feeling overcoming her. While he hadn't necessarily insinuated anything bad, his demeanor convinced her otherwise, his air of desperation.
