The Wedding (A Sequel to The Architect) (Reupload)

Ohio

I drove up into the driveway, my heart feeling heavy as I exited the car. I hadn't been back to this place ever since the night I escaped but I think it was time to get some perspective. I put my keys in my pocket and walked in the front door of the house. The house was dusty and some of the lights didn't work. I walked through the place. I saw blood next to the front door, the place where I shot Jason. It was a couple of years ago that it happened but it felt like mere days. I walked through the rest of the house, not finding anything of real interest and I then headed outside. I went to the shed that Dylan kept me in and my heart beat started to pick up speed as I opened the shed doors. I looked around at the shed. Blood, my blood, still stained the floor. Everything from the time I spent here flooded my mind and I felt as if a weight was pinning me down. I tried to cry but it was hard to when I felt as though I couldn't breathe. I ran out of the shed and shut it and I finally felt like I could breathe again. I went back into the house and looked around once more, stopping inside one of the bedrooms. This is where Dylan must have slept. It had a clear view of the shed from the bed. Yep, this was Dylan's. I walked around the room, inspecting more than I did the first time around and didn't really find anything different than the first time. I started to walk out but heard a bang from inside the closet. My heart started to race. Someone was here. My breath caught in my throat and I went over to the bed, breaking off a piece of the headboard. I went over to the closet and opened the door quickly, ready to hit whatever came at me. I swung the piece of headboard and hit the wall with it.

"Hiss!"

I looked down at the ground to a little black cat.

"You scared me you silly cat."

I hunched down and petted the cat but it hissed at me again before walking out of the room.

"Same to you, cat."

I was about to shut the door but I saw a box had toppled over. That's weird. I thought the police would have gotten all of the evidence from the house. Guess they missed something. I grabbed all of the contents of the box and started to put it back in. It was just a bunch of papers. But when I looked closely, there were pictures. Pictures of Colby and pictures of me. This must have been Dylan keeping track of Colby and I. I started to shuffle through the pages. Credit card receipts, criminal charge forms and thousands of pictures filled the box. He made sure to keep very good track of me the whole time he was incarcerated. Didn't surprise me much. I put all of the things back in the box and put it back on the shelf. I stood and was about to leave when I saw that I had missed a picture. I picked it up and it was a picture of Colby and I. We looked happy. We were smiling and laughing. He was looking at me. He looked at me like, in that moment, I was the only thing he had ever wanted. Tears started to fall as I looked at the picture. I tried to stop crying but the tears just kept falling. What Colby had done...it was an accident, I knew this. But it was because of Dylan why I couldn't get over it as quickly as I should have. I was being paranoid. Honestly, I was scared. Dylan was everything to me and he turned into a monster around the time marriage was brought up. It was all thanks to Jason but still, it internally scarred me. And now, here we were again. Marriage was now a topic of Colby and I's relationship and he was acting violent. And instead of realizing what Colby had done was a mistake, I let it take me over and believe things that weren't true. I had known Colby my entire life. And I knew, Colby wasn't like this. He wouldn't kidnap me. He wouldn't put me in a shed and beat me. He wouldn't buy a house out in the middle of nowhere and watch the building I was in from a bedside window. He wouldn't track me like a crazy stalker. Colby wasn't like that. Colby wasn't like Dylan. I threw the picture into the box and brought the box with me. I picked up the cat, got in my car and left. I had to see Colby.