Creatures of Hell Book 1: Whispers in the Dark

Chapter 32: Slipping Away [Sedrick]

I whispered to her something like 'it'll be okay' and even I knew that it was a lie, we were supposed to prepare for this but how do you prepare to say goodbye?

I felt a tear come to my own eye, I blinked to make it disappear but it didn't, they just kept on coming from my face.

"We're ten minutes away, you might want to say goodbye and do what Malik said." Alistar said from the front seat of the car.

Candice shot up from my lap and sat beside me, taking my head in her hands and staring directly into my eyes.

"Candice..." I whispered, there was so many words that I wanted to say, that I wanted to scream at her and beg for her to listen to them. There were so many things that shouldn't be left unsaid but this was our goodbye and she would forget them anyway.

"Don't, please don't do this!" she begged and I could see the pain in her eyes. She dropped her hands, she was feeling betrayed that I was doing what he had asked, couldn't she just understand I was doing this for her? So that she could have a nice happy life?

I wiped further tears that fell from her eyes away with my hands and begged for the heart ache between us two to end but it wasn't going to.

I moved her hands from her sides to my chest, just where my heart lie and kissed her on her forehead.

My voice choked in my throat as she looked into my eyes, begging me to not say anything.

"Candice...I..." I stopped talking, I couldn't say what I wanted to say because it hurt to admit it, she was going and I can't keep her.

"Don't do it, please, don't." she begged and began properly crying.

I wanted to wipe the tears from her eyes, I wanted to tell her without lying that she was going to be okay and together we were going to get through this but I couldn't.

I couldn't save her this time, we couldn't help each other through it.

"Candice..." I caught my breath, I would have given anything to steal a kiss, but I was making it worse for myself.

She looked down at the floor, my heart felt like it was beating and then dying in my chest and I begged for it to stop, but it wasn't like that.

"Candice, you're going to live a happy life." I started, coming to my senses and doing what was best for her even though it hurt more than any injury I had had in my whole life.

Her face crumbled more when she realised what I was doing, she began mouthing the words please and no.

"You're going to forget everything that has happened to you since you met Julian in the tunnel, you will forget Malik and me and...and her. You will forget about our land and our people, you will remember nothing of what happened to you and you will never remember anything to do with me." I choked on the last words and pulled her head into my arms.

The car slowed down and I realised that my tears had gotten heavier and I was crying like I'd never cried before. 

"You will live a happy life, you'll meet the man of your dreams and you'll have your little baby Willow. You'll be successful and never give up fighting just like you never did here." I gulped, "And...and as soon as you step out of this car, you will forget everything and you will run home to your family....Candice...I..." I couldn't bring myself to say the words.

I pulled her so that her eyes were looking directy in mine and I could see all of the pain,  all of the hurt, the confusion that she was feeling and I just uttered one final word to her, "Go."

She immediately got up out of the car, dressed exactly the same as night we took her and I saw her run off, down into the tunnel in her heels and she disappeared into the darkness.

I closed my eyes, the last tear fell from my eyes and I told Alistar to take us home.

Goodbye Candice, I love you. 

Candice POV

I got out of the car and ran, trying to stop my brain from forgetting.

SEDRICK! I screamed inside my mind and wanted to remember that name forever.

What name?

What was I trying to remember?

Where was I again?

I ran through the familiar streets of my home town, running down the road that led to the family home in my favourite heels.

My head span with uneasieness and as I ran, people turned to me with mouths wide open, what was their problem?

I looked down at my own clothes, now I saw their problem. It was because they were all ripped! How the hell was I going to explain that to my mother when I myself had no idea how those rips had happened? It wasn't even as if it could have been caused by walking and catching the dress on a tree, these rips were definately on purpose and that thought frightened me alot.

I made it to my home street, the road was full of parked cars leading to my mothers home, had I forgotten that we were having a party of some sort? It was nearly Christmas, could we be celebrating that?

I paused for several seconds by a lamp post, my head was spinning and I needed to catch myself before I fell. But one word on the lamp post, beside a picture stuck out to me more than ever and that one word made me step backwards several steps, feeling more distant from that home that I had called my own before I'd started my own life felt a milllion miles away.

Missing. Candice.

I snatched the elaminated piece of card off the lamp post, gazed at the text and the dropped the card to the ground.

My feet made their way to the front door, my hands pulled the door knob and my being stepping over the threshold into the very silent and very empty home. 

"Mum." I murmured, the room spinning as my feet tried to remain on the ground.

No answer.

"Mum!" I cried, my brain coming to life with eagerness. "Mum! I'm home!" 

Footsteps approaching, a door opening and then a figure appearing at the top of the wooden stairs that led to my childhood bedroom.

"Baby?" She asked, her face showing nothing and her eyes questionning what she was seeing, could this really be true?

I put my arms around her, burried my head in her shoulder and all I could hear were the shrieks and cries coming from around me, life entering the hallway and filling the house again.

"Mum what's going on out here? Oh..." David said and he stood there, frozen.

I sank to the floor with my mum, she put her arms around her and squeezed me tight to her.

"Candice, You're...I love you so much." she cuddled me and began showering me with kisses all across my face.

David fell to the floor with us and began crying.

I shut my eyes, I was home.