Blackbourne Investigations 02 - Consequences

Chapter 23 - Roses are Dead

Dedicated to HaMalka.  Thank you for all your support when I first started and was a scaredy writer.  Who am I kidding, I'm still a scaredy writer!  I am not sure of your wattpad handle so please feel free to comment and let me know so I can make this dedication REAL.

My sweet tea loving friend, may you enjoy your day off. 

A big thank you for Silas'AggeleMou for editing when I was too tired to see.

I rested. Well, I tried to. It wasn't in my nature to take someone's word for it that I was safe and could rest. I didn't know where they were taking me. I knew I was going to their place, but what district or suburb? The need to know where I was approximately, and where I would need to go to leave this town, won over the need to rest. I tracked the roads, watching North turn westward, merging out onto a freeway. The traffic dropped off and the peacefulness of highway driving settled over us.

"You're not going to go to sleep, are you?" Silas murmured in my ear.

A smile broke over my face and I shook my head, whispering, "But I appreciate the thought."

He didn't reply, just tightened his arm slightly around me. I studied the reflection of his face on the window, him looking down at me before turning to gaze out the window. I felt like a fraud looking at us. Him holding me; me snuggled into his shoulder, too scared to look at him properly. I wanted to enjoy it and settle into the friendships and the care that they were extending to me. But my hot/cold heart kept on freaking out on me. I took a step forward to trust them then ran three steps back, scared of what was happening. I had given in, coming with them, now I was scared and trying to distance myself from the closeness they were offering.

North swung the SUV towards an opening warehouse roller door, pulling me from my thoughts. Somewhere in-between studying Silas and thinking, I'd lost track of where we'd been and where we were going. I wasn't exactly sure of where we were.

Clutching my bag, I followed Silas out of the car, thanking him for shutting the door behind me. My eyes darted around as I tried to take it all in. We were downstairs in a warehouse. An empty, concrete floored warehouse. Where was their home? North shouldered my bags from the trunk and strode toward a flight of metal steps precariously perched on the back wall of the empty space. Silas gently nudged me, indicating with his head to follow. I scurried over to the steps, and started up, watching North disappear at the top. Dropping my eyes to my feet, I followed. The steps were metal and looked old, yet there wasn't any movement in them. They were well maintained and felt secure, even though they hadn't appeared so. Stopping at the top I looked through the open doorway to the right. I could see a glimpse of leather couches and big windows, overlooking the street.

Silas crowded up behind me. "Go on in aggele mou. Welcome to our home. What's mine is yours and all that jazz." I turned to face him, finding my face millimetres away from his chest. Stepping back slightly and looking up, I smiled. "Thank you Silas. For everything. I really do appreciate you two opening up your home like this. I-I don't want to be a burden at all, but I do really appreciate it considering the other options."

He moved in again, closing the small gap I had made between us, "Sang, you are not, and never will be, a burden. Look at you," he leaned forward and one armed scooped me up to his chest, bag and all, and strode through the doorway with me pressed against him. "You're a featherweight."

It seemed ironic somehow, that I was entering their apartment the same way I had exited mine.

~~~

I was dreaming. I knew I was, yet I couldn't stop the nightmare that was spreading before my eyes. He had come and found me. He'd left me red roses. Red roses, everywhere. Some in bouquets, some were torn and scattered petals. They were in the bathroom, between the sheets of my bed. I flung the closet door open and went to grab my go-bag. It was gone. It wasn't there when I needed it. My breath left me in panicked puffs. Sprinting for the front door of my apartment I flung it open to run straight into him; a large bouquet of red roses in his arms. "Why, Sang, so excited to see me again?"