THE CODE THAT LINKS US ©

Chapter Twenty Four

DYLAN

I stop her too late because right when I pull my shirt down again, she's pale with a hand covering her mouth. Perfect. Now what? "What happened?!" she asks.

"Madison..." she raises her hand to stop me and shakes her head.

"Who did that?" she asks. She seems like she will fall unconscious without a moment's notice.

"Are you okay?" I ask her and she frowns staring at the sand thinking of something.

"Oh no... What did you do?!" her voice sounds mad but her look tells me she's going to cry in any second. I freeze without answers. I don't even know. "Damn it I knew this was going to happen!" Now she is furious.

"Madison..." I begin to say right when she stands up taking a bunch of sand and throwing it right to my eyes. "Madison!" I stand up how I can and run towards her, who has already walked a considerable distance. I take her hand and a lump gets formed in my throat for the look in her eyes. They are full of tears, her face is red and she looks broken. What did I truly do?

"You told me your whole family lived in Chicago," she cries.

"What?" is all what I manage to say. Her look is really finishing with me.

"Please tell me you did know her," she begs and I am at a loss of words. "Tell me you knew that woman!" she shouts. Oh.

I merely look at the sand and that leads her to push me from my abdomen causing me a big sharp pain that I deserve without doubts. When I find her eyes again she seems hurt, like if she is going to apologize for doing that, when I clearly don't deserve it. I deserve for her to let out all her rage on me for being such an idiot. How could I did that? I should have somehow told her what happened. I should have made this different.

"I am sorry." This time is me who apologizes and the tears start running fast out of her eyes before she starts walking away at a fast pace. "Madison I did it to protect you!" I shout trying to convince myself of that. Getting the attention of a couple that walks by the shore. Did I try to protect her or myself? I could barely walk at her pace, it hurts more with every step. "I didn't even know what they wanted and I still don't know!" She stops.

"I can't believe I was such a fool to believe you," she says with contempt when I catch up with her.

"Believe what?" I already know the answer. The same one I receive from all the girls once they figure out my game plan. Of course, I never cared before, but this, this is totally different. I didn't just mess with her feelings, I messed with her life, with her sister and who knows with what else.

I never thought this would happen. I never thought she was going to be so special that I would end up regretting hurting her. I don't know what's changing inside me but I don't care what could happen to me anymore. I need to fix this. At least I owe her to try.

"That you were actually different, that my instinct was wrong for not trusting you, for thinking you were only playing with me as everyone does, that you weren't part of all this... that at any moment you were going to do exactly this," she cries. "You played me."

She turns around to keep going and I ignore the pain in every fiber of my body to follow her and grip her wrist as strong as I can to get back her attention. "I am not playing anything," I say and that earns me a strong slap. And God, she's strong.

"I am sick of everyone lying to me," she shouts. "Don't dare to do it right in front of me!"

"I swear I am not lying," I reply and she's impossible to read now. Of course, in the beginning, she was just another girl, but now that I have met her, held her and kissed her. I know she's more than a conquest or a game. She's worth every pain or punch I could get from following her. She's worth everything. I can't just let her go now.

"You wanted to know everything about me? This is it!" she shouts crying. "My whole life has been a cruel and stupid lie," her voice breaks. "And you are just no more than part of it."

"Madison, I swear I don't understand a single thing about what you are saying," I say making eye contact with her and she just shakes her head. "I want to help you, I swear on my life that I would do everything that is necessary to get you out of this, of whatever is it that you are in."

"Oh really?" she asks almost letting a laugh out while she crosses her arms and I nod. "Weren't you trying to do that a minute ago? Look how great it is going!" she turns around again and keeps going.

"What do you want me to do?" I say the best I can getting her to stop once more.

"Take me home and then just get the hell out of my life," she says without looking at me. "It's already hard enough."

I have never felt shittier in my life as I do right now. We make half an hour on our way back home and with every second that passes by, the time gets more and more suffocating.

Madison is lost in her thoughts, with an absent look and crystalized eyes locked on the street. She doesn't talk and neither do I. What's going to happen when we are back? Would she be in danger? Should I take her far away? Is it really the best idea to leave her now? My mind is a mess and it doesn't matter how many things I try to say to calm her down and assure her that whatever is it that she's going through right now it's going to end up well. None of it is capable enough to leave my cowardly mouth.

Back home, everything looks normal. The street is relatively calm and the parking lot keeps the same cars as usual, except for one in the number twelve.

A white Jeep.

MADISON

When I get out of the car I feel like the floor moves under my feet. I think my brain is about to collapse and I feel like my heart is going to stop for the jumble of emotions that I am going through right now.

An hour ago I felt like the luckiest person on earth. Finally after so many terrible days I was happy. I finally kissed the first person I thought was worthy of it, the one that made me feel good and gave me the energy dose I needed to keep going with all of this. Now I realize the disappointing truth, of knowing I am a fool for letting this happen. The worst part is that in the beginning, I knew it would have ended up like this, I was sure of it. But he fooled me so much that I ended up falling for him. How could I be so stupid?

We enter the elevator.

What would happen when we arrive? Would they be waiting for us? Have they left already? How's Alison? Did they hurt her?

The elevator finally gets open and I am surprised to find the corridor empty, everything seems normal. But my nerves are consuming me so much that my hands begin sweating even though I am freezing on the inside.

I manage to place the card against the sensor and Dylan in an attempt to protect me puts his hand on my shoulder. I shrug it off. I don't need him and I don't want anything else from him. "I can do it alone," is all I say before I manage to open the door to see what's waiting for me behind.