In the Shadows of the Night

Chapter 9

Time past Kyle and I only spoke when absolutely necessary after that day. I had lost all interest in hanging out with my friends I didn't even take their calls when they would call the house. I just sat alone in my bedroom and tried to let everything soak in. I cried nonstop for weeks and only stopped when I went to school. Just when I thought all my tears had dried I would find another one falling from my eyes.

She cried herself to sleep every night and every night Kyle would listen to her sobbing from across the hall wishing he could help her, wanting to heal her pain. After she was asleep he would stop in front of her door and open it just a bit to check on her. His heart would fall into his stomach every time he did because he could see her slipping away slowly and knew there was nothing he could do to help her. The once happy girl was turning into a depressed young woman with her heart bleeding, screaming, to be healed from this torture that it was under. He would always close the door and never entered her room for fear that he would be caught in there with her and she would suffer even more than she already was.

Somehow, and Kyle isn't sure how, she made it to her graduation day. She graduated with her class and he knew it wouldn't be long before her father would return for her. He hadn't returned before like he had promised, but Kyle knew he wouldn't. He couldn't face his daughter again after causing her so much pain. He couldn't witness her pain, because he knew it would tear him apart, so he ignored it and hoped that she would get over it like so many crushes that teenage girls have, but this was more than a crush this was her true love.

She would eventually move on, but he would be with her for the rest of her life. His face would be the face she would see in her dreams, the memory of his touch would ruin her for any other's touch and his eyes would haunt her every thought, but she would eventually move on just as every young woman with a broken heart has before her and every young woman will after her.

She will move on, but their heart will forever be tied together. She will compare every other man to him, none of them will ever quite seem to add up. This is what happens when you find and lose your first true love.

Days passed after Jessica's graduation, there were times that she didn't even come out of her room at all. Everyone in the house just sat around and waited for the King to return, but He hadn't yet. He hadn't called either, leaving the entire house sitting on pens and needles as they waited for his return.

One night after the entire house had gone to sleep, Kyle was working in his den, when he heard the door to the den open he looked up and saw Jessica standing in the doorway. He watched her and was saddened by her appearance. She looked so thin and pale almost sickly. He wished that she would eat more and try to keep her strength up, but she refused to eat most of the time and when she did it was very little, just enough to keep her alive. Kyle waited to see what she would say. She quietly shut the door and locked it, then turned back toward him. Without saying a word, she walked toward his desk, staring into his eyes as she slowly walked toward him. She rounded the desk, knelt in front of him and looked up at him.

"I've tried, I really have. It's been a week since I've seen you and I still can't get you out of my mind. If my life is short lived because of my love for you then so be it, but I can't live without you anymore." I whispered, our eyes locked in an embrace of their own. I waited for a response, hoping that he didn't change his mind about me in the time that we had been apart.

When Kyle stalled my heart began to pound and my hands began to sweat as I sat there scared that he had grown out of love with me. I sat there scare that he was trying to think of a way to tell me. Fear filled my head making me dizzy, but I forced myself to remain calm on the exterior, although my interior was falling apart with each second that ticked by while I waited for him to respond.