Hollow Breaths|✔️ (Unspoken Words book 3)

11. Carry You Home

Suddenly, the darkness that was bathing me was choking me and I felt like I was drowning.

In a heartbeat, I shut my laptop hard and leaped off the bed. I quickly put on a t-shirt, a pair of sweatpants and sneakers before I jogged out off the house from the backdoor, across the backyard, and down the street.

The dark streets were dead, devoid of voices, sounds, and people. When I rounded the corner and ran down another street, I picked up my pace till I was sprinting faster than ever through this vacant little down.

I liked going on runs in the middle of the night. There was something relieving about it. It gave me control. It gave me the chance to outrun myself. Me against myself.

I wasn't De- - - - - - -. No way. I couldn't self-diagnose myself based on a stupid test. Maybe this was just teenage angst. Everyone had teenage angst. Some more than most people.

I picked up a quicker speed, attempting to outrun my thoughts.

I sprinted past the diner and then EverGreen High's school building where I caught two silhouettes under the moonlight seated in front of the main doors. I recognized their laughs. I always would. There was a time when those silhouettes meant everything to me.

Funny how people you couldn't go a day without seeing or talking to, suddenly became strangers one day.

I ran till the only thing I could feel was the taste of blood crawling up my throat and spreading inside my mouth, and till my heartbeat was so loud that it shut out the Demon's voice living inside my head.

I almost stumbled over my own feet when I reached the little lake that divided the town in two. The wealthy side and the average side. Panting breathlessly, I bent over and dropped my hands to my buckling knees. My lungs were begging for air so I took deep, gasping breaths. My eyes caught beer bottles and burnt cigarettes slowly floating across the surface of the lake, the reflection of the bright moon mirroring it.

Suddenly, my hoarse breath got caught in my throat when I saw a silhouette standing on the railing of the small wooden bridge that held the two sides of the two connected.

I didn't see who the person was.

The figure's long arms were a spread out and head was tipped to the starry night sky.

My mind went overdrive and I knew what was coming next. He or she was going to jump.

Shit.

Holy fuck.

When the person lifted one foot off the railing and dove slightly forward, I practically flew over to them and used my long legs to jump up the railing to grasp their arm. A feminine scream broke the silence and my hand caught her wrist and I yanked her down just when she jerked away.

Then, it happened.

My foot slipped and I went flying off the bridge, just waiting for the wooden ground to hit my back and skull, but it never came. Instead, I felt my body break through the icy cold surface before the water embraced me.

It took me a moment to realize I had fallen into the lake. I broke my head out of the surface and coughed and wiped wet my face before looking up to find the red-haired girl sitting on the railing with her legs swung over the edge. Astonished brown eyes stared down at me while her jaw hung open.