No One Killed Venus Wilson

XXIX. VINGT-NEUF

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

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TRANSLATION NOTE:
mẹ: mother
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LILY'S BARE FEET padded the ground of a house she wondered she'd ever visit again. Her eyes shot from one corner to the other, as she contemplated whether or not to leave. He was already fast asleep, it would be better for her to leave and let him believe it was all a dream. Having to see him the moment he woke up, having to watch him break down once more, and clutch onto her was becoming too much. She couldn't handle her thoughts these days let alone taking on the burden of holding another's.

Though her body failed her as it settled on the couch. The room was dimly lit by the lamp she'd turned on when she'd exited his bedroom. Shadows created by the light danced on the ceiling as her eyes watched them come to life, daring to seep into her mind and come out only when she shut her eyes.

"If only the nightmares would stop when I opened my eyes," she murmured as her hand moved around in the air in sync with the creations of her mind.

Once she'd grown tired of the repetitive motions of her wrist and fingers, her hand fell onto her stomach earning a groan. It seemed as if she'd lost control of her body the way her mind had become a person of its own over the past year. She was just a mere vessel for the soul that rotted within her core, the soul she'd deprived of happiness as the days passed by.

     Lily elicited a shaky breath as her left cheek touched the leather couch, greeted by the sensation of her clammy skin against the material. Her gaze settled on the clock that read 2:45 AM.

     Right, she thought.

     It'd only been three hours since he'd went to sleep, five since she'd arrived at his doorsteps faced with a broken man that begged her to fix him. Lily turned around on the couch as her eyes shut, trying to drown out her thoughts, but, like always they were stronger than her. Like always, Lily found herself a slave to her mind, shackles digging deep into her ankles.

"It'd be terrible if something happened to you too."

Lily's eyes shot open and she leaned up, her head frantically looking for the origin of the sound only to realize it was her mind playing a sinister trick on her. The blood that flowed through the vessels in her body froze over as a bead of sweat trickled down her neckline.

"He's not here," she reassured herself. "He can't be here," Lily repeated.

Despite her heart screaming at her to stop, she found herself digging into her jacket pocket to retrieve her phone. The moment the screen lit up to show a picture of her family she was bombarded with missed calls, text messages, everything. Lily bit her lip as she unlocked the phone only to be met with one name, over and over again. Dominic Bilyk. It seemed everything was already crumbling before she could even get the justice she knew Kate needed to breathe again. Perhaps that's why she found herself reading through the text messages he'd sent into the deep hours of the night, begging her to come forward about the rumors that were spreading around the halls of Centennial Secondary School like a forest fire. What she didn't realize, what no one ever realized was that no one could truly control fire. Not even those that started it.

"You're a good person," she cried, chucking the phone across her so that it landed on the other side of the couch. Her knees folded in so that her chin could rest atop them as she gulped the guilt that dared to take her under and drown her in her own wrongdoings. "It'll be over soon," she said.