ᴀʟᴡᴀʏs | ᴊᴀʏ ʜᴀʟsᴛᴇᴀᴅ

𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚎𝚗.

He learns everything he can about her. Her life, her hobbies, her family, her friends. It's not hard; everything is on the internet in some way, shape, or form nowadays. He discovers that while now she prefers pilates and kickboxing, she used to be a dancer and gymnast all through high school. She was a cheerleader for a year before she quit, probably realizing that she was too good for all those other spoiled brats who thought they were better than everyone. Those people – the jocks – always looked down on him in high school, treating him like he was nothing simply because he didn't conform to their rules. He knows she's different than them.

The only real family she has is her mother, a flighty, absent parent that did nothing to deserve such an amazing daughter. And her father, a real piece of garbage that abandoned her to start a new family. He doesn't understand. How could anyone willingly leave her when he would do anything to be with her? Even though she spent most of her time living in Chicago, she moved to Seattle to finish college and came back for her job. It has to be fate.

And don't even get him started on her fiancé. A worthless excuse for a partner. It's obvious how unhappy she is, how she is begging him to save her from the empty life she's trapped in. He can see it in her eyes that she just wants to be free. And deep down, she knows that he's the only one that can free her.

✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ:**:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Watching from afar has begun to be too much for him, but not enough at the same time. It hurts to be so far away, and all he wants is to finally be with her. But he knows it'll take time, time for her to realize how truly miserable she is. To realize that she doesn't love him, that she doesn't really want to marry him. To realize that he is the only one who can love her the way she deserves to be loved.

He begins to see her everywhere, in every woman with brown hair and green eyes, and those women... Those women, he can have. They're right there: looking like her, taunting him, begging him to save them from their miserable lives.

The first one is easy. She's just there, jogging on the trail at Lincoln Park, and he can't stop himself. He looks at her and sees Mia, and he has to have her. He doesn't mean to kill her, but she just won't stop fighting him. He tries to cover her mouth, to shut her up, and when she begs and pleads for her life, it shatters the fantasy he's built in his mind. Her voice is all wrong; it's high-pitched and whiny, not angelic with that soft raspiness he loves so much. And her face changes underneath him. Suddenly she's not Mia; her skin is too pale, and her eyes have too many flecks of blue. And he snaps, grabbing the closest rock and forcing her to stop staring up at him with those dull, sparkless eyes.

It isn't his fault. He didn't mean to hurt her, to kill her. But the taste of her, the taste of Mia he finally got, is too addictive to give up.

✧･ﾟ:*✧･ﾟ:**:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

He left the room for one minute. One minute. He had to take the phone call about a possible job opportunity, but he should've double-checked the rope he was forced to use to tie her up after she wouldn't stop trying to punch and scratch him. Somehow, she loosened the knot enough to get free. Somehow, she managed to stumble out of the empty warehouse. Somehow, she managed to get far enough down the street before he realized she was gone for him to go after her.