Herophine Short Stories

Salvation - Part 3

Josephine

When I opened my eyes, I came across the most beautiful but stressful  green orbs that I have ever seen in my life. This time, their proximity was enough to give me a heart attack as I was slowly gaining consciousness after the sudden attack from Hero.

I'm both scared and relieved to still be wrapped in his arms, the small possibility of him being a complete sociopath and ready to murder me any time now, still lingers at the back of my head.

What if everybody who was warning me was right?

What if he really is dangerous?

"I'm so happy to be looking at you again Jo" he husky voice tells me, snapping me away from my thoughts. I don't know what to say to him, I have no clue which approach to use regarding the situation.

"You don't have to say anything" he answers for me "I knew you would come, she told me so many times about you"

"Who did Hero?" I gently ask him.

"She did, my ex girlfriend. She warned me about you"

Regaining my memories, I recall reading in his files that his girlfriend was murder and he was a witness. After that, I'm pretty certain the downfall started so it is a pretty delicate subject to talk about right now.

"And where is she now?"

Let's see if he is hallucinating now

"They took her away from me. They... They wanted to take the other girls too but I saved them, I saved them Jo"

"Hero..." I look at him and take his cheek in my palms, softly stroking it. "You didn't save them Hero, you tried to kill them"

His demeanor instantly changes and looks at me with fear. Is it possible I hit a nerve right here?

"No, no, no... I... Saved them"

"Hero listen to me-"

"No!" he shouts again, getting up on his feet and pounding on the brick wall with his bare hands, blood is coming out of them in seconds and I need to stop him before he hurts himself any further.

"Hero stop! You are hurting yourself"
He completely ignores me and pounds harder until I place my body in front of him and wrap my arms around his torso. He stops and just stands there frozen, his hands haven't wrapped around my body yet and I know I caught him off guard.

"She was right, it's really you. The one who doesn't run away" he tells me and I can feel his shoulders relax and his arms wrap around me protectively.

"I didn't want to hurt them Jo. They made me do it. They said, they said that..." he tries to speak but his voice is breaking "They said they were coming for them. I didn't want to see them die in front of me so I tried to set them free but... I couldn't" he says and cries on the crook of my neck.

I can't even begin to describe how I feel right now. His version makes sense and the reason why he is inside in this room is because nobody believes him that those people threatened him about murdering  everyone else.

"Nobody believes me, they think I killed Ella. Nobody believes that they were there"

"I believe you Hero. Your original file states your innocent"

"Yeah but the people here don't" he shakes his head "They think I'm a lunatic killer" he says looking back at me.

"You are not a lunatic, trust me" I hug him once again. "But Hero, you commited crimes, and I don't see how you will leave this place anytime soon" I state the harsh truth.