*KAYDEN'S POV*
What the fuck happened to her face?
She was perfectly fine yesterday, she was smiling. She was enthusiastic, she was happy and she didn't have those cuts and bruises.
When we were about to leave the carnival, I realized that I fucking forgot that it was the day my mom died.
My mom died 2 years ago from breast cancer. She's had it for about 2 years but then her body gave up on her and she died.
After she died, everything fell apart. I couldn't do anything, I didn't have anyone.
My dad isn't in the picture anymore since he was fucking cheating on mom the whole time as she was fighting the son of a bitch.
I felt guilty that I had fun and was smiling with Souline yesterday when it was the day mom died but that was the first time I was out on mom's death date. I've always stayed home.
I texted her once today, but the message turned green once I sent it so I don't think she got it.
I was surprised to see her today. She looked different.
When I saw her face today, I could see her black eye. The bruises on her cheeks. The marks on her neck. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Why would Souline have those kinds of marks in her body?
As I chased after her, she was panicking, trying to get out of there as soon as possible. She got a new car.
Her dream car.
Her hair is shorter, I could see some bangs coming out from under her beanie.
She's made a lot of changes every since yesterday.
I chased down her car, but she drove away too soon for me to catch up to her.
I walk back to the main track and see Austin running up to me.
"What's got you all riled up?" He questions my upset facial expression.
"Nothing." I grumble and I start walking to my car.
"Hello Kayden." I hear Noah scoff behind me. I turn around and see him smiling.
"Noah." I state. I see his arm wrapped around Kylie and her smirking at me.
"Hey Kayden," Kylie greets getting out of his hold and coming my way.
I slowly step back next to Austin. "Wow Noah, you were really close this time but still not enough," I shake my head and scoff.
"Shut the fuck up, you know damn well I can beat you in a race. I was distracted this time." He tries to excuse himself.
"Yet for the past 2 years, you keep saying that. You keep barking, no biting. So shut the fuck you incompetent motherfucker." I spit. I'm already irritated by his voice and I can see him turning red but it soon fades.
"I may not be biting at you, but I sure did to your girl." he smirks. My girl?
"What the hell are you talking about?" I seethe. I could see Austin on the side of my eye coming closer to me trying to calm me down.
"Did you have fun yesterday? At that carnival?" he questions innocently.
"How did you know I was there?" Is he a fucking stalker?
"I saw your little friend there. A gorgeous little thing isn't she?" he ignores my previous question.
"You stay the fuck away from her." I snarl. I see Kylie looking at him also in a questionable look.
"Too late. She sure is tight." He taunted. He looks at the ground as if he's thinking about something. He touched her.
"What the hell did you do?" I snap and grab him by the neck. I would've thought he would resist out of my hold but he doesn't.
"I didn't do anything. I think when we were doing it, she sure was enjoying it moaning my name in pleasure." he cackled.
I quickly slam him to the ground and hear something crack but I don't care. My fist collides with his face relentlessly. I see blood everywhere but don't stop.
I punch him in the nose and I'm pretty sure it's broken. He tries to use his hands to shield his face but they're useless because my fist avoids them and continues to come in contact with his face.
Austin pulls me off of him and I could hear police sirens coming. My knuckles are hurting but the adrenaline coursing through me avoids that pain.
"If I see you come near her again, I swear to God, I will kill you." I bellowed. Kylie's trying to help him get up but he keeps collapsing on the ground.
I quickly get into my car, Austin following me into the passenger seat. I don't bother putting my seat belt on and I begin racing down to Soul's apartment.
God, please let her be okay.
...
As I get to the apartment, I rapidly rush to the elevators.
"Kayden, calm down. What the hell is wrong with you?" Austin questions my frustration.
"Souline. He did something to her. I know it." I could feel myself angry again and I punch the elevator wall. It has a dent in it now.
"Don't you think she could've voluntarily had sex with him?" he suggests.
"No fucking way. It took us a week to kiss, there's no way she would have sex with a guy she barely knows. You don't know her." I tell him.
He stays silent the whole elevator ride up and once the elevator dings, I rush to her apartment number.
I knock on it once and she doesn't answer. I keep knocking on it and after a few minutes, a door opens.
Only, it isn't hers.
"Excuse me, what are you young men doing out here?" The lady asks me.
"Don't worry about us. I just need to talk to your neighbor here really quickly." I assure her.
"Oh no, there's no one there. That young lady... Souline, she gave us a note here that she was leaving. Let me get it." She goes back into her apartment to grab the note. "Here it is." She opens it because it was folded in fours and hands it to me.
Hello neighbor that I've never talked to,
My name is Souline Sinclair, I'm your next door neighbor on your right. Yup, that's me. So I barely moved out here for about a month or so but something occurred that I cannot speak about right now. I've decided that this city isn't the right place for me to live so I've made a decision to move and I'm leaving. I'm not coming back for a while. So if you're wondering where I am, I moved away and I'm not coming back so don't worry about me. I hope you have a great life and happy early halloween!
Love,
Your ex next door neighbor
you've never encountered,
Souline Sinclair
She's moving?
She can't move, she just got here.
"Thank you." I give back the letter to the lady and she goes back into her apartment.
She left.
"It's okay buddy, we'll find you another girlfriend." Austin tries to coo me.
I ignore his comment and walk in front of Soul's door. I stand back and I harshly kick at her lock.
Her door opens and when I walk inside, it's dark. I turn on the lights and see that it's empty. Austin comes inside too and explores the rest of her apartment.
I look in the living room to see if anything is in there but there isn't, it's just a couch that looks untouched.
I look to see if there's any left slushee slushee cups in the kitchen, but there isn't. When I look on the kitchen counter, I find something.
It's our picture on the roller coaster. She left it here.
As I kept my focus on the picture, I hear Austin call out for my name.
"Coming!" I shout back and place the picture in the pocket of my hoodie. I follow the sound of his voice which leads me into her bedroom.
"What do you w-" I see her bed. It's red. It's like there was a murder in there.
Theres blood on the floor, the headboard, the sheets, the pillows.
"Kayden." Austin says. He already knows what's going to happen.
I'm going to kill him. I will actually kill Noah Owens with my bare hands.
"Austin stop it." My hands ball into fists as I look at the scene. It's stings from the previous cuts and bruises I already have forming on them. I look around them room and come to realization.
If I came up with her, this wouldn't have happened. I walked her up every time we were together. I didn't this time. This is all my fault.
My eyes begin to water by the thought of her screaming for help. I can't help but slide down the wall and cry into my hands.
For the next few minutes, I sob until I can't breathe.
"This is my fault." I mumble while look up at Austin. I've never cried in front of him, now he probably thinks I'm weak.
"Don't you dare say that. You couldn't have known." he comes to my side and sits next to me.
"No, every fucking time we were together, I walked her up. Not this time." I explain to him. I can't even shake off the thoughts in my head.
"Now she's gone." I add.
"We'll find her." He assured me.
"We'll find her." I repeat.
I can't look at this room anymore so I get up and start exiting the room. I look around to see if she left anything else behind but I couldn't find anything.
"Austin, lets go. I think I have an idea." He comes out of her room and we start heading back down to my car.
Once we get into my car, I pull down the sun visor and see my eyes all red.
I stifle once again and start driving to Captain's Diner.
...
"Bro what the fuck. Slow down. The diner isn't going anywhere." Austin assures me.
I tighten my fists around the wheel making then turn white. I try to slow down but my foot disobeys my thoughts and continues going faster.
We immediately get to the diner and I quickly hop out of my car and I can already see Tate and another guy talking while wiping down the counters.
"Sorry we're closed." Tate tells me.
"Where Soul?" I ask looking around if there was a left over slushee cup around here.
"She's gone." the dude next to her informs me.
"Yeah, no shit. Why the fuck do you think I'm here?" I huffed. They look at each other for a quick second and stay silent.
"Look, was she here?" I try to ask politely.
"Yeah, a couple hours ago. She's moving away. I don't know where though." Tate reported to me.
"Kayden, let her go. You barely knew her for what, a week?" Austin remarks my behavior.
"Yeah but I'm the one who fucking led Noah to her in the first place. He wouldn't have known her if she wasn't hanging out with me. If we hadn't met, she wouldn't have been fucking raped!" I snap at him. I hear a gasp behind me. I'm fucking furious. Why would she leave and not say goodbye?
"Raped? Who the fuck raped her?" Tate yelled. I could see her look at the guy while the guy is zoning out.
"Noah Owens." I state. I'm not gonna stop until the motherfucker goes to prison.
"That's why she had bruises." She whispers to the guy next to her. Her eyes are watering and the guy comes next to her and hugs her.
"We'll tell you if she comes here." He informs me. He gives me a notepad and I write my number on it.
"Kayden, go home. It's been a long day." Austin advised.
I comply and head out of the diner.
...
*5 DAYS LATER*
Five fucking days. It's been five days since I've seen Souline and no one has heard of her since the race.
I haven't been able to find Noah anywhere so that's good for him I guess but not for me.
It's Halloween today and I'm with Austin at a bar. I didn't know if I would see Souline but I threw on some devil ears anyways and now I'm drinking a damn slushee.
Every night instead of having my normal nightmares with Kaycee, all I see is Souline. Her screaming in pain and no one helping her.
"Come on Kaydennn. You gotta let loose." Austin slurs. He's drunk. He has short blonde girls surrounding where he's sitting. When I look around the bar, I don't see a brunette with hazel eyes who is 5'6.
It fucking sucks. I finally realized that she blocked me a couple days ago so now I can't even contact her.
"Do you wanna dance?" A blonde girl girl walks next to me while trying to touch my hair.
"Yeah, no." I shake her hands off of me and get up.
I go outside and I'm hit with breeze coursing through my body. I turn around to see people inside but instead see my reflection and my blue lips from the slushee.
I feel a buzz coming out of my phone and see it's from Isaac.
"Hello?" I question him. I could hear Tate squeal in the background.
"Hey Kayden, Souline's on the phone with Tate right now so if you want to talk to her, come quick." he informs me.
I quickly go to Jimmy, the owner of the bar and give him 10 dollars.
"Get him an Uber for this address, I have to go. Make sure he gets there." I specified.
I quickly get into my car and rush to the diner.
When I get there, I see Isaac waving his hand for me to come inside.
I come inside and see Tate on the phone smiling.
"What is she saying?" I whisper shout to her. Tate ignores me and waves her hand off.
"Soul, someone wants to talk to you." Tate tells her.
"Ooh really? Who is it?" I hear her question. I can already see her smiling. Tate hands me the phone.
"It's Kayden." I respond to her question. Then there was nothing. There isn'tg any laughter, no smiling, just silence.
"Uh hi." She states. I hate how her mood automatically changes when I have the phone.
"How are you? Are you okay?" I inquired. I hear her sigh and some background noise too.
"I'm living I guess." That's all she says. There isn't any excitement in telling my about her day, it's just pure sadness.
"Where'd you go? You just lef-" I tried to say.
"Sorry Kayden, I have to go. Someone's calling me." She explains to me not long after she hangs ups in me.
"Sorry, I thought she would've wanted to talk to you." Isaac apologizes.
"No, it's fine." It's really not. It fucking sucks. I have no idea why she's avoiding me. I want to help her but she's just pushing me away.
I get out of the diner and start heading to the beach. I could see kids trick or treating in their neighborhoods.
I would've trick or treated with Souline if she wanted to.
I get to the beach and head to the spot Soul and I once sat before.
Once I sit down, I understand why Souline complained about the sand being cold. The wind is also blowing your way so it fucking sucks.
I watch as the bioluminescence sways back and forth on and off of the sand.
I can't help but wonder why Soul couldn't just come to me. I would've helped her. I'm still trying to but every entry I get, it leads me to an exit instead.
Where are you Souline?
Again, please don't be angry at Soul for avoiding Kayden.
VOTE.