Chapter 1
Jazmyne
My eyes shut tight as I felt myself falling forward. I was at peace with what I was doing. I knew there wasn't going to be any more pain where I was going.
All too soon, my peaceful state of mind ended as I was suddenly jerked back hard. "No!" I screamed. "No! Please let me go!" I cried loud and painfully. "I don't want to be here anymore." I weakly sobbed as tears ran rapidly down my face.
"No, you almost jumped!" The guy holding me yelled, surprisingly.
"I know that! Just please let me go." My body went limp against him as I cried. "Just let me die."
"No! I'm not going to let you kill yourself." He said while loosening his hold on me. He then turned me to face him and I closed my eyes and just silently cried. I heard his small intake of breath and I knew I had to have looked terrible.
"Can you please let me die. I just want to die. I don't want to go back there." I knew if I was still alive they would somehow find me and I didn't want that. Mentally, physically, I simply couldn't take it anymore.
My eyes slowly opened when I no longer felt his hold on me. I stared into his shocked brown eyes.
His mouth opened then closed as he became loss for words. I decided to counter on his shocked state. With the little strength I had, I pushed him away from me and took off towards the cliff once more.
I took my chance and jumped off the cliff.
"No!" He yelled from behind me as I was caught midair.
"No!" I screamed and immediately I began thrusting around in his hold. "Let me the fuck go!" I yelled out crying. I was over the cliff when he grabbed me back. "Why did you stop me? You don't even know me. Just let me go, please." I begged him.
"I'm not going to let you kill yourself. Just let me help you, please." He asked still holding me tight. My head shook as I continued to cry. "Just, just... tell me what happened and let me help. If you do, I promise you'll never have to see me again." He practically pleaded with me.
My head shook at him. "Why? You don't know me." Why would a complete stranger want to help me? Why did he even care? Why couldn't he pretend he didn't see me?
"That doesn't matter. Look, I know I can help in some way or another. I can call the police—"
"No! Please don't. He'll find me and take me back there. I don't want to go back there. I wanna die." My breathing picked up as I began to pant frantically. Jack was a cop so calling the police would be like handing me to my abuser.
"Hey, hey, hey, calm down. I won't call the police if you don't want me too. Just calm down, please." He spoke soothingly while pulling me further away from the edge and into the clearing.
I didn't have anything left in me so I stopped fighting to get free. I was just so tired.
"I'm going to let you go now. Please don't try to run again." He let me go and I sat in the grass. I didn't know what else to do. He walked around and stood in front of me.
Slowly I started to move away from him. My chest raised then fell hard as I stared at his naked form.
Taking in my reaction he glanced down at himself. "Shit, I'm so sorry. Don't freak out, I promise I'm not going to hurt you." He assured as he stepped away from me. "I'll be right back, please don't move." He then turned away from me and ran back into the woods.
My eyes stared at the cliff and all I could think about was jumping. That was what I wanted to do at the moment. What other reason were there for me to continue to live on such a hellish earth. I was already dying here. I pushed myself up off the ground and slowly made my way back to the cliff.
"Hey! Aye! Girl!" The guy called from behind me.
I ignored him as I made it to the cliff. Once there, I just stood at the edge, watching the water fall into the stream below me.
"I thought you were going to jump." He said standing beside me.
"I want to but you'll only stop me." I told him truthfully. I glanced at him to see that he had put on some basketball shorts.
"Here, put this on." He held out a t-shirt for me.
Looking down at it, tears welled in my eyes.
"Do you want me to take you to a hospital?" He questioned and I shook my head. "Then can you tell me what happened to you?" He asked.
I didn't say anything to him. My eyes fell back on the water and I began to stare into it once again.
"Hey," he touched my hand, shocking me.
A tingling sensation coursed through me. It was similar to when Kane touched me, but with a different effect. His touch to my hand calmed me.
For the first time since he'd been there, I took him in as the moonlight shined on him. He was tall, about six foot two, his skin tone seemed to be my complexion in the moons light. His hair was cut in a low fade with deep waves. My eyes moved down to the tribal and wolf tattoos on his chest and arms.
I didn't know why, but he seemed so familiar to me. And that was crazy because I knew I'd never seen him before a day in my life.
He pulled his hand away from mine and from the way he looked at me, I could tell he felt what I had.
"What's your name?" He asked me.
"Jazmyne. And you?" I questioned while looking at him. I was trying to figure out why did it feel like I knew him when I know I didn't.
"Noah. Why were you trying to kill yourself?" He repeated his question and I looked away from him. "Jazmyne." He touched my hand again, bringing my attention back to him.
I couldn't explain why, but I felt connected to him somehow. And that had to be the reason why words began to flow out of my mouth as I told him everything. I didn't leave a thing out as I informed him about my folks, my sister and Trey.
Tears fell from my eyes as I voiced to him what happened with Jack.
"Maybe I brought this on myself somehow. I knew his feelings toward me and I could've ran away but I was scared. A part of me knew what he wanted from the beginning. But I stay from fear of what he would do to me when he caught me again." I wiped at my eyes, brushing the tears away.
"My mom saw him and didn't do anything. She just stared at me like I was this disgusting person. I had to have brought that on myself somehow. I just don't know what I did to deserve this." I didn't understand and I wanted to so bad.
My eyes drifted up to the sky, seeing that it had started to get light out as the sun peeked from the horizon.
"Don't think that..." His words trailed off and he cleared his throat. Noah's tone was different, it sounded deeper than before.
I looked over to him to see that his eyes were closed. His shoulders raised and his head rolled as if he was popping the bones in his neck. His eyes opened and I could've sworn they were gold. I couldn't be certain because it was like a flash, the color was there one second then gone the next.
"Don't think that it was your fault because it wasn't. They are just some sick ass mothafuckas, especially him." He growled before he cleared his throat again. "Don't ever think you could have done anything differently. You did what you could've." He explained to me and from the way he talked, his whole demeanor showed that he was pissed.
"Growing up, I was taught that, the Gods put us through some tough shit in life, testing us to see if we were meant for the greater power they had for us. They test our strength and weaknesses. For the most part, even though you went through hell, Jazmyne, I think you might have passed. You have endured so much for years and you hadn't killed any of them." He stated as if that was ironic.
"You still managed to have hope for all of them and hide your pain from everyone else in your life. That let me know you were meant for so much more." He looked at me, pointing to the cliff. "Your life wasn't supposed to end here." He stared into my eyes as he told me that. His brown eyes held so much truth and sincerity that I believed him.
A sigh left my mouth and I shrugged. "Maybe...maybe you're right. I mean, I was ready to jump and you showed up out of nowhere. I just wish I could forget everything, the pain, what I saw with Trey. Everything." I told him truthfully
Noah shook his head. "Pain is our power. There's nothing greater than a powerful pain. It's strong and dangerous but only someone with your type of strength can control it. You've had years of controlling your hurt. Pain is your weapon and once the Gods reveal what they have for you it will be amazing, I promise you that."
He sounded so wise and from the way he spoke of his belief, made me believe and want that power, whatever it was.
"Your pain, I say you keep. Now, what you saw with Trey, I have a friend that can help you forget until it's time for you to remember. That is if you choose to remember it."
My brows furrowed at what he said. "Someone can actually do that? How?" I asked him.
His head nodded. "Yeah. A doctor who practice with magic." He stated and I let out a chuckle. "It may sound funny but if you believe in magic then it'll work. I'm not crazy. You can at least try it." He insisted.
"Why do you want to help me? Why does it sound like you actually care?"
He looked at me as the raising sun shined on him, highlighting his sandy red hair and his caramel brown skin complexion. I was right we did have the same skin tone.
"To be honest, I don't know. There's just something inside of me that feels like it knows you. Because of that, there's this urge, this need to do whatever I can for you." He explained. Looking away from me he laughed. "That sounds crazy as hell, right?"
My head shook. "No. I mean... It's kind of weird. I have that same familiar feeling and I know we never met before." I explained still staring at him. I was looking for answers. A heavy sigh left my mouth. "Noah, I can't just walk out of these woods and pretend like everything is going to be okay. My folks won't stop looking for me. They won't let me go." I knew for a fact that was true. They found me once before and I was beat for running away. "And I'll rather die than have to go back to them." I told him honestly.
"Then don't go back. Let me help you, Jazmyne." He told me. "I can promise this, if they find you, I won't let them take you. Either they'll die or I will before I let them hurt you again. It may be hard to believe me, especially since we just met. All I have is my word and I give it to you." Noah gazed into my eyes, practically begging for me to believe in him. "I can also teach you how to protect yourself that way no one would ever hurt you again."
My mouth opened but it closed right back as he took hold of my hand. That same calming feeling came over me.
"Jazmyne, I know you feel that. Trust it and I promise I won't let you down." He assured me.
Something inside of me was telling me I could trust him. If it wasn't for that feeling, I would have pushed myself off the cliff at that moment.
I couldn't begin to understand it, but a part of me wouldn't allow me to reject his request. I wanted to trust him. A complete stranger. My head nodded at him. "Okay, I'll trust you, Noah."
A wide smile came to his lips, showing off his one dimple on the left side of his chin, "Okay, let's get you to the doctor. Then I'll show you your new home." He got up off the ground and helped me to my feet. "It's a long walk back. Are you up for it? I could carry you if you're hurting." He offered, sounding nervous.
My body still ached but it wasn't in pain like it had been before. In fact, the pain dimmed right after he touched me.
"No, you don't need to carry me. The pain doesn't hurt as much. I think I can make it." I told him with a faint smile. "How far are we from Black Wood?" I asked.
He let out a whistle. "If we drive about thirty minutes, but walking... It's a good hour, hour and a half. We're in the middle of Moonstone, closer to the peaks. You walked from Black Wood?" His head tilted in wonder.
"Yeah, I did."
"You went pretty far. That's only fate. The Gods wanted me to find you. I was supposed to be on my way back home for this area, but I couldn't leave and I didn't know why. Until now." He told me.
I didn't say anything else to him. Only because I didn't know what to say exactly. Maybe fate was truly real. Because I couldn't explain Noah showing up when he had. Let alone the connection I felt to him.
So maybe he was right. Some Gods wanted him to save me for reasons unknown.