Misguided Truths: Part One by Sarah Elizabeth Page B

I don’t know what is!” he smirks and presses himself even harder against me.
    I clench my eyes shut a s more tears escape from them, “Why? Why are you doing this?”
    “ Me? No. No, no, no. Don’t turn this around on me, Holly. You did this,” he whispers only an inch from my mouth, while stroking his finger across my lips. “ This. Is. All. On. You .”
    “You … you …” My shoulders slouch low and I feel all of my energy beginning to dwindle away. “… you r-r-aped m-m-me …” He covers my mouth with his hand again and his eyes narrow, anger filling them.
    “I’d be very careful throwing accusations like that around if I were you … Your time is up, Holly. I gave you more than enough time to tell him,” his hand loosens, allowing me to open my mouth, and I bite him. I bite him as hard as I can manage to. “You wanna play dirty?” He raises his brow and a look of amusement seeps into his eyes. Shaking my head, I try and take deep breaths and think of Brandon.
    “I want to go back inside.” I whisper when I hear Brandon singing the song that he dedicated to me travelling through the wall from next door. “I just want to go back inside.”
    “You don’t want me? ” his whole face becomes unreadable and his voice is quiet. “You’re choosing him?” He takes a step away and his eyes widened. He looks … lost.
    Nodding my head, I take another deep breath , and feel relief washing through me as soon as I feel him taking his hands off me, “It’s always been him, Neil … It’ always been him.”
    My hands are shaking uncontrollably, and I wrap my arms around myself as I turn away and walk back towards the sidewalk. When I near the exit, he grabs me from behind again, this time with one arm wrapped firmly around my neck, the other around my waist. “If I can’t have you, Holly …”
    “Neil?” he turns me around and places his hand around my neck, push ing my backwards and deeper into the darkness. “Neil, what are you doing? He’s only inside. He’ll notice I’m gone any … any minute …” A sharp pain shoots up through my arm, but when I try to look down, he stops me. Grasping my face with his hand, he looks directly into my eyes.
    “By then … it’ll be too late.”
    He pushes me and I stumble backwards, feeling the hard wall against my back. What’s happening to me? Why does everything feel so strange?
    My pulse rate is increasing and I’m finding it really hard to breathe. It’s too hard to focus on anything. My legs give way and I feel myself sliding down the wall. I can faintly hear the sound of Brandon’s voice, saying goodnight to the crowd on the other side of the wall.
    The gigs over.
    He’ll be here soon. He’ll be here …
     

 
 
Saying Goodbye
     
    It’s been twelve days. Almost two hundred and eighty eight hours since I held her in my arms, for what I know now was for the very final time. 
    For the past twelve nights, I haven’t been able to close my eyes once without seeing the images of her limp and pale body lying in my arms. She looked so scared, so afraid. And, then she was gone … forever.
    I’ve been trying to convince myself that I’m trapped in some kinda nightmare, and at any given moment, I’ll wake up and be able to see her beautiful, smiling face within my reach again. That I’ll be able to hold her in my arms, hear her sweet laugh, and kiss her soft lips.
    My world is no longer a bright and happy place. It’s dark, cold, and hollow.
    The loneliness I’ve been feeling ever since that night, almost outweighs the emptiness that has taken over me from the inside out. No matter what happens in my life from here on out, whether I experience good times or bad, I don’t think that I’ll ever be abl e to accept that she’s not gonna be here to share them with me. All of my dreams, hopes, and plans for the future disappeared at the very same moment when they told me she wasn’t ever coming back.
    If I hadn’t let her talk me into playing