Page 36 of Beg Me Angel

But it was too late, the water streamed down over my cheeks, drop after drop, and I couldn't stop it. The slow tears turned into heavy sobs, my shoulders bouncing as I tried to keep up with my breathing.

Everything was too much, it was too hard to process, too hard to even think about. I hated it all and I wanted it gone. I wanted my life back, I wanted to close my eyes and wake up from this nightmare turned reality.

The thick pads of his fingers curved over my arms as Pax wrapped me up tight. I felt his chest against my back as he lifted a hand to my head and pulled it in.

I didn't fight him, I didn't push him away. I just cried.

Turning my body into his arms, he engulfed me in the warmest embrace I had felt in years. His body was hard and firm, but his arms still had the tenderness I needed right then.

It was too much for me to see where I had been, to realize that he had been telling me the truth all along. I wasn't sure if coming back had been a good idea or not. I found my necklace, one thing that I could never have replaced, but I also lost something I hadn't realized was there.

I lost myself and the woman I used to be, I lost the world I knew and was dropped into a place I didn't ask for. And as the tears ate away at my insides, souring the need I had originally felt to see this place, I wept.

I wept for everything I couldn't remember. I wept for my friend who seemed just as lost as I was.

I wept for all the pain I felt in my bones.

And I wept for the safety I felt in his arms.

I was thankful he had stumbled upon me, because without him, I wouldn't have ended up being just a footprint in the dirt. . . I'd still be in it.