Page 1 of Hearts Etched in Glass (The Afton Adders #2)
Dark Aria, SawanoHiroyuki{nZk} and XAI
Gently I turn the key in between each digit, feeling the cool metal slide over my fingers.
I bought my girl a house.
The perfect home for us to make memories.
To share laughs and to raise children of our own.
Tilly thinks I don’t listen, but I do.
I listen to everything .
Brielle and I were the first people who truly listened and learned who Tilly really is.
I’ve been smitten with her since day one.
Her aura draws you in and wraps its arms around your soul.
Making you feel loved, making you feel like you are the only person on this planet.
Her bright eyes and beautiful, blond hair are imprinted in my sight, even when my eyes have closed.
Tilly mentioned to my sister-in-law, Brielle, that she could probably ask me for a house, and I would oblige.
And oblige, I did.
A smile stretches across my face as I approach the front door. Excitement twisting in my torso, as I envision her reaction to the sunbathing foyer and joyous, tiny green house.
I recollect Tilly’s resplendent features, from when I gave her the three engagement rings. She wouldn’t tell me what type of design she fancied, so what was a bloke to do?
As my fingers caress the decorative wooden door, I freeze as an alarming sound comes from behind me.
I hear the pounding of footsteps upon the gravel pathway from the gardens and turn to find Marcus sprinting towards me, shouting something incoherent .
“Bobby! Bobby!” He comes closer, snagging my wrist and wrenching me back to where he had pulled up with his Crossley.
“Bobby, they’ve got her. They fucking got Tilly!
We need to go! They picked her off from the hospital!
” Marcus is breathless, his suit jacket splayed open.
He frantically pulls me off the front step but my feet feel cemented into the ground.
My brain is unable to fully comprehend the situation, and his words echo as if he was under water.
I shake my head in confusion as he continues to pull at my forearm with two hands.
I look from where he’s grasping me to his face.
A single tear slides down his cheek as he morosely studies me.
“Bobby!” He shouts in my face, more tears welling in his eyes. “We got to go!” Now he steps forward, grabbing the lapels on my tweed jacket to shake me conscious. I take a steady step forward and we begin to run, side-by-side to his idling vehicle.
Sound is a funny thing when something traumatic happens.
More-so, traumatic responses are a funny thing.
The world around me is pulled beneath ocean waves.
Everything echoes with the undertones of waves crashing.
The vowels rise and fall like high tide, but it is hard to understand what anybody is saying.
One moment I was purchasing a house for the woman I love.
The next I am kneeling next to her cold body, as Marcus and my brother Kenneth try patting my shoulders in comfort.
They are saying something, but I cannot understand the words that are coming from their mouths.
I watch as Baba shakes her head with melancholy painted upon her features, while her small, wrinkled hands skate over the sheet she drapes across Tillie’s deceased form.
A void cracks within my chest, much like a nail had struck my sternum. Her lifeless body will forever haunt my dreams.
Baba says something about leaving, but again I cannot comprehend. The underwater voices turn into static and ringing. Very similar to when I’d set off dynamite sticks and forget to wear ear protection .
Someone is urging me to stand, trying to pull me away from my Tilly, but I don’t want to go.
I can’t leave her .
She cannot go into the afterlife without me .
Or rather, I cannot continue this life without her.
She is the glimmering light peeking from the clouds on a stormy day. The only other individual, besides Marcus, who ever took me seriously and listened to my chaotic ideas.
She was the fire in my bones, driving me to become a better person and now that she is lifeless, what am I to do?
I peer up to find Kenneth angrily shouting at me, I can feel my soul draining from my body as my fingers reach out for Tilly.
I allow the shock to take over. The skin around my face is taught and sticky from the tears I have shed.
A firm grip wraps around the back of my shirt.
Kenneth is now dragging me from behind, further away from my beloved.
Though I have a gaping wound where my heart was torn from; something deep and sinister crawls out from the crevice, forcing me to snap.
I don’t think. I react .
Swiftly, I turn back. Closing my knuckles into a chisel-fist and throat punch my eldest brother, Kenneth.
He stumbles back, wide eyed and angry, but I cannot hear him as he splutters through ragged breaths.
Looking around like a crazed animal. The next person I see is Baba.
She is still standing beside Tilly, her hands perched atop her Loki decorated cane.
Then she nods, and my gaze follows the direction of hers to Marcus, standing ten paces away from me.
His eyes are red, nostrils flared and arms out wide like a pleading compass, beckoning me.
He takes one slow, careful, and deliberate step towards me as I flinch like cornered prey.
Then he hesitantly reaches out his right arm, a slight tremble accompanying his movements.
After several moments of suspended time, I clasp his hand within mine and allow him to lead me from the room.
Away from the love of my life.
The inside of Marcus’s Crossley is an omniscient void, encased in silence .
When we arrive at his town home, I can barely remember how I got out of the vehicle and into the sitting room.
I stare down at the ornate rug, silently grieving. Reminding myself to intermittently draw breath, for my heart wishes to cease breathing. My lungs are on fire, nerves shattered alongside my world. The seat pan on the leather couch dips beside me as a body sits.
Marcus .
For several soundless minutes, we sit side-by-side, elbows perched atop our thighs.
I glance at him and recognize I am not alone in my sorrow.
He attempts to give my thigh a supportive squeeze, appearing sympathetic and strong.
Marcus may be here to encourage me, but in the end he is struggling as much as I am.
I spiral even further into the dark abyss and turmoil. My body lunges toward Marcus, encircling my arms around his torso and sobbing into his lap. I can feel his large hand splay across my shoulder blades as he attempts to soothe me.
“I loved her so much and now she is fucking gone. Why ? Why Marcus?” The sounds of my voice are slightly muffled, when every ounce of my being yells into his lap.
“I know. I loved her too,” Marcus mutters.
I feel the pressure of him lean in, as he kisses the side of my head.
Then I feel the weight of his body collapse atop me, shaking with racked sobs.
He is doing his best to provide some sort of comfort, as the weight of my world comes crumbling down around me.