Page 122 of Psychotic Obsession

He doesn't answer me, but he does take my hand, pulling me along the snow. I'm not shaking with how cold it is, or the bitterness of the ice biting my skin, but I'm rattling with theblazing inferno ripping through me, like really bad, unwanted adrenaline.

We reach the edge of a cliff, and Tobias stops, looking over to me. "Do you even know where we're going?" I ask him.

He stays silent.

I laugh in disbelief.

"For the record, I told him not to hurt anyone." He turns to me, a sincere look in his eyes. "I told him we were just going to threaten them, that's all."

"You were going to hurt Gabriella before...before he did that." I cross my arms, my lip trembling again. "He hit her over the head with a...with a..." I cover my mouth as I struggle to finish the sentence. "Oh, God."

He takes careful steps towards me before throwing his hands up in exasperation. "I didn't want anyone to get hurt."

I cry into my hands, my face twisting. "I stabbed Ewan." As I turn to Tobias, my eyes widen in shock. "I stabbed him. And I...I killed Justin."

"It was self-defense," he says, reaching up with both hands to cup my cheeks as I shake. "Ewan was an accident, Aria."

I accept defeat, giving in, craving my last chance for comfort. I drop my head to his chest and let it all out, screaming into him, allowing myself to feel all the emotions surging through my body, ripping my heart from my chest.

It hurts. The images are burned into my mind.

"I'm the same as you now.”

His body tenses, looking down at me with a frown. "You're nothing like me."

I shake my head, wiping my eyes. "I am."

Flashing lights start to surround us, and Tobias lets go of me abruptly, twisting his body, seeing the red and blue coming from every direction, the faint sound of sirens growing louder.

"Shit," he blurts out and grabs my hand, both running in the snow with no direction. "Fuck!" He halts at the cliff, looking down to see the thrashing waves pelting off the rocks. "You can't jump, can you?"

"I'm pregnant, Tobias. Plus, no one would survive that."

He swears to himself, running his hand through his hair as the lights become brighter, sirens blaring from the forest surrounding us.

He freezes, looking over his shoulder at the cliff then back to me. "You hate me, right?"

I tilt my head. "What?"

He closes distance, taking my cheeks in his cold, wet hands, moving the hair out of my face. "Tell me you hate me, that you want me dead. Just say those words." Tobias looks over my shoulder, the sound of dogs barking making me hold in a sigh of relief. "The babies are better off without me, and so are you. If it were up to you, you'd want me completely out of the picture, right?"

"If it were up to me, I'd make sure you got the help you desperately need," I reply, reaching up to grab his wrists.

Pressing his heated forehead to mine, he closes his eyes. "Just say it. Please. You want Ewan to be their dad. You want to raise them with him because he's a good person and you love him. Please, justsayit."

I see a tear fall down his cheek, his pulse racing in his neck as I reach up to hold him. "Look at me." He does, and his swollen red eyes and pale face tells me everything I need to know, especially since he keeps looking behind him, his suicidal stare on the cliff. "Why would you rather die instead of getting help?"

The dogs barking grows louder, and I can hear footsteps crunching in the snow, torches shining on us, voices yelling but still too far away to make out what they're saying.

"I don't want them to see me like that, the way I saw my own dad."

I close my eyes and sigh, moving my other hand to the opposite side of his neck. "It won't be like that."

"I need you to just..." He stops, screwing his face up. "You don't need or want me. Say it!" he screams through a sob that rips from his throat before lowering his voice to a whisper. "Please."

"No."

A close, loud bark has Tobias pulling away from me, backstepping as he takes quick breaths. "I can't do it, Aria. I can't do that to them." He raises his hands up as I try to grab him, edging closer to the cliff. "Ewan is a good dad, and you're going to be an amazing mom. I'm just Tobias, the guy who’ll break their hearts every time they come to visit me."