Page 68 of Sin & Fall

That’s the only thing that makes sense. Someone as perfect as Chloe would never want me. Never love me.

“Zack?” Her voice is still there, but it’s so distant now. Disappearing for good.

Falling to my knees, I press my face to her stomach and grab her hips, squeezing her until my fingertips hurt, and inhaling as much of her scent as I can.

“Please, don’t do this to me. I’m dead. You’re not real.” My body shakes.

Is this the drugs wearing off, or me taking my last breath?

Will I feel the burn of the water in my lungs any second now?

Is this how Kat felt as she drowned?

Delicate fingers brush through my hair. Nails scratch soothingly at my scalp.

Her body is close, but her voice is too far away.

If I don’t get to have her then why torment me? Please.Please.After all the shit I’ve been dealt in this life, please let me have some peace.

“I’m real. I’m here. Look at me.”

I shake my head, burying deeper into the soft stomach of her phantom.

She moves away from me. Her warmth fading.

“Don’t go. Don’t leave me.”

“Zack, baby.” Chloe’s lips press to my uninjured ear and her voice becomes clearer. “Look at me.”

I follow the direction and see an angel bathed in the morning light. The same angel that appeared in my headlights and changed my life.

“You’re alive, Zack. We both are.”

If I fall for the lie, it’ll hurt so much more when she’s ripped away from me.

“No.”

She drops to her knees with me and grabs my face, pressing her nose to mine. “Can you feel me breathing? This air belongs to you. I’ll breathe for both of us from now on, but to do that, I need you to stay with me.”

I let out a ragged breath, and nod, a whimper escaping me.

“You’re real?”

She answers me by grazing her lips over mine. “Yes, baby.”

I see all of her now.

“I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry.”

I don’t deserve her forgiveness, her light. But I’ll take itfor myself anyway. If this is my final chance, then I’m not screwing it up.

“You think of yourself as evil, as something wrong, but even the devil was good once. I believe it was fate that yours was the only car on the road tonight. That you stopped in time to not hit me. You, Zack, are my fate. My future. If you kill yourself, you’re not only taking away your own, but mine as well. Stay with me, please.”

Wrapping my arms around her, I enclose her in my embrace so she can never escape me, and I silently vow to never leave her again.

She’s going to wish she were rid of me because my obsession for her is only growing, and I’m going to spend every waking moment with her in my sight.

“I love you,” I growl, my fears subsiding, and a feral need to possess her taking over.