Witness: See Series (Volume 1)(55)
I opened my eyes slowly to find that the field I was in had dimmed. I could still see a few butterflies here and there, but the beauty of their mass had left with Silas. In their absence, the fear, anger, and indescribable loss I felt absorbed me once again. It was as if the existence of Silas was nothing more than a dream…fleeting and untouchable. The range of emotions that had coursed through my body today had left me exhausted, and the worst part was knowing that the roller coaster my heart was on was far from over…there was no telling who was waiting for me at my house…what words Draven and I would use as daggers tonight.
Chapter Twelve
In a haze, I walked back to my car. When I got in, Monroe quietly said. “You came back.”
I nodded. “It seems the only way out of hell is to run right through it,” I said as I put my car in reverse and turned to leave the vacant, dark park. The few minutes between there and my home were silent. As I turned on my street, my heart began to beat faster. I glanced down at my phone to see over thirty missed calls. I felt my stomach tying in knots. A half-mile before I reached my house, Draven’s Hummer flew past me. I glanced in my rearview mirror to see him slam on his breaks, and I sped up, trying to reach my driveway. I didn’t want Monroe to hear the fight that was sure to erupt between us; I had no idea what the anger I’d caused him would create. I pulled in my driveway and passed over the bridge.
“I’m stopping here. Take my car to the house. I’m sure you have homework or something you need to do,” I said as I pulled my phone loose from the cord that was charging it and grabbed my bag. Monroe didn’t bother to argue; she slid across the seat and had the car in drive before I had a chance to close the door. I waved for her to go and step out of the path of driveway, unsure that Draven would be calm enough to see me in the darkness.
As he turned into my driveway, I heard his wheels squeal in protest. I slid my phone in my bag and waited for him to come closer. He slammed on his brakes once he passed the bridge, leaving me in the glow of his headlights. As he pushed his door open and climbed out, my heart began to beat violently in my chest. Part of me wanted to run away from him, and the other part of me wanted to run to him. My memory was cruel to me; I kept seeing him and Bianca - the way she seduced him…the way he let her.
Draven walked slowly to me with his hands slightly raised as if to tell me he meant no harm. It was an absurd gesture; I knew he’d never hurt me.
“Baby, why did you scare me like that? I didn’t know what to do or where to go,” he whispered.
I shook my head from side to side. “How could you?” I mumbled as a sick feeling came to the back of my throat. “How could you be with her – hide that from me?!” I managed to yell.
The look on his face was full of bewilderment. He swiftly came to me and wrapped his arms around my waist. “What?” he said as he leaned his head against mine. “What are you talking about? There is no one else. You are my heart and soul.”
It took everything I had, but I raised my eyes to meet his – and the worry and fear there broke my heart. I let the wall I always hid behind fall and remembered every agonizing detail of what I saw when I stepped into Bianca’s mind – the way he looked at her, the way she touched him. Then I stepped slowly away from him.
“You betrayed me,” I said in a trembling voice.
With no hesitation, he reached to pull me back to him. “That’s not true.” His lips met mine, but I refused to kiss him back. I couldn’t; all I could see was her holding him. “Look at me...Charlie, look at me...if you want to see what really happened, look at me,” he said as his strong hands cradled my face and raised my eyes to meet his.
“No,” I said as I tried to look away.
“Charlie, if you love me at all, you have to look...you have to see that she’s lying to you – that she’s trying to drive us apart!”
The sound of his hypnotic voice broke my heart. I held my breath and looked into his eyes and asked the simple question: When was the last time you saw Bianca? Where? How many times?
Within that thought, I was back in that realm. I wasn’t far away like before, though; I was right beside them. Draven looked coldly at her and said, “Go to hell.” She smirked and placed her hands on his chest. I could see him fighting with a sensation that her touch must have given him.
“We can go wherever you want,” she said as her hands moved up his chest. He gripped her wrists and pulled them away from him. “You’re pathetic,” he said as he glared down at her.
As she leaned closer and whispered something to him that I couldn’t hear, Draven’s eyes moved beyond her and smiled. It was the same smile I’d seen before, the one that told me he was enjoying being seduced by her. I was instantly furious, but then something caught my gaze: a light. I followed his stare and saw millions of breathtaking butterflies glowing in that dark place, and standing in the center of them was an image of me. I looked back to the image of Draven and saw his smile through new eyes; this smile carried love and devotion and enough passion to fill a universe. My doubt plagued me as I asked again in my thoughts to see every moment that he was ever alone with her. The visions Bianca had shown me played out before me, but this time I saw that it was me he was looking at; the look I took as passion or seduction had nothing to do with her – he was staring at me. He was innocent – and I’d been fooled.