My Game-chapter 3

I rounded the corner onto an unusually empty street, and the shop windows were completely dark. Normally the streets here were filled with teenagers and the homeless hanging around. It must be later than I had thought. Uneasiness started to set in as I made my way down the sidewalk, quickly increasing my speed as the sense of fear occurred. There wasn’t allot of light left, and soon it would be dark. All I wanted was to be out of here, and back with Liam. He was my only sense of security now, even though I was pretty sure I could fend for myself without his help, and I always had my attack alarm that Claire and Ross insisted I wear anyway. I just needed to be around civilisation, that’s all. Alternatively, maybe a weapon.1

I decided to go north, which would take me through practically a never-ending alley way because it was so long. That would then lead out to a car park, which then led straight out onto the beach. Maybe actually being somewhere familiar would calm my over reactive nerves. Walking around this place brought back the memories of me and Leanne, accompanied by my auntie as we would make our way to the tiny antique shop that she couldn’t get enough of, which was hidden away behind warehouses, as these surroundings did every time I found myself being led back to this quaint little beach town.2

The three of us would set off to the little shop that was practically unknown to the world when Leanne stayed over. That was back before the last of the family I could hold onto went the same way as my parents did, though not exactly in the same way. My parents died on that stupid boat accident that also killed hundreds of other people. My sweet little auntie died by forgetting about what happens when you mix electricity with water. After that I was completely on my own. Until Claire and Ross came across the darling little eight-year-old orphan Rosa, that is.3

My feet looked for work, familiarity sweeping across my mind. I did not understand why this place was so familiar! It was practically the scene for a cheerleader murder in a horror movie. That was when I saw it. My auntie’s antique shop that she loved so much, except this version had boarded up windows and a faded sign. I couldn’t help but stop and stare at the memorabilia. My mind had led me back to one of the safest places I could remember, except back then the alleys and sidewalks didn’t look this sinister, and back then it was impossible for me to imagine something jumping out from the dark at me, as I do now. Maybe this wasn’t as safe as when I had my aunt to protect me. Consumed by all of the hazy memories surrounding me, I forgot that I needed to get to Liam. Turning back onto my route, I headed into the alley, fixed on finding the end of it. Along this narrow path, rocks littered the ground, and graffiti decorated the bricks in bright colours. After counting the steps it took-23 now I think-the beach came into view. After all the gloom and sorrow that consumed me these past years, I realized that there will be some kind of opening into something better in my life, just like this narrow alleyway.4

A smile spread across my desperate face, and I started to run. The breeze felt good against my skin, running through my hair, cooling me down. As I went further down the alley, streetlamps came nearer, casting a slight illumination, making it easier to see where my feet took me. Somewhere in all the relief and comfort as the breeze kissed my face, I was slammed into the mossy graffiti stricken wall. It was too dark to see what caused me to smack into the wall, but as soon as I heard him talk, I knew who it was. I was shocked at the sudden attack, just when freedom looked so close. I felt something cold press against my throat, and figured that it must be a switchblade or something of that description.5

Fear coursed through my veins as he spoke, his voice sounding cold and rough. Ok, now I regret skipping class when we studied self-defence. He leaned closer into me, his body pressing against me so that I couldn’t move. I tried not to let tears escape, but I was scared, and the fact that I was in a dark alley with someone threatening to kill me, and I had no one to save me certainly didn’t help.6

“Good evening”.7

Normally, I would take those two words as a greeting, but when Adrian spoke them, I wanted to scream. In all the closeness, our eyes met, and, this being the most inappropriate moment, I noticed that in a strange way, they were beautiful. They were like Caribbean blue diamonds, the light from the far away street lamps giving them a slight sparkly effect. For some reason unknown to me, Adrian looked surprised when our eyes met, but he then composed himself, wound his free hand in my hair at the back of my head, and kept a tight pull on it, restricting my movement even more and making me gasp.8

My best chance and probably my only chance of breaking away from Adrian was to scream my heart out so that maybe, by even the slightest chance, I could be saved from an early death. Bracing myself for a high pitched cry, I took a shaky deep breath and-9

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”10

Adrian gave me a sharp jab in the ribs with his elbow, and held the knife tighter to my throat. That’s all of my hopes of a saviour down the drain. The only way of having that knife away from my throat was to comply with Adrian’s threatening orders.11

I tried to push him away, but Adrian was crushing me so hard into the wall, that I could barely breathe. I just left my hands on his chest, motionless, letting them get crushed in between us. All I could manage was to scowl at him as he took pleasure in my helplessness.12

He started again.13

“Did you really think that I would go away if you just ignored me? I thought you would know better than that, Rosa.” I heard a hint of sarcasm in his tone, and could tell that he ground his teeth as he spoke. I had always imagined him say my name sweetly, like he loved me, just like I loved him; but when he said it, it was full of loathing, and I hated him feeling like that about me.14

I decided to just keep quiet and not answer. It was either that or be killed by saying the wrong thing. To be honest, I could go for either one right now. 15

As we were both silent, I could see the anger explode on his face, kind of like when Ross got angry at me, and I could always see his eyes get bigger and the veins pop out in his neck. The only difference with Adrian is that the look in his eyes made me sure that he wanted to kill me, and that he would take pleasure in doing so. That was when the relentless burst of panic kicked in. I started to pant, and a cold sweat broke out on the back of my neck.16

Adrian’s expression became one of frustration, and a low but terrifying growl came from his chest.17

“Answer me!” He slammed my head against the wall. That hurt big time. I tried to speak, but all that came from my lips was a shaky whimper. I was then overcome with dizziness. Everything became blurred, and I had the feeling where it’s as if the sickness in your stomach is up in your head. I was barely aware that my head fell forwards onto Adrian’s shoulder, and I began to whimper. It wasn’t until he grabbed my hair and wrenched my head back up that I realized how helpless I must have seemed. I guess that’s fair though because I was pretty much helpless. Adrian grabbed my face, and started roughly stroking my hair, letting out a sinister, intimidating laugh. “Ssshhh-sshhh” he said, still stroking my hair, which pulled strands out due to him being so rough. I hated him undermining me. I wanted to hurt him like he hurt me.18

My head killed, my ears were ringing a little, I was shaking like crazy and it was a little hard to think clearly through all of the pain. A pounding sensation was left were the wall hit my head and I cringed as I remembered hearing the smack as it hit the bricks.19

As that pain faded a little, the crushing sensation came back to me. That’s when I remembered the only self-defence that the now deceased Edwards family knew best.20

Luckily, Adrian was only crushing the top half of my body, so my legs were free to move. I pretended to struggle, shifting my body from side to side until my right knee was positioned in between both of his legs; so that way I could have a better chance of pushing myself off into a run with my left leg while he was down.21

Adrian didn’t realize what my real intentions were, and fell for the illusion of struggle. He just crushed me closer into the wall, moving his hands away from my hair and my neck, only to press his hands to the wall at either side of my head.22

I concentrated most of my strength into my right leg, and braced myself to run my ass off down that alley way. He just laughed at what he thought was my feeble attempt at escaping his grip, but inside I laughed at his ignorance. Still bracing myself for the run, I hoisted my knee up with as much force as I could muster, and kneed Adrian in the groin.23

As soon as he released me, I pounded my feet down the alleyway, concentrating on running faster and faster. I didn’t want to think about the pain I’d caused him, even though that was my intention. I just felt sorry for him now. My guess was that he crumpled to the floor, and was stuck in a world of pain. Again, my hypothesis was wrong. I excited myself at the thought of making it to the beach, were there were witnesses. Unfortunately, for me, because of the situation I was presented with, and the fact that my knee wasn’t at all as powerful as I’d thought it would be, the thought of safety wasn’t very close to reality. I didn’t make it that far up the alley because of the pounding that distracted me. At first, I thought it was my heart. I kept running. Then I realized, it wasn’t my heart, but someone else’s. A manic, terrifying heartbeat that got louder and louder. The beat was even louder than the booming footsteps that accompanied it, and that desperately made me want to run faster, more than I have ever wanted anything. Again, I was slammed into the wall, the crushing pressure of Adrian’s body was even worse, ensuring that this time, I could not get away.24

He grabbed my hair again, pulling. Hard. The pain was becoming unbearable and it made my eyes water and sting. His face, his breath, his lips inches from mine. I didn’t ever realise Adrian could be dangerous. The most I thought of him was the creepy guy who stalked me at school all day whom I started to have a fond taking too. Obviously my hypothesis of him was wrong. More tears welled up in my eyes.25

“There’s no point in running, because I won’t stop until I’ve gotten you! I’ll never stop!” with each syllable Adrian spoke, he jolted my head back with his hand wrapped back in my hair. I just stayed lifeless against the wall. I was too terrified to move. All I had left now was hope, and even that I was lacking.26

As frightened as I was, I couldn’t help imagining the relief I would have if I ever got out of this mess. For now though, all I had left was pain and fear to keep me company.27

I felt like my heart was gonna explode due to it beating so hard. Adrian could crush me in an instant. He was completely in control.28

I felt the cold taste of metal on the back of my tongue. I wanted to be sick. But to my sudden surprise, I felt the taste of actual cold metal at the front of my tongue, and that definitely wasn’t the feeling I get when I’m about to hurl. This was Adrian pressing the side of the knife against my lips as I tried to talk. All it resulted in was me practically making out with the knife, and then tasting my own blood. I gasped as the pain hit-I never had a very high pain threshold-and Adrian actually drawing blood made me fully aware of how scary the situation actually was, and how much I underestimated it.3029

The cynical look in his eyes told me to brace myself.30

“Poor girl! Let me kiss it better!” he held my face in position, and with his grip it was impossible to move. I let out a yell as he grabbed me. He took the knife away, leant in, and stole a kiss. As he kissed me, I just stood there, frozen with shock. It wasn’t until I heard my belt clinking about that I realized He was forcing himself onto me, and started fumbling with my belt buckle with his free hand in a desperate attempt to hurt me even more than I already was. I decided long ago that I would be dead before anyone sees my name In a rape crime column of the daily news paper. That was the point where I didn’t care about being killed. I wasn’t standing for that. I wrestled out enough to reach down for the attack alarm. Thank god for Claire and Ross. I was too scared to look down just in case when I looked up, I would be slashed in the eye, so I just felt around for it. There, hanging off of my studded belt, was the alarm. I thought I’d finally won when I was about to press the alarm, but Adrian grabbed it and crushed it in his hand. I was shocked. I couldn’t believe I just saw an 18 year old crush something as easily as that!31

Adrian held the knife back up to my lips. I immediately regretted reaching for that alarm, because the look on his scary yet beautiful face made me want to die, just so that I could escape that piercing look. But that look turned to a look of disbelief, as I’m guessing he realized what he was going to do to me. He suddenly went rigid, and his eyes were fixated on me. I knew something was up, but I couldn’t understand what. I’d never seen anybody act like that before!32

I wanted answers enough to pluck up the courage and speak. I turned my head away from the knife, so I could speak without slicing my tongue. 33

“Why are you trying to hurt me?” I tried to be tough, but my voice broke at the end of the sentence, giving the game away.34

As soon as I asked, he burst out into a sinister laugh.35

“You have no idea how many times I’ve been asked that!” A mischievous smile spread across his face. 36

“Because you should be dead!” his sentence came out ferocious, like he was pointing out the obvious. “Dead like all the rest were and are now because of me!” He panted.37

My mind was in too much of a haze to comprehend what he just said. Who were the others? Since when were there any others!38

As my eyes darted around from confusion, something caught my eye. It was slightly red, as if it were carved into his skin, and it lay upon the centre his chest. I could see just enough of the part that wasn’t obscured by his low collar to make out the markings.39

I had never seen this kind of tattoo before. It was a perfect circle, with four lines connecting together into points inside, like a wide diamond. Inside the diamond, was a big circle that touched each side of the squashed diamond, with a smaller circle overlapping that one, kind of like an eclipse? 40

It was a strange sort of thing, and I couldn’t help but wonder what it meant. It drew me in with curiosity so much! 41

Adrian noticed me looking at his tattoo, and immediately shied up and zipped his black jacket the rest of the way up, obscuring the rest of the tattoo from my view. The both of us immediately blushed crimson, and went into an awkward state. 42

Adrian suddenly closed his eyes, as if he was trying to withstand torture. He opened his eyes again, with a determined look cast upon his face.43

Instead of crushing my body against the wall, he pinned me to it, one side of me with the forearm that held the knife against my check, and the other side of my body with his free hand. ”Why else do you think I’ve been observing you? Because I loved you?” The sarcasm in those last few words hurt me worse than the blow to the head. As Adrian spoke, a pained look came across his face, and for the first time since I had met him, I saw a guilty, loving look in his Caribbean blue eyes. He looked regretful.44

He was talking like a psycho! A sinister, sarcastic, killer psycho who was acting as if he never gets enough! 45

Composing himself, Adrian’s expressions and movements looked forced, as if he was fighting against a different intention.46

Again, he whispered, “I’ll never stop.”47

As my attacker slipped the knife from my cheeck down to my neck, it left behind a cold shiver. I broke into hysterics. Tears streamed out of my eyes, hazing my vision, and ruining both Adrian’s shirts and mine. He looked like he pitied me.48

“Why not? Why won’t you just leave me alone?” I couldn’t help but scream out the words. I felt the warm blood trickle down from the corner of my mouth.49

“Because I can’t! Don’t you understand that I can’t?” He shouted. I was astounded to see a tear fall from Adrian’s lashes, and by the look on his face, he was too. He looked as if he didn’t want to believe it. I had never heard of a scenario where both the victim and the attacker cried. I couldn’t figure out what his reason for being shocked was, because it certainly wasn’t the same reason as mine.50

Adrian bent his head down and rested his forehead against mine, and closed his eyes. His brow was furrowed, and pain was written all over his face. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him. Even though he was loathsome, and even though he was evil, in my eyes, his soul looked like the most beautiful thing in the world. He could be the most sinister, sickening thing on the planet, and I would still love him, whether he knew it or not.51

Without a thought, my hands were on his neck, my fingers weaving with each other on the back. I didn’t know whether he minded or not. I didn’t care either. Adrian and I both stood there, our bodies pressed together in the slight glare of the near street lamp. His arms wrapped around me, and pulled me into a tight hug. I didn’t understand. One minute he wants me to die, the next he’s acting as if we were meant to be!52

I wasn’t exactly complaining, though. I didn’t want to break free, I wanted the complete opposite. I wanted to hold on and never let go. I wanted to feel his soft skin against mine.53

Adrian lifted his head and looked into my eyes. The blue truly was beautiful.54

“I never wanted to be a killer, Rosa.” The pained expression was still there in all of its stupid glory.55

I stroked the back of his hair, completely besotted. We were both still crying, but I feared that we were crying both for different reasons. I wanted to comfort him so much. I wanted him to know how I loved him.56

“You don’t have to be one. Let me go and I can be there for you, forever.” I stared into his eyes while he was about to answer. But that answer never came. Just a look of astonishment on his features. So I waited.57

I took this opportunity to admire every inch of him. His thick black eyelashes-which were now wet and little sparkly-blinked at me, hiding his Caribbean blue eyes as I liked to call them, and then showing them again. I was still dazzled by them when they reappeared even though I had been staring into them for a while now. Compared to his skin, mine was inferior. And having nice skin was my biggest compliment. His was kind of like the creamy kind that models have, except his was all the more beautiful. His thick black hair framed his face, with a fringe semi covering one of his eyes.5958

I still waited.59

I even took time to admire his flaws. His dumbfounded expression he wore at the moment, the way part of his hair flopped to the other side all of the time, how when he hugged, he hugged a little too tight.60

That’s when I finally got a response.61

He slammed me back into the wall and my head jolted backwards, except this time, Adrian had his hand on the back of my head to stop it hitting the brick. He crushed his body to mine, except this time, it was the passionate kind. The kind where it felt good. He pressed his lips against mine, except this time, I didn’t mind. Adrian kissed me fiercely, and I kept gasping for air whenever I could. His hands started at my hips, then he slowly dragged his fingers up my waist, past my shoulders, up my neck, and they ended up in my hair.62

The feel of his lips against mine sent my mind spinning. My knees started to give way, but being between his body and the wall gave me just the right leverage to keep me from falling. I slightly wrapped my legs around his, and a low moan came from him as he kissed me faster. 63

Kissing Adrian went on for so long that I started to debate over whether it was really just my imagination going into overdrive and that I was really alone on the floor with a stab wound under my ribs. It was that amazing. When Adrian finally broke free from the kiss, I knew that I wasn’t mentally unstable. 64

He leant over to whisper in my ear. “I’m sorry.” 65

I could tell from the way that Adrian spoke that he was upset. There was no need for apologies, because to me, that kiss was a more than reasonable apology, and not just for what happened tonight, but for every little disaster that goes wrong in the universe. That as an apology would last a life time. What I didn’t realize, was that Adrian wasn’t talking about the past, he was talking about the all too near future.66

We both gasped for air, and I leaned my head against the wall and shut my eyes. I felt something cold and pointy at my throat, and Adrian trap me against the wall again. It was then that I heard the torture and pain in Adrian’s voice as he uttered those three words that I feared the most.67

“I’ll never stop.”