Falling in Love Again: A Valentine's Day Proposal

She doesn’t say anything; she just gives me a look which makes me shrink in on myself. I can’t keep arguing, I might end up pushing her away and putting Raelyn deeper in to danger.

“Okay, I’m going, I’m going. Please, just help her. I’m so worried.”

“I will do. You can trust the police, you know that, right?”

“Mmm, yeah.” I really do need to learn that. “Okay, thank you.”

I leave. I don’t know what else to do, I head back to my car and go back home, deflated. Everyone keeps telling me that I need to just go home and wait but that’s going to kill me. I’m not the most patient man in the world, that’s always been a bit of an issue for me, but this is going to crush me.

Just do it, I warn myself as I drive. Just do what everyone has told you.

Lee said it, I promised that I would listen to him, and the officer did as well.

I end up inside, pacing my living room, jumping every time I hear a noise that might well be the phone. It isn’t, it never is, but I’m so desperate for it to be that I leap foolishly. I’m like a character in the middle of a horror movie, falling apart every time the old house creaks just the littlest bit.

“Fuck.” I rake my fingers through my hair, anger and stress getting the better of me. “Fucking hell.”

I don’t think I just like Raelyn either, that’s what all of this is making me realize. I think that I might be doing the one thing that I swore wouldn’t happen again, and I may be falling in love with her. A different love to what I felt with Anna, something more real and intense. If I look back on it now, I never felt like myself with her, I was never one hundred percent real. I was just a character, the version of me that she wanted.

I pretended to be the man that she wanted me to be, and it still wasn’t enough.

But with Raelyn, in the short time that we’ve been together, I have shown more of myself to her than I ever have anyone else. I let my walls fall down so hard that she actually saw me. I liked it, I loved her seeing me, it felt good. The way that she looked at me with love, even knowing who I really am.

I love her. I love her and I think she might love me too. She seems to love me as much as I do her.

Fucking hell. I am in love. In love with a woman who isn’t here. Who I can’t hold right now. Because she’s in freaking danger. That asshole, that stupid little prick, the murderous fucker who will be on the other end of that blade if I ever get my hands on him, has her. I don’t know what he’s doing with her, and that’s horrific.

I try to call Lee. I can’t help it. I need to speak to him, but he doesn’t answer. Probably because he’s busy. So, then I call the police station but they unsurprisingly tell me that they can’t give me anything yet. I’m getting restless, I can’t sit still, so I make the choice to head out to find her. I should be at home, in case any of them come to tell me what’s going on, but I need to move.

“What the fuck?” As I reach the front door, my eyes spot something that I’m pretty sure wasn’t there before. Although, I did come inside in a hurry, I wasn’t exactly looking.

I lean down, nerves zig zagging through me as I curl my fingers around the square of paper which could hold the answers to absolutely everything. I just don’t think it’s going to be good news.

“Fucking hell. What now?”

32

Raelyn

My head throbs. It’s like there’s a building site inside of me, hammering and drilling away. Is this a hangover? Was I out drinking last night? I kinda have vague memories of dancing in a night club, but that could be from ages ago. It doesn’t feel quite right for now. It seems like there’s something else going on here.

Why can’t I remember? I demand, angry with myself. What the hell is going on here?

I need to open my eyes; I think that will help me. There must be some clue in my room as to what happened. If I see heels or a nice dress strewn across the floor, then I’ll know for sure that it was a night out and the mystery will be solved. If not… well, I can work it out somehow. But for some reason, opening up my eyes isn’t the easiest thing in the world. It’s almost as if they are super glued shut. They just don’t want to see.

Is it too bright? Or do I actually need to be worried about this?

I gasp a couple of times before I try to prized my eyes open once more. The whiteness fills my vision. It’s almost too much, tears stream down my cheeks, but I keep on going. I force myself to look.

Where the hell is this? I’m immediately struck by how little I know this room. This certainly isn’t my bedroom, nor is it Abbi’s. It isn’t Carter’s either. Where the hell am I? This is pretty weird…

“What the fuck?” I can’t move. I shake my wrists but they are stuck behind my back. Almost as if they’re tied there. It must just be the pain though, it’s… it’s sticking me in place. But just for a moment. “What the fuck?”

The more the room around me becomes clear, the more I panic. This isn’t just pain and a strange night that’s left me with a hangover, this is something dangerous. But what? Why don’t I know?

Oh my God. I suddenly remember why this is bad. The man, the killer! He came after me, he attacked me, he smashed my cell phone to pieces and then he chased me. He chased me until I fell. I have vague memories of hitting the ground hard and falling apart. Blacking out almost immediately.

And now he has me. He has me locked away somewhere, in what appears to be a disgusting old warehouse, tied to a metal pole like I’m a dog. This is a freaking kidnapping, I’ve been kidnapped. Not only have I witnessed a crime, a murder, I’ve also been threatened and kidnapped. This is bad. Really bad. I might end up dead.