Prologue…

I sat staring at the bleak space in front of me, hugging my legs to my chest. I tried to get my head around what had happened. What had just happened? Was it real, or just a fragment of my imagination? No, it was all real; too real.

I tried to remember what happened but all I could remember was the scream, an ear-piercing scream that would forever haunt me. I covered my ears with my hands trying to escape from all the pain that she had felt. I could see it all too well, just as though I was there again. The scene played over and over again in my head. Then I felt his arms cradling me ever so carefully, analysing the situation no doubt. I couldn't hear the stifling screams anymore, just the hum of the comforting words of my true love.

I pulled my hands away from my ears and eagerly searched for his hands that were placed around my shoulders. As I did this, he reached for one of my hands, and used his free hand to move my chin up so that he could see my face clearly. He sighed gently and kissed my lips with more care than necessary. I didn't like how this felt. It was abnormal, not the same. I didn't like differences. I smiled as he pulled away, responding to my glint of happiness he smiled his smile that belonged to me.

He seemed more relaxed now, more in his comfort zone. He didn't like seeing me like this, and I could tell.

"How're you feeling hun?" asked Riley.

"I'm feeling better now thanks," I said trembling with fear as I spoke. "I still see it, every detail of that night. He's still out there; I can feel it. Everyday I become closer to the day where it will end, where one of us will end up in an eternity of darkness amongst the pits of hell."

He shuddered as I said the last bit; he knew exactly what I meant.

"Emily, it's going to be alright, nothing, and I mean nothing on this earth is going to hurt you." He was right, nothing on this earth going to hurt me, but I knew something totally different to Riley. I knew where the terrifying monster came from, and what its intentions were: to kill me.

A tear rolled down my cheek. I didn't realise I was crying, for I had cried too many times in the past. Too many tears had escaladed down the contours of my face to last anyone a lifetime. But I wasn't just anyone. No, I was someone much, much different. Someone who had seen the pits of hell whilst still being very much alive; and not done anything to deserve to have seen what I have seen.

I didn't realise how much I had been crying, for Riley's shirt, once an appealing grey, was now smeared black, and was soaking. Dragging my mind away from my dark past, I looked up to Riley's face. My eyes traced over his angelic face. His lips, turned up at the edges into a smile too good for me to see. His hair, hiding one eye, shimmered elegantly in the moonlight that seemed to seep into the room from uncertain paths. I reached up to move the dark hair, to see his eyes. They glittered like jewels found amongst old shipwrecks at the bottom of the sea. The eyes that seemed to speak so many emotions. The eyes that I adored.

My eyelids felt heavy. Nestled in Riley's arms I felt the safest I had in several months. I stared into his topaz eyes, slowly letting me slip into unconsciousness.