“Whoa! Aly!” Julian turns around to the screaming student behind him. That was the biggest mistake he could have done.
Brandon stares straight at him with confusion until he realizes exactly who he is. His mouth drops. “Jul-Julian?” The human stutters.
Julian curses under his breath. He stands up without causing much attention to himself. Brandon follows him out the door. When he’s out of sight from the security guard, he runs. What the human doesn’t realize is that you can’t catch up to an immortal unless they want you to.
Julian makes many turns until he reaches the parking lot. He quickly takes his shirt off and lets his silver black wings emerge from its hiding. He flies up towards the roof and lets the main building cover him.
It had to have happen one way or another. He just wished it didn’t happen like this. A lot of people here will recognize him sooner than later. He was one of them just like Alyssa is, although everyone feared him while they adored her.
He takes a deep breath as the bell rings. Nothing, not even the Spartan battles, could have prepared him for this Moment. He tucks his wings behind his shoulder blade. He prepares to show himself to the school. He jumps off the roof with perfect balance. He smirks at the reaction from a couple of human students who stood around. He lets his sinister mind lead him to the first class of the day, knowing that he has every single class with her.
Julian walks straight into the dull classroom with patience. A teacher, in his thirties, sits behind an old wooden table desk. “Ah, you must be the new student. I’m Mr. Lee.” The teacher greets him, noticing that Julian is the last one to enter.
Julian just nods and scans the room to analyze any dangerous factors. He finds Alyssa sitting in the front with her back facing him as she’s conversing with her friend.
Being so close to her sends chills to his spine. It kills him knowing the truth. He can’t take the last four years out of his mind. A part of him regrets ever leaving her, but the other part wants to shake her, wants to show her real torment, and real pain. His heart tells him to bring her to his arms and never let go. His mind tells him to remember all the pain she has caused him. Every memory he repeats in his head like a broken film that never stops.
“Okay, class.” Mr. Lee says over the loud students to get their attention. “We have a new student.”
All eyes turn to him, but the eyes he searches is Alyssa’s. She doesn’t look up. She’s busy searching for a document in her folder. She has probably already sensed his presence here. That’s perfect for him. She should finally see what has become of him.
<><><>
Alyssa’s heart beats fast. It’s impossible to get rid of the image that appeared before her on stage. How can she see something so real, but it wasn’t real at all? There is something wrong with her. How will she get rid of it all? She wants the memories, the terror, and painful thoughts that haunt her every day to leave her in peace. It’s not right for her to envision him. Her head spins. She needs to find that small aspirin pill she’s hid in her folder. That will calm her down. It’s somewhere. She knows it. Searching through her yellow folder her fingers grasp a small hard object. A stone? It’s a purple stone. The perfectly cut stone that glistens like a crystal. She drops it back into the folder. That stone is odd. Why is it in her folder? She shakes her head. She’s being stupid. It’s all a fragment of her imagination. Just like that dream girl she made up. Just like the image on stage or maybe even the concer-
James Kingston interrupts her thoughts. “Is that Julian?” She turns to stare at him in shock. His green eyes are looking forward in thought.
“Julian? Like the Julian?” A girl beside her whispers harshly.
“It’s him.” Darla Kell from behind her, who she was talking to just a minute ago, says with a strain voice.
Alyssa doesn’t look forward, not yet. Everyone slowly turns to her with curiosity filling their eyes. They all stare at her like a ticking bomb. That’s a curse to her, his name. It’s as if the hourglass is dripping its last drop of sand. She stops her breathing for one second and looks forward. Her world stops for this Moment. A ghost of her past has appeared.
<><><>
Julian meets her gaze and all she does is stare back at him like a deer caught in the headlights. How shock with disbelief she is yet it doesn’t satisfy him enough. She should be frightened to see him, not surprised. He was never one to accept defeat so he will put everything he has to torment her. That’s the least he can do without going against his superior’s wishes to be her Elim. How he despises faith that has brought them together yet again, but without lust, or love. Just dirty love and hated mixed.
Julian’s memories rush back over and over again. He won’t be broken down easily. He will never fall for her again. Her eyes so bright with purple filling them, but behind them he knows he sees the hit of realization. She’s exactly what he wanted her to not be. The Betrayer. “Hey.” He smirks not showing his emotions. He will be cold and heartless. She deserves nothing less.
“Mr. Lee, I-I forgot my jacket backstage.” She stumbles through her words.
“Yeah, you can-” She doesn’t let him finish. She runs out the classroom. Mr. Lee notices Alyssa’s behavior. As a teacher, he’s worried. “Can someone-”
“I’ll go.” Julian walks after her. His speed is much faster than hers. She won’t get away from him that easily.
He follows right behind her. He wants her to pay for every single time he gave his heart over to her. All she ever wanted was his end. She was his life, but she brought him death all the same. The anger inside him increases dramatically as he sees how she runs away from him in terror. Away from the memories he once held so dear, but has burned from the realization that she betrayed him. She used him for her own benefit. No more will she ever damage him the way she’s done so many times. This time he will win and when he does, then he will let her burn with her defeat for eternity.
Alyssa continues to run from him, but she doesn’t know that he’s a predator and he will catch up to her.
He uses his speed to appear in front of her, causing her to stop and stumble into him. He grasps her upper arms as she fusses to get away from him.
“Alyssa. Stop!” He orders.
“No, thank you.” She answers coldly. She fights back with everything she has. “I don’t know what you’re doing here, but I won’t stick around to find out for myself.” She tries to get away from him, but he’s too strong to let her. She won’t give up, she was always a fighter.
He shakes her roughly. “I said stop!” He loses his patience.
“Let me go!” She spits. “Why don’t you just leave. That’s what you do best.” Her hate for him shows in her eyes. He shoves her away from him. He can’t take that hate, but he will never show her that. She takes the chance to push past him. She forgot how much he always gets his way. Julian laughs coldly. She has no right to play guilt with him. Not after what she’s done. He grabs her by her upper arm and turns her around. He’s sure his grip will leave a bruise, but he doesn’t care.
Julian is never one to play around the circle so he will settle this now. He drags her to the student parking lot to the sports car that’s parked for his benefit. She’s as complicated as he remembers. She throws pity punches at him, but gives up shortly after trying. Obviously she’s not as strong as him and if she tries to damage him in some way will be a lost cause because he heals easily.
“Where the hell are you taking me?”
He opens the door for her to get in. “Get in or I will force you in.”
She stands up to him. Her eyes challenging his as her hands are positioned on her hips in defiance. “I’m not going anywhere with you. As a matter of fact, I’m going back to class because unlike you I actually don’t disappear on those that care about me.”
He smirks. “I warned you.” He shoves her in the seat and locks the door that only opens from the outside. She throws her fist at the bullet proof window, but it’s useless. He has her in his hand
now and he’s not letting go.
<><><>
Alyssa flinches. She’s more than frightened. Her emotions run past her quickly. She can’t tell what she feels inside. The school becomes a blur as he speeds away.
She weights her possibilities. Her head is spinning with thought. Julian is here. He’s here. She should hate him for ever leaving her the way he left, but her heart is more frightened on why he came back. Does he want me? She thinks. No, think clearly Alyssa! He doesn’t want you. He said it himself. He left you that letter that tore your heart apart. You can’t give in. You have to get away! She stares at the handle on the door. No. As soon as he stops the car she’ll run, but she won’t open the door while he’s driving over one hundred-twenty miles an hour. She could be senseless and impulsive sometimes, but not stupid.
Julian stops the car after twenty mintues of speeding. Alyssa sees her opportunity and prepares herself mentally. He opens her door and she rushes past him in a sprint run. Alyssa runs into the woods. She can hear him call out her name, but all she wants is to get away from him. That’s it. Why can’t he leave her alone?
“You can do it.” She encourages herself in a breathy voice.
In the matter of seconds, she trips and almost falls down the rocky hill, but Julian appears and grabs her by her waist, saving her. He pulls her to his well-defined chest. The warmth of her heart at having him so near is painful. She wishes that everything could be different, but it will never be the way it used to. Now that he’s back she doesn’t know if she’ll stay. She has to move to stay as far away from him as money can take her.
<><><>
Julian closes his eyes in agony.
“Why do you do this?” He whispers to her. He tilts his head up to control his emotions.
Alyssa’s hysterical cries soak his shirt. “I loved you.” She sobs into his chest. He holds her for comfort. She’s his weakness, she always was and now that he has her in his arms he needs to let go. “You have no idea how much.”
He hears her perfectly. Why does she do this him? All he ever wanted is to be delighted by his faith to love and be loved, but what she did has no name of forgiveness. He wants to pretend she’s not the one. He wants to kiss her passionately and forget the centuries of memories surrounding her. Forget those purple eyes that he holds so dear. Forget about the day she looked into his eyes and killed him.
Behind the Gates
Alyssa would give her heart for the wish to forget the past week. Every day she wakes up with the same name running through her head. Julian. Every day she has to prove he’s here. That he’s here to stay. Sometimes she wants to run into his arms and forget ever being left in the first place. That isn’t reality though. She can’t go back to the man who broke her down so much and now that she’s learning to move on he’s back. It’s not fair for her emotional side to deal with this right now.
Reality is so much harder than the fantasy dream she wishes to come true. After avoiding him, she decides that it would be best to finally go back to school. She can’t hide forever between the walls of her room. If only there was a way she could just disappear. She could book a flight and leave, but she has too many responsibilities here that aren’t fair to run away from. Her name is Alyssa Pike and she will be damned if Julian takes control of her again. It took her so long for her broken heart to heal. She won’t give in to the temptation of breaking down and apart from everyone around her. She’s strong. Hopefully she can prove just that.
She closes her eyes. She takes the small framed picture that she has hidden so well from Brandon. She runs her fingers through the glass. Julian. Why does it have to be hard? She thinks to herself. Actually to her it’s not that hard. She doesn’t want anything to do with him no matter what he says, nor does, she won’t let him hurt her again. She doesn’t care if he’s back. She doesn’t care about his gentle caress when she broke down in front of him. She just doesn’t care. She also doesn’t care that he has no remorse for what he did. Love is blind, right? So she obviously needed to see him to see what was right in front of her. A selfless, heartless, cold, heartbreaker of a man.
“If I cared I wouldn’t be able to do this.” She throws the framed picture in the small trash bin. This will be the start of the new Alyssa. The one who’s strong enough to face the torment of the past. Julian will never haunt her, or bring such love from her again. She has to move on, she needs to.
A faint chain of chimes fills her ears.
She rushes to grab the house phone resting on the kitchen’s counter. “Hello?”
“Hey, sweetheart.”
Alyssa frowns in disgust. This woman can’t possibly be calling the Pike household. Does she have no embrassement? “What do you want?” She snaps bat the older woman.
“Um… You’re father wanted to check in on you, but he just left to a meeting and wanted me to ask if you were alright.” His secretary, Mila, stumbled. Mila probably knows why Alyssa isn’t as welcoming and friendly as she used to be.
“Next time he wants to check up on me, tell him to call himself.”
“I’ll be sure to let him know.” Mila said calmly.
“I’m sure you will.” Alyssa doesn’t wait for a response and hangs up without guilt.
Alyssa throws the phone to the wall. How dare she call her home? How could she have the audacity to call? She wipes her face in acknowledgement that she was honestly losing it. She smiles to herself. Nothing will be the same. And in any case of anger her best solution is to put a smile and move on before she damages anything priceless.
A knock at the door interrupts her thoughts.
She sits down knowing perfectly that he has a key to the house, and her being too caught up in pretending everything is fine, she really doesn’t have the energy to open the door.
Click. The lock picked.
“Hey.” Brandon comes in with a confused and concerned expression. He’s like a therapist. Nothing gets pass him when it comes to Alyssa.
“Hey, Brady.” She smiles widely at him. Hopefully he buys her act. “I decided to get a Honda Civic. What do you think?”
“Well, they are nice cars. And not too much gas. It’s a good car in general, but you have your mini cooper convertible.”
“I can’t take the mini cooper everywhere.”
“Why not?”
“Because it cost much more and I plan on going to places that won’t hurt me if they decide to rob the Honda.”
“What are you thinking about doing?”
“Nothing important. Yet.”
“Alyssa if you are-”
“I’m not doing anything illegal. I just have to do something, okay?” she lies.
“Don’t go back into that life.” He whispers.
“What life, Brandon? I thought you didn’t know anything.” She narrows her eyes at him. She always knew that he would have followed her last year to the underground place she has gone continuously, but to hear him admit it causes her anger to rise. She didn’t do anything bad, all she did was train to fight with weapons that are from a different era. Underground fighting may be illegal, but it made her feel good to take out all her insecurities, fears, and anger on her opponent, or dummy. Sometimes you just have to vent everything from your life or there won’t be a way to handle it later on when it gets worst because that’s what life is about. It gets better, and then something hits you harder than the time before.
“Alyssa, just let it go.”
“Let what go? Julian? Or the fact that he’s here?”
“The fights.”
“I can’t do that.”
“Why not?”
“Because that helps make everything better.” She blurts out before she can stop herself. “Are you going to help me get the car or not?”
He sighs. “I will.”
“Then can you take me to get one after school?”
He nods. Brandon expected her to scream, to cry because of Julian, but she’s just going back to the ring. For a week Brandon has wanted to come see h
er, but she wouldn’t let him, and he decided that she probably needed her space. He hoped for her to finally talk to him about what’s going on with her, but she hasn’t been the same for years. When all her torments emerge, she goes into that ring to let it out then confide in her own best friend. Julian has torn her apart and created her to become a walking act. She acts like everything’s okay, but you can see the darkness in her eyes. The way she looks at everything like it’s not there. She’s always so deep in thought that he sometimes forgets who she really is. The Alyssa he knew would have never given up. That Alyssa was so full of life and goals, now she’s just the Alyssa who doesn’t have the joyfulness of life. He misses that more than anything.
“Talk to me, Aly.” Brandon cautiously says.
“Talk about what? There’s nothing to talk about.”
“Julian. He’s back. What are you going to do about that?”
“Nothing.” She raises her eyebrow in question. “Is there something I should do?”
“I don’t-”
“Brandon.” She smiles warmly at her best friend who suffers just by looking at her. “I’m fine. It sucks, but I’ll get over it.”
“By going back to fight?”
“Everyone needs an outlet.”
“Everyone needs to vent.”
“That’s my ventilation.” She paces in front of him back and forth. “I’m not expecting you to understand me, but accept it. I need this to keep the little hold on my life that I worked so hard to have.”
“You know that it’s dangerous. All those weapons-”
She stops her pacing. “It’s frightening, but it makes me feel better.”
Brandon shakes his head. He can’t believe that violence can make her feel better. It’s not a rational statement coming from a girl who ran a campaign to stop bullying in middle school. “You need to stop this.” He demands, losing the little patience he’s had.
Indignation Page 4