Once her room is clean I carry her to bed as she’s still completely out to it. Cage stands at the foot of her bed, her gun in his hand.
“Is this normal, to still be sleeping?” I ask him, we weren’t quiet cleaning up.
“Yeah, I’d say so. If she doesn’t wake by late morning, I’d ring the doc.” I nod at him as he holds the gun up. “What do you want done with this?”
“Destroy it. She doesn’t need any reminder of this night. I alone will be enough to keep it on her mind,” I say to him. His hand reaches for my shoulder.
“You know, brother, you can’t control the world, or the way people see the shit in it. We all live with some sort of darkness.” The look in his eyes tells me he knows exactly why I’m overthinking this.
“It was toxic, you know, Hannah and I. She was the human version of cocaine and fuck me, I was addicted to her. She made me feel nothing and that’s what I could never get enough of. But Jade, Cage, fuck. She makes me feel everything and I don’t know what the fuck to do with it.”
He shrug “You just fall into it and feel, brother.” With that he walk from the room, leaving me alone with Jade and my thoughts. As evil as they can be.
I wake to Jade gasping for air, desperation etched over her face.
“Shhh, little bird. It’s just a dream. I’m here,” I whisper quietly, so as to not freak her out more. Her body is covered in cold sweat, her eyes wild with her hand rubbing around her throat. I spent hours watching the bruises appear over her beautiful white skin. Red and angry, then turning blue with a deep shade of purple mixed in.
Her eyes close only to snap back open again, fear dancing deep in them. I move my hand to her body, to hold her close. To allow her to see that it’s me, I’m here. She’s not alone.
He’s gone.
“When I close my eyes, he’s all I see.” Her voice is so quiet, so broken, it’s painful to hear.
“Then keep them open and on me, little bird.” With that, the tears fall as she reaches up and clings to me. I scoop her into my arms. Her eyes never leave mine in what feels like forever. We just look at each other talking through the stories in our eyes. That is all you ever need - the truth inside one’s eyes to really know where home is. Where the dark meets the light, a beacon to each other’s heart.
The story of Jade and 81. The biker and the florist. Both as beautifully broken and haunted as each other. That, in the end, is what true love stories look like.
When nightmares turn into dreams. We will survive. For when she’s beside me, I am alive.
Epilogue
Six Weeks have gone by since that frightful night where my past meshed with my presence.
My dreams are no longer mine alone anymore they are tarnished with actions that I couldn’t control.
Death.
The smell of death haunts me.
As does the blood.
The metallic tang that doesn’t seem to leave the insides of my nose. It was an outcome I had longed for.
Dreamed about.
The killing of a human who had destroyed so many parts of my soul. Who had scared me not only on the inside but the out.
It’s still now his eyes and breath that causes me to wake in a panic in a bed drenched in cold sweat from nightmares that seem so real. Sheets that wrap around me like a python.
Like it’s happening all over again.
Him.
His hands.
The scorching pain from a knife blade.
The cracking of bones from fists hitting my skin. Boot marks leaving purple marks all over my body. The way his eyes looked as he asked me if I would kill him.
