Page 110 of Equilibrium
Unbeknownst to me, I’d been running from Kieran, from my family, from who I really was, and now I was running from Storm. Maybe I should’ve stayed, and he could’ve explained everything to me.
No, no, absolutely not. He betrayed you. Lied to you. Led you to believe that happy endings exist for people like you.
Yes, he betrayed me, and nothing he could ever say would make up for the shattering feeling in my heart. Just when I started trusting him, just when I started believing that maybe I could stay, and he would be the one, he fucked it up.
I walked over to the first window, its glass broken, the shards on the ground. The debris beneath my boots crunched with every step I took, and I tried staying alert, but my body was already shutting down on me.
I just wanted to sleep and to start my life again tomorrow. Get out from the West Coast and forget about the last two months.
I stepped inside the darkened room and saw a lone chair in the corner. Right, there used to be offices here. The Nightingales, just like my father, kept some legal businesses around the country.
I untied the hoodie from my waist and put it on. I needed a shower and something to eat, but it would all have to wait until tomorrow. I wasn’t going to move from here. Taking a few steps forward, I collapsed onto the old chair, the particles of dust dancing around me. I guess that no one ever used this warehouse anymore.
I should check the rest of the rooms to make sure that nobody else was here, but tiredness took over, and before I knew it, cocooned in Storm’s hoodie, I closed my eyes, letting the darkness take over.
* * *
Voices woke me up, and the unmistakable sound of footsteps nearby was what had me jumping out of the chair. Someone was inside the warehouse.
I looked around, but the darkness shrouding the warehouse made it impossible to see and the disoriented feeling after the sleep I had made me weary.
Shit, did Storm already manage to find me?
The footsteps came closer, right from the room next to this one. Somebody was whistling and it made all the hairs on my body stand up.
I had to get out of here.
Inching closer to the window I came through; I was ready to jump out when the person I thought I would never see again appeared in front of me.
“No.” I started shaking my head. “No, it’s impossible. No, no, no. You aren’t here.”
His black hair seemed even darker, just slightly illuminated by the light from the streetlamp. Those perceptive eyes traveled over the length of my body.
“You’re not here. This is just my mind playing tricks on me.” I closed my eyes and tightened my hands into fists, the nails biting into my palm. “You’re not real. You’re not real,” I started chanting. But when I opened my eyes, he was still there, just looking at me.
I took a step back, retreating deeper into the room and he followed through, entering, coming after me.
“I fucking killed you!”
He smiled at me. A carefree smile, the one I hadn’t seen on his face in ages.
“Hello, birdy.”
No, no, no, fucking no! This couldn’t be happening. I stabbed him. I saw him bleed.
But you didn’t see him die.
No! Fuck that. He died. He must have.
“I’ve missed you, baby girl.”
“Stay away from me!” I screamed at him. “You fucked me over when you were alive, and now you keep coming back to finish the job.”
I took another step back and hit something soft. Something that wasn’t a wall.
Turning my head, I saw wide shoulders, up and up, and I saw another person that promised to kill me.
“No!” I tried stepping away from him, from Cillian, but he took a hold of my arms, keeping me against him. “No, no, no. Please,” I cried out. “None of this is real.”
