Page 155 of On The Edge
I made it through the flight, through getting the keys from my old—well, now current—landlord and that’s it. I set my stuff down, locked the door, and fell asleep on the couch after crying myself out of tears.
My chest… It feels like I can’t breathe. Like I’m having a perpetual panic attack and there’s absolutely nothing I can do to stop it. My whole body feels heavy, drained yet too full at the same time.
Heartbreak.
I’m used to it by now, but I’m so surprised by the intensity I’m feeling.
Well, I guess I’m grieving four relationships, not just one.
That’s what we were. Together, in love, in a relationship this time. Even if it was just on my end. Last time, it was young love, a crush mixed with hope and wishes for the future. When they left me the first time, I hurt, I grieved, but I knew I’d survive. This time… This time I’m not so sure.
No one really ever truly stays. But what hurts more is that I let myself believe they would stay. That this time, with all our truths out in the open, they’d stay. Want me. Want to keep me. But I guess that’s not in the cards for me.
I turn on the couch, pushing my face into the cushion and forcing myself back to sleep.
Oblivion is better than reality.
Boom,boom, boom!
The sounds of a fist on my door pull me from sleep. My whole body is stiff, like I’ve been sleeping for too long.
Wha…
Boom! Boom! Boom!
“Melody!” a beautiful booming voice yells through my door. I’m 98% sure I’m hallucinating.
Maybe if I turn my back on the door, the hallucinations will go away.
“Mel!”Boom, boom, boom!“Please, baby, let us in!”
“Sync!”
“Echo!”
“Songbird!”
“Reverb!”
The voices start mixing, adding into the reverberating knocks that won’t stop. There’s no breaks, no pauses.
Is that part of a hallucination? I haven’t had one in a while that wasn’t due to getting high or drunk.
Is this what it feels like normally? Not that hallucinations are ever normal.
“Sync! Get your ass up and open this door or I’m breaking it down!”
Kai?
“Just do it, she’s not going to be here much longer anyway,” one of them says loud enough that I can hear.
“What?” I croak out, my voice hoarse from days of disuse.
“Stay back, baby!” one of them yells, Markus I think, before the cracking of wood and the thundering of footsteps.
“Oh god, Echo,” Adam says softly as he stops at my side and rolls me onto my back. When his hands touch my back, I fully realize that I’m, in fact, not hallucinating.
“Adam?” I dry whisper.
