Page 12 of Redemption
Son of a fucknut. Can’t a girl just get a break?
“Can I call you Storm Cloud? Because you’re raining on my fucking parade here.”
“Call me whatever the fuck you want, just notthat.”
“Fine. Aly it is.”
I put my hand up so quick I almost smack myself in the face with it. “AH! No. That one’s off limits too. But you couldalways revert back to what you originally called me when we first started dating. That’s fair.”
“Sandy?” he says instantly, not needing to think about the name at all.
I point to him with gleaming approval. “That’s the one.”
Shaking his head and huffing a sigh at his own miserable failure, he backs down. “Whatever. Look, that isn’t important right now. What is, is the fact that you need to get the hell out of here. Like now. Get as far away from this place and those guys as you can. Preferably anywhere north and at least a hundred miles away.”
He must be as delusional as I am if he thinks I’m going anywhere besides back towards the Palace to find the guys. I place my hands on my hips, assuming a dominant stance. “No. Absolutely not.” The guys need me and, unlike him, I’m not going to leave them stranded in their hour of need.
A sudden epiphany barrels into me, causing my arms to fly into the air as I scoff in his general direction, absolutely and irrevocably done with today. “I don’t even know why I’m standing here arguing with you right now. You’re not worth the aggravation, and you’re not fucking real!”
“His bootylishious little tush certainly looks real from this angle.”My mythical-self bends down at the hip and tilts her head, adjusting a pair of wide-rimmed glasses I have no idea how she even has, while getting far too up-close and personal with his ass. Upon assessing the...situation... a quarter randomly manifests between her finger and her thumb. With a flick of her wrist, she flings it at him, the imaginary coin bouncing off his ass with a flourish before sailing to the ground a few feet away only to disappear back into the ether. Seemingly satisfied with her scientific analysis, she whips out a randomclipboard and writes something down on it before nodding and also poofing out of existence right before my very eyes.
Ok... so this is happening. Greeaaat.
Dare’s freakishly accurate ghost sighs, sadness coating his words. “Alessandra, they’re gone. You heard what they said. Those guys already got them. You’re not getting them back.”
I shake the words from my ears, refusing to let them take root, and step away, creating distance from what is real and what’s not.
They’renot gone.
They can’t be.
The man before me is the one who should be dead.Wasdead to me long before those zombies decided to resurrect themselves. I loved Darius more than I could say, but... he left... and I moved on. Completely and without him. I lived my life, survived the end of the world, and found three guys that absolutely set me free in every way imaginable. So I refuse to believe for a second that they left me too. Willingly or not.
“They’re not gone. I know your ghostly ass can’t possibly fathom reality but there are only two possibilities: either I’m dead and so are they, which means I just have to go find them and live happily ever after in the afterlife, skipping through the clouds or whatever people do on the other side, or I’m alive, in which case, I know they are too.”
He bites his tongue and sighs, aggravation coating his tone. “First of all, those aren’t the only two possibilities. And, secondly, how could you possibly know they’re alive? You don’t even know if they’re still on the grounds to check!”
“I would know if they were! I’d feel it!” I press my fingers into my chest over and over again, knowing my heart would stopif any of theirs did. “Right here. They’re not fucking losers that just give up at the first sign of trouble.” He scoffs, turning his head away in frustration, but I don’t let him avoid the obvious—that he gave up and surrendered at the first little speed bump of our relationship. I march around him, standing as tall as my toes can possibly carry me, and get all up in his face, putting every bit of bite, every bit of conviction I can muster into my words. “Theyfight. Theysurvive. Atallcosts.” My fingers poke into his chest this time, driving my point home. “They’d never give up on me. So, I’m not going to give up on them until I see their bodies lying limp at my feet.”
His arms cross in front of his chest, creating what little distance he can while I give him none to cower behind. “You’re really not going to do as I ask?”
“Nope,” I reply, popping the P at the end while crossing my own arms over my chest, raising him with a lifted eyebrow to boot. If he thinks I’m backing down on this one, he’s got another thing coming. My feet are planted, solid as a fucking rock, as is my resolve. I will not abandon them. Alive or dead. He can go fuck off, get out of my way, and let me do what I need to get my guys back.
No one, not even Darius-motherfucking-Cruz, is going to stop me.
Chapter Six
Dare
What do they call it when something is being so cute yet so damn infuriating that you just want to strangle the living daylights out of it? Cute Aggression? Is that it? Cause that’s pretty much where I am right now with this stubborn little maniacal bean sprout of a woman. Don’t get me wrong, she’s cute as a button, but I can feel my hair turning gray the longer we debate about this.
“If you’d just come with me, we can—"
“If you think I’m going to follow your imaginary ass, you’ve got another thing coming! I already have a very loud inner monologue, and now a visual reminder of my insanity. I don’t need another manifestation to add to this overflowing pile of psycho salad!”
An exasperated growl follows her outburst as she stomps past me. I, on the other hand, pause completely, swaying slightly as I turn to her. My eyebrows lift dramatically in response to her accusation. Imaginary? That’s like the eighth time she’s insinuated that I’m not real. I don’t know how much livelier I can be for her to believe I’m right here, right in front of her, alive and tangible.
But, to be honest, I could be saying the same thing about her.
