𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐦 ; 𝐎𝐮𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐤𝐬

23

Chapter Twenty Three
Confession's

It comes out of nowhere...
This sudden wave of sadness
Just floods over me..
And for a moment...
I can feel my heart...
I mean really feel my heart.
The blood pulsing through it.
the ache behind each pulse.
All the work my heart does
to simply keep me alive.
And it hurts.
The excruciating pain of a broken
heart. It hurts all of a sudden
And not for any specific reason...
But for every reason.
Each scar and the story behind it
Old wounds and fresh ones...
I can feel them all
All at once...
all of a sudden.

Running was the only option they had left to make it out of there alive. Guilt ate away at Riley as she fled the scene leaving Peterkin alone with Sarah to die. John B continued to try and reassure himself and Riley that they both had done the right thing but the further they got away from the runway the worst the guilt began to build. A poem spun around over and over again in her head as her legs began to burn, a poem she can't remember even reading but in that moment it was the only thing that could articulate exactly how she was feeling.

"Are you okay" John B asked breathlessly once they found a safe space to stop and regain their strength.

"I don't want to talk about it" she mumbled as she leaned up against a wall.

"He killed someone Riley and he would have killed the both of us if we hadn't have run" he recalled.

Riley could feel the bile rise in her throat as John B continued.

"He shot her without a second thought"

That was the last thing she heard before she began to vomit all over the pavement. It was as if she was cleansing her insides of everything Rafe had ever said or done that made her feel special.

"I need you to shut the fuck up... do you understand" she whispered as she repositioned herself against the wall.

John B nodded slightly before pulling his sister into a hug. Riley took a second before she grabbed hold of him and dug her head into his chest. Neither of them spoke, an understanding silence loomed over them as they held onto one another. Life felt like it was swallowing her up and if she was being completely honest with herself she'd be happy if it did. Minutes of comfortable silence passed before the moment ended and John B brought her back to reality.

"We need to find the other's" he spoke up as she took a long deep breath.

"I brought him into our lives... I let him in... I don't let people in. This, everything that happened is my fault and everyone is going to think the same thing" she cried as John B shook his head.

"Nobody is going to think that Riley"

"I'm in love with a murder... what does that make me because no matter what he's just done I love him and I'm afraid in case that doesn't change" she tried to explain.

"In time and once your able to process exactly what he's just done that will change... your a human being, you can't just turn your feelings off like that... give yourself some time Riley and don't be so hard on yourself" he exhaled softly as she took a moment to understand his word's but she couldn't shake the feeling that no matter what Rafe done or what he would do in the future that she'd never not love him.

"I'm going to find Iris... you find the others" Riley told him as she thought of her best friend being alone in that big empty house.