Chapter 8

The sun rays came through the bedroom window, warming Raina's skin as she rolled over in bed. Silence filled the house. The only thing that could be heard was the sound of the birds chirping their morning wake-up sounds. Raina rolled again, this time covering her head with an extra pillow. She did not want to be awake to deal with the hard truths of life. Suddenly, vibrations could be heard on the nightstand. A groan escaped her lips as she pulled the pillow off her head, throwing it towards the nightstand. Slowly, she opened her eyes. She just stared blankly at the ceiling. As she sat up on the bed, the sounds of rustling from her black dress could be heard. It was supposed to be a good night. It was an amazing moment in her life, but now it seemed as if everything had turned to dust in her hands. In one moment, the joy of her life seemed to vanish in a moment. She stripped her clothes and moved to the shower. Stepping into the shower, she breathed in the warm mist. It seemed so suffocating, just as suffocating as those black clothes. She turned the handle and made the water as cold as she could stand it. She closed her eyes and let the cold water run over her naked body.

"Raina!!!" a familiar voice called out to her. Raina's eyes shot open as she scrambled out of the shower, barely remembering to throw a towel on. Immediately, she began searching the rooms of the house for the owner of the voice. Where were they?! She heard it clear as day! No matter how hard she searched, no one was to be found. The front door slammed against the wall as she went onto the front porch. All she found was an empty driveway. Raina dropped to her knees and began to cry. There was a warm touch on her arm. She looked up to see who it was, but her vision was blurred from her tears. All she knew was that it was not the owner of the voice and did not matter to her. The person tried to help her up, but Raina had no strength in her body. She had not eaten in a couple of days, and her running across the house had taken what strength she had left. Warm strong arms wrapped around her towel wrapped body and lifted her into the air. Darkness took over her vision.

When her eyes opened again, Raina found herself staring up at her bedroom ceiling. Quickly, she sat up in confusion. Warmth could be felt radiating on top of her hand. Looking down at her hand, there was another hand on hers. Her eyes followed the muscular arm attached to come across a head full of ginger hair lying on the bed next to her. Right away, she recognized whose head it was... Leon. In an instinctive motion, her hand raced for the blanket to cover herself only to find that she had been clothed. Had he dressed her? Her cheeks flushed at the thought. Slowly, she climbed out of the bed in hopes of not waking him. Then she walked over to her computer chair and grabbed the throw blanket to cover him up. As quietly as she could, she moved to his hunched over body in the chair and placed the blanket over him. Even though the heat of summer was in full force, Raina's body shivered. Looking over the room, her eyes fell onto the hoodie from the party. As she wrapped herself in it, the coldness she felt seemed to dissipate as the scent filled her nose. One would think that the smell would have worn off by now. Thankfully, it had not. This hoodie was the one thing that was keeping Raina somewhat sane for some reason. The sound of the chair creeking caused Raina to turn her head towards it. Leon was now awake and stood up.

"I'm sorry... I was trying to be quiet so as not to disturb you. I didn't mean to fall asleep here..." Leon said as he rubbed the back of his neck. "I just...I couldn't leave you alone like that." In a couple of steps, he had closed the distance between them. He now stood towering over her as his hand rubbed her arm through the hoodie. His rough hand slid over hers, grabbing the hoodie strand she was holding in her hand. Raina could hear her heart pounding in her ears and prayed that he could not hear it. Leon shook the hoodie string and then dropped it. "I've been wondering where this old hoodie had run off too...seems it's found a new owner." he said with a half smile. So it was him! Leon had saved her the night of the party! And it was his hoodie that was keeping her sane during...Raina felt the excitement she was just feeling turn to ash in her mouth. Tears began to well up in her eyes. Leon could no longer bear it. He took his rough hand and placed it on her cheek, rubbing the tears away as they both locked eyes. Then he pulled her in closer and placed his forehead on hers. "No more crying..." he whispered, "It does no good, and it won't bring them back... you can't keep hiding up here from the world, Raina. They wouldn't want you to..."

Raina could not control her emotions as she pushed Leon away, "How do you know?! How could you know what they wanted!? Hell, I didn't even know what they wanted when they were here...and now... now they're gone! What am I supposed to do?! What am I supposed to do?! I'm only 18! I was supposed to be starting my life! And now I feel as if my life was buried in the ground with them!" Raina dropped to her knees, bawling. "I can't... how... how am I supposed to do it without them... they all left me!! First Trina, now mom and dad! And it's all my fault! Had I just asked for a snack... or something it could've given them a couple of seconds more to have missed that vehicle.." Raina kept wiping the tears away. Leon had heard enough. He walked over to Raina and grabbed her by the hand.

"Get up! C'mon, get up!" Leon said as he tried to yank her to her feet. Raina did not move and kept bawling. Leon leaned down and threw her over his shoulder.

"What are you doing, Leon?! Put me down!!" Raina squeaked out as she tried to squirm out of his firm grip. Leon was too strong, and Raina had no strength to fight. He carried her down the stairs and out the back door of the house. "Leon!!" she yelled out again, but nothing was getting through to him. He continued through the yard and into the stables. After opening the barn door, he found the nearest water troph and dropped her in it. The cold water rushed over her body.

"Take a good look around ya, Raina!" Leon yelled as he gestured around the stable. "They all need you!! Asher and Luke need you!! Hell, I need you!!" Leon yelled as he paced back and forth in front of the troph. "For the past week, we have stood back and allowed you space. No one expects ya to bounce right back... no one expects ya to get over it. But you can't keep wallowing in self-pity. Your parents' deaths were NOT your fault! There was nothing you could do! You can't keep going this way, or you'll end up in the hospital... or worse yet, right beside them! Now you can tell me all you want that I don't know what they would've wanted but we both know that they wouldn't want that...love them...miss them..but never give up. We're here to help you through..." Leon said as he leaned down to pull Raina out of the troph. Raina shook her head.

"I can't stay in there, Leon.... Its suffocating seeing them everywhere in everything... hell earlier today, I swore I heard mom yelling for me..." Raina said, shaking her head. Leon stared down caringly at her.

"Then we change it... you can stay with Luke and me until we get it the way you want... even if we have to do it over and over again as long as it takes... now, c'mon, let's get you out of there." Leon said as he pulled her out. Raina stood up and caught a glimpse of Artemis who seemed on edge. They stared at each other for a second. It seemed like the old horse could read her like a book. Raina walked towards her and patted her head.

"Sorry, ol girl....I didn't mean to scare ya...it won't happen again." Raina whispered to her as Leon and her then turned towards the house to head in.