Chapter 19

Selene:

Jelly drove us back to our apartment after finishing up her meal. She still had her cafe job to continue so she left after dropping me safely. I exhausted from the heat of the day all I wanted to do was hide.

Hide from all the impossible scenarios of the next moments, hide from the fact that I broke Jace and Sean. I didnt know what to do so i did the best of what I could think.

I called dad.

"Hey, honey." His gruff old self spoke clearly through the phone i smiled at his voice. It had been a while since I'd heard from him and I missed him.

"H-Hey dad." For some reason, my throat suddenly pained and I could barely muster up words.

"What is it?" He spat the question faster than I could think of what to say to him.

"Dad something awful happened." I croaked and heard a sigh from the other side.

"They found you, didn't they?" He suggested and I nodded. I knew he couldnt see me but my hiccups and silent sobs told him the situation.

"What are you thinking?" He finally asked after a moment of silence.

"I dont know." I cried, "They were so... so sad, dad." I felt like I couldnt believe it that people could be so sad over a loss of me.

"I know. I've been seeing Sean out here almost every three months." His voice dropped.

"And..." I paused when I was about to say the name. For some reason it clogged my breathing made the world seem smaller around me. All I could think off, was him. His anger, frustration, love and broken heart.

"Enie?" Dad called from the other side.

"And him, dad? Did he come?" I tried to emphasize on who I meant.

"Not even once." He seemed sad when he mentioned that, "He was a good kid. I still regret hurting him that day."

"Sorry, dad. You did all that for me. You shouldnt have to feel guilty." I snorted into a tissue, letting out all the tears.

"Honey. Truth is, I didnt know if you would make it. I didnt. So I did what I felt I would have to do, earlier than needed." I could practically picture my dad rubbing his forehead hard, hating himself for his own words.

"Dad, if I was instead of you... and i always think about it... I dont think I would've been able to pull of what you did. I appreciate you for this." I spoke softly to calm his tense nerves. He was fifty three and a commanding officer at the Carolina Police Office. The man could carry a grenade out of the building with a carefree jog but when it came to his family, he was scared to every bone in him. I was the only one who knew that. I was the only one who'd seen him tear up beside my supposedly asleep broken body.

"What are you going to do, honey?" He questioned again, putting his sorrow aside.

"Find a job and move away from here after graduation." I gave out my decision with a firm voice.

"Heh." He chuckled on the other side, "You wont." Was all he said.

"Dad?" I questioned his disbelief in my decision.

"Your mom's here and Bethany is getting in a mood. Talk later." He spoke quickly and cut the call immediately.

He knew his way out of a conversation. I chuckled at his ease with all of us and cleared up my tears. I was now dressed in my sleeping shorts and a black hoodie. In the hot August weather of New York, I was cold.

I scrunched up in the hoodie and let my tears role down some more. I wasnt okay with crying in front of Jelly. She was a sweet soul and deserved the best.

I remembered the day I moved into our apartment and the first thing she said was.

"You're hot."

I'd laughed at that until I found out that she played both lanes of life. I admired that about her. She didnt care what she was thought of as. She was badass and knew her way around to a pick up line. If hadn't been a side gamer, I probably would've gone out with her.

Just in the many thoughts of the past, I looked around the small lounge and reminisced the many times I'd laughed with Jelly here. Not worried about my past or future, just enjoy everyday. With those thoughts and many tears, I faded into a deep slumber.

Jace:

"Sean?" I called at a completely lost man sitting on the couch next to mine. He was holding his face in a hook of his fingers and staring into some far distance. I held my aching head and looked for a more stable view. I swear I could hear ringing everywhere.

"Sean!" I reached out and smacked his knee. He didnt flinch or retaliate, just moved his eyes from the floor to me. They were red and the swelling under them spoke pain and tears.

"Was she really here?" I gulped.

Sean nodded.

"Where did she go?"

"Ran." He finally muttered and I dropped head back on the couch's back rest. I couldnt believe that she was alive. After all these years, she was well and alive and doing her well years in university.

"What the hell is going on, Jace? I feel like our lives are some soap opera. Dead girl back from the living." Sean sighed, moving forward and resting his elbows to his knees.

"Fuck this!" I snapped, standing up and pacing the office floor. She was alive.

Alive?!

She didnt even have the audacity to put out hearts to rest by letting us know that she survived. She lived through her years like nothing happened while we hit our heads in walls and dreamt about the horrors of guilt.

"Where is she?" I turned to Sean who brought himself to his feet.

"No idea. She just... ran." He spoke repeatedly.

I marched to the door and pulled the door wide open, revealing a Candice clearing up her nails with a filer. She freaked out and stood to her heels when she watched me walk to her.

"I need that girl's information." I ordered.

"Selene Arly's?" She breathed heavily. I shut my eyes at name and sucked in a sharp breath.

"Yes, that one." I clenched my fists. She nodded haphazardly and pulled out a paper stuck under her keyboard. I checked it out to be her resume.

Perfect.

Without anymore words, I strode back into my office and collected my jacket, wallet and keys from my desk.

"Jace, what are you doing?" Sean questioned. I didnt answer and stepped out of my office. He followed me.

The elevator ride was quiet but intense because of Sean staring at me and trying to figure me out. There was no way he could even guess what I was going to do. My nice nerve was cut and now i saw Red. She played with my mind, my heart, my soul. Now it was my job to make things right for myself.

When we were in the basement garage, I found my car parked and decided to take it out myself instead of calling Rufus from upstairs. Sean seemed to start getting worried by the minute but I had to keep my focus. I jumped in the driver's seat and rolled down the passenger's side window.

"Coming?" I called out and he quickly snuck in the car. My speed out of the garage could definitely earn me a ticket but I was too focused on my target. I wasnt smiling, I wasnt talking, heck I wasnt even sure I was breathing but I needed to find her. I was going end this misery in my life.

The address was almost a thirty five minutes drive from the building. It was easy driving and no breaks.

When we reached the building, it was barely a five story, red bricked apartment complex. There were four sets of windows in five rows and five columns. The infrastructure was poor and the surroundings smelled like cigarette, alcohol and McDonalds. The parking lot was barely for fifty cars and there was only sign board hanging off the main glass doors.

'Elite Apartments'

I rejected the name in my head. Not elite at all. It was in some corner street, where no expensive car seemed to have run through, except mine. There was a plaza just across with a gas station, a grocery store, McDonald's and a place for wines and spirits.

Wonderful hideout.

I thought before we advanced to the main doors. I was careful to open it, scared that if I broke it, I would have to punch the one security guard sitting by the small silver elavtor doors. There was a small, white and rectangular table by our right in the excessively timey white lobby, but no one seemed to be behind it. The guard stood from his stool as he saw us and came behind the counter.

Lovely, the guard was the receptionist.

I looked over at Sean, who was trying very hard to keep his face from showing disgust. There was a worn out, white three piece corner couch sitting against the opposite wall of the reception and I ignored the finely smell of weed lurking in the place.

"Yes?" The guard looked at me with his sleepy brown eyes. His brown and grey beard came around his jaw and hair strands lurked out on his forehead from under his blue cap. He was barely my height but a but scrawny to protect a whole building. I just didn't know better, otherwise I was judging him hard.

"Apartment fifty two." I asked and he nodded.

"Okay, but Ms. White isnt in the building and she did not mention any visitors." He seemed to be busy behind the table and I noticed that he had laptop in a shelf behind. One point to being smart.

"Um, I'm here for her roommate. Ms. Arly." I suggested and he sighed.

"I can call the apartment and mention the visitors."

"No." Sean spoke and held out a card. The man looked at it and then him.

"I'm her boss. Dont worry. We dont need trouble." Sean explained and the man looked from the card and then down under. He was researching Sean. Maybe he was on desk duty before working in the field.

"Oh, Mr. Petrakis." He smiled, keeping the card.

"Yes." Sean nodded.

"Well, you can head right up to the fifth floor. There is elevator." He pointed us to the one metal door, embedded in the wall ahead of us. I thanked him before leaving. Sean pressed the silver upward arrow button and soon, the doors slid open, revealing a very funky smelling, small elavtor. The walls were rusted silver and there was a mirror on the back wall.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Sean sighed.

"No. This place needs million dollar cleaning and then some renovation." I hissed.

"Jace." He complained.

"Shut it." I kept my body stiff and face stern. I could feel the tension building up in my stomach every time the red bumbers on the keypad increased towards level five. I didnt know what i was going to do but i knew i wasnt going to be happy or weak.

When the elevator dinged, we braced ourselves to face a cold hallway. The walls were cream coloured and the floor dark blue carpeted. There were yellow studio lights in pairs of two, al.ost five till the end of the single large corridor. Sean gulped loudly beside me as we stepped in.

I walked slow steps and found the apartment fifty two to my right. I looked at the brown door and the golden numbers written on it. My fingers were going to the white bell beside the door when I noticed a peephole on the door. I placed a free finger on it and pressed the bell, three times.

One minute.

No response.

Two minutes...

No response.

I rang the bell three more times and we waited. When I felt hopeless after another minute of no response, we heard the door getting unlocked very slowly.

"I think she's armed." Sean whispered to me and I nodded. Both of us stood on the sides of the door.

What the fuck were we doing, I thought as the door slowly started opening. We werent there to rob her, we were there to...

She stood out and lost balance. She stood straight, holding the door frame. She wasnt armed. She was sleepy.

It took her a second to see who I was as I towered her figure, standing in front of her.

"Oh, shit." She mumbled finally rubbing her eyes clean.