Chapter Twenty-Six
A/N: extremely short chapter cause well.... You'll see why...
Song of the chapter:
Safe and Sound - Taylor Swift feat. The Civil Wars
Days Left: 0
My shoes made quiet thuds on the wood as I walked up the front steps of an old cabin. It seemed abandoned, it seemed like it was going to fall apart if there was a strong gust of wind.
I knocked on the door, which happened to open by itself, and stepped inside. It was empty.
The floorboards creaked every time I took a step and so did the stairs. I couldn't help but become frustrated with all of this. I was really hoping that I would find something but nothing happened to be in the house besides a few dead mice here and there.
There were a few unexplored places inside of the house such as the bathroom and a few closets. I didn't bother to look in those areas because I knew that I wouldn't find anything.
My head started to hurt and it felt like someone was repeatedly hitting me in the skull with a basketball. I walked myself to a wall and slid down against it, my head leaning back on it. I closed my eyes and grabbed a fistful of hair and yelled into the open space.
"Justin, what're you doing?"
My eyes opened and my neck and head snapped up. My hands were shaking as I pushed myself up from the ground.
Brooklyn stood in front of me, her brown hair to her elbows and pastel pink Vans covered her feet. She had a white dress and a white cardigan. She looked somewhat healthy.
"Brooklyn..."
"Justin, hi."
"I-I thought you-"
"You were such a great guy to me, Justin, but I can't have you running around harming people. You drove me beyond insanity and because of you, my life will never be the same. I will have to live in fear from now on and every ounce of trust I had, it vanished. My perspective on life has changed all for the worse. Never did I have to worry about such danger and harm until we crossed paths and I cannot tell you how much I hate this. I hate all of this, I hate us, I hate you."
I shook my head, covered my ears, and closed my eyes. My legs were pulled up to my chest as a continuous stream of tears left the corners of my eyes. I felt confused, I felt crazy, I felt lost.
"Justin, stand up."
I refused to move from my spot but the beating in my head began to hurt more and Brooklyn's voice got louder by the second.
Before I knew it, I was traveling down the hallways in a leisurely manner, my feet dragging behind me instead of being picked up.
My shaky hands pushed a door open and inside was a round table and four chairs around it. In the center were four different items: a pistol, a rope, a bottle of pills, and a bottle of alcohol.
"Brooklyn..."
My eyes frantically searched the room for her but her ghostly presence was no longer there.
"Brooklyn!"
I screamed her name several times on top of my lungs before grabbing the items off of the table. I found myself opening the bottle of pills first and I poured a few onto my hand and swallowed it with the alcohol.
With only a small number of pills left after several minutes, I emptied all of the contents into my mouth and drank the rest of whatever I had.
------
By now, I couldn't bring myself to cry anymore. I laid on the ground, the pistol in my hand and the rope in the other. My eyes were puffy and bloodshot and my skin was pale. I no longer had feelings and emotions and I felt like an utter stump.
Sleep had tried to take over me several times but I never gave in, knowing that if I closed my eyes now, I would never be able to open them again but I wanted to wait for a signal so I knew when it was okay to let go.
But this is it. This is the end of my journey. I can't hurt people anymore, I can't push people past their comfort zone into insanity or maybe even beyond that. I can't do any harm anymore and I would like to thank God for driving me to this point, the point where people had one less person to worry about.
Before I closed my eyes and hoped to never open them again, my phone buzzed and I looked at the cracked screen. Next to the green and white icon, it had the name "Noah" and below it, a short message was written: "She's safe. Julia, Matt, and Acacia are gone."
Finally, I smiled to myself and let my eyes close, letting out the last breath I didn't know I was holding.
-----------
A/N:
the end
that was all folks.
thank you so much for reading and following along with me through this whole trip. i appreciate it so much.
when i first began this, i didn't have much faith in myself but as time progressed, i began to feel more comfortable with my writing and i fairly enjoyed writing for all of you.
once again, thank you. i couldn't have done this without you guys. i love you all xoxo.