My Hired Boyfriend (Completed)

39. Crown Jewels and Splintered Doors

 Chapter 39

Hazel POV:

            Bang Bang

            A bloodcurdling scream leaves my lips.

            Darkness is a shadow I can't escape and I can feel the blood on my hands, soaking into my clothes and I can't breathe—

            Fear lives in the center of my throat and I feel like I am ripping at the seams at the terrifying image of his dead body on the ground.

            There is a loud slam and I throw myself into the corner, hyperventilating.

            Coda.

            Coda.

            Coda.

            I can still feel the imprint of Rick's hand around my neck, the snarl on his lips twisting into a smile as he says 'I'm coming for you Princess.'

            Someone grabs my arm and is yelling but my ears are ringing and I can't stop crying let alone find the air to breathe—

            Please—

            Please leave me alone—

            Please—

            ~*~

Coda POV

            "What the hell did Cordero do to make her like this?" Aurelio yells as I roughly brush past him, bounding up the steps on his porch.

            "She is screaming bloody murder back there and she keeps saying please don't hurt me, I don't—I didn't know what to do. I tried to help her but I only made it worse and —" Aurelio shakes his head as if trying to erase the image from his head. "What happened to make her like this?" he asks again.

            I don't answer, my heart pounding too fast for me to say anything.

            I throw the front door open and take the stairs three at a time, her screaming making the hair on the back of my neck prickle.

            I clench my fist when I hear her choked plea "Coda."

            I try and open the bedroom door but it is locked.

            I slam my hand against the door. "No! Please don't come in!" I hear Hazel cry.

            The door won't budge and I can still hear her screaming. Aurelio realizes what I am going to do the moment I think of the idea.

            He backs up, biting back a flinch as I step back and kick in the door. Hazel shrieks.

            Throwing her door open, I see her curled into the corner, the sheets tangled around her. She flinches at the light but her eyes are glazed and her chest is heaving.

            She scrambles away from me when I approach her.

            "Hazel, baby, it's me," I say, my voice cracking. She looks right through me, the horror in her eyes lodging in the center of my chest. She was terrified of me.

            I touch her leg and she kicks me, hard, screaming.

            I brush off her kick, on my hands and knees as I try and pull her to me but she is hysterical and I don't know what to do. This was the worst of her panic attacks.