no turning back

• eleven •

gladys

I spent the whole evening cursing myself for not gathering more information while I had the chance. Since Elijah's brother stormed off, neither my hand nor my head had stopped hurting.

He was just as twisted as his brother. He tried to have me killed!

How was I still alive? Why hadn't he already finished the job?

Maybe it wasn't true and he just wanted to scare me. He seemed pretty serious, though.

Then, there was also the matter that he'd been watching and stalking me for weeks. He probably reported back to Elijah each day about all the boring shit that comprised my life.

Was Cyrus the one who danced with me in the bar? But why would he do that when he was so attached to Jesse?

His interest in her struck a new chord of fear in me. He either cared deeply for her or wanted to own her in the same way Elijah wanted to own me. Given the hostile behavior I'd seen from him thus far, I felt confident it was the latter.

I wracked my brain for a solution. Imagining Jesse trapped in the same situation as me was physically painful. She deserved a wonderful, normal life. At least I was already fucked in the head when Eli found me.

As I lay in bed in the dark, my mind cycled continuously. I was stuck. I didn't know where or how to go from here. Most people would probably refer to their parent or guardian for advice, but I couldn't do that for obvious reasons.

The flames under my feet were burning hotter. I could feel the end was coming—whatever that entailed. Something just felt ominous about my life these last few weeks.

Perhaps that feeling was the reason I still hadn't mustered the courage to unblock Elijah's number. Ben could request my phone at any time. The smart thing would be to just hand it over to him and let him handle things with the authorities.

But what would happen to Elijah? Or what if he retaliated in some way?

Fuck that.

I had a sense we would be seeing each other in the future, probably sooner than later. I lived in terror of that moment. My mind was set but my heart was a fickle bitch.

The rationale was there; I knew the truth. He lied to me over and over. He didn't deserve my love and he would never earn my trust again. I'd been naive enough to fall for it the first time. I wouldn't survive a second time.

Some people were bad and that would never change. If he was having his homicidal brother stalking me, it was safe to assume he was just as bad as he was before. Jail did nothing to curb his evil ways.

Nevertheless, I knew I had to comply with Cyrus' bullshit unless I wanted to bring more trouble into the lives of those around me.

I picked up my phone and swiped the screen. After pulling up my contacts, I found the list of blocked numbers and unblocked the last one.

My phone dinged with a new text from a few days ago.

I swallowed hard and opened the text conversation. The texts from our conversation dropped like lead in my gut.