after alice; book three {5sos}

five - the collision

two pasts, presents and futures eventually collide. blood on hands and blood on souls.

the disappearance of the twins left the teenagers not old enough to remember. however, their paths have crossed. breaths have been held and never returned. lies have been told and the truth never revealed. white roses have been painted red whilst eyes glazed over.

the seconds of remaining lives slipped away. the unexpecting. the teenagers of only a week before who slept beneath the same sheets and drank from the same bottles. the teenagers who thought they were liberated and immortal, free to dance through life and along paved sidewalks.

they didn't believe in death or evil. they believed in life, breathing, drinking, smoking, dancing, loving and hurting. they knew nothing would be easy, but they thought they had all the time in the world.

the night draws to a close, one breath still hidden yet present in the warm summer morning, tainted and bloody. sorry she is, sorry she will be.

her youth has been stripped away from her soul, yet sprinkled with miseries some still remains. enough to be hopeful and stay strong. and she did hope, whilst crying.

she rebuilt a life for a self along with a wall. she sank behind this wall before it was slowly broke down.

he returned. the blue eyed boy with eyes resembling the ocean. unpredictable - she was correct about that.

she had forgotton what it felt like to feel love, hands in hair, small kisses with the one from two years before. she felt adrenaline and saw a life ahead she couldn't bring herself to recognise. she saw striped tents and dark cabins. she saw blackness and oblivion. she felt blackness and oblivion.

she was tainted yet again, the paint on her skin being peeled away. she felt herself from that night returning.

she remembered what it felt like to run until hot breath becomes lodged in her throat. she remembered the colour of blood on her skin and on her hands. she remembered how he used to be and how they lost their friends together. she remembered it all, this time with pastel china and bloody fur.

she realised what it felt like to be decieved and betrayed by someone who you love. she realised that must have been how hadley felt.

she felt her heart ripping in two and the feeling of heartache. she felt the dizziness and the journey toward dying from heartbreak.

and she ran into the morning sun toward a place she no longer recognised. empty handed. bloody handed. yet again.

her taped together heart ripped to shreds, again and again. she felt faint from the smell of a hospital and the police station. she felt her stomach twisting and turning and the words drying out in her throat when she stared back at the man who helped her in two different realities.

she felt the touch of those who no longer breathe in this world. she faced those who she could no longer look in the eye, yet she did.

she felt the leaves beneath her feet again and swallowed with strength with eyelids half open at the sight of her blood dried on the wood. she felt her lungs fill with dust and danger before disappearing again.

the days scraped away, slowly and then all at once. the loss never subsided. the pain never simmered. her skin burned at his touch and her eyes would never see the world as being colourful ever again.

"alice." the name rang in her ears like alarm bells, etched into her skin. it defined her. it labelled her.

she had become alice.

and then two no longer breathed. instead she could breathe. with relief that yes, it was finally over.

it is finally over.

and i feel free, i really do.