Black

XV

The second I read the words scribbled on the paper, I didn't have to think twice to know who was it from.

I felt the air being sucked out of my lungs, ice spreading all over my veins, but it wasn't cold. All I could think of was how I needed someone to wrap their arms around me, telling me that it was going to be fine.

Miss me, miss me, Joe the runaway? xx

The words kept repeating over and over in my head, and in the dark side of my mind, I could hear his dark, rough voice saying it.

I had tried to ignore every sign to feel like I have actually escaped danger. But he knew.

It was him all along.

He was at the boxing place.

He knew where I was.

He sent me a message to my house.

He knew where I lived.

Every effort I had done, every day I had spent dreaming about the safe haven that could possibly exist in New York, every hour I had tried to convince myself that the little kid was no longer in danger, vanished so easily into thin air. It was like I tried and worked so hard, and he was leaving me feel a sheer of success, so he would blow over all of my hopes and efforts later.

There was sometimes when I wondered, how in hell was I still standing on my feet? How did I not give into the darkness and fall, finally finding some peace?

I felt Harry step closer to me, looking over my shoulder, "Joe the runaway?" he questioned. I crumbled the piece of paper in my hand. I wanted to scream now more than ever, to smash everything in front of me, to yell out loud, 'What did I do to deserve this?'

"Bebe," a small, squeaky voice called out.

I pressed my mouth into a thin line and closed the door, locking it with the three locks that were located on it, and took a step away from it.

"Josephine."

Ignoring him, I took fast steps to the windows around the house, making sure they were bolted shut and locked.

"Josephine," I heard him say again, both Zoella and him following me.

I ran a hand through my hair, repeating to myself, 'Don't show emotion, it's fine.'

'You are being watched, stop showing weakness.'

'You are telling everyone they are succeeding in breaking you down, that's not supposed to happen.'

My mind was like a battlefield. Thoughts commanding orders, that no matter what pressure I was put under, I had to stick to them. Thoughts that I knew so well would be the thing that ends my life, and not the animals that lives all around us.

So, I tried. Tried to move slowly, to slow my breathing, and to not show the struggle I was going through in order to stay calm while there was a psycho watching us and sending in threatening messages.

That should be easy.

"Josephine,"

What else was a possible entrance to the house?  I racked my brain for anything but all I could think of was how he found us.