The Monster [H.S.]

Chapter 62

1 YEAR LATER

HARRY

My chest heaves in anxiety and sweat trickles slowly down my body. Just Breathe I tell myself over and over again.

Just breathe.

I pull the hammer down on my gun and take a deep breath.

"Now or never." I smile to myself.

I launch from behind the lockers and open fire at them; all of them. The sound of bullets ring through my ears but I grind my teeth firm and focus in killing them. I've lasted this long and I'm sure as hell not getting caught now. Not today.

I duck as a knife hurtles towards me at 40 mph, aimed between my eyes, and roll behind the lockers once more as I reload and catch my breath. The high school flags marking the words "Go Team" hang on the wall and I can't help but roll my eyes that the whole universe seems to be working against me.

"We go again." I smirk to myself and reopen fire until every sound except that of my own breath is deceased.

Thank God that's done with.

I pick up my ruffle bag filled with my weapons and walk over their bodies and outside the abandoned high school to the abandoned streets. I look left to right and spot a field and my feet take me there without any thought.

I set my bag down and lay down on the soft grass as the sun shines down on me brightly. I look at the clouds and all the different shapes and sizes they have to offer and how they're different every day.

It reminds me of Rome. I took her to the water and told her to lie down and gaze at the clouds with me 'lovingly'. She protested and said it was the worst idea suggested yet, but I knew she was lying. I knew she wanted to lay with me. I knew that looking at the clouds brought her a sense of peace she could find nowhere else.

She brought me a sense of peace.

The more I think about her the more insane I feel I'm going and suddenly a cloud morphs into a daisy - just like the ones we lay across on the grass in Rome. I remember her picking off the petals as we spoke, counting them as 52 on each one over and over again as though she was hoping maybe 1 of them would have 53.

If you love something let it go they say. I would say if you love it you're not really letting go because you'll still love it when's it's gone. Total bullshit. Between that and "Absence makes the heart grow fonder" you're completely fucked.

I know this because I let it go. Let her go. And my heart hasn't been the same since. So I look for her in daisies, hoping that the day will come where 1 of them will have 53 petals. I think she is the 53rd petal. If I can defy the odds once with a daisy, surely she can be mine once more.

Until then I'll just stare pathetically at clouds that resemble more of a massive shit than a daisy; but I'll pretend for now.

"Happy birthday, my love." I whisper to it, just as a cloth with a potent smell is placed over my face and the daisy slowly blurs, my adoration along with it.

"You missed one." A voice growls as I lose myself.

•     •     •     •     •     •     •

When I wake up my wrists are bound by chains that hang from the ceiling and my feet tied together. Something is wrapped tightly around my neck but I know exactly who I am with.

"Liam, what a wonderful surprise." I breathe, my voice strained as I struggle to gain full consciousness.

"Oh, good morning sunshine." He smiles, looking up from his knife in his hand.