Divided We Stand, United We Fall

Chapter 13

Lauren woke up to a grumble and a flash of light. It sounded like a wheelie trolley but more amplified. The light flashed as if it were a lamp flickering as it turned on. She could hear the rain outside. It sounded exactly how a shower would sound. She began to feel a little scared at the foreignness of it all. She clutched the silk sheets tightly around her. She felt Noah stir behind her.

She wrapped an arm and leg around him for comfort. It dramatically improved the situation. He hummed, lightly before opening his eyes that looked ocean blue in the lighting of the room.

"Hey." He said, yawning. His blond hair was to one side and looked extremely fluffy from sleep.

"Noah, I'm scared." She whimpered. She couldn't control the situation she was in. She wanted her life before all of this shenanigans happened.

"My love, there is no need. Everything is going to be okay. We will find somewhere out there to spend the rest of our lives together." He soothed, tracing circles on her back.

"I love you, Noah." Lauren admitted, again.

"I love you too." Noah replied. "I never thought that someone would love me like in the film Romeo and Julien. I've always thought there was something wrong with me." He looked towards the ground. Lauren tilted his chin up so that they were looking at each other in the eyes.

"Noah, there is absolutely nothing wrong with you and no matter how hard I try, I can't find even the slightest thing bad about you, you're perfect." Lauren said, smiling. This brought tears into Noah's eyes. He sat up and began weeping into his hands. Lauren looked at him, hugged him with one arm and then pulled him into her chest.

"Noah, what's wrong? Why are you crying?" She asked, in a worried tone.

"No one has ever said that to me before. Everyone said that I was a freak. Why are you so nice to me when the whole of the boys' side wants my blood?"

"The reason why I am so nice to you is that I want to be." Noah's face lit up as if he were a child opening presents on his birthday. He drew back from the 'hug' and kissed her. She kissed him back, smiling. When they pulled away, they decided to go to sleep in one's arms.

Noah woke up alone.

"Lauren?" He asked, starting to panic. There was no reply. He didn't repeat himself. The storm had raged on and there was a stilled silence. He stood up and walked to the sliding door, he did not need to open the door because someone flung it off of its hinges.

It was the men who he saw from the place where he almost died. He gasped in fright. They grasped him and kicked him to the floor.

"NO!" He wailed. Noah felt no pain but he knew where he was going. He was going to die. "Lauren! Help me..." he whimpered.

"Noah!" He heard Lauren's faint voice yell, as if it were in another room. The men just kept on hitting him, harder and harder. He screamed. "Noah!"

He jolted upright, sweating like an athlete after intensive training. He looked into Lauren's verdant eyes and let out a shaky breath of relief.

Thank God that those men aren't here.

Lauren was staring at him. She fiddled with the bed sheets, nervously. He looked at Lauren, hugged her then let out a shaky breath of relief. She rubbed his back as he tried to clam himself. Lauren had woken up from Noah's screams and pleads. She wondered what he was dreaming about. She cleared her throat.

"Tell me about it." She soothed.

"Men came here to try and take me away. You had left me Lauren. I was so alone and it was so scary." He felt like a wimp by admitting this to her but he didn't care.

"Noah, I would never leave you. You know that, right?"

"No. You left me before Lauren. You left me to die." His voice was louder and held an element of anger in it. She could feel her top becoming wet from his tears. She pulled him away with force.

"And that's somehow my fault? You forced yourself upon me!" Lauren hissed.

"You know I couldn't control myself. The doctors gave me dodgy medicine." He said, just as aggressively.

"Oh? you couldn't 'control' yourself? You really are the freak everyone makes you out to be!" She shouted/growled. With that Noah stomped out.

Lauren immediately regretted what she had just said. The look of sadness and barely in control anger in his eyes burned through her and were still burning long after he left the room. She sat transfixed in her worried and guilty thoughts.

She soon was snapped out of it when she realized that she needed to go and find Noah.

She couldn't find him in the house. She looked for him in the dining room, all the bedrooms, the bathrooms, the closet and the living room. They were all as stationery as the next. She began to worry about him. What if he had deserted her here and ran away? She raced outside to find him. She realized it was still raining outside even though she could she pink cloud at the horizon. He was next to the door, absolutely soaked. His clothes clung to him like an icy, extra skin and he was sobbing into his hands. It was freezing outside, a bit like when you hold an cold drink for too long. She wrapped her arms around him in a comforting gesture but he brushed away her touch and pushed Lauren away from him. She could see his eyes then, bloodshot and puffy. She wasn't sure if he or the rain were making the droplets on his cheek.

"Noah please you going to make yourself ill." Lauren fretted.

"What's the point? Nobody cares about me anymore. Not you, not the people back there, no one." Lauren could sense the pain in his voice.

"Noah please, what I said, I didn't mean it."

"Then why, pray tell, did you say it l?" He hissed. His pupils were very dilated but not in a good way. His face was bone white.

"I-"

"Quiet Lauren! Just leave me alone." Did he not have a right to say this? Everyone called him a freak.

"No. I don't want you blaming this on yourself. It was my fault, a slip of the tongue. I'm so sorry Noah."

"I don't care. I'm going inside now. We leave tomorrow." He spat, walking indoors.

_____

Ooh! Drama.

Exams in three days. Ugh!

Hoot!

Toot!