𝑺𝒐𝒖𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒏 𝑪𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒕𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑 ▷ 𝑵𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒏

• Southern Courtship ; 29 •

— WARNING —

Some situations in my story may be suitable for (18+) only. Please read at your own risk.

— DISCLAIMER —

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[ N O W ]
Alexandria Safe Zone
0 Miles to Virginia

"No, no, no!" Deliana jolted awake, sweating bullets as she got tangled up in the sheets of her bed. Her eyes widened with fear as she searched the darkness, grasping at the bedsheets as if somehow someone would be there for her to grasp. Lifting her palm to her forehead, she struggled to regain her composure as she sat up, noticing the disarray the room was left in. She couldn't even sleep on a proper mattress because it was gone. She could gather that someone had raided the place and left it as it was. It barely reassembled a home to her anymore--not that she had ever been too keen on the idea in the first place.

"Aiden would've loved to see me now," She voiced to the empty room, basking in the silence that followed her remark.

"God, I'm a mess. First I hated this place with every fiber in my body, and now here I am, wishing I never left." Her thoughts were full of regret - full of wishing she hadn't wasted so much time not appreciating the time she had with her former lover and family.

Diverting her gaze to the ceiling, she struggled to hold her tears at bay. "Being back here only reminds me of you, Aiden. Everywhere I look, I see remnants of you. Even here, in our old house. It's like you've haunted this damn steel trap." Alexandria felt like the trap. Seeing faces she hadn't recognized. Seeing growth that had occurred in her absence.

Deliana doubled over, unable to conceal her pain in the face of God and the ghost of her ex-lover.

"I don't know where you are, what world between mine, or if you even are...but I miss you. I miss my family. I miss everything I took for granted in my life. I miss living a carefree life-- I miss stupid things like doing laundry, or begging my parents to let me go to a movie that was after curfew!" She exclaimed.

"I'm so tired of this pain...this guilt... No matter which way I turn, it follows me everywhere I go..." Memories flooded back to her mind of all the past lives she had lived. All the many moments that defined who she was today. Her life with Aiden. It had been sweet, and unexpected. Her past, being tossed aside by an evil man that did with her what he pleased. Her days as a child, as a teen, and as a survivor.

Despite trying to avoid it for so long, it all came back to her anyways. Like a freight train, ramming into her and leaving her silent with dried streams of tears on her cheeks. Leaving behind everything had been easy. Coming back to this feeling, was the hard part.

She felt like the walls were caving in on her as she searched through the dark for some kind of tether to the world. Some kind of reason for her not to get sucked back into the soulless version of herself and go out there looking for her family. A reason to leave again, because it was easy.

A bundle of butterflies fluttered inside her stomach, settling between her ribs as she looked down to see the baby inside of her nudging against the confines of her stomach. She placed her hand there protectively. "At least I've got you in all of this... I promise you. As long as I can help it, you're going to have a good life. You won't suffer the horrors I've had to live through," she promised.