Let Me Go

“When we first met, leaving you was the last thing on my mind. But now, it’s all I want.” Aurelia Hastings said to Seth Lennox as she walked out of their two bedroom apartment in Los Angeles.
Aurelia had decided on leaving Seth for awhile now, but never had she had the courage to leave.
Their relationship had been falling apart, and he simply did not care.
She had always threatened to leave him if he didn’t get his act together. But he had always shrugged his shoulders and walked away saying, “You would never leave me. We’re perfect for each other.” Then he would just walk away with a laugh and leave her standing there, feeling like a complete fool.
But she had had enough of his inattentiveness.
“Wait a minute, you’re leaving? Why?” The look of shock on his face confused her. Why did he even care whether she stayed or not? He never bothered to pay any attention to her anyway.
“I can’t live like this anymore Seth. It’s over and it has been for a long time. So I thought I’d do us both a favor and leave.”
As she walked out of their apartment door, she wondered where she was going to go. She had just thought about it that morning.
Maybe she would just go to a motel and stay there until she figured everything out.
Then maybe she could go back to the apartment and get the rest of her stuff.
But as she pressed the down button on the elevator, she felt a strong arm turn her around.
She was now face-to-face with Seth. But he was not smiling. His face expression wasn’t even close to that. Instead, his face looked like pure evil. She felt as though she were looking into the face of a demon, and not Seth.
But she knew that he would never hurt her.
Wrong.
She was on the ground, covering her face with her arms as he punched and kicked at her.
“You’re not going anywhere! You belong to me! You’re my property, so get your skinny ass back in there!” Seth shouted as he grabbed her by her hair and began to drag her back into their apartment.
Ding.
Seth had let go of her hair as quickly as he had grabbed onto it.
There was nothing but silence now.
Eyes filled with tears and blood, she looked around and found Seth’s motionless body lying next to hers.
His eyes were wide open, staring right at her.
They weren’t blinking, and he looked as though he was no longer breathing.
She stared at him, too fearful to even move.
Keeping her eyes on Seth, she slowly motioned her weak body towards the elevator.
As she crawled, she grabbed her bags, and with all the strength that she now barely had, she got up and ran into the still open elevator.
Blood.
Pain.
Darkness.

Forever Gone

Aurelia woke up in a daze. Where she was, she didn’t know.
She sat up, nervous.
When she did so, her head began to throb in pain.
Her entire body felt shattered.
“What happened to me?” she whispered out loud to herself.
Then she remembered.
Seth had hit her.
Aurelia closed her eyes.
Seth.
The man that she had been in love with for the past three years had abused her out of pure anger.
She felt warm liquid stream down her pale cheeks.
She swept them off her face, brought up her hand, and stared at it with her bright azure eyes.
They were tears.
She closed her eyes and tried to remember what else had happened.
She remembered walking out of the apartment, his attack on her, and her lying on the ground in pure agony.
Then her eyes fluttered open in reminisce. There was silence and then when she looked around the hall, she saw that his body was on the ground too. What had happened?
Had someone saved her?
If so, who?
As she looked around now, she saw that she wasn’t in her own apartment.
When she had first awoken, she could have sworn that she was in her own bedroom.
But now as she looked around at her surroundings, she had no idea where she was.
Everything looked unfamiliar to her.
The room was a little too dark and creepy for her tastes.
If it weren’t for the lamp beside the bed that she had found herself in, she wouldn’t have been able to see a thing.
On the black shelf on the opposite side of the lamp, there was a picture frame.
She picked it up gently, as though not to scratch it, and found herself confused.
There was no picture in it.
In fact, on the walls, there were picture frames with no photos in them.
In a way, she felt safe and scared at the same time.
She didn’t know where she was, how she got there, or if there were other people lurking behind the closed door.
Then she heard footsteps outside her door.
Without thinking, she hid back underneath the covers and pretended to be asleep.
The door creaked open, then closed.
She was too afraid to peek from beneath the covers.
She didn’t know who she would have to be dealing with later on.
While thinking this, she heard another pair of footsteps inside the room. They had been joined with the other presence.
She could have sworn that that she had only heard one pair of footsteps came inside the room, so where had the others come from?
The door didn’t even open a second time, and she knew that she had heard it closed.
“Who’s the girl?” a deep voice said. His voice echoed and bounced off the walls in the room.
“Aurelia Hastings. I found her in the elevator.” Another voice answered.
How did the man know her name?
Had he been the one to save her?
“You’re lying. You found her in the hallway of her apartment complex. What made you bring her here?”
Only silence answered him.
“The man she was in a relationship was beating her. I found him dragging her back into their apartment. But she didn’t see me. Do you want to see how she has ended up because of him?”
There was another dreadful silence.
The footsteps were drawing closer to her, and stopped. She could feel their warmth beside her now. She kept her eyes closed, and held her breath.
“Turn on the main light.”
The other man must have done what he was ordered to do because even behind her closed eyelids, everything seemed much brighter to her.
Aurelia felt the covers drawn from her body.
“Damn, that bastard got her good. Look at her face man. Put the covers back before I puke.”
“You have seen worse bodies than this. Why does she set you off guard?”
“They were never as beautiful as her. Even through all those bruises and cuts, you could tell she has the face of an angel. And look how small she is. She’s like a child. Damn, I wish I could have been the one to have killed that man. Dammit, cover her back up.”
“I wish I had made him suffer. But as long as he wasn't hurting her anymore, to me, just him being dead was fine with me.” The first man said as he drew the covers back over her body.
“I wonder why he attacked her in the first place.” The second man said.
“It looked like she was leaving him. She had suitcases with her.”
“So he thought he could keep her by force? That’s so pathetic.”
“I agree.”
“Man, even with all those cuts and bruises, you seriously can tell she’s beautiful.”
“She truly is.”
Underneath the sheets, she smiled.
No man had ever said that she had an angelic face. Well, not to her face anyway.
Too many men would always stare and flirt with her, but she never exactly took notice to them.
Seth…
She thought of Seth with his dark ashy blond hair, and his large brown eyes.
She didn’t want to think about him.
So she focused on the stillness of the room.
The two men were no longer talking.
She couldn’t even feel another presence inside the room.
She hadn't even heard them leave.
What she too deep in thought to hear the door close?
She slowly lifted the covers off of her.
The main light was still on, so she could see what enclosed her fully now.
The walls were painted a dark royal blue, and there were all sorts of vases and jewels scattered among the floor.
If she didn’t know any better, the two men that had been in the room a minute before were filthy rich.
Or they could have just been friends of the home owner.
She wished that she could have taken a sneak peek at the guys, but she was merely too afraid.
The man with the harsh yet serene voice had been the one that saved her.
He was also the one who had supposedly killed Seth.
Was Seth truly dead?
She couldn’t believe her ears when she had heard the harsh voiced man say that he should have made Seth suffer.
What Seth had done to her was wrong, but he didn’t exactly deserve death over it.
She blinked her upcoming tears away.
Even if he were dead, she had to be and stay strong.
Then, the tears sprang out uncontrollably.
Just knowing that Seth was no longer alive killed her on the inside.
She had shared so many fun and memorable moments with him. She would never see him again.
He was now forever gone.

Sanity

Aurelia woke up in a start. The loud noise that had awoken her had sounded like a gunshot.
But she knew that gunshot had been in her dreams.
She had been dreaming of her parents.
“Don’t think of that right now,” Aurelia told herself.
She sat straight up, breathing heavily as sweat trickled down her gorgeous face.
The two men hadn’t came back to see her. And now there she was, alone.
Her thoughts went back to Seth. She wished that they had still been happy together, just like they were before everything went downhill for them. She wished things had never gotten this messy.
She wished he were still alive.
Impossible, she thought.
He couldn’t wake up from the dead. No one could.
“Good, you’re finally awake.” A familiar male voice said.
It was the voice of the man that had killed Seth Lennox.
She couldn’t see him.
Someone must’ve turned off the main light in the room while she really was asleep.
Even the lamp light had been turned off.
She was devoured in darkness and fear.
“Who are you? Where am I?” Aurelia asked, fearing his answer.
She was hoping that she was at least still in Los Angeles.
She heard the man sigh.
“My name is Caleb Reed.”
After his introduction, candles lit up all around the room.
She looked around, afraid.
How had he done that? Candles couldn’t light up themselves.
She wanted to scream.
Even with the candles lighting up the entire room, she couldn’t see him, she could only feel his presence.
Then she heard footsteps.
And faster than a blink of an eye, a tall figure was standing on the right side of the bed, staring down at her with dark eyes.
She caught her breath.
He was the most beautiful man she had ever seen.
With the many candles as their only light, she stared back up at him.
“How do you feel?” he asked with no emotion.
He was staring right into her eyes, yet she couldn’t see what kind of thoughts were going on in his mind.
She usually could always read other’s eyes, but with this man, it was almost as though she were trying to read a book with no words.
“Kind of better I guess. Where am I?”
“It’s nice to meet you too. And you will learn that later. Just rest and heal.”
“I’m sorry if I came out as rude, I just wanted to know.” Aurelia said in sad voice. And when she looked up at the face of Caleb, she saw that he was annoyed.
“My name is Aurelia Hastings. And it is nice to meet you Caleb.” She said politely, ignoring his annoyed expression.
But she did not know that Caleb was not annoyed with her. He just didn’t want to get too close to her. And when he had seen her waking up, his heart beat began to race.
Caleb had to calm himself.
He had wanted to speak with her since he had found her, but he knew now that he was not making a good first impression.
He knew that he was being unsympathetic towards her.
She had been through enough, and he was not the one to be adding to it.
“Are you in any pain?” he asked with worry.
Aurelia was surprised to hear the apprehension in his voice. He had just been annoyed with her, and now he was being nice to her.
The way she looked was sickening.
He had seen many people, girls in particular, who had been cruelly beaten up. But Aurelia was the worst.
His best friend, Duke Sanity, was right. She was beautiful and petite and too child like.
She looked and sounded innocent and vulnerable.
The right side of her pale face was more black and blue than the left side.
There were cuts from the rings that her boyfriend had been wearing and they showed all over her beautiful face.
Her bright azure eyes were encircled with blue, purple, and black.
Caleb just wanted to hold her in his arms to make sure that nothing like that would ever happen to her again. He wanted to let her know that she was safe with him.
But he couldn’t.
He was not hers, and she was not his. And he knew for a fact that her heart still belonged to the man that he had killed.
“My entire body hurts; and my head is throbbing.” Aurelia muttered wearily as she held her head in her hands.
She knew how weak she looked, but at that precise moment, she did not care. It was just the way she felt.
Although small, when she was not in pain, she was vibrant and strong.
She was independent and only relied on herself.
She had never asked anyone for anything.
Not even Seth.
She winced at the thought of him.
He’s dead now, she thought, let it go.
“Are you all right?” Caleb asked as he saw Aurelia’s entire body tense.
He could tell that something was wrong. It was something deeper than her physical pain.
“He’s dead…isn’t he?” Aurelia asked as she stared down at her hands. They too were bruised.
That’s what it is, he thought, she remembers.
The last thing he wanted to do was lie. He was a man of truth.
“Yes.” He said, straightforward.
She looked up at him.
She was speaking to the man that had killed him.
Even though Seth had tortured and manipulated her for years, she wanted to bring Caleb to justice.
But she thought twice.
He had saved her life.
If it weren’t for Caleb, she could possibly be dead right now.
“You know, he never hit me before.” She confessed softly.
She felt Caleb’s eyes drilling into her.
“I was leaving him. I always said I would, but I loved him too much to actually do it. But I just woke up that day and knew that I had had enough. I wanted out. I was invisible. Compared to the girls he called ‘friends’, I was nothing. And then when I tried leaving…” she paused as tears rolled down her cheeks, “he went off on me. And now here I am. All I am now is a broken and shattered twenty two year old girl. God, I could only imagine how ugly and beat up I look now.”
She looked up and saw the sad and angry expression on Caleb’s face.
“Tell me Caleb, do I look horrible?” she asked as more tears came.
He didn’t say anything in response.
She looked up at him again and saw that his jaw was set tight.
Surely he was annoyed to hear her cry and whine.
“I’m sorry,” she said as she wiped away her tears.
“I just wish I could have done more. I can’t stand to see a woman cry.” She looked up at him and smiled.
Damn, she was beautiful.
“Well, he’s gone now. Whether he hit me or not, I probably would have never truly gone through with my departing. I would have probably gone back the same night. I would’ve gone back in hope that things would go back to the way they used to be. I know that I will always love and miss him. And I will mourn his death with every day of my being alive. Is that crazy? Still love a deceased person who had hurt me emotionally, and then later, physically?”
The way Aurelia was searching for an answer from him made him think of her…
Caleb shuttered.
Aurelia looked just like her.
She had the same dark hair, the same pale skin, and the same full red lips.
That was one of the main reasons he had saved her.
Not because he had to because who she was, and what she had been going through.
But it was also because she looked just like her.
“Since you had spent so much time together, I would say no. It’s not crazy. It’s sane.” Caleb said as he blinked away the storm in his own eyes.
Hopefully she hadn’t seen that he was losing control just at the sight of her.
He had to get out of there.
“All right, well, I’m going to let you get some more rest. I’ll come to check on you later.”
Before she could look up to say goodbye, he was already gone.
Aurelia shook her head.
She wanted rest, but rest didn’t want to go to her.
She wished that Caleb could have stayed there with her until she fell asleep again, but he had left in a hurry. He probably had better things to do.
When he said that he would come back to check on her, the strain in his voice told her that he wasn’t exactly looking forward to the visit.
She wasn’t unerringly surprised.
She had been crying most of the time he was there.
Aurelia sat up more. She didn’t want to just be there, weak and helpless. She wanted to stretch and move her body around.
She wanted to feel like her old self again. She wanted to move around without the worry of pain stopping her every second.
She just wanted to feel whole again.
Get yourself together Aurelia, this is no rest home, she said in her mind.
With as much strength as she could muster, she lifted her body up off the bed and set her bare feet onto the cold wooden floor.
She walked to the door, and gently opened it.
She was curious about where she was and who besides Caleb and the other man, were there. She absolutely had a right to know her whereabouts.
She put her small hand around the golden knob, and opened the heavy door.
She poked her head out the door, and when she looked out into the hallway, she saw more candle’s lighting it up underneath many paintings.
The hallway was so large that she felt as though she were in the mansion of the scary movie, Rose Red.
She crept out, and officially abandoned the room.
As she walked down the hall, she noticed that all the closed doors had hand carved designs.
She had never seen such elegant designs in her entire life.
Aurelia had no clue of where she was going, or who she might run into.
She just hoped and prayed that Caleb would not be angry with her about her sneaking off.
She already had forgotten what room was hers.
“Shit,” she said out loud. Her word echoed through the hall, and she giggled.
She wanted to turn around and see if Caleb had gotten back already.
“Where are you going?” a male voice said.
This voice did not belong to Caleb.
Aurelia turned around quickly, and collided into a hard chest.
Startled, she looked up and found herself gazing into large green eyes.
The man standing before her wasn’t as handsome as Caleb, but he sure did take her breath away.
This one did not have the harsh eyes that Caleb had.
He had dark blond hair, and eyes that looked right through her.
“I’m so sorry,” she said as she took her gaze away from him.
“Sorry for sneaking out of your room? No problem.”
“I meant for bumping into you. But that too I guess.”
The man laughed.
Oh, he had a beautiful laugh.
“You guess? You’re funny. I like you already.” The more he spoke, the more she realized who she was speaking to now.
He was the one who had been in the room with Caleb earlier.
“Don’t you think you’re a little too…hurt?” The man said as he looked down at her with his sparkling green eyes.
“Not really. But I do feel better. Where am I?”
He smiled at her.
Oh, he had a beautiful smile too.
“You’ll know in time.”
He held out his hand and said, “I’m Duke Sanity. My pal Caleb told me to come back and check on you. But you weren’t in your room so I came to find you. And now here we are.” He said, ending with his beautiful laugh.
“Aurelia Hastings pleased to meet you.” She said, as she shook his hand.
His hand felt cold as ice so she quickly pulled away and shivered.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I forgot to wear my gloves. You’re not the only one who reacts like that when they shake my hand.” Duke said as he took out black fingerless gloves from his pocket and slipped them on.
“Are you hungry?” Duke asked as he led her down deeper into the hallway.
Aurelia’s stomach answered with a growl.
“I guess so,” he said with a laugh. “Let’s go down to the kitchen, and I’ll make you something to eat.”
“Oh no, I could make something for myself. It’s no problem…”
“If I don’t, Caleb would whoop my ass. And I sure as hell don’t want that,” Duke said cutting her off and shivered with the thought of Caleb, “besides, you’re a guest.”
“Thank you, I really appreciate it.” Aurelia said with a bright smile at his hospitality.
“Here we are. What would you like to eat?”
Aurelia couldn’t speak. She was standing in a kitchen that she always dreamed of having. Getting herself together she asked, “This is your kitchen?”
Duke laughed his beautiful laugh.
“Fortunately, yes.”
The kitchen was larger than her old apartment.
Oh, her old apartment.
“Is it all right if I warm up some steak that I had cooked last night? I swear to you, it’s still good.”
Aurelia nodded her head at him.
“Do you live here?” Aurelia asked, trying to block out her thoughts of Seth and her old home, while Duke prepared lunch for her.
“This is actually Caleb’s original home,” Duke said as he put together a salad for her, “He took us in for…personal reasons.”
“Others live here?”
“Yes. It’s me, Caleb, and three others. But the others, along with Caleb, will be back later.”
So, there were three others? I wonder if they’re as beautiful as Caleb and Duke; Aurelia said in her mind. Aurelia smiled at the thought.
She hoped that one of them was at least a girl; she didn’t want to be in a house full of guys, even if it was for just that night.
“Here you are.” Duke said as he sat a large plate full of steak, corn and peas, and mashed potatoes in front of her. Then he set the salad’s he had made into the silver refrigerator, and asked Aurelia what she would like to drink. She asked for sweet iced tea, and that was what she got.
Then afterwards, he sat across from her with his own plate and drink.
“Thank you so much.” Aurelia said as she dug into her food, and drank her tea. She was dehydrated.
She had never tasted anything so wonderful.
“Wow, this is delicious!”
“Thank you.” He said with a wide grin as he bit into his steak.
“Did you make us anything too? As usual, Caleb didn’t stop to buy us anything to eat. He didn’t even bother to ask if we were hungry. He’d rather let us starve than buy something to eat and spend his money on us.”
Aurelia turned around to see who was speaking.
He was at least four inches taller than her, which wasn’t that tall because she was 5’2. He had light chestnut hair and a smile to kill for.
He looked at Aurelia and stopped.
“God, are you all right?” he asked in a pained voice.
Just how awful did she look?
“Yes, thanks for asking.” She said as she ate more of her steak.
She was the one starving.
“Did you get into a car accident or did someone…” the boy was saying then stopped.
He had remembered what Caleb had told him and the others.
He thought that the girl would just have a few cuts and bruises, but she was far worse than that.
If she wasn’t moving or talking, she would look horribly dead.
He felt sick to his stomach but he didn’t let it show.
He knew that she would probably bite his head off.
Besides, she was one of them.
It was too bad that she didn’t know anything yet.
“Are there any steaks left?” he asked Duke jadedly.
Duke nodded his head in response.
“There’s still enough for everyone to stay full for three hours or so.”
He rubbed his hands together and licked his lips as he got a plate and poured food onto it.
“David Prouix, meet Aurelia Hastings.” Duke said without looking up from his plate.
David smiled down at Aurelia and said, “Hey,” and took the seat next to Duke.
Aurelia felt as though she were some kind of disease that had to be avoided.
“Yes! We could eat now!” Aurelia looked up again and saw Caleb enter the kitchen with a dark haired boy.
The boy looked like Caleb, but not quite as handsome.
“You must be Aurelia,” the boy said as his eyes landed on her, “I’m Sebastian Barron.”
“It’s nice to meet you.” She said with a smile.
Both boys got their food and sat down at the table.
Sebastian sat next to David while Caleb took the seat on the left side of Aurelia.
When Caleb sat down, she felt sudden warmth and ease.
She already felt comfortable with all of them as they included her into their conversations. And she couldn’t help but laugh and smile with the rest of them.
Even the hard and timid Caleb was laughing.
There was Caleb, Duke, David, and Sebastian.
There were supposed to be five of them. So where was the last one?
“You boys are such pigs.” Aurelia looked up one last time and found herself looking at the beautiful girl with the long red hair that had just entered the kitchen.
“Don’t worry, there’s still some left.” David said with a laugh.
Without even bothering to get anything to eat, the girl sat on the right side of Aurelia and said, “I’m Lana Momsen.”
“I’m Aurelia, nice to meet you.” Aurelia said with a weak smile.
The girl made her feel so ugly.
If Aurelia didn’t look the way she did, the two girls would be equally as beautiful as the other.
Aurelia felt calm and happy.
But her happiness quickly ended and was replaced by sudden pain throughout her entire body. She felt as though she dived into cold water.
She felt a warm hand touch her arm.
It was Lana.
“Hey, are you all right? You got pale out of no where.” Lana asked in worry.
“I’m fine.” She lied.
She felt horrible.
She felt that at any moment, she would faint.
“She’s lying,” Sebastian muttered under his breath. Every one looked at him, even Aurelia.
He too had become pale.
“Let’s get you back to your room.” Caleb said. “Can you walk?”
Aurelia managed to stand up slowly, and almost fell to the ground, but Caleb had caught her.
Caleb picked her up and into his arms. Then, he carried her to her room.
Everyone followed. But Sebastian stayed far behind with David beside him.
“Do you ever eat? You don’t weigh anything.” Caleb said.
Despite the circumstances, she laughed.
“No. Back at my apartment, we only had enough food for one of us to eat. So I cooked for Seth.” Caleb got quiet at her words.
The guy probably treated her like a slave, Caleb thought bitterly, but she can never go back to him now.
Then Aurelia felt tired out of no where.
After a few more moments of hearing their soft whispers and laughs, Aurelia fell into dreams in Caleb's protective arms.

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Tag der Veröffentlichung: 10.01.2012

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