For of you who are still with me , I'm so sorry for the delay on this chapter….Life happened is all I can say, but I'll do better with the next one, it's already on the way ;)
This is a shorter chapter because it fits better with the storyline. The next will be a longer one. As always, I'm very interested in hearing what u think so any type of feedback, opinions or criticism are welcome at l.kay131@gmail.com
For disclaimers see chapter one...
Chapter eleven
For disclaimers see chapter one…
The house was almost completely dark. The only light coming from inside was the unmistakable blue, flickering light from the TV in the livingroom.
Danny pulled the black, fleece hat she was wearing further down her head, to try to cover her ears. She rubbed her hands together, trying desperately to warm them up. Fuck it was cold… She should have brought gloves, but she hadn't really thought about that. Her mind was too occupied with more important matters than to bother itself with little things like that.
She leaned back against the trunk of the tree she was standing underneath, hiding. It was dark as fuck and she knew that no one would have been able to see her even if she would step out onto the lawn, but it didn't matter. She felt as if she was standing out there, fully visible, with a spotlight shining right at her, anyway. Maybe it was the guilty conscience. The feeling that maybe she shouldn't be there. That it wasn't her place to do this. Not any more. Not after what she had done. But she didn't do it for herself. Not completely anyway. At least she tried to tell herself that. That she wasn't just being egoistic. That she did it for them. To keep them safe. But Danny knew she was fooling herself if she really believed that there would be much she could do about that, to protect them, should something happen. She hadn't been able to protect her own family after all. She kept doing what she did anyway, though. Because she couldn't help herself.
She had been doing this for almost three weeks now. Every damn night. And every day. Hiding. Watching. Stalking.
She was starting to feel a little bit more at ease at least, even though she was still worried. Nothing bad had happened. She hadn't seen anything suspicious or out of order. She hadn't seen them at all. So, maybe the photo of Max had just been meant to serve as a threat. A threat to her. To let her know that they had found her and were watching. Watching her. Maybe they had no intention of doing anything to harm Emily or Max. At least Danny hoped so. She couldn't be sure, though. Not with them. She knew what they were capable of.
This was the last night she was doing this. Watching over Emily and Max. She needed to get on with her mission. Needed to do what she had to do. The demon was getting inpatient.
So this was the last time she would lay her eyes on the house where she had spent some of the best days of her stupid life. This was the last time she would lay her eyes on Emily. Or Max. It pained her. Broke her heart, but there was nothing else she could do about it. She needed to keep them safe. Alive. Because she loved them. Both of them. Very much. In her heart they had become what she had never expected to have again. Her family. And the best thing she could do to keep them that way, was to stay away. Far away.
Danny flinched and instinctively took a step further back as the lights in the kitchen were suddenly lit. She had been so into her own thoughts, she hadn't noticed the TV in the livingroom being turned off.
She saw the most beautiful woman she had ever seen standing there by the kitchen window, looking out. Danny's heart pounded like crazy as Emily was looking straight at her. She knew Emily couldn't see her, but God it felt as if she could. Those green eyes kept looking right towards her for countless moments before Emily finally turned away. She had looked sad. Danny wanted nothing more than to just step out into the open. Show her presence. Go into the house. Take Emily in her arms and hold her. Tightly. Forever. Just stay there.
But there was no way she could. Or ever would. Danny took a deep breath as she forced herself to turn around. Turn away. To take her eyes off the woman she loved so much. It broke her heart all over again to see the look on Emily's face, knowing that she, Danny, had done this to her. Made her sad.
Tears started streaming down her cold face as she walked away. Walked away from what she could never have, what could never be, for the last time. She didn't bother wiping them away.
She kept crying as she walked the short distance back to her car. The tears kept falling as she drove away. She could do nothing to stop them. And she didn't even want to. This was her fault. All of it. And she deserved to feel this way. To be in pain. Because of all the things she had done. Danny sped the car up, driving away as fast and as far away as she could before she would change her mind. She drove faster and faster towards the destiny she knew was hers. The destiny which had always been hers. Only now, she knew there was nothing she could do about it.
***
Emily shook her head at herself as she turned off the lights in the kitchen. It was time to go to bed, but she knew that there was no chance she would be able to sleep. Like every other night during the past weeks.
She had this feeling again. The same feeling that kept recurring, even though she knew that she was imagining it. The feeling of not being alone. The feeling of some sort of presence. Danny's presence. She didn't want to admit it to herself, because deep down, she knew that it wasn't true. It was just all her own imagination. Wishful thinking.
Danny wasn't there. Nor would she ever be again. The feeling wouldn't leave her, though. Emily feared she was losing her mind. Going insane. The worrying and the longing was starting to get to her. Really get to her. She couldn't sleep. Couldn't eat. Couldn't concentrate on her work. All she could think about was Danny. What she was doing. If something had happened to her. If she was still alive.
She wanted to believe that the feelings she had meant something. That the strange feeling of Danny's presence meant that she wasn't dead, at least. Some days she was certain that that actually was what it meant. That they had that sort of connection between them. Other days, well most days, not so much.
Emily knew it was getting bad. Worse and worse as the days went by. That she was getting worse. She had even imagined seeing Danny, if only a glimpse, a few times. Her face. The back of her head. Emily had felt her heart speed up the times it had happened. Her head had spun. She had even felt a brief sense of happiness. But then it had all gone away. Just as quickly as it had come. Replaced by an even worse sense of dread. Of doubt. Of She had tried to approach the person she had seen, or thought she had seen, but when she got there, the person was gone. As if in a dream. Or more like a nightmare. It had happened twice; once at work and once when she was picking Max up from kindergarden. She had seen a person, well a woman, standing at the other side of the football field next to the school where Max went. She was leaning against the trunk of a tree; she was tall, well built and she'd had long, dark hair, but had worn a baseball cap at the time. And when Emily had looked her way, the woman had turned around and left. It seemed strange to Emily now, but at the time, she hadn't thought more about it. Danny didn't want her, didn't want them to be together, so there was no way she would be there. Closer to her and Max. Danny had made that perfectly clear when they had last been together. When she had left her. Again.
Emily had waited for Danny to come back for hours. Waited for her to come back and say that she didn't mean what she had said. That they could figure this whole damn thing out together. Because they loved each other. Emily knew that that was the case, no matter what the other, stubborn woman told her. But she was running out of options. Of ideas. Ideas of how she could make Danny change her mind. Well, if she would ever see her again. Emily wasn't sure she ever would again.
She tried to wipe away the tears that started falling down her cheeks as so many times before. God, in just less than two months her life, which she had finally thought she had gotten back on track after Mike, had been turned upside down again. And this time things were worse than ever. Because now, there was love involved. Feelings which Emily knew would never go away. Ever. No matter what she would try to do, those feelings would forever stay within her. She loved Danny that much. So much.
She walked up the stairs, turning the few lights that were on, off, and entered her son's room. Max was asleep, luckily enough. She didn't want him to see her crying. Again. This whole thing was and had been hard on him as well. Emily kissed her son's forehead as she tucked the cover closer around his sleeping body, before going back to her own room. Her own bed, not looking forward to yet another sleepless night.
Emily put her arms around one of the pillows in her bed as she lay down on her side. The pillow Danny had slept on. It still smelled like her. She started crying again, she just couldn't help herself. Once again her thoughts drifted away.
God, baby where are you?
***
“What the fuck…” Danny said to herself as she slowed down her car a little. She had been driving for about half an hour since she left Emily's house. The tears had dried off by then and she was starting to feel better and better the further away she got from the life she would never have and feeling the demon slowly, but steadily resurfacing didn't hurt either.
She turned her head and looked to the left as she passed it. Parked on the other side of the road, in the middle of the woods, was a car. Instantly her heart started beating faster in her chest and her hands almost started shaking from the realization.
Because she knew what car it was. Whose car it was. It was dark out since it was well after midnight, but there was no doubt in her mind. The car was so out of place, she wouldn't have been able to miss it. The black BMW. With the tinted windows. It was them . Giuseppe Marino's men.
They had probably stopped to relieve themselves, Danny figured. Why the hell else had they stopped at a place like that? In the middle of nowhere. There were no houses around, not for at least a few miles. Danny drove a bit further along before turning her car around, not wanting them to get suspicious if they saw the some car turn around on the road and drive back towards them.
When she passed it the second time, she still couldn't see anyone. So she sped up. Her plans had changed. She had been wrong. There was no way in hell they were there for something else than Emily. They had no business there whatsoever, Danny knew that. And although she felt fear creeping up on her, she was relieved that she had seen them. And that was simply because they had stopped at the side of the road. If she had passed them while they were driving in the opposite direction, there would have been no chance in hell she could have connected the car to have anything at all to do with them. All she would have been able to see of them were the lights in the front of the car, which wouldn't have told her anything.
Danny sped up even more, driving way over the speed limit now. She had to get a head start. Had to get to Emily and Max before they did. Her hands started to sweat. Shaking. The demon was no longer anywhere to be found.
Jesus Christ, she had been lucky this time. But it wasn't over yet. They could be right behind her. She doubted that they would drive as fast as she was, to not draw any attention to themselves, but she couldn't be sure. She looked over at the passenger seat. At the Glock that was lying there. It was her only defense against them and Danny really knew that it wouldn't be enough. Not even close. Not even if she managed to surprise them. So what the fuck should she do? What could she do? There was only one option. She needed to get Emily and Max away from there. Where to, she didn't know. Just away.
***
Emily sat up straight in the bed, scared to pieces as she tried to listen again. She had thought she had heard a banging on the front door, but now it was quiet. She must have imagined it. Or dreamt it. Not that she had noticed falling asleep, but she must have in this case. She was just about to lay down again when she heard it again. The banging. This time accompanied by someone screaming her name.
What the…?
She got up from the bed and went to the windows, looking out. She couldn't see anyone there, but she saw what she knew must be the tail lights of a car. She didn't see what kind of car it was, only that it was dark.
Emily was starting to get really scared now. She had hardly forgotten what Danny had told her. What she had been warned about. Who she had been warned about. And certainly not what had happened to Danny. Emily still shivered every time she thought about the state she had found her in when they met. Or her love being shot. About how, for a long time, she hadn't known whether or not she would survive. They had been the worst days of her life.
Emily grabbed the baseball bat she always had leaning against the wall beside her bed these days, on her way out of her bedroom. She didn't even bother to put more clothes on, other than the t-shirt and panties she already wore. She stopped shortly to check on Max, who was still asleep in his bed, before carefully walking down the stairs. She stopped a few feet from the front door, to listen once again. For a few seconds there was nothing. Then there was the banging on the door again.
“Who is there?”, Emily shouted at whoever was on the other side. She took a steadier grip on the baseball bat, feeling her hands start to sweat. Her heart beat so hard, she thought it would jump out of her chest.
“Emily...please open the door…”
Emily almost started crying again when she heard the pleading voice of the woman she thought she would never hear from or see again. This time she was certain she wasn't imagining it, though. Imagining Danny's voice. No this was her. She was there.
To be continued in chapter twelve...
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