“Cariña! What happened?” Matt’s loud gasp snapped me from the flashback of the past and I came back to myself just in time to see him catch my crumbling body.
He gathered me into his hold and I tried hard to hold his shoulders, to ease his burden and pull myself together some.
“Livy? Talk to me.” Matt pleaded as he looked down to me. He still wore only his white shirt and his body heat surrounded me through it.
“C-can we go home?” I whimpered. “Please Matt.”
“Did someone hurt you?” Matt pushed, clearly panicking and thinking the worst. I shook my head, then hid my face against his chest, not able to talk more. I just wanted to be home, safe from the rest of the world and all of the scary truths it held for me.
I stayed hidden in Matt’s shirt as he carried me back inside to collect our jackets. He draped both over my quaking body and carried me back out to the street, where he hailed a cab almost immediately.
“It’s ok Livy. We’re going home. Everything’s ok.” Matt whispered.
“Everything’s ok. I got this Kiddo. I just need you to stay out of the way until I get him down, then you run like hell. I’ll catch up with you, promise. We’re both getting out of here today. I’m going to get you home and we’ll find your family.”
It had been eight days since I woke to find Chris in The Darkness with me, and he had decided it was time for us to escape. I still hadn’t uttered a word to him, and he didn’t even know my name, but I knew almost everything about him, and I liked him a lot. He was good and kind, and I had decided my first guess that he was a prince there to rescue me, hadn’t been far from the truth.
No matter how hard The Shadow hurt him, he always managed a smile and a joke for me, pushing and pushing until he made me smile too. I had become so attached to him, and I was terrified he would be hurt in this crazy escape plan he had.
Chris had told me the night before, that he was actually much more skilled at fighting than he had let The Shadow believe. He explained that he could have gotten us out days ago, but the bruised rib and badly sprained ankle he had from The Shadow throwing him down the steps into The Darkness the first day, was too much of a problem to risk it. Instead he’d been hiding his skills and letting himself heal. I thought that plan was kind of crazy, since The Shadow had been hitting him a lot in the days in between, but Chris must have seen that doubt, and explained he had managed to avoid any really bad hits, that would injure him too much to fight. He was sure he was ready now, and determined that when The Shadow came down here, as he did the same time every afternoon, he was going to hurt him badly enough that we would have time to get out.
The sound of something being moved overhead had my heart pounding. It was the signal that The Shadow was headed down here.
“Don’t!” It was the first word I had spoken in years, and it barely came out, but he heard me.
“I have to Kiddo. Help is never coming all of the way out here. This is our only chance.” He whispered fast. “Everything will be ok. A few days from now we’re going to be eating huge cheeseburgers together in my favourite diner.” He smiled, and looked so sure. He was the first person in 2936 days who had been nice to me, and I couldn’t bear the thought of losing him.
Unable to stop myself I leapt forward and into his arms, hugging him like I had never dared to before.
“Hey now. Stop saying goodbye. We’ll be just fine, you’ll see. You just be sure to get out of here as soon as you can, and keep running. Do not hesitate, Kiddo. You run like hell and I’ll catch up to you as soon as I can. Promise.” He gave me a short squeeze, then pulled back and pointed to the corner he wanted me to hide in. “Go now. Just keep thinking of those cheeseburgers, ok? I sure hope you’re not a vegetarian.” He laughed, that handsome smile overshadowing the blood and filth he was covered in head to foot. I smiled as I backed away from him, wanting him to feel that I believed in him, even though inside I was terrified I knew how this would end, with me all alone once again, and Chris gone forever.
“Livy? Olivia, look at me now.” Matt demanded. I snapped from the memory and looked up into deep, dark eyes. My face was soaked with tears and I could hardly catch a breath.
“Matt?” I gasped, feeling dazed. It was confusing, and scaring the hell out of me, flipping between the past and the present, especially when I was freaking out in both.
“There you are.” He said with a smile. “Try and stay with me, ok? We’re home now. The guys are all here, and Keira and Grant. You’re safe, Cariña. Always safe.”
“I….I think I’m remembering.” I whispered, trying to explain my craziness.
“Just try to stay here with me for now, ok? I don’t think this is a good time for these
