Theo

My thoughts intensify once the man reaches over to me, and begins attempting to untie me. A vast amount of moans excrete from his mouth, but after a few moments, I feel an undefeatable rush of blood spiralling through my veins. My hands take in the new air it has been provided with, but the moment I stand up, I feel myself losing balance with my newly flaccid legs.

"Woah. You alright, dude?" He asks, but before I can give a response, he takes my mother's hand into his. "Come on guys, we've gotta go."

"I'm not going until I know he's dead," I calmly pronounce.

"He's dead, Theo. Come on, let's go." He directs my mother out of the house, but the sight of him in front of me mixed with all the torture I have daydreamed of blessing his despicable self assures me to repeatedly pound his face. No sound comes out of his mouth, which instils peace in me and the motivation to continue.

"Theo, stop it!" I suddenly hear my mom order, as she comes running through the room.

"I need to finish it. I need to make sure he's gone," I assert in between punches.

"He's gone, okay? Don't you want to be gone from this place now? See Eliza?"

The sound of her name restores humanity back in me; my heart becomes swelled with my desperation to see her, and after looking up to see my mom holding out a hand to me, I take it. She leads me into a silver car, of which the driver's seat is being occupied by the familiar, yet simultaneously unfamiliar man. Once she takes the passenger seat, he turns the ignition on, and hope reigns through me at the prospect at finally seeing her again. But, my body is also occupied with confusion.

"Who the hell are you?" I let out hurriedly, my hands trembling with a quicker pace than that of my voice.

"Theo!" My mother exclaims.

"And better still, how did you know my name in there?"

"I've talked about you to him," my mom states.

"Why? Who is he?"

My question is met by silence, which immediately ignites fury in me. "So, you're just going to ignore me? I deserve to know who you are, why you saved us, and where the hell you're taking us."

"You want to go and see Eliza right? You just have to tell us which hospital she's in, that's where we're going," my mom says.

"Mount Sinai."

"Mount Sinai it is," he finally speaks.

"Great, now answer my question."

"Theo, he's um..." My mom's voice drifts off suddenly, and a quick flashback of the passionate way he took her hands into his injects a thought into my brain.

"Wait, you guys aren't, um... Are you?" The little air is filled with silence for a few moments, before he finally speaks for the second time.

"Your mom's a great woman. I love her."

"So you are then?" Once again, my question is received with no response. "Mom, how is that possible when... Does he know about-"

"It's complicated, Theo," my mom quickly cuts me off.

"Does he know?" I repeat, more forcibly.

"Yes," she says after a short time.

"Are you serious? You knew who my mom was living with; you know how she was getting treated but you didn't do anything?" My tone, almost defeaning, soars through the ceiling of the car.

"I tried to, believe me."

"Well, you obviously didn't try hard enough, you punk ass dick."

"Theo! It's not about how hard he tried or not, it's not about him. I'm the one that didn't leave, no matter how hard he tried to get me to."

"But you had somebody to leave with. So you wouldn't be alone, you wouldn't have to be afraid, mom."

"You think he wouldn't try and track us down like he did for you? When you were gone, I went to take the garbage out one day, and Robert saw me. I had marks on my neck, and he automatically knew what it was. He was kind, he showed me love, he helped me to cope, but I saw how desperate Felix was to find you and that was because you wounded his ego. I am his possession, how do you think he would react if he woke up one morning and I was suddenly gone?"

"If he helped you to cope so much, why were you taking drugs to apparently help you cope?"

"The drugs helped numb the pain, Theo. Robert helped me to cope with what I was going through."

"But surely if he really cared about you, he would tell you that you're ruining yourself by taking the drugs?"

"I know, okay? I know. He told me, he told me multiple times, he tried to get me to go to those meetings; but once you start taking something so addictive, you can't stop."

"When was the last time you took something?"

"That doesn't matter."

"It does to me, that's why I asked. When was the last time you took something, mom?"

"Right before he tied me up."

"Well, you're free from him now. He's gone. So you can go to the AA meetings."

"Theo-"

"Mom, there's no excuse. Do you want to be in my life like you said?"

"Of course I do."

"Then you will get your act together, and get help for a problem that can kill you."

Her eyes remain locked to the front, and I throw my hand into a balled fist to instil a sense of calm in me from what I just heard.

"Okay. Fine. I will," she eventually gives in.

"Good. Now... Robert, how did you know that my mother needed saving today?"

"We had plans to go to breakfast this morning. Your mother never shows up late whenever we make a date, and so I knew something was definitely up. Even if she decided to go shopping, I knew she would have texted me and told me."

"But weren't you ever scared that he would find out about the two of you, and end up killing you?"

"Your mom was very good at hiding the relationship. If we ever texted or spoke on the phone, she would delete the evidence straight after. We would always meet in the gym, which is in the mall, so there would be restaurants inside it."

"Why would he trust you to go anywhere with another guy?"

"He always used to... Comment on my weight, tell me it wasn't good enough. He took me to the gym directly and another man offered to be my trainer at first, but Felix was so threatened by him because he thought he would be using that as a way to hit on me. He hand picked Rob personally because he saw him hugging another man, and automatically assumed that he was gay," my mom explains, and my heart pounds heavily at the deep breaths she takes between every few words.

"What? A guy hugging another guy makes you gay now?"

"Not at all. But you know that he's weirdly all about being macho, which he believes means keeping a straight face at all times, and never showing any love to anyone. It's stupid."

"But not that stupid because it worked out in our favour," Rob adds.

"And then the rest is history," I say sarcastically.

"Theo."

"I'm not doing anything."

"Let's just change the subject. Are you in any pain, son?" She asks, as my eyes waver over the rope marks staining my wrists.

"I'm fine."

"Are you sure?"

"I've been through worse. So, um... What happens now?"

"What do you mean?" Rob asks.

"Well, mom... You can't go back there, and Rob... Wait, where do you even live?"

My question encourages a few laughs to escape from their lips, causing my already unceasing nerves to sharpen. "What?"

"You don't remember?"

"Remember what?"

"Rob is... Well was your neighbor, Theo. He lived three doors down from us, remember?" And then his face becomes clear to me. That's where I remember him from, I think to myself. He was the neighbour that thrived off of throwing disapproving glares at me whenever he saw me with a group of people, or in a car that he knew had been taken without the driver's parents' permission. He quickly became a negative force for my existence, but it seems like he wasn't relevant enough to stay in my brain once I left.

"Yeah... I remember now. You were annoying."

He laughs which shocks me in comparison to how I thought he would react.

"Yeah, well I'm hoping we can start afresh."

"Which brings me back to my question. Where do we go from here?"

"Well, we can find a motel and stay there for as long as we need to. But, Theo, you have a house don't you?" Rob questions, the truth behind his words generating a sting through my skin.

"It's not my house, but they told me I can stay for as long as I need to. I would ask if you guys could stay as well but I know Eliza's mom isn't going to be happy about that; and I think Eliza would want to hide out for a while because of..."

"Oh, right. What he did was... How's she doing?" Rob asks.

"How do you know what he did?"

"Your mom told me about Felix's plan to do it once he told her about it."

"Wait... You knew?" I direct towards my mother, remembering that she hinted this back in the house, but the mention of Eliza at that point was too painful to handle.

"It's not what you think. He told me, and I immediately knew I had to stop him. Rob told me that as soon as Felix left, we would get in the car and try and beat him to it, and somehow find a way to save Eliza. But, he tied me up right before I left, because he wanted me to sit patiently and wait for his surprise for me. Which happened to be you."

A new tide of anger surges through me at the thought of him carefully scheming to create the perfect plan in his head. That knowledge instils major desperation in me to turn back around to the Devil's palace himself, and snap his head away from his body.

"Are you okay, Theo?" My mother suddenly interrupts my thoughts.

"I just want to see her."

"We'll be at the hospital soon enough."

Soon enough feels more like later, as Rob finally tells me we're a few minutes away from the hospital. Once the stop light turns amber, and the car nears closer to the doomed building I stepped foot in two days ago, I don't wait for Rob to park as I hurriedly open the door, and find myself running at the exact pace I was running in before. I hear my mom call after me, but my eyes are focused on the door that seems to be the finishing line to a terrible race. "Get the hell out of my way!" I shout to a man on the phone who seems intent on blocking my vision. I finally make it through the doors, and sprint to the receptionist. I sigh internally as I become aware of the fact that she is not the same one that allowed me to see Eliza the other day.

"Eliza Hayes."

"I'm sorry?"

"Eliza. Hayes. I need to see her."

"She's gone."

"What?"

"She's been discharged."

"What? How? Is she well enough?"

"It wasn't the hospital's decision. It was her mother's."

"So she's not well enough? How the hell could you let her leave here when you know there's still things you can do to help her?"

"Firstly, I'm going to need for you to lower your tone of voice to me, young man. Security are right over there, and will have no problem throwing you out. Secondly, her mother's an established nurse in this very hospital. She knows what she's doing."

"Does she? Because that's not the impression I'm getting."

"I think it's very disrespectful for you to come in here questioning an employee's ability to do their job. She knows what she's doing," she repeats, but her words manage to frighten me instead of soothe me.

I place my head into my weak hands, as they hopelessly try to remove themselves from the association of me. I gulp down large amount of spit that has risen to my mouth, before releasing my head from my hand. My breathing rate seems to become all the more struggled with every minute that passes, but all I can think to do is desperately repeat the head in hand process.

"Are you okay? You look very tired and dehydrated. Maybe I could-" the receptionist's voice injects into my ear, but its function has already been reduced to hearing the only thing I care about at this moment.

"I'm fine, I just need to see her," I breathe out.

"Well, like I told you she's been-" I see no necessity to stand there any longer, in fact I stood there far too long, which provokes me to turn around and run the same direction I came from. I see the car outside, and throw myself into it instantly.

"Drive," I order.

"What? What happened?" My mom questions.

"She's not there. She's been discharged. Drive to the house. She's gotta be at the house. I'll give you the directions to get there along the way, but just drive."

"Alright, alright," Rob says, and I sit forward, my legs shaking, anticipating the reaction of both Rosanne and Eliza when they finally see me. I know what Rosanne will be thinking. I just ran away, because that's what people like me do. Eliza's opinion means more to me, which is why it is the opinion that has the power to send terror through my veins. I don't want her to think I abandoned her. She can't think that. I don't want her to know that I went to find him, because she would think that I chose revenge on him over finding out how she is doing, but I had to make him pay. The pain that quite literally sliced any ounce of joy inside me into mere dissolving particles did not allow me to stay.

Ten minutes later, after almost losing my voice from the incessant amount of shouting I have done, my eyes finally land on the building that holds more sentiment in my heart than my actual home does. I jump out of the car once more, and run towards the door, simultaneously taking the key out of my pocket. The door clicks open and the fresh aroma of her seeps into my nostrils, making me all the more anxious to see her.

"Eliza?" I call out, but no sound or movement is made. I decide to head upstairs to my room, in which the bed is laid. I recall not laying the bed at any point that day. Then, I continue on to her room, which immediately gives me a feeling of uneasiness and wariness. I notice that everything that was once on her chest of drawers is gone, as is the Mac computer I recall once watching Cinderella on. My heart begins to beat rapidly, every beat tuning with the trembling of my fingers. I stand in front of her wardrobe, and breathe a magnificent sigh before finally opening the doors.

"No, no, no, no, no," I repeatedly say aloud, my voice becoming higher each time, as my eyes glimpse over absolutely nothing in the wardrobe. "No," I repeat, forcibly opening the chest of drawers to being greeted with nothing yet again. "Fuck, no." I run down to the floor below, where I know Rosanne resides, and enter her room for the first time. Her smell enlists a sickening sensation inside of me, but that doesn't stop me from opening her wardrobe to see only a red dress standing in the middle of all the empty space. The colour reflects against my eyes and emotions as I viciously grab it and tear it up until it looks like it has been chewed on and spat out by an emotional elephant. I trod on it ferociously, and then begin picking up anything that comes into my field of vision, and rearranging its structure. I smash the mirror stuck against the wall; the clock a little bit above it; and with as much strength as I can, I pick up the chest of drawers and throw it across the room, screaming out in a rage of anger at the same time. The fatigue in my system kicks in and stops my hands from attacking anything else. My body sticks to the wall, and slides down as the loneliness I felt this time a month ago reinforces the pain begging to be felt.

"Theo? Theo?" I suddenly hear, but the voice is not the one I want to hear. "Theo, I heard-" I can feel my mom's presence appear at the door, but my eyes remain fixated on the ground. "Oh my gosh, Theo. What happened? Where's Eliza?"

I close my eyes in the hopes that when they become exposed to light again, I will see that this is all just a dream. However, when I open them, reality has never felt so real before. My mind takes a while to process what has happened, but when it finally does, it feels like that same emotional elephant has stomped all over my body.

"She's gone," my limp mouth manages to croak out.

Last chapter of the first book! What do you think will happen next? Poor Theo :( it never seems to work out for him.

Thank you to everybody for reading; there will be a second book which I will begin writing soon. I'm so excited, and there's so much stuff planned for it. Trust me, it's going to be more intense than the first one. So stay tuned :)

Please comment your thoughts and vote!