Perplexed

We are sitting in my apartment. I am holding his hand tightly because I am scared. Scared just by the thought of losing him. The police is doing all they could do but they still haven’t found who is sending us those messages. All I know is the reason behind the messages. I am scared that Lyte will be taken away from me. I love him. Yes, I love him and I am realizing this now when I am sitting beside him, holding his hand tightly, with my head resting upon his chest; listening to his heart beating at a blue streak.

I look at him, he is looking at the dreamcatcher hanging on the wall of my bedroom, his face is reflecting tension and I know what he is thinking. He thinks that the person, who is sending us those baneful messages, wishes to kill me but I know that he wants to kill our love and I can’t let anything happen to him. I have to save him, but how?

I rub my forehead with my fingers, trying to ease the pain, as I cannot think of anything to save him. I look outside at the beach, the beautiful sunset taking place behind the tarot card reader’s tent, but right now I cannot concentrate on the beauty of the sunset, all I want to do is run away with him from all of this, from the person who is sending those messages, from the police investigation, from all the tension, but unfortunately that’s not possible.

Suddenly, there’s a knock on the door and I squeeze his hand, we both look at each other exchanging a nervous glare. There’s a voice from outside calling my name.

“Eleanor? Eleanor you in there? It’s me, please open the door” I know this voice, it’s familiar. I rush over to open the door but when I open it I am shocked. I feel all the blood draining from my body remembering the words of the tarot card reader, she said, “Someone, you truly trust, is going to betray you”.

Back then I didn’t believe her, but now I regret not taking her words seriously. My feet are cold. I want to run back to Lyte and ask him to hide, but I can't move because what I am witnessing right now is very disturbing. I turn around immediately and before I could scream for him to hide, I am struck across my head and feel the blood dripping down. Suddenly the whole apartment starts to spin. I fall on the floor and painfully watch him striding towards Lyte. I try to shout, to warn Lyte but my voice stops supporting. I hear Lyte’s voice, he is screaming and I want to help him but I cannot move. I can see that he is dragging Lyte towards the kitchen; I don’t know what he is going to do. I gather some strength and try to get up but I can’t feel my legs, my head is pounding with pain. I hear Lyte scream in agony and that’s when an idea occurs to me. I try to get up and this time I succeed with the support of the table on which I keep my jar of marbles and the leash of my old dog, but right now, I don’t have time, to think of these things. I have to help Lyte. I have to save him from that monster or else he’ll kill him.

I hear Lyte again but this time he is not screaming, he is begging, kneeling in front of that monster to leave and not hurt me. Suddenly my anxiety levels up, I run towards the kitchen and pick up the cauldron sitting on the induction and aim it at him but he is much faster, he moves to the side and the cauldron falls on the floor breaking into shards. He turns towards me, smirking and pushes me back so that my head hits the wall, I start to feel dizzy. I hear Lyte choke out “NO!” as I pass out.

When I wake up I see Lyte lying on the bedroom floor and the monster sitting on my bed fidgeting with my grandmother’s old pocket watch kept on my bedside table. I try to turn but I can’t due to the injuries on my head. There is a massive amount of blood a

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round Lyte but I don’t know if it’s his or the monster’s. Lyte must have used some of his karate skills to bring him down as I can see some bruises on the killer’s face. He suddenly gets up from my bed and walks towards my dressing table, picking up the cherry red lipstick of mine. He always told me that cherry red color suited me the best, he keeps it in his coat pocket, and walks towards where Lyte is lying. He squats down beside Lyte and murmurs something to him but Lyte doesn’t respond as he lies unconscious. I can only hear a loud buzz everywhere; he sinisterly laughs at the end of his sentence and starts dragging Lyte towards the balcony, all I can assume is that he is going to throw him down from the third floor, and I can’t let this happen. I have to stop him, I have to save our love.

I gather all my strength and stand with trembling knees. I have to think of something to save Lyte and I have to think fast because I don’t have enough time. I try to search for a knife or my bat to hit him, but I can’t find any. I look everywhere to find any thing with which I can stop him but can find nothing. Then suddenly, I see two quills. Lyte and I bought it together, one for him and another for me. We never used it, so the metal tip of it is still sharp and pointed. I know what I have to do next. I take both the quills in my hands and slowly start to move towards the balcony. I hear him talking to someone on the phone. I don’t understand exactly but hear him talking about some tickets and booking a hotel in Cape Town. I now understand his intentions; after killing Lyte he will take me with him to Cape Town and I won’t let that happen. While he is on the phone I see that Lyte’s gaining consciousness and he is about to get up when he sees me but I gesture him to stay down and show him the quills guessing that he understands what I am about to do. I mouth to Lyte to distract him after he is done with his phone call so that he doesn’t pay attention towards me and I can stab from behind. Lyte agrees. After a few seconds, his call is over and he looks down at Lyte who is saying something to him but I can't understand what exactly. The pain in my head continues increasing. I shake my head and concentrate on the monster towering above Lyte. I crouch down and start crawling behind the chairs. I am almost there when the monster suddenly turns and I am scared. I think that he has seen me and is going to kill Lyte immediately. But fortunately, the chairs are hiding me well as he continues swearing at Lyte.

I say to myself, “Okay, now is the time. You have to save your love. You can do this!” and with that thought, I take a deep breath, and jump from behind the chairs stabbing one quill at the side of his neck making him scream like the real monster he is. He turns around to push me but before he could do that I stab the other quill 

right in his chest and push him down from the balcony. I fall on my knees and Lyte catches me, tears start flowing down my cheeks while Lyte holds me tight in his arms and whispers in my ear “Hey! Calm down. It’s okay now. It’s over. He’s gone and you are safe. You did it love”. He smiles at me.

I look up at him and see the relief flowing in his eyes, I know that I am safe in his arms and want to spend the rest of my life in them. On gaining strength we get up, Lyte calls the police, comes back to me and holds me tight. We together look down at the monster who used to be our best friend, lying dead on the beach sand. Yes, 

he was our best friend; Jason Shellstrop. I turn to Lyte and whisper softly “I love you Lyte Tunner.”

He smiles and says “I know. And I love you Eleanor Dawson” embracing me, and together we stand there watching the waves.