Davey’s POV
Leaving the house, the sounds of shattering glass broke our silence. Standing outside of the house, we watch as all of the lights were broken and every window covered in black. It was agonizing to watch this from the outside and not knowing what was going through her mind. Had my love become insane? I didn’t know what to think. The group had walked away from me and let me stare at the darkening home. I vexed about this in my mind as all of it was going on. I felt completely numb. I thought that maybe she really did love Maxx, and this was how she was going to show it. I saw the sky, and I saw her eyes in the clouds. I heard the cars pass by. Looking back, the colours seemed to pass me by.
I stood there, staring at the house for hours, but it felt like days. Forever and a day. Eventually, Jade came up to me and put his hand on my shoulder. “Davey, we should really go. It’s getting late.”
I didn’t move or blink. “I’m staying here.”
I felt every fibre inside of me start to break. It was like watching your new born baby go into a coma. Except, she was not a baby, but she was just as fragile. I could see her face before all of this. This, this had happened within hours. But why? Why is she so tormented by him?
I looked down at the pavement, and Jade’s hand was still on my shoulder. My feet were placed on the cracks of the pavement and they all seemed to come to me. I was stuck in a crack. A bind. And I don’t know how to help her. I felt the tears well up inside me bones. I looked back at the house and wanted to run in and save her from what she was doing. Free her from this nightmare she was so quickly trapped in. Bring her home safely. Hold her to me and tell her everything was going to be okay.
On impulse, I began to run for her house. I couldn’t stop myself. I felt Jade’s hands wrap around my body and yelling. Lots of yelling. Mostly Jade’s.
“Stop Dave! What are you doing! Calm down!”
“Let go of me you prick! She needs me! Celeste needs me! I can’t let her! No!”
A lot of people see me as a scrawny man, but I can beat the crap out of anyone…except Jade. Damn kick boxers.
With his arms holding me and tackling me to the concrete, I felt the tears flow from me and hit the pavement like falling stars. “CELESTE!” I screamed. “CELESTE!” I felt like a broken man. I felt like I was going to loose her forever. I was terrified. I kept thinking Oh God, God no. Please. Please let her be okay. Don’t die! Please God. No.
“GET OFF ME JADE!”
Jade didn’t speak, he just held me to the concrete. He eventually let me go, and I got into a fetal position on the concrete. I couldn’t stand seeing her, well, not seeing her, but knowing she was in a horrible mental condition. She needed medical help. Why couldn’t anyone see this?
I felt like I was in a perpetual state of déjà vu. This feeling had happened before and it was the day of the car accident. I was a broken boy and now a broken man. It’s silly how the world seems to repeat itself. In birth are you free of the clutches of your mother’s womb and in death are you free of the world’s womb. Things seem to like to happen twice.
“Please, please, can we just help her?” I was on my hands and knees, begging them. I pleaded for someone to notice that something bad was going to happen. They all probably thought I was the nut job. I felt like I was loosing it just thinking about what was going to happen to my darling. I had to get out of there. I had to go.
“We, we should just go…” I finally breathed out.
I let Jade drive me. Looking out of the passenger window, I held my hand on the glass and pleaded in my mind for everything to be okay.
2 weeks later
Celeste’s POV
“What are you going to do with yourself, now that you’re…uhm…dead and all?” I asked Maxx. We had been locked up in my house for two weeks. I hadn’t left. I would make food in the dark. Any light from the fridge or the oven would burn my eyes. The majority of the time I was in my room with Maxx. I could see him so clearly, but he could not see me. It made me feel a silhouette of guilt whenever I would see him smile. He once told me that I was beautiful. I said, “No, my hair is such a mess today.” I saw his shattered smile and he said, “I can’t see it, so no matter how you look, you’re beautiful to me.” I had nearly broken down in tears. He used to say that to me when he was blind.
These two weeks had taught me that in death do we find comfort in the ones we love most, and do we finally settle our differences.
“Well, I was thinking about going and finding my dad, if he’s where I will be,” Maxx replied.
That day was also a memory I wished I had forgotten. He was driving his father to the hospital the day he lost his eyesight. The car that hit them crashed in front, but a second car had drove and smashed into the passenger’s side, killing his father.
“Oh. So, what was your childhood like?” I had never asked him this. Not in all the years that I had known him.
“Ah, my child hood.” He seemed to be deep in thought. If he had eyes, he would be staring into space right about now.
DING DONG
Both Maxx and my head swiveled to my bedroom door. What the hell? Who would disturb me? It seemed that I had forgotten anyone from the outside world. Jennie, Shane, Josh, Emma, Hunter, Adam, Smith, Jade and…Davey.
“Shouldn’t you be getting that?”
I shook my head, eager to hear about his life. “Go on.”
“Mhm. Well, I was born in Santa Rosa, and then we moved out here. My mother really was never close with me, but my father and I were best friends. He taught me bass. He could play just about every instru-“
DING DONG
“Ignore it. Continue.”
“He could play any instrument he picked up. He was amazing. He knew that I would be attracted to the bass. It’s low sound and how it modifies the song and all. So-“
DING DONG
If you listened carefully, you could hear banging and yelled. It sounded like people that I had forgotten about.
“Uhm, it sounds like people are trying to get in. I think you should really go and get that.” Maxx said, sounding frustrated.
“No.”
DING DONG! A faint voice screamed, “CELESTE, OPEN YOUR FUCKING DOOR!”
“Serena, I know you want to keep talking with me, but you should really get that. I will if you won’t.”
I looked down at my swaying feet. “But…I don’t want to.”
He looked, stared, no; his face was turned towards me in awe, like I was crazy, which I probably was.
“I- I want to be with you,” I cried.
Maxx’s POV
Hearing her cry, but seeing nothing was the ultimate pain. Death was not painful, but hearing the one you love cry and not being able to see them is the one thing that was pure torture. I wanted to be able to see her eyes, and see her smile, but the crying was unbearable. It was like listening to a gun shot, but not being able to see the person who it hit. Complete agony. I was hoping we would find a way for me to see again, but there was no way. And then I had an epiphany.
I was being a complete selfish asshole all of these years. I only wanted her for myself from day one. Have her be forever mine. But, this was never going to happen. My death was in vain and it was foolish. I felt total regret for everything I had done, for everything I had put her through. I was an absolute asshole. And for that, I really did deserve how I died. This agony I felt was only punishment for locking her up. Even now, all I was doing was encouraging her to be locked away from her friends. And her love. I was damaging her soul. She had oh so pure intentions, but was blind to see what she was doing to herself and the others.
I would no longer stand for my selfishness. I realized now that I had to let her go. Let her be free from me, the chains that bound her. The darkness of reality were the ropes that bound me to my obsession with this woman, and her mental blindness was the cage that kept her by my windowsill. This was going to go on no more.
Celeste’s POV
Looking at Maxx through the tears, I saw him sigh. I wiped my face.
“Maxx, what’s wrong?”
Looking at him, I could see he grew paler and the room seemed to take hold of his being, his soul. “What are you doing?”
He seemed to look at me. “Serena, I love you, and you know that. But, I have finally realized my fault. I have trapped you here with my mind and it’s time for me to let you go. You must leave.”
In the background, the pounding on the door grew louder and so did the constant screaming and bell ringing.
“No!” I screamed blindly. Was he right? “Don’t go! Please, please, don’t go,” I whispered. “Please Maxx, I need you. I don’t want to be alone.” I felt like I was praying to him. I felt even more tears escape my eyes.
“I know now why I had been left here on this world. I was unsettled about all of this. And now, I have finally realized what I needed to. This,” he stretched his arms around him, pointing to everything, meaning the darkness, “is my entire fault. Don’t you see?”
Listening in carefully, I knew the power was out, the radio was on. I heard a voice. It told me to stay. No, that’s my inner voice. The voice that was ruining me. I was not letting Maxx leave. He must see me. One. Last. Time.
“Maxx, you can’t go. You still can’t see.”
He sighed.
“You must see again.”
Davey’s POV
I was screaming her name at the top of my lungs, pounding on the door and crying. It had been two weeks since anyone had gotten in contact with her and we were all worried. All of the doors to her house were locked. All of the windows blacked out and locked. And we weren’t going to break one, but we had been outside for an hour, screaming and having out fists bleed to no avail. Something was going to have to get broken.
Slamming my entire body at the door, my entire body ached with all sorts of pain. Mental, but mostly physical pain. Occasionally we’d get someone else to slam against the door, but I had been at it the longest. What surprised me most was that not a neighbour had cared.
With the slam against the door, I felt completely drained with all hope leaving from my body in that moment. I felt spent, like all my effort had led to nothing. I fell to the concrete with a whimper and a scream like I was in complete agony. I couldn’t reach her any way. “NO!” I slammed my fist in rage against the door. All of that struggling for noth-
I heard a reeeer from rusty hinges and looked up to see the door slightly ajar. I had done it. The final blow had gotten me through. The group cheered behind me. I was stunned. I had to get to her.
Cleaning up my face on my sleeve, I ran into the dark abyss. (Silver and Cold is playing, so play this.) Almost total darkness covered me as I went into the house. The only light was the sunlight creeping its way through the crack in the front door. I was alone. The group only came in a few minutes later, and I could hear their debate on whether or not to.
Stumbling my way through the threatening darkness, I found the staircase. I could hear her, Celeste, I could hear her talking. And I would hear her pause as if someone was talking to her. I worried even more. What if she had completely fallen off her rocker?
I hurried up the stairs, and this darkness was like falling into deep space. I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face for shit. How was she able to live in such conditions? I was baffled.
I felt my way and tried each door. All opened, and none were the right one. I continued down the hallway until I heard the talking become closer to me. I felt around frantically for a door. I felt a hinge. Slide the hand, grab the knob. I hesitated. Why? Heart beating, heart in throat choking all air supply. Sweating. This was it. Turn the knob. Open the door. I felt completely blind. My eyes had adjusted after I blinked them a few times. I opened the door to her room and with the small amount of light that had leached in; I saw a glint of something metal in the pale hands of the woman I loved.
I heard the crack of her voice say, “Would you like my eyes?”
My heart stopped.
