Runaway

[Riley Mauven]

Dark, the twenty year old tumbled along the street, she had nothing left to fear now that all her worst nightmares had fallen out before her. Just a year ago she had been a pregnant teen, yet full of hope for her future with her boyfriend and their child, but now the emptiness ate away at her, fuelling the dark thoughts that danced in her mind. They could call it any name they wanted, but it wouldn't make the pain any easier, the burden any lighter, the days any brighter. It didn't matter how her daughter had died, or why, or who's fault it was, for months now all that had mattered was that she was gone and she was never coming back. The young woman took one step at a time, one foot in front of the other, blinking her hazel eyes in search of the path ahead which she had desperately been trying to follow, in search of some kind of light. Her sneakers padded against the pavement, heart beating, blood flowing as she tried to pick up her pace, as if a shadow was chasing her, coaxing her along the street and out of the darkness. Riley was not herself, and it showed in her hollowed figure, once dense with muscles from hours of training her body had suffered many months now and looked emaciated, bones visible even through the shirt she had pulled over herself to keep from catching a chill which seemed so imminent. Her blonde hair seemed to have dulled with the strains of life upon it, echoing the dullness she felt inside, the void. Nothing to live for, run, run. Closing her eyes and swallowing deeply Riley began to jog. Run, run. Opening her eyes again she looked over her shoulder, she could have sworn she saw a figure behind her, it could have just been a shadow, but hadn't she heard something? A noise from the darkness. She had to escape that apartment filling with depression like a deadly but silent gas, growing in every pot plant, flowing through every tap. Walled up in that apartment she had breathed that toxic air everyday for many months, not allowing anyone to enter that hallowed place, not seeking therapy or medical counsel she had deteriorated. But now out in the night Riley hadn't thought of the fact that she was alone and it was late and her boyfriend hadn't arrived home yet, all she thought of was the voice in her mind telling her to run. Runaway from everything she knew, runaway from those she had known, from her life. She had lost her mind, and in turn lost control of her body, the starved and deranged frame that now ran through the dark streets of Paris in search of something it could not define.

But as fast as Riley ran everything in her mind was too quick, it was catching up on her. Will was leaving, hadn't he already left? She couldn't remember the last time they had spent the night in the same bed, or the last time they had sat down to eat together, or had even shared a smile. The grief had eaten away at their relationship, but she wasn't strong without him, he couldn't leave her. Feet steady. One step at a time. Pounding the pavement. "Stay!" Riley called out into the darkness as though her boyfriend were standing before her. He was her boyfriend and he loved her, and he had to stay with her. She told herself this over and over, counted the reasons he could still love her and want to be with her, though now there were very few. She had not even been able to hold onto her family, pushing them further and further away until all they could do was worry from afar. "STAY!" she called again, feeling the cold sweat bead upon her forehead. She couldn't remember having breakfast, or the last time she had slept more than an hour, as she ran she seemed to zigzag, losing her balance as she ran through a back alley and dodged trash cans and pebbles. Reaching a corner the young woman found she could run no longer, her thoughts, her grief, her past caught her and held her in their grip as they pulled her to the ground. She fell in submission and let her head fall back against the concrete wall, pulling up the dark hood on her boyfriend's sweater, her eyes darting back and forth, she could have sworn the shadows were closing in on her as tears welled at her eyes. She couldn't run, she couldn't hide. Months holed up in her boyfriend's Paris apartment had only provided an incubator to her grief and now that she was out in the open air it all seemed too much to take, too real, almost palpable. Riley drew her knees in towards her and let the tears fall freely against her pale and cold cheeks which grew dark as a figure seemed to approach her, stand over her. Looking up she gulped, "Will? I want to go home!" Riley wanted not to go to the home she knew now, but back to the small apartment she had shared with her mother and twin sister. She wanted her life to rewind and for it to never have unravelled in the first place. She begged as her fingers reached out to grab at the figure in desperation, not knowing it wasn't her boyfriend come out in search of her, but was in fact a stranger who had chanced upon her frail and deranged state of mind.

 

[Justin Cliffeton]

Justin didn't know where he was anymore. Ever since he'd left Hogwarts, he'd been going from place to place with no real purpose. His life just wasn't the same ever since he and Dannii had finally kissed at Graduation, and she had run away again. He didn't know how she could keep on ignoring her own feelings, and he didn't understand why she ignored them. Justin knew that he loved her, and this whole situation had been caused because he hadn't been able to keep his mouth shut and he had just gone ahead and said it before she had ready to hear it, and every single day he beat himself up because of how stupid that one move had been. He regretted it, he regretted saying it when he had, but he didn't regret telling her that he loved her. Too many relationships had been ruined because neither party could just admit how they felt about the other party, and that left an empty feeling in the relationship. How was something special if nobody truly understood where they stood with the other person? How could you ever open up to someone or be able to tell secrets if you didn't know how the other person would react, or how they felt in the long run, or if they'd even be able to understand what the two of them were doing by going on with each other.

Justin wouldn't be able to do that. He'd feel like he was betraying Dannii, and that was something that he would never be able to do. She was the one for him, and he could just feel it. He could feel it in his heart every single day. She was the first thing on his mind as he woke up, and the last thing on his mind as he went to bed each night. She would always be the one in his heart, and he would swear that in front of anyone who asked. It wasn't a secret, and it never would be. Not the way he felt. Justin walked along a dark street in Paris, and he heard someone that sounded a lot like they were in trouble. He was always there for someone who looked like they just needed someone to listen, because nobody deserved to feel like that were alone in the world. Justin knew all too well that it was the worst feeling in the world, and he wouldn't let it happen to this person. He approached them, and noticed she was alone. Had she been talking to herself? Was she crazy? It didn't really matter to him, he reached it and grabbed her, seeing the look of surprise on her face when she did, but originally it had been a look of longing. Had she been hallucinating? Justin had a lot of questions. The least of which was; "Are you okay?" Justin asked, quickly putting his arm around her in case she fell over. Sometimes Justin wondered to himself if he was too nice too complete strangers.

 

[Riley Mauven]

As the figure began to approach Riley she pushed her spine back against the concrete wall, willing herself to disappear right into it, for it to open up and swallow her whole. But it seemed no matter how close she could hold her legs to her or how small of a space she could compact into, the figure only drew closer, she was not able to escape it and had at least enough sense not to apparate in case he was a muggle, besides she was unsure if she would be able to stomach it at that point. Riley's mind spun, thoughts of Will, when she had called him had he really come to her rescue? But the man that leant down and pulled her up seemed to have darkened hair, not the lemon coloured hair of her boyfriend. "Will?" she asked, another tear spilling from her eye as she tried to make out the man's facial features "Is that you?", what reason would anyone besides Will have to come to her rescue? "I'm so sorry" Riley uttered, not entirely sure she could pinpoint what she was so sorry for. For being so miserable, for not wanting to talk to Will, for not paying attention to anything but herself and shutting him out. Or was she apologising to the man who had the misfortune of stumbling upon her, apologising for being such a mess. As their faces drew closer, Riley blinked and grew even sadder, she was in fact being rescued by a stranger, not the boyfriend she so longed to be held by. The stranger looked familiar, however, perhaps she had known him when she had attended Hogwarts, though she couldn't seem to place his face in her mind, especially not whilst it was so dark out. It was clear she wasn't thinking straight as she was letting herself be saved by a man she had only just met, in a dark street way on her own. But she had very limited choices at that point, and this of all things seemed like the safest option for her. With the man's support Riley pulled her slender frame into an upright position, stumbling just a little she was glad she had had the sense to wear sneakers which held her feet with such support. The dark figure asked her if she was okay, and a flood of pain seemed to surge through her head, she did not know that it was simply a headache from getting up so suddenly, but those words seemed to cut through her like a knife. They were the very same ones she had been asked day after day by doctors, friends and family before she had completely shut herself in the apartment, refusing all visitors and even the attention of her boyfriend.

But she tried to shake it off, for the mysterious man's sake. Leaning her arm around him, she tried to shake it free, "I'm fine, I'll be fine" she assured him, trying to stumble ahead, but falling to her hands on the cold concrete without him supporting her weight. It was evident that she would not be fine, she was clearly starved of both light and nourishment, she hadn't realised that nobody in the apartment had been to the supermarket in quite some time, and even the pieces of mouldy bread she had consumed had probably done more bad than they had good. Despite her current condition, the last thing she wanted was to be taken to Saint Mungo's or any place of the sort. For still the memories of the birth of her stillborn daughter plagued her mind, any image of a hospital in her mind sent her into a fit of hysteria and terror. But right now with this man's arm around her she felt safe, for the first time she could remember. She relished feeling another person's warmth around her, holding her like she had longed for Will to, but clearly there was no chance of that now that she had driven him so far away. "What's your name?" she enquired between the breaths that she sucked in so sharply through her nose, shivering a little as she realised just how cold it was out late at night. The man holding her up could never appreciate just how significant it was that Riley was allowing him to touch her, or just how hard it was for her now to even speak to him, let alone trust her life in his hands as she felt she was about to do.