________________________________________________________________________________________

The car slowing and the flood of memories hit me hard, and I can’t move. The pathway leading to the door faded and cracked a lot more than it was back then. The gate creaking when I opened it, it catches half way sticking like it use to, fuck this is weird. I swore I would never fucking want come back here…it was the safest place back then. Until that fucking night when…when I got the shit kicked out me. Looking around the yard, and I can still see the red stain so dark that it’s almost black. My chest tightens, and I remember there fist hitting me. I can feel the dull shooting pain through my body from each one.

I almost jump when she touches me, when she moves her fingers along my back, tangling them with mine. Each step harder then the last, my legs like lead and her hand is what makes me take them. I walk this walk because of her…because she wants to know my past. She wants to know how I got here, how I got to L.A when I grew up in Austin. She wants to know where I learned to survive, who I hung out with…who I was. Shit I’ve been running from this life for so long…I hate it.

The back porch filled with these old green canvas sleeping bags, there seems to be a lot more now. The table in the kitchen is the same, older but the same. I can barely breath, each time I try it gets harder and all I can think of is waking up on that floor next to Chase and Sam.

“Are you okay?” just hearing her voice, everything disappears and I fall deep into her eyes.

“Yeah,” fuck I can barely speak and I sound so fucking…weak.

Her hands brushing against my cheek and I need her touch now more than I have ever needed it. I need her here to keep me from falling back into that darkness that suffocates me, that was slowly killing me. Her eyes golden, giving me that light that guides me to that world where everything is better, where it all makes sense. I am brought back this house, to this room and I see him sitting there looking over a pile of paper.