Chapter 13

As we finished our dessert I couldn't help but look around for anything out of the ordinary. It's nothing calm down! But then I saw it. Sitting in a far corner was Nick and 3 men that I didn't recognize. All dressed in black. "What is it." "We gotta go, Bruno now!" We payed our check and walked out. Before the door closed behind us I looked at the corner where Nick and the 3 men were and they were looking right at me, as soon as they saw me they stood up and started walking out. "Bruno run!" "What? Why?" "It's Nick there coming run!" We start running and then we hear them start shouting at us. "Bruno hurry!" We run as fast as our legs can carry us but they seemed to be getting closer. We went to round a corner and there were 2 other men blocking the way. Nick starts shouting. "Kill them! Kill them!" Some how I miraculously manage to dodge them, Bruno wasn't as lucky. Nick and everyone else was about 5inches taller than Bruno. They all surround him and he vanishes. "Bruno!" I frantically look around trying to find some sort of weapon. The only thing I can find is a fallen tree branch. It's about 4 feet long and 3 inches wide. I just run up to them and start swinging. I hit the first 2 in the back of the head, they crumbled to the ground. 2 men have Bruno and there dragging him. Oh god! He's knocked out! I swing at their faces and hear a satisfying crunch. They drop Bruno and get into a fighting stance. "Aww how cute." I swing and hit one in the stomach and then another one in the balls. The one I hit in the stomach comes after me swinging. I duck and jam the stick into his stomach. He drops and I look around. Where's Nick and the other one? I do a 360 but don't see them an I don't have time to bother with them. I run over to Bruno and start shaking him trying to wake him up. "Wake up Bruno!" His arms are cut but nothing bad. It looks like he's going to have a black eye, his nose is bloody and his lip is busted. "Bruno please!" He starts to stir. "Cmon Bruno you can do it just open your eyes!" His eyes slowly flutter open. "Good now c'mon stand up! Cmon please!" He manages to get to his feet but he's to weak to support himself he leans on me. As were walking away I hear clapping. I look behind me and it's Nick and the other guy. Bruno manages to stand up and he's so mad. "Nick what's your problem? Who are these people?" He laughs and the man stading beside him lifts his mask. Oh. My. God. "Lacy?!" Me and Bruno both say at the same time. "How do you Know Lacy?" I ask Bruno. He hangs his head. "She was one of the girls I daterd while you were gone." I look at my ex best friend. It looks like she's been crying, but at the same time she looks so tough. It's not the same Lacy that I knew in high school. Not the same giggly, loving girl that I knew. This was a backstabbing monster that had been put under Nick's spell. "Hello Emily. Bruno." "Lacy what's happened to you?" "I relized that the other side is the best side, and besides I love Nick." I shake my head. "Lacy listen to me you don't love that monster. He's controling you. Leave him. Come with me. You always hated him for hurting me in high school. This isn't you Lacy." She looks at Nick then back at me with tears in her eyes. "I'm not the same person, Emily. I've changed." "No you haven't Lacy! Nick is controlling you! How'd you get that big bruise on your neck? Huh? Nick did it. Me and you both know he did it. You tried to leave so he slapped you. He threatened you. Your scared, admit it, he's just going to keep hurting you, and we BOTH know it." She shakes her head and mouths I can't. "Yes you can." I hold out my hand. She takes a deep breath and starts walking towards me. Nick pulls her back and slaps her. Bruno lunges foward but I hold him back. "Don't you dare hurt her! No woman deserves to be treated like that!" "Bruno stop it, there's nothing you can do." I whisper. Nick is just smiling like an idiot. "Nick...." I just shake my head. "I'm so glad I left you. I'm so glad I was smarter than you. I regret nothing I did to you. I. Hate. You." He laughs. "I know my love, but, dont worry, your gonna pay. For everything you useless slut." Bruno catches me off gaurd and lunges at Nick. He crumples to the ground and blood starts to drip from his mouth. "Lacy, please come with us now!" She shakes her head. "I can't he'll kill you and Bruno and me. I can't." "Then run. Now! Go! Runaway from him! Now while you still have a chance! Please Lacy." "I can't I would never make it. I have no money, no job, no nothing. I can't." I sigh. and I drag Bruno back to the hotel room. I lay him on the bed and I run into the bathroom and grab the first aide kit and start working on him. I clean his lip and cuts, I wipe away the blood from his nose and I get him ice for his eye. I sit down beside him and just looking at what happened to him is heart wrenching. I start crying and know that I caused this. This is my fault. Because of me he's hurt, he's been shot, and he's been kept prisoner for 6 months. Then I see my fate. At some point in a physics life they see their fate. It's burned into their mind and they never forget it. I make up my mind right then and there what I must do to protect Bruno. "Let's get ready for bed Bruno." He gets up and just wears his boxers. I leave my clothes on. We get into bed and I look at him and feel a single tear fall down my cheek. "I love you Bruno." He wipes away the tear. "Love you too babe." He kisses me and I lay and wait until his cheats slowly rises and falls and I'm sure he's asleep. Then I know it's time.

*************************************************************************************

God it's freezing in here! I reach over to grab Shyloe but get nothing. I stretch my arm out as far as it will go but get nothing. I sit up and look around. The lamp by the desk is on and sitting under the light is a piece of paper. I get up and and read it.

'Bruno, I love you. So much. But looking at you now it kills me to know that I've caused you this pain. Being with me seems to have put your life in danger. Not once but several times. You have an amazing life, and I don't want to ruin that for you. I know this is what must be done, I know Nick won't stop until were dead. He's going to try to kill us. Today was his first attempt. He failed, and he doesn't take failure well. Bruno I love you. That's why I'm doing this. The impact you have put on my life will always be with me. If you love me you'll understand and won't come looking for me. I put my rings in the bathroom. Keep them. Someone else will come along who deserves them. Who there meant for. It just seems as if the world doesn't want me to wear them. If that's it so be it. I love you Bruno, I'm not trying to do this to hurt you. I'm doing this because I love you. -Your always loving wife, Shyloe Hernandez.'

I reread the letter over and over until I have it memorized. I put it back down and sit on the bed. My hearts beating a thousand miles an hour. This doesn't even seem real. She's gone. What do I do? Istand up and put my clothes back on. I grab the car keys and a room key and run out of the room.How long ago did she walk out? Why did she walk out? What was she thinking?! I get into the rental car and sit there. Where could she be? I start up the car and head to the only place I can figure she would be. The beach.

**************************************************************************************

I run until my legs can't carry me anymore. I flop down onto the sandy beach and cry. I quickly get up and run over to some rocks and hurl. It's probably the 5th time I've hurled my guts up tonight. I ran around probably the whole downtown area. I wipe my hand on the back of my hand and put it back on the rock. It slips and slices my wrist. I let out a yelp of pain but then realize the pain took my mind off everything that's happened. I go to slice my other wrist but stop myself. I'm not going to cut myself. I sat back down on the sand and just hung my head. I had to start a new life. New everything. But did I really want to do that? I stood up and walked to the water and let it wash over my feet. I bent down and got a handful over it to wash my mouth out. When I went to put it in my mouth some water dripped into my cut and it stung like crazy. "Shyloe!" I turned around and saw Bruno running towards me. "What are you doing here?!" "I came to find you." "Why Bruno? Why couldn't you have just let me go?" "Because I love you. I care about you." "You've almost died because of me!" "Does it look like I cared? I'm glad it was me and not you!" "I should be dead! I should be with my parents. 6 feet underground!" "No you shouldn't! How can you be so blind? Can't you see how much I care about you?" "Why do you care so much about me? Because of my past I've almost ended your life! Look at you because of me you have a black eye, busted lip, cuts everywhere a bruised neck, a bloody nose and you've been help prisoner for 6 months. I think it's best if you just face the facts and let me go. Turn around walk back to the car and leave me here." "No. I won't let you go." "UGH!" "Listen to me Shyloe. I'm going to protect you from Nick. I'll do what ever I can to make sure he never hurts you again." "How can you care so much about me?" "Because your all I have!" I stop crying and look at him confused. "When you were gone those 3 years I would sit alone in my room and look at the moon knowing good and well you could see it too. I would talk to the moon. Everyone thought I was crazy. But they didn't understand. They didn't know the pain I was feeling inside. That's why I wrote that song. Because I wanted to put all the pain that I was feeling into it so people could understand. So that when you heard it you would understand. Your my world. You make waking up everyday worth it. Without you I don't know where I would be." I shake my head "I'm sorry Bruno. I've seen my fate, I know what's going to happen, I know who's going to be with me when it happens." "Ok, ok then let me protect you from it." I run back over to the rocks and hurl again. Bruno holds my hair back for me and rubs my back. "Look let's go back to the hotel please shy, your sick c'mon." I stand up and brush my hair back from my face. "What happened to your wrist?" "Oh I, it slipped on a rock and i cut it, it's nothing bad." I watch as the blood continues to drip out of it. "Let's go back to the hotel please?" I shake my head no. "I don't wanna." "Shy, Please, c'mon." I shake my head again. "Shyloe, come on." I shake my head. "Shyloe Hernandez!" I don't move. "God you can be stubborn!" Bruno throws me over his shoulder and carries me to the car. "I don't wanna go back!" I wail. "I don't care, your coming back!" He puts me in the passenger seat and he slides into the drivers seat. We drive back to the hotel in a thick silence. We park and I start crying again. Bruno walks around and helps me out of the car. He closes the door and I steady myself on the side of the car. Bruno wipes away the tears and his face is filled with worry. His eyes have traces of hurt in them. I shake my head and hug him. "I'm so scared Bruno!" He rubs the back of my head. "I know, I know." We walk up to our hotel room and he sits me on the couch. He gets the first aide kit and wraps up my wrist. "Stay here." He walks out and returns with a sprite. I brush my teeth and gladly take the sprite. I sit back on the couch and sigh. Bruno sits beside me and turns the tv on. I get up and run into the bathroom and hurl into the toilet. I stand up and lean against the sink. "You ok babe?" I shake my head. He comes over and hugs me and I look at us in the mirror. You can tell we've been through a lot. We both are bruised and cut up. Bruno let's me go and turns on the shower. He helps me take off my clothes and kisses me. "Get in." I get in and let the warm water flow down my back. He closes the shower curtain and walks out. I finish up in the shower and put on the soffee shorts and T-shirt Bruno got me. I walk out and Bruno's standing on the balcony. The doors cracked open and it sounds like he's talking. I inch closer until I can clearly make out what he's saying. "Please help us.........I don't want to loose her again........keep her, keep us safe please.......don't let me mess up I don't want to loose her." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his cigarettes and lighter. I open my mouth to say something but decided not to. I want to see what he does. He pulls one out and puts it to his lips. He starts to light it but stops. He pulls it out of his mouth and sighs. He drops it off the side of the balcony. I smile and walk up behind him. "Hey." "Hey babe." "I saw what you did. Thank you." He smiles but doesn't say anything. "What's wrong?" "I think we should leave early so that way Nick can get out of our lives." "He'll never be out of our lives but maybe it will take him awhile to find us." We go to bed that night and pack our things in the morning. We take the first flight home and when we get to my place everyones surprised to see us home early. "Hey man y'all back early! What happened?" Phil asks. "We, ran into Nick my ex who wanted to marry me, and killed my parents. Now he's after us." His face falls and he doesn't really say anything. "Oh, I'm sorry, anyways Bruno, Matt decided to delay the tour, he said that you still need to work in the studio but in March the tours starting back up." The months go by and we didn't see any signs of Nick. We partied at my place and sometimes we went to clubs. We wrote a song called We'll be alright. Its my favorite song. It so fits Bruno's personality, it's so how he would act. Everyday that went by I forgot about Nock and what had happened. Me and Bruno were like inseparable. We were always together and there was never a moment that we weren't laughing, or all over each other. Christmas was really fun. Everyone was at my place and I had an 8ft tree so watching short little Bruno trying to decorate it was hilarious. He would get on his tiptoes and he would stick his tongue out. One time he stretched a little too far and fell into the tree. He was probably stuck in there for an hour because everyone in the room was laughing too hard and taking pictures that we couldn't help him. He put on a Santa hat and it was just too cute. Him and Mariska became really close. She was always dancing and singing with him and he didn't seem to mind a bit. We started touring and it was amazing. We traveled all over. We saw amazing sights and had different kinds of foods. We made it back to the U.S and it was our last tour date for the year. August 15th. The concert was amazing. When we sang Talking to the moon everyone in the crowd pulled out a picture of the moon. It was really amazing. We said goodnight and everyone started chanting. "Kiss! Kiss!" I looked at Bruno and he shrugged his shoulders. I walked over and kissed him as long as I could. Everyone stared screaming. We pulled away and laughed. We spent the night in a hotel that night. In the morning I got up, took a shower and put on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt. I started putting on my shoes when Bruno woke up. "Where you going?" "Oh I was just going to drive down to the store and get something to eat." He looks around and has a worried look on his face. "What's wrong?" "I dunno I just feel weird, don't go." "What? Why?" "I just.....I dunno....I feel weird, like something bad is gonna happen." "Nothin is going to happen I'll be fine." "Are you sure?" "Positive Bruno." He gets up and kisses me. I walk out of the hotel room not knowing that could be the last time Bruno saw me. Alive.