They Can't Protect Me From Loving You

“Have a good vacation Billie.” Eloise said hugging him.

“I will, but call me if there are any problems with the store.” He replied pulling away from the hug.

“Billie, there won’t be any problems. Everything will be fine, just relax and enjoy yourself.” She ordered with a smile.

“Ok, I’ll see you in two weeks.” He replied getting into his car.

“Bye Billie, have fun.” Eloise called getting into Brian’s BMW.

They waved at each other before Eloise drove home, longing for a hot bath and her bed. She was met at the front door by Pinkly yapping wildly at her.

“Hey, what’s the matter? She asked as he continued to yap as he sniffed her. She walked with him in her arms through to the kitchen and threw her keys onto the counter. Pinkly gave out another yap before licking her nose and jumping out of her arms and back into the living room.

“Strange.” Eloise muttered to herself as she opened the fridge and took out a bottle of Dr. Pepper. She leaned back against the counter and opened the bottle, staring blankly at the lettered fridge magnets as she took a sip of her drink.

Suddenly, she took a step away from the counter, still staring at the magnets, but frowning. Something had caught her eye. The patterns of the letters were different somehow. She tried to think back to what word she’d spelt out amongst the mess of letters. It was something she’d done as a kid. Actually the whole group used to do it, but it had started with Brian and Katie. Whenever they were around each others houses they would mix up the magnetic letters and would spell out a random word for them to find. Eloise had laughed so hard when Brian had shown her the pot of letters he’d bought when she’d moved in with him and it hadn’t taken her long to realise that he’d spelt out “Welcome Home” within the mass of coloured letters.

“Second Heartbeat?” she questioned herself thinking back to the last song title she’d spelt out two mornings ago. She stared at the letters, her eyes widening when she read the letters “The Wicked End.” She knew for a fact that she hadn’t spelt out that song title. In her mind that meant only one thing. Someone had been in her house. Someone who knew that the letters on the refrigerator weren’t just in a random order.

Eloise felt the colour drain from her cheeks as she grabbed hold of the side of the counter, afraid that her legs were about to give out. Her heart raced a million times a minute and she struggled to breath. Panic set in quickly. She dropped the bottle on the floor, allowing it to spill over the floor. She grabbed her cell out of her purse and quickly dialled Leana’s number.

“Hello” she answered.

“Someone’s been here.” Eloise stuttered as tears threatened to fall.

“What? Eloise? Someone’s been where?” Leana replied.

“Someone’s been in the house.” Eloise repeated.

“Are you sure?” Leana questioned.

“Yes I’m sure!” Eloise yelled. “She’s been here; it’s got to be her. She’s probably still got a key from when she lived here.”

“Michelle?”

“Who else? It’s got to be her. Lea I’m scared.” Eloise sobbed as tears ran down her cheeks.

“Honey, calm down, she won’t hurt you, I’m on my way over.” Leana assured her.

“Ok.” she whispered as she hung up and slid down the counter and sat on the floor.

That’s where she was when Leana arrived five minutes later.

“Honey, Eloise, come on, get up.” Leana’s voice broke her out of her trance. She helped her to her feet and led her through to sit her of the couch.

“Tell me what’s happened.” She said quietly sitting next to her and placing a comforting arm around her shoulder.

Eloise took a deep breath before answering.

“Remember that game we used to play with the fridge magnets?” she began, looking up to see Leana nod.

“Well I’ve been spelling out Avenged songs for the past couple of weeks and the other day I spelt out Second Heartbeat and I hadn’t got round to changing it but when I got home I noticed it had been changed to The Wicked End.” She explained quietly as tears streamed down her cheeks.

“And you think it was Michelle?” Leana asked.

“Who else would it be? She’s trying to fuck with me. She’s playing games.”

“Ok, so do you want to call the police?” Leana asked. Eloise looked up at her and nodded.

“In that case I’ll go call them.” Leana said getting up off the sofa.

Eloise gave her statement to the police and was informed that they would have to question Michelle about the matter.

Before she left, Leana ran Eloise a hot bath and assured her that she would be safe, that all she needed was a good night’s sleep. Eloise thanked her and went around every door and window making sure they were locked and secure before sinking into the hot scented bubble bath, feeling instantly relaxed, a million times better.

She curled up under the duvet, and allowed Pinkly to curl up with her. She was exhausted and quickly fell asleep.

Katie walked happily down the back streets of Huntington Beach between school and Brian’s house. She’d taken this route to his house a million times, it was the quickest way and she had been looking forward to seeing him all day. The school day always seemed to move slower when she didn’t have Brian to help her through. Yet again Brian had been suspended for a week for fighting and this also meant that Katie would only be able to spend two hours after school with him and she wanted to make the most of it.

She turned at the end of one of the alley ways, stopping abruptly at the sound of raised angry voices. She recognised one of the men immediately. It was Dominic Owens, the son of one of the most notorious drug dealers in Huntington. Whatever was going on here it was serious and would undoubtedly end badly if he was involved. Luckily for her, Dominic and the two other guys he was with were stood with their back to her, blocking her view of whoever they were arguing with. Katie glanced around the long alley way and quickly crouched down behind a large dumpster, knowing that it would only cause trouble if they noticed that she had joined them. She sat quietly listening to them argue, seemingly about drugs and money.

“Dominic, please, I’ll get you the money back, I just need a few more days” she heard the guy plead.

“You’ve had your chances Paul.” Dominic said harshly. There was a whimpering sound before the unmistakable sound of a gun being fired. Katie clasped her hand over her mouth and peered nervously around the side of the dumpster. A young man was laying motionless on the floor, surrounded by an ever growing pool of his own blood as Dominic placed the gun back into the holster within his jacket. Katie jumped back against the wall of the alley way and closed her eyes, unable to believe what she’d just witnessed.

When she opened her eyes again she was sat in the police station, where she’d been sat going over what she’d seen. The police officer was explaining to the entire family about Witness Protection and what would be involved.

The scene quickly changed to Brian’s bedroom where Katie and Brian were led on his bed as she explained that she would be leaving him soon.

“Maybe I should change my mind, don’t testify.” Katie said.

“Baby, I could be really selfish and tell you not to testify so that we could stay together, but you can’t back out now. Think about that little kid who has to grow up without her father because of the Owens. You’ve got to do this for her, and anyone else who’s lives they’ve ruined.” Brian replied gazing lovingly into her eyes and ran his fingers gently through her hair. She smiled weakly back at him before pressing her lips against his in a passionate kiss.

Again the scene changed, this time to Eloise's flat in Sacramento. Boxes were scattered around the flat as Eloise lay motionless on the floor, the two guys sent by the Owens beating the life out of her. As she lay there unconscious she became aware of a noise that she didn’t come from the room. It was the sound of Michelle laughing. The sadistic laugh filled Eloise's mind as the scene darkened and shadowy figures appeared, closing in on her.

Suddenly she felt arms grab around her waist and she screamed, waking herself from the nightmare.

Panic struck her as she could still feel the arms around her waist. She screamed again pulling herself out of the grasp. She stumbled as she lunged out of the bed and tried to get out of the room and away from the guy who she could vaguely hear calling her name.

Her hand reached out to grab the door handle but stopped as she hit something else just as the bedroom light flickered on. Eloise blinked at the sudden influx of light, bursting into tears of defeat as she felt hands on her again.

“Shh, baby, it’s me.” her eyes snapped open at the sound of Brian’s voice as his arms secured her against his chest.

“Brian?” she whispered.

“Yeah baby, sorry I scared you, I wanted to surprise you; a couple of our shows got cancelled so we flew back for a day. Were you having a nightmare?” he asked quietly and she nodded into his chest.

“Come on, let’s get back to bed.” he said guiding them back over toward the bed.

Brian pulled her close to him, wrapping his arms firmly around her body that was still shaking slightly.

“Do you want to talk about it?” he whispered as they lay in darkness.

“It started of with just flashes of the past, it was all so clear, as if I was really there, every little detail was just the same. Then I could here Michelle laughing and dark shadowy figures came at me. That’s when someone grabbed me and I screamed.” She said quietly.

“Sorry baby, that was my fault. I should have let you know that I was coming back but I wanted to surprise you.”

“Its ok, I’ve just had a bit of a stressful evening.” Eloise said.

“In what way stressful?” Brian questioned. Eloise inhaled deeply ready to explain to Brian about the nights events.

“I’m going to fucking kill her!” Brian yelled once Eloise had finished. “I’ll get the locks changed in the morning.”

“Bri, calm down, the police are handling it.” Eloise said calmly, running her hand along his jaw line as she looked through the darkness of the room into his eyes.

“Ok, but I’m still getting the locks changed first thing.” He said, pressing his lips against hers.

“Let’s get some sleep, it’s late.” He whispered before pressing his lips onto her forehead and pulling her closer to him again.

“Good night baby.”

“Good night.” Eloise whispered, already feeling her eyes closing.