Blanket of Fear

“Are you sure this is a good idea, man? What if she already figured it out?” Jimmy stated a few hours later. They were sitting in a small woodshed outside of the house that no one came to, and they were discussing what had happened earlier on the day between Eliza and Val. Zack was holding her on her lap, and he wasn’t letting her out of his sight.

“It’s the only option we have right now. Do you realize how close she came to dying today?” Zack hissed, tightening his arms around Eliza’s waist before he pressed his lips against her forehead. She hadn’t spoken a word since the run in with Val, and it frightened him. She just wanted things to go back to the way they had been.

“Matt already knows that something’s up,” Benji spoke. “He came up to me and Joel earlier and asked us what happened and why Eliza attacked Val. I’m guessing she faked some evidence in case Eliza said something to him about it.”

“Should we let Matt know what’s going on?” Johnny asked, tilting his head upward so that he could look at them. Zack’s head shot up, and he shook it fervently. The last thing he wanted to do right now was let his friend know what was going on with Val.

“No,” he said. “He’ll take it just as bad as Brian did when Michelle betrayed us. I’m hoping that eventually, we can have this just…clear itself over. Matt doesn’t need to know anything right now.”

Johnny nodded, although he definitely didn’t agree with it. He wanted to make sure that everyone stayed friends, but he also wanted to ensure their safety. If Val was a threat to them, Matt deserved to know, regardless of how long they had been together

“What about Eliza?” Jimmy asked as he looked up. “What does Eliza want to do? I think she should have a say in this.”

Zack blinked, and then looked down at Eliza. He definitely agreed with Jimmy that she should have a say in where she went and how this was dealt with, but on the same hand, he wanted to make sure that she stayed as safe as she possibly could.

“What do you want to do, baby?” He asked her as he pressed his lips against her forehead, turning her a little so that she was able to look up at him. She didn’t say anything at first, just letting her head rest on Zack’s shoulder. She didn’t want to admit that what had happened today had her scared to death. Before now, everything had been simple speculation. Now, it was real.

Val had tried to come after her, and if she’d succeeded, she would be dead, or even worse, in Castro’s clutches. She knew that the blonde woman no longer contained the heart that she used to. Somewhere along the way, Val had changed from a good friend to her worst enemy—hers and all of Avenged Sevenfold, as well. And Eliza knew that Matt would be in danger if he wasn’t told about what had been happening with Val. He might be heartbroken, like Brian had been, and he might become bitter, but he’d be safe. And to Eliza, making sure her new family was safe was what was important.

She sighed and pushed her hand back through her hair before she looked up at Zacky, putting a small frown on her face. No decision in this situation would be a good one. Either way, she was risking someone getting hurt, but she had to make sure that she tried; and to do that, she needed to stay here. Separating them wouldn’t be good.

“Eliza?” Joel spoke up softly, causing her to look over at him with a small frown. She sighed, and then nodded as she opened her mouth to speak.

“I think that I should stay here, or go to Canada or wherever it is that everyone else is going,” she muttered under her breath. “Right now, separating us all isn’t going to keep anyone safe. If anyone overpowered Jimmy and Matthew, I’d be fucked either way, and they’d be helping no one. At least if I’m around everyone, it’s safer.”

Everyone seemed to think about her words for a few minutes before Zack shook his head. “If you’re in Canada, you’ll be with Val,” he whispered into her ear. “What if she came in while you were sleeping or something? There will be times that I won’t physically be there with you to keep you safe.”

“But everyone else will be,” Benji said clearly, looking up with a grim frown on his face. “I’m not saying that it’s the best option, but it’s most certainly the safest. In an ideal world, she could go to Germany with Matthew and Jimmy, and she’d be fine. But she’s right; we never know where Castro has his guys. What if he has sleeper agents over there, and they get wind of her?”

Zack growled, obviously not happy with what his friend had just told him, but he couldn’t deny that they had a point. He cleared his throat and stood up, putting Eliza down on the bench before he started pacing. It was something he always did when he was upset, and right now, h e was more than upset.

“Zack, think about it,” Jimmy said softly. “She’s got a point. And as for Val…I don’t think she’s going to strike if Matt is there. She seems to be trying to keep him from finding out; like she’s protecting him or something.”

Zack thought about it for a minute before he looked back down at Eliza. Everything in him was screaming that this wasn’t how things should be. He didn’t want to lose Eliza to Sean, and he sure as hell didn’t want to give Val an opportunity to kill her. He loved her so much, and even the thought of something happening to Eliza frightened him.

“Are you sure this is what you want?” He murmured as he tilted her face up so that she was looking at him. “Are you sure that you want to stay here, rather than going with Matthew and Jimmy?”

She nodded, and then put a smile on her lips before she touched the sides of his face, momentarily forgetting the fact that there were other people in the room with them. “I’m sure,” she whispered as she leaned her head onto his shoulder.

Zack groaned, fearing those words almost more than anything else she could have said. He nodded, though, knowing that he wouldn’t have the heart to force her to go somewhere when she didn’t want to go. He wanted her to be safe, but he also wanted her to be happy. If she wouldn’t be happy in Germany, he didn’t want her there, no matter how safe he thought she’d be.

There was also the fact that he knew he could trust his brothers and Benji, Joel, Jacoby, and the others to keep her safe while he wasn’t there. He knew that none of them would let anything happen to her if they could help it. Val might be a danger, but he knew that with that many people there, they should be fine. Though, he knew that some precautions needed to be taken.

He needed to make sure that she had no possible way of contacting him, whether it be through internet, phones, or other types of communication. He would need to visit an herbalist to make sure that he got the proper herbs to stop Castro from seeing in to her mind to find out where they were.

“We make sure that she’s absolutely safe,” he said in a stern voice. “We keep Val as far away from her as we possibly can, and we make sure that one of us is with Eliza at all times. Alright?” Zack said with a frown. He wanted to make sure that nothing happened to go wrong. If he lost Eliza, his heart would break, and he didn’t know if he could go through that again. He knew it was risky, taking Eliza to a place where Val would have complete and total access to, but it was what she wanted, and it was what would make her happy. And that was really what was important to Zack.