I Can't Forget What You've Forgotten

I felt Zacky slowly begin to retract from the embrace; I reluctantly began to slowly lift my head up from his chest. He held me away at half an arm's length. He held his grip on my upper arm, and I didn't dare to move or look away as he took a moment to hold my eye contact.

He exhaled lightly and then pulled me back in to his chest softly. "Whatever you do, just stay calm and be positive," he told me and I can feel a sarcastic scoff building up in the bottom of my throat; I could feel the fear building up in my by the second. How can I be positive when I can pretty much predict which direction this would go in? How can I be positive when his heart is racing and his eyes held fear all the same?

"We'll be fine." He tried to convince me, but the soft vibrations being sent through his chest by his vocal chords were enough to calm something deep down inside of me. I inhaled and closed my eyes, wishing for anything to prolong this moment where I was at ease and felt nothing.

"Hey," a voice called out and I felt Zacky sigh, before pulling away. "Is everything okay out here?" Matt walked down the steps that led to the back door and over to where we were. I quickly blinked away any source of tears as I nodded, trying my best to reveal a smile. "Are you sure?" He stood next to me and rubbed my back, shooting Zacky a look.

Zacky looked down at the ground as I answered, "Yeah." I looked over at Matt. He nodded and his hand lightly pushed on my back, leading me inside to where Valerie was.

I shook my cup, hearing the emptiness of the straw hitting against the plastic inside that signaled it was empty. I quickly disposed it into the trash can as we left the cafe, entering the warm air. I sniffled and quickly wiped my dry nose before walking close by his side.

"Thank you so much for doing this," I told Zacky as I felt his arm snake around my shoulders, pulling me closer to him. My arm went up around his waist so that our walking pace and strides were equal and balanced as we waited for the streetlight to change. The car was parked over at the next block.

"No problem about it." He quickly glanced down at my before looking back up as the people around us started to cross the street. "I meant it when I said I'll always be there and I'll do anything for you." He pulled me along gently as we reached the other side of the street, walking a little further down.

I hugged him a little closer to me until we reached the car soon after; Zacky opened the passenger side door for me and I climbed in before he closed the door, walking over to the driver's side. The car beeped repeatedly as he opened his side of the door and got in; it didn't stop beeping until he closed the door and pulled his seatbelt on. I sighed and told myself, Here goes nothing.

The vehicle rolled into motion and pulled away from the curb. I felt somewhat relieved when it seemed like we had to stop at every single red stoplight on the way to my boss' house - which was a good fifteen minutes away.

"What did I tell you yesterday?" He interrupted the silence with a faint smile on his lips. He sounded like a mother scolding her young child; I raised an eyebrow at him. He shook his head. "Don't think negatively or else bad things will happen," he reminded me, and I mouthed an 'oh'.

I looked down at my hands which were folded in my lap, before glancing back up at him. "I'm sorry." I sighed, "But it’s so hard not to."

"I know," he sighed and reached over to take my hand. "But let's not think about it right now. Let's talk about something else since it seems like it's gonna take us a while..." he suggested, trailing off towards the end as he pulled up to a stop in front of yet, another street light. "Stupid timing," he mumbled and I let out a giggle, lacing our fingers together.

"You just have good luck, that's all," I told him, smiling and looking out the window.

"By wasting gas money getting somewhere that I can get to faster by walking," he chuckled. He was about to say something else when he interrupted himself and cursed. "Wow, we're here already," he muttered and threw me a glance before pulling up into the driveway.

Shit, I muttered along with him and laid my head back against the seat’s headrest.

"Everything's gonna be okay," I told myself, unsurprised that my voice was shaking and quivering. I leaned forward and rested my head in the palm of my hands. "Everything's gonna be okay," I repeated to myself. The growing feeling within me was beginning to become unbearable as my leg repeatedly bounced up and down.

"Hey hey, calm down." His hand rubbed up and down my back. "I won't let anything happen to you." His arms snaked around my shoulders and pulled me in close to him- as close as he can with the arm rest and middle compartment in between us. He rested his head against my own and leaned in near my ear. "I love you," he whispered, and gave me a quick peck on my temple before getting out and coming over to my side of the car.

He opened the door and offered a hand to me; i grabbed it and got out, walking up the walkway to the front door. Zacky reached for the doorbell and rung it- only to have the door pull open a minute later.

"Krystal." He faked a smile, and then turned towards Zacky to give him a nod. "Hello." It was obvious that he was waiting for an introduction.

"Uh- this is Zacky --"

"Zachary," Zacky corrected me, keeping his firm gaze on the man before him.

I nodded my head quickly, "Right- Zachary. Zachary, this is Mister Mitchell--"

"Just call me Mitchell; and welcome," he interrupted me and ushered us into his home. Why did I even bother to actually go through with introducing them? They were hostile - well, not really - but secretly hostile towards each other. He stepped aside and allowed us to come in; I stepped in before Zacky, cautiously looking around.

"Why don't we go into the backyard and talk there," Mitchell suggested; his tone signaled that we didn't really have a choice - that there was a purpose for going back there and there were some things that needed to be settled. We didn't say anything; we just followed him through the house and out the back door, Zacky's hand still laced with mine for comfort.

I was fairly surprised at what I saw that made up the backyard; it was beautiful - for a man that was in charge of such things as him (Does he secretly have a wife?). The grass was a lively green colour, and the flowers stood tall and healthy, ranging from many types of small flowers to a few bushes. There was a somewhat big tree standing towards a corner of the big yard/garden.

"Lovely yard," I muttered a compliment to him as I looked around, Zacky leading me over to a specific around of little flowers, filled with green leaves and white, purples, and blues of all shades.

"Thank you." I heard Mitchell say somewhere to our right, a little ways far away; he was observing us. "So Krystal, you've been doing a lovely job lately," he told me, folding his hands in front of him. I glanced over at him and gave a nod. "We've been getting a lot of clients lately - all coming and just begging for your name." His eyes were directed towards Zacky. He was trying to hint something at him - trying to get Zacky to crack.

"Don't you think that's wonderful Zachary?" he turned the spotlight onto Zacky, cocking his head to the side. I could visibly see Zacky's jaw clench as he continued to look down at the flowers below.

"I didn't know that a job at a reception desk would come with such popularity," he stated, his eyes quickly diverting up to me, then back down.

"Oh I know, not for that kind of job, right?" He twisted his mouth in thought. "Krystal, must we go over our agreement and my wishes one last time?" he questioned me and the dark intensity behind his voice sent chills running up my spine. I stayed silent and he continued. "You mustn't tell anyone about our secret, or there will be consequences."

He strode a few steps over towards Zacky, leaning in towards him. I could feel his muscles tighten as he tried to discreetly lean away; his breathing was shallow. "Don't try to fool me Zachary. I know that you know," Mitchell muttered lowly into Zacky's ear.

It all seemed to have happen in an instant, that I wasn't so sure exactly how it had happened.

"Do you think that what you're doing is right?" Zacky angrily shouted at Mitchell, clearly confronting to him of what he knew. I moved and shielded myself behind him a bit as Mitchell took a closer step towards us; Zacky had moved us several feet back.

"I don't know, but is what you're doing right now right?" he replied deviously, getting dangerously close to us as we continued to back up farther and farther away from him.

It seemed almost impossible though as the man quickly grabbed me and pulled my back against his chest, walking us back and far away from Zack. He held me tightly against him with his forearm across my chest; I couldn't get away and I couldn't reach down to take a bite at his forearm.

It all happened in a slow motion act.

He pulled something out from his pocket and I heard the object make a noise - a cock of a gun. He held the firearm to my temple and threateningly tightened his grip on me. "I've warned you," he snarled into my ear. "Don't you understand anything?" he loudly asked Zacky, who carefully, took a step towards us.

"Just put the gun down," he told Mitchell, with caution written clearly all over his face.

"Take another step and the girl gets it," Mitchell warned, pressing the weapon closer and harder to my head. I could feel the cold hard metal digging into my scalp, the pain as it crushed against my skull.

My heart was racing; I was terrified- horrified, to say the least. Never in my life have I imagined that this would happen to me - nothing even remotely close to it. This wasn't supposed to happen. All my life, I thought that being a tour manager would add some excitement to my life, and that it'd all be safe.

I was crying heavily by now, sobbing as I tried to desperately pry his arm around from me. "Zacky, I love you," I whispered, struggling hard and choking on my own tears, but I knew that he could hear me. His sudden one-step-move in alarm and attempt to call out my name, startled the dangerous man behind me, and caused him to pull the trigger, sending an ear deafening explosion into the air.

That's when everything went black.