Salem Falls

Walking had become almost a routine for Zayn. It was the one thing that helped calm his racing mind, and it let him get out of the house, where he didn’t have to listen to his mother’s cries. As much as he wanted to be there for her, he couldn’t do it all the time, and sometimes he just needed a few moments to himself. He’d had to become a man way too fast, and he was still trying to get a hold of the new life he had to live. It still didn’t seem like it was his.

He had so many pressures coming from every direction. He had the pressure from his mom to make all the pain go away. He had the constant nagging from the Sixth Circle about setting up more ceremonies and bringing the coven together the way his father had before him. He had the nonstop pressure from Lucie’s parents about their engagement, the wedding, and how he and their daughter were going to be the mightiest of couples.

On a good day, it would have been too much for Zayn to handle, but it hadn’t seemed like the days had been very good ever since his father had passed away. Everything just seemed harder, and things that would have been easy before seemed so difficult now.

If all of the pressures from his old life weren’t too much for Zayn, the pressures from this new world would be enough to get to him. Ever since his dinner with the Snow’s, he couldn’t seem to get Maggie out of his head. He knew how wrong it was – because she was an average human – and he knew how much flack he would get if anyone ever found out, so he kept it a secret, even from himself.

Anytime a thought of Maggie would grace his mind, he would push it back, trying to forget all about the beautiful blonde girl. He reminded himself that the Sixth Circle would have his head if they even knew he spoke to her, let alone if they knew he was thinking about her. Being an acquaintance with Sheriff Snow was bad enough, but the coven knew that Zayn needed to have him as an ally if they were going to keep the town out of their business. Sheriff Snow, though he didn’t know it, was an important key to keeping the coven a secret.

Despite knowing that everything about Maggie was a bad idea, for both him and her, he found his legs carrying him to her house before he even realized it. His mind tugged him towards her road, while simultaneously making him not recognize where he was going.

When he finally did, and laid sight on the Snow’s modest home, he chuckled to himself, shaking his head. The Snow’s home was the last place he needed to be, so he quickly turned in the opposite direction, ignoring how badly he wanted to be heading towards her.

He couldn’t see her. He just couldn’t. It was bad news for him, and it was bad news for her. Nothing good could come from him seeing her again and he knew that, so he forced himself to walk away from her home as quickly as he could, despite the fact that his feet suddenly felt cemented to the ground.

His eyes were focused on the ground, while he had his hands shoved in his pockets. He let his feet help him to clear his mind and he was so focused that he hadn’t a clue where he was going.

With his head hung to the ground, he didn’t see the small girl walking in front of him, her blonde hair blowing in the moonlit wind. She stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of him, a small smile falling to her face.

“Zayn?” she whispered, her voice just as light as he remembered it. He didn’t have to look up to know who it was, and he found himself smiling just at the thought of her.

“Maggie,” he said, his head lifting into the air. “I didn’t expect to run into you out here.”

“I just left the precinct,” Maggie said, as she pointed towards the building which was a few blocks in the opposite direction. “I dropped off some dinner for my dad. He’s on the late shift again.”

It seemed like, since the first murder, Sheriff Snow had to work most nights trying to catch the monster, and when the second and third murders came, his hours only got longer. Maggie missed having her father home for dinner, but she knew he had to do his job.

“And he let you walk home all by yourself?” Zayn asked, taking a few steps towards her. “With a crazy psychopath on the loose?”

Maggie chuckled. “It’s barely dusk, and I have a cellphone.”

“Your father doesn’t seem like the type to let his daughter walk home alone.”

“He’s not,” Maggie answered, tucking her hands into the pockets of her cardigan. “Didn’t have much choice though. He got busy with a lead.”

Even though Maggie was the last person Zayn needed to see at the moment and was the very person he’d been trying to get away from, he couldn’t stop himself from wanting to see her home safely. It wasn’t safe for her to be walking home alone, and it was the perfect excuse for him to see her for a few more moments. If he could just talk to her one last time, he might be able to get her out of his head.

“I can walk you home if you’d like? Just to make sure you get there safely.” Zayn had to pull his eyes away from hers, because there was something about them that was pulling him in. “As a favor to your father,” he finished.

Maggie nodded, her smile small as his gaze was locked on the concrete. “I’m sure he’d loved that. Thank you.”

Zayn looked back up to her, his eyes meeting hers, and he couldn’t bring them away. He held his eyes there for a moment – perhaps a moment too long – before turning and walking back towards Maggie’s house, with her stepping next to him just as quickly.

Their footsteps matched the entire time they walked, and all Zayn could think about was what other things about them would match so perfectly.

Zayn sighed to himself, so quiet that Maggie couldn’t hear. It seemed like every time he needed to get away from all the pressures of the real world, he just happened upon her, and she made all of those thoughts melt away. She took all the weight off of his shoulder just by being next to him, even though, as she was a human, being next to her added a heavy weight of its own.

But Zayn knew, as much as he tried to deny it, that he’d carry the weight of a thousand suns if it meant being next to Maggie for just a moment longer.