The night sky was covered in a sheet of thick mist blocking the stars from shining. The faint outline of the moon glowed under the stormy clouds, announcing it's presence even in the darkest sky.
A chill ran down Raine's spine as she looked out at the vast city that lay before her. The traffic had lessened and the lights to the surrounding apartments had gone out hours ago. It was late but Raine's mind was in a frenzy, not allowing her to sleep.
Yawning for the millionth time, Raine pushed herself away from the window, forcing herself into her bed. Tomorrow was going to be a hectic day at work with all of the meetings Xavier had lined up and that last thing she wanted to do, was fall asleep in the middle of one.
The soft cotton sheets were invited as she slipped under her covers, pulling the soft blanket up to her chest. Her fingers reached up to the light switch, ready to turn it off when the dinging sound from her phone caused her to halt.
Grabbing her phone from the side table, Raine squinted at the brightly lit phone screen that had a single alert on the home screen.
"Another unknown number message?" She frowned, confused at this weird situation that was occurring to her, more frequently than normal.
Unknown >> Hello
Her confused expression turned even more confused and skeptical at the message. It was 1 AM, clearly no time to be saying hello to any one, let alone a complete stranger.
Sighing and clearly annoyed with this mysterious person who kept on texting Raine, she finally decided to get to the root of whoever this person was, if not, tell them that they were contacting the wrong person.
Raine Woods >> Who is this?
Raine Woods >> I think you've got the wrong number.
Raine waiting for a couple of seconds, thinking of all the people who had her number. When no one seemed to click in her mind, she yawned once more, before another message appeared on her phone.
Unknown>> It's definitely the right number.
Raine Woods >> Who is this?
Raine texted back again. Clearly, whoever this person was, he or she was playing some sort of game that Raine definitely wasn't enjoying. A prank call or text. How mature, Raine thought.
Unknown >> Forgot me so fast Raine?
Raine Woods >> How do you know my name?
Unknown>> Rainy Day, I can't ever forget you.
As soon as she read that text, her world came to a halt and the air from her lungs was knocked out as she collapse onto her bed in shock. It couldn't be true. A chilled shiver ran down her spine and her eyes seemed to be glued to the screen of her phone, her heart thumping loudly against her ribcage.
Rainy Day.
No. It couldn't be, she thought. Her mind went haywire, trying to come up with every reason and any reason that would contradict her thoughts. Her fingers itched to pinch herself, to wake her up. This had to be a dream. It just had too.
Unknown >> I found you.
Unknown >> You think you can run from me, Raine?
Unknown >> Wherever you go, I'll always know.
Unknown >> And now that I've found you, I'll never let you go.
Unknown >> Rainy Day, I coming to get you.
Unknown >> See you soon, my love.
The messages kept come and her eyes tried hard to read them without constantly shaking. Her fingers trembled as she loosely hung onto her phone, wanting to throw it across the window. Wanting to chuck it so far away that she couldn't ever reach it and it couldn't ever reach her.
Her thoughts her were rudely interrupted when a piercing sound of shattering glass came from the living room. Her eyes went wide as fear surged through her body. Her heart thumped against her chest and her fingers did the one thing they should have done a long time ago.
Raine pressed the first name on her contact list. Her savior. Her lifeline. The only guy who could take her problems and solve them before they'd hurt her.
Xavier.
"Pick up... Pick up... Pick..." She muttered, pressing the phone against her ears as she cornered herself in her room.
The phone continued it's monotone ringing, no one picking it up.
"Damn it! Please Xavier! Please pick up the phone." Raine whispered to herself.
The phone kept ringing on and on, yet Xavier's soothing voice was never heard through the speaker.
Meanwhile, the sounds from the living room got louder and louder. Raine could hear the glass shattering in the living room. The terrifying noises that were catching up to her.
Just as she was about to redial the number, a hurling rock made its way through the window, shattering it in the process before it hit Raine's forehead.
Pain erupted through her head as a stream of vivid red blood trickled down her forehead. Throwing her phone to the ground, Raine pressed her hand up to her wound, pressing it tightly so that the pain would lessen and the blood would stop flowing.
By now, blood wasn't the only thing dripping from her face. Tears were falling rapidly out of her eyes as her breathing remained uneven. The sight of the glass shards scattered on the floor was enough to make Raine cringe. She had to get out of there. Her room wasn't safe, heck the apartment wasn't safe at all.
Carefully, Raine creeped up to the door, pressing her ears against the cold surface, making sure the coast was clear. When she heard sheer silence, Raine carefully clicked the door open, squeezing through and tip-toeing through the hall.
No sounds were heard as she walked to the living room besides the sound of her rapid breathing and soaring heart. As soon as her feet landed in the living room. Her heart dropped. The once decorated room was destroyed, all of the windows shattered, and the furniture tarnished. Quickly, Raine decided to make her move and get out of building as soon as possible. But just as she took a step in the direction of the door, a never ending rain of rocks erupted in the room.
Rocks flew in from every direction, hitting the light lamps and blowing out the fuse, hitting the tiled floors, but more importantly hitting Raine.
Her once throbbing forehead, wasn't the only thing in pain. Her whole body was now on fire, burning as the rocks attacked her delicate figure. Panic shot through her body. She knew she had to escape and she had to do it now.
Sprinting to the door, Raine was just about to yank it open when the doorknob began to rattle profoundly.
Her hand froze in the middle of it's track and a cold drop of sweat mixed with her warm blood, rolled down the side of her head.
Her breath hitched as she began to take steps backing away from the door.
With each step she took back, the door rumbled even more, as if someone was trying to get in without a key.
A sob escaped Raine's mouth when a pinching sensation was felt in her foot causing her to gasp.
Her eyes shot to the floor which was now covered in blood, escaping through the cuts on her skin. The shards of glass pierced her feet, painting the floor in streaks of bright red.
"OPEN THE DOOR RAINE!"
That voice. As soon as that voice resigstered in Raine's mind, her sobs stopped. Silence. Silence was the only thing Raine had left.
That voice. The one that had haunted her dreams and controlled her dreams. The one that has stolen the light from her eyes and bestowed her world with darkness. The one that has stomped over her smiles and painted her face in tears and misery. The one that had gently taken a hold of her heart, only to break it into a million shards.
The voice that she has escaped from. The voice that she had ran from.
It was back.
"Rainy Day!" The man behind the door shouted. "I know you're in there. Open the damn door!"
Open the door? How could Raine open the door? How could she let her worst nightmare into her life once more? How could she kill herself like that?
Her dilemma was cut short when she noticed the pin-drop silence once more engulfing her. But peace wasn't in her destiny because just as Raine had taken a breath of relief, the door barged open with such force, hitting the wall with a loud bang.
There, standing right in the doorway was the man. The one from whom she had spent years of her life running. The man he had changed her life, and not for the better. The man that has ruined it all. Everything. Anything.
His dark brown eyes were just as horrid as she remembered them to be and his platinum blond hair just as terrifying. His lips were rolled up in a devious smirk, his eyes telling Raine exactly how dead she was.
"Hello Rainy Day." His hideous voice mocked. "I've missed you."
"W-what are you d-d-doing h-here?!" Raine barely spoke. Her voice was shaking and her body trembling. She couldn't believe it. That he was there, in front of her. After everything she had done to run, hide, escape. He had still found her. She couldn't escape. Because he'd always find her.
"Happy to see me, my love?" He asked in his cringeworthy voice.
Raine raged at the mention of that word. "Don't call me that!" She shouted hysterically. "I am not your love!" The anger in her voice surpassed the fear.
"Awe, still in denial, aren't you?" He said, taking steps towards her. "But don't worry Rainy Day, because I'm here to solve that."
He smirk on his face dropped within a fraction of a second as a death glare made it's away on his horrid face. His eyes were colder then the Arctic ice and the look he was giving her, stated no mercy.
His calloced fingers wrapped around her neck, painfully stopping the air to flow through her body. His nails dug into her smooth skin, drawing blood as she thrashed in his hold.
"AHHH!" Raine screamed, struggling to get free.
"S-s-stop!...L-l-let me g-go!" She coughed. "AHHH!"
Raine struggled, but with each struggled that Raine put up, the man only laughed, as if her pain was oxygen for him. Slow but surely, the air circulation in her body was blocked off and her eyes were finally giving out. But just as her body grew limp, the loud sounds of sirens blared through the room and red and blue lights flashed through the windows, alerting the man.
"Who'd you call?!" He roared. "Who'd you call, you worthless bitch?!"
He continued to question her but what was there left to say? Raine's body, it was limp, dangling from the man's hand almost lifeless. Her breathing was close to none and her pulse was barely making it.
"I came here for a purpose and I'm damn well going to do it." He laughed evilly. "Goodbye Raine. Forever." And with that being said, he forcefully smashed his filthy lips on her, harshly tasting her before yanking her body away.
There was nothing left for Raine to do. She tried to struggle but her limbs wouldn't move. She tried to hit him back but she had no strength. She tried to keep breathing, but her lungs were giving out. She tried to get keep her heart beating, but it couldn't keep up with the pain.
In one move, the man lifted Raine up by the neck, holding her a foot off the floor before he threw her across the room.
Her body came crashing to the ground as it collided with the glass coffee table that once centered the room.
Her body that was once throbbing in pain, now was numb. Her wounds that once stung so bad, were just fragments of her imagination.
She felt nothing. No pain. Nothing.
Her eyelids dropped, shutting her eyes one final time and the last image she saw was that of his feet retracting from the room, running out of the door.
* * *
"Damn it women! Move your car in the god damn right lane!" Xavier cursed, as his car sped through the road.
His hands traced the side compartment, searching for his phone which was no where to be found. "Damn it! I forgot my phone!" He muttered angrily as he pulled into Raine's apartment building.
As soon as his car rolled into the front of the building, the bright flashing lights of police cars distorted Xavier's eyes. His heart dropped at the sight of an ambulance rushing to inside the building and he slammed the breaks to his car, pushing himself out as he ran through the crowd.
"I'm sorry Mister, you can't go through there." The police officer said to Xavier as he tried to run up the stairs through the fire escape.
"Watch me!" Xavier growled, turning to the young officer who had stopped him. His blue eyes were raging with fury at the man who had dared to stop him.
As soon as the officer recognized the man standing in front of his, his eyes widened and he pushed himself away, allowing Xavier to go through.
Xavier ran up the stairs as fast as his legs could go, sprinting to Raine's apartment. The door was barged open and a combination of paramedics and police officers were lined up in front of it.
Pushing them aside, Xavier stomped into the room, his heart dropping immediately to the pit of his stomach when he saw the scene that lay out in front of him.
The apartment that he had personally decorated to Raine's taste, was destroyed. The windows shattered, the furniture ruined, and the floor littered with rocks and glass. But nothing, nothing in the 27 years of his life was as horrifying as the sight of Raine.
Raine's lifeless body was laying in a pool of glass and blood at the center of the apartment, surrounded by five paramedics. Her body was bathed in blood that contrasted her pale skin horrendously. The mystical brown eyes that he had found himself always drowning in, were no longer visible, hidden behind her eyelids and tucked away from plain sight.
Xavier did even realize that he had been shoving the paramedics away as he took steps closer and closer to her lifeless form. The paramedics tried hard to stop him but none of them could resist his strength. The pull he had towards Raine was like no other. His mind, heart and soul gravitated towards her.
"Sir, you need to stand down." One of the the paramedics ordered cautiously. But Xavier paid no heed.
He cradled Raine's body into his lap, not giving a damn about her blood staining his expensive cottons.
His fingers pushed fragments of her hair away from her hair, tucking it so gently behind her ears while the paramedics worked around him to stop the bleeding and perform their protocol.
"We're loosing the pulse." The paramedic shouted, causing Xavier's heart to practically stop. His hands began to shake at the thought of loosing Raine.
"Do something!" He shouted at the men. "Save Raine! Save my Raine or I swear to god I will kill you all!" Rage would be an understatement to describe how Xavier was feeling. The pain that he felt in seeing her blood was something indescribable.
"We've got to get to her to hospital."
Without wasting a second, Xavier carried her limp body into his arms, resting her onto the stretcher that the paramedics had brought up. They pushed her through the room, Xavier following them as they ran to the bottom, rolling her into the ambulance.
Xavier didn't even wait for approval from the officers before he jumped into the ambulance, holding Raine's hand and urging the men to begin treating her wounds.
Meanwhile, Jordon made an entry to the scene, alarm at the sight unfolding before his eyes.
"Mr. Thorn!" He shouting, frantic upon seeing his boss' devastated condition.
"Jordon! Follow me to the hospital!" Xavier shouted from the vehicle right before the police shut the doors, the sirens blaring as they shifted from park and into drive.
Jordon complied with Xavier's request, hastily following the speedy emergency vehicle while getting ahold of the rest of Xavier's security team.
"Raine." Xavier said, gently touching her cheeks that were nothing but pale. "Please wake up Raine. Come on... Please just wake up." He pleaded.
"She's in critical condition." The paramedic informed while talking to the others. "Inform the doctors to prepare for urgent surgery."
Xavier felt his heart shattering with every passing second. His eyes trained on the heart monitor that was barely showing any signs of movement. "Come on Raine. You have to wake up. Please..." He whispered, his hand squeezing her's.
"She's not breathing!"
And that was enough to cause Xavier's world to freeze. Ever since the day he had landed eyes on her, his heart had beat a little faster. Every time his large hands had engulfed her small ones, his heart had felt a little warmer. Every time his sapphire blue eyes had met her coffee brown ones, his heart had fluttered a little more. He didn't know when, and he didn't know how. But what he did know, was that he had given his heart to her somewhere another their journey, and now that she held it, he wasn't sure he ever wanted it back.
"Please Raine." Xavier pleaded with every ounce of his body.
"Please... Just keep breathing."
______________________
A/N: Hey guys!! Action packed chapter today! Finally we get some more insight on Raine's past life and a potential past follower that has been stalking Raine. Who do you think this attacker is? What do you think Xavier's going to do when he finds out about him? Ready for an emotional chapter? Well the next one might just have an answer to all of your questions, especially the ones about Raine's past!
Question of the Day: Who's your favorite athlete and what's your favorite sport?
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Breathe