Page 59 of The Death of Kisses

No response.

“Charlie?” My breath hitched as she grasped my wrist, and I searched her eyes intensely, longing to find some flicker of recognition, some hint of the person I once knew.

“Hold still,” her voice was eerily calm, so composed that I questioned whether I had heard her right.

A nervous laugh escaped from my lips, almost hollow.

“I can’t let you wander anymore,” Charlie said softly but with a hint of something else.

Inside me, a scream erupted—an instinctual cry to run, to fight—to pull away from this nightmare. But my mind faltered, paralysis overtaking me, and I couldn’t move.

“Why?” I asked, worry and confusion bleeding into my voice, as she finally pulled the knot of the rope tight. It burned against my wrist, a bleak cry escaping me as she pulled tight. I clawed at my arm with urgency as she threw the rope around one of the upper branches. The knot was too tight, there wasn’t enough time to undo it.

“Charlie, please, you have to stop. I love you so much,” I begged, tears streaming down my face and hitting the ground with a sorrowful splash.

But she never looked at me. Not even a flicker of recognition. She stayed silent, gripping my other hand with a fierce determination as she began winding the rope around my right wrist. I wept uncontrollably, feeling helpless and betrayed as she forcefully pulled my left wrist away from my right—binding my arm again to the unforgiving upper branches.

“Charlotte,” I sobbed out my voice unsteady, my heart aching for her to see me, to understand.

She pulled the rope so tight, lifting me high into the air until my feet barely skimmed the ground beneath me. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think—narrowing my tear-clouded eyes and watching her mournfully.

“Please, Charlotte, stop this,” I choked out, sorrow crackling in my voice.

Her feet moved closer, and she was so close I could see the flicker of her eyes before her hand snapped across my face with brutal force, my ears ringing from the blow. Pain burst through my cheek, and my head whipped to the side, tears blurring my vision.

“This is for your protection,” she purred softly, her silhouette dissolving into the curtain of willow branches, leaving me there—vulnerable and broken. Tears traced paths down my face as I took a sharp uneven breath, battling the ache of loss and love intertwined in this heartbreak.

47

YOU ASKED ME TO

Present day - November 22nd - Town of Ashwood - Population 1,576 - 18 Yrs old

“Please don’t leave me here.”

I frowned, turning around.

“Leave? I just got you back.”

I walked closer to her, checking the rope. It bit into the willow tree just where I wanted.

Good. She couldn’t wander off now.

I moved around her, circling her with a mix of hope and desperation, my hands trembling as I gently but insistently mended the knots binding her wrist. I could see the bruises softly blooming beneath her skin—fragile, fleeting, and so painfully real. I brushed her hair back behind her ear, my voice barely a whisper, thick with emotion. “See?” I murmured, my heart pounding. “Much better.”

“Charlie, I’m so sorry,” she choked out between sobs, her voice breaking like fragile glass. But her words weren’t necessary; I already knew.

I gently reached up, brushing a tear away from Lilly’s cheek.

My voice wavered with emotion as I declared, “I know, I know you are.”

I finally did what I knew I had to from the very beginning—I stayed.

My fingers wobbled as I lingered over her lips, and she looked so incredibly beautiful, so painfully vulnerable. Those mesmerizing blue eyes, filled with unwavering devotion, seized my very soul and held it hostage.

With a gentle touch, I pressed a soft kiss onto her cold, trembling lips, tasting the salt of her tears—each drop a silent cry of her despair and longing.

“What are you going to do to me?” she whimpered, her voice bitter with fear, as I slowly pulled away.