Love Amongst Destruction

“Holy……” I gasped, my jaw dropping as Danny drove us up to a gorgeous building.

There was a beautiful path paved with stone that led up to a large 3 tiered glass structure with gorgeous waterfalls and fire pits.

“Not too bad, huh?” Danny asked, a slight smile popping onto his face.

“This is unbelievable.” I said, still in complete awe.

I heard one of the back doors open and close and before I knew it Chris was standing next to my door, holding it wide open for me.

“One day you’ll learn we never half ass things.” Chris said, seemingly to stare deep into my eyes with that classic smug grin.

There was a cocky reply to him just sitting on the tip of my tongue, but I bit it.

Now wasn't the time.

Chris shut my door then and extended his arm out to me.

I hooked my arm through his just to appease him for the moment. Chris and I made our way behind Craig and Danny up the breath-taking staircase and into an extravagant foyer.

“Welcome to Etoile!” A young, dapper man exclaimed, greeting us in the middle of the large room.

“Thank you, we were hoping for a table for room, hopefully something pretty quiet and reserved.” Danny said.

“Oh yes, Jack told me you’d be coming by tonight.” The man replied.

Jack? As in the Jack that I knew, Barakat?

Before I had a chance to ask Chris, we were being escorted down the long and softly lit hallway.

I just couldn’t deny the beauty and grandiose of this place, it blew my mind.

“This room will be for you gentleman and lady tonight.” The man said, waving us in through the opening of the door, which led to a very fancy table set-up.

“Thank you very much.” Chris thanked him, nodding his head.

“Can I get you guys started with any drinks?” He kindly asked.

As per usual Craig and Danny got their normal drinks, the ones I had become so accustomed to making for them, Chris doesn’t drink so that was easy…..and then there was me.

Little 18 year old Bella who wasn’t even legal to drink yet, but fuck that.

I’d been through enough this last year to legitimize my need for a drink.

“I’ll have a white russian and we’ll take a bottle of a sweet red wine, please.” I kindly ordered.

With a quick nod of his head and a smile, he exited the room once more leaving me alone with Craig, Chris and Danny.

I slipped my arm finally out from Chris’ and distanced myself from them.

“A drink, and a bottle of wine, now that’s a girl after my own heart.” Danny chuckled, amused once more at my slight attraction to alcohol.

“She’s not drinking anything with a drop of alcohol in it.” Chris replied, his tone of voice in no way happy or pleasant.

“Woah, what happened to the let’s have a nice night out and be buddies?” I questioned him.

“Buddies are kind enough to stop an underage drinker from drinking.” Chris replied, quite quick as well.

“Not kind enough to not kidnap and rape them.” I hissed, my pain from the past ever so present in my words and tone of voice.

“Shut your fucking mouth right now, if not you won’t need to worry about driving away tomorrow because you’ll be in one of our buses with a broken fucking leg.” Chris growled, instantly stepping towards me, his height allowing him to tower over me.

I quickly moved to standing on my tiptoes, increasing my height a few inches, and ever so gently placed my hands on both sides of his face.

“You don’t scare me.” I whispered softly.

“You’re lying to me slave, you don’t think Tyler didn’t mention to us that little talk about you admitting that we’re so deeply ingrained in your mind, and even that even when you try to escape, you can’t.” Chris growled.

“Both of you, knock it off for now.” Craig demanded, stepping between Chris and I.

I turned my back to Chris and took a seat, the closest one to the exit of course.

“Now let’s all actually calm the fuck down, and have a nice night out.” Danny said, obviously upset that Chris and I couldn’t just get over it.

Craig came and took a seat next to me, Danny sat across from me, and Chris across from Craig.

Silence washed over the room, as our drinks were brought in and set down in front of each of us, a quiet thank you escaped, but then silence once more.

“We all can agree on something right? Bella, you’d know more than any of us what topics won’t start world war 3.” Danny stated, leaning a bit back in his chair, eyes glaring into mine.

I sipped my white russian and took a minute to seriously think about it. Sure I could have talked about music….but that course would have taken us directly to talking about them. Afterall, I was a sucker for all of their music.

My eyes were wandering as my brain did, and something caught my eye and sparked it.

The little ghosts on Chris’s left arm sleeve reminded me of Ghost’s sleeve, the Tim Burton one.

“Tim Burton movies, they kick ass, at least all of the ones I’ve seen.” I answered honestly.

Chris smiled big and said, “Now that is definitely something we won’t fight on.”

“About fucking time!” Craig chuckled.

“What’s your favorite one?” Chris asked, a new found sincerity in his voice.

My answer came out fast and true.

“Edward Scissorhands.”

“That surprises me, you’ve always said no to watching that movie.” Chris said.

“It’s not because I don’t like it, it’s because I bawl like a little baby, and not just at the end. Just about from the midway point to the end, I’m a mess in tears.” I admitted, my signature shy blush painting my cheeks a rosy pink.

“It gets to you that much?” Chris asked, now incredibly intrigued.

“Yeah...I mean it’s such a beautiful yet heartbreaking experience. Finding the one person who truly loves you for you, but yet loving you hurts them and causes you pain, so you have to return back to the dark place that you hate, but yet it’s the only place you can stop hurting the one you truly love.” I explained.

Everything then seemed to stop for a second as I realized something.

I didn’t just describe Tim Burton’s famously disfigured character, I also unknowingly was describing myself, and Chance of course.

Taking a very deep breath, I leaned back a tiny bit in my chair attempting to steady my now rising heart rate.

I took one quick yet large sip of my drink to try and calm my nerves a bit.

Get it together Bella, get it together, I chanted in my head over and over again.

Don’t cry in front of them, don’t even let them see a tear fall.

“It’s just a really good and touching story.” I softly said.

“Favorite part?” Chris wondered.

“It’s a tie between when he first is creating the ice sculpture at the house, or the very last scene where Kim talks about how she knows he’s up there because of the snow.” I answered.

“You seem extra passionate about it.” Craig noted.

A small chuckle and smile popped up.

“I was...I mean I still am, but the original plan was to get a huge tattoo that dealt with those things.” I explained.

“No way!” Chris chuckled.

“Absolutely. It was going to be this large glass snowglobe on my thigh with the black castle in the background with blue snowflakes in and around it, and towards the front I would have his scissorhands piercing the snow globe, shattering it.” I went into further explanation.

“That all?” Danny questioned.

“My flaws in design are all I’ve become.” I said, smirking back at Chris.

“You amaze me.” Chris replied, that smile still apparent.

“Thanks.” I replied, a cheeky grin on my lips.

We continued to drink and keep up conversation, trying to find mutual topics that wouldn’t anger any of us.

As the night went on we and I could even say we honestly had a good time. I let go of my anger and hate, even though I knew it was still in my heart but in order for this to work tonight, we had to all give in to each other to be decent.

Each one of us was here for a very different reason, we all knew each other’s true intentions.

“Thank you.” Danny said, his voice loud and clear.

“For what?” I asked, curiously.

“Tonight. I know what your true feelings are. I know, well we all truly know what your plans are for tomorrow. And I know you know we don’t want that.” He explained to me

“We can fix all of this. Just stay, ok? If you do that we can start all over. Do you remember all of those contracts you read for us? All of those words about how we’d keep you safe, and healthy and protected. I know you believe, or at least believed that at one point in time. That’s because it’s true! If you leave though…..we don’t have any other option but to a) find you, and when we do you’re going to hate every second of it. It’s not going to be fun for you, and you’ll regret it. Plus, that’s not even starting to mention that you with Chance is your own death sentence, without us by you, you just kill yourself second by second.” Chris stated, very matter of factly.

“Woah, woah, woah. Slow your fucking role!” I snapped, not going to accept that.

“Bella, look at yourself. Now tell me that you aren’t just the shell of who you used to be. Physically you just look sick, your body’s weak, your mind is exhausted, and it looks like you haven’t slept for months. You didn’t look that way when you were in our care.” Chris further told me.

“Go fuck yourself.” I hissed, pushing back and getting up.

Imagine that, the peace was disturbed.

I didn’t care how hard I had tried to keep the peace tonight, I would not for one second let them turn it back on me and make it seem like Chance was causing my issues, or myself for that fact.

“Bella, get back here.” Craig groaned, following me out the door.

“Leave me alone!” I screeched.

I sped up my pace and ran around the corner to where the exit was finally in view.

“Come on Bells. Let’s go back and just all calm down.” Craig said, trying to calm the situation.

“Why? Why would I do that, Craig? So we can all just sit there and lie to each other more? Maybe I can pretend you don’t sicken me to the core, and you can pretend you give two fucks about me or my health.” I hissed.

“No Bella, that’s bullshit to call all of that lying, you know it’s not.” Craig snapped back.

Fuck it, you couldn’t convince the devil he was wrong.

It was beyond pointless to stand here and scream at him.

“Just stop, please.” I cried softly, completely done.

I turned around and continued my walk down the magnificent hallway, finally reaching the stairs to get outside.

As soon as I stepped a high heel wearing foot onto the stone walkway the wind whipped my face like a whip.

I wasn’t about to risk tripping and falling flat on my face so I slipped my heels off and chucked them as far as possible and walked to my car.

The sky was pitch black, a storm was starting to wake up, it’s first cries of thunder claps ringing out loud and clear.

“Bella!” Chris yelled, quickly making his way down the stairs in an attempt to catch up with me.

“Oh fuck me.” I groaned.

“Please come back in, sweetheart. We didn’t mean to upset you, we just were trying to help.” Chris said, his voice turning far less dominant, and far more begging.

“No, just take me back to the buses so I can think and then sleep. At this point I just want to rest and then leave tomorrow. Please, just do that one thing for me.” I practically begged.

Chris said nothing, walked to where I had chucked my heels, grabbed them, and ever so slowly walked back to me.

“Bella, “ Chris started, but was interrupted by Craig and Danny stepping out of the building.

“Give me my keys and I’ll drive us back to the buses.” I demanded, taking my spot at the driver’s door.

“Promise you won’t drive us off road?” Danny asked.

“Promise. You don’t deserve that fast and easy of a death.” I said, no emotion in my voice.

I could feel the anger in all of their gazes.

I couldn’t care anymore, to be honest though.

Craig dangled my keys in front of me, and I grabbed them quickly. Chris slipped into the seat next to me and Craig and Danny sat in the back.

My trusty car started up and within a second I was driving back to the buses within the lot.

“Please stay.” Chris whispered, 20 minutes into our drive.

“No.” I said, fast and strong.

“Bella, I know what happens if you leave tomorrow. That’s not in either of our best interests. I’d much rather gently take your hand and guide and show you how everything can work, opposed to having to beat you down mentally, physically, and emotionally. I know you’re strong, actually we all know you’re the strongest willed person we’ve ever met. Use it for good, not your own demise.” Chris cautioned me.

“I have someone who actually loves me waiting for me. There isn’t any other option but to leave tomorrow.” I responded.

“That’s your own prerogative.” Chris said, shaking his head back and forth as we finally pulled up to the parking lot for all of the tour buses.

Parking in front of MIW’s bus, I shut the engine off and the 4 of us all sat in the car silently.

After a few minutes of deep thought, I finally got out of the car, slammed the door and made my way to MIW’s bus.

Once inside the bus, I brushed past and ignored everyone until I finally got to Chris’ bunk.

I snuck a quick piece of paper and a pen and wrote in huge caps letters -

(THIS BUNK IS OCCUPIED)

The paper got posted on the curtain of his bunk, and I slowly got my body into the bunk and laid down.

My hands folded together in prayer and I whispered,

“Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the lord my soul to keep, if I should pass before I wake, I pray the lord my soul to take. Please, please, please either take me or let me go home, lord.”

Before I knew it my eyes were welling up with tears, and I felt my tears starting to shake my body.

The morning would come soon enough though, and with that came Chance.

Now that’s something I could try and get some good rest for.

Notes

In just a few hours Bella will finally be back with Chance! I won't spoil too much, but I will say that she actually will be safe from the bands for a while......who knows what could happen in that time, as well as if she'll ever get brought back. The bands certainly seem to think so.


My high school career is slowly approaching the finish line which thankfully means I'll have a lot more time to keep writing this series and be able to update a lot more frequent!!!

I love seeing that a lot of you are still hanging in there and reading this, that means the world to me. I hope you guys continue to love the series, and the adventures these characters still have ahead of them!!!