Chasing Shadows | ✓

Part Two: Chapter Twenty-Two

DID YOU EVER FELT AS THOUGH YOUR ENTIRE WORLD HAD BEEN TORN APART?

Almost as if the reality you once thought you had been living in, was now no longer reality, but more of an illusion? How easy was it for one person to say one sentence, and for everything to change after that?

There was a tightening in my chest that had been there for days, and didn't seem like it was going to disappear any time soon. My mind was frazzled, with a million and one thoughts zooming around. It wasn't just confusion I was feeling, but more betrayal, hurt, anger and pain. Every emotion I felt, surged through my veins at fast speeds - burning me to my very core in a bottomless pit of fury.

Travis - or Trevor - I wasn't sure what exactly to call him anymore, had dropped me home after our three-hour long conversation. Suffice to say, our talk turned out nothing like I had thought it would have. I wasn't even sure what I had been expecting from him, but it wasn't anything like this.

"Natalie?"

My mother's soft voice wafted through the house as soon as I clicked the front door shut behind me. My eyes closed briefly - wanting nothing more than to be by myself.

"Yes, mom?" I called back forcing myself to keep a light tone.

My mother's smiling face popped around the corner of the door; hair twisted up into a messy bun with a few tendrils framing her face.

"I made dinner," she said with a gesture of her hand, "Wash up and come down to eat."

"I'm actually not that hungry," I lied with a wince.

The drop of my mother's face was an expression I never wanted to see again. Her apron that was tied tightly around her waist was splattered in red sauce from the work she had put in from cooking. My heart twisted in my chest and I wrung my hands together, exhaling before forcing another smile on my face.

"I um. . . I guess I have a little room left actually," I gulped, "I'll be down in two. Is dad home yet?"

A bright grin lit up my mother's face and she nodded, "Mhm. He's inside waiting for you. He was adamant about not starting before you got home."

"He's still the same," I laughed, but the action still warmed me that my parents were still so caring.

"You better hurry up or he'll eat everything before you come down," my mother joked and ushered me up the stairs.

I released a breathier chortle and padded up the carpeted stairs towards my bedroom. There, in the safety of my room, I could finally let my strained facial expression drop and my shoulders slumped, as if the force of gravity was dragging them downwards. My legs dragged towards my bed where I flopped face-first. A quiet, irritated groan made its way past my lips that was muffled by the blankets.

It was as if I was being hit with a million and one facts all at once - my brain didn't know how to process anything, and all I was left with at the end of the day was a blinding headache and random scenarios and facts that Travis had told me.

"Okay," I sighed to myself, "Just forget about it for now. Push it away. Forcing myself to make sense of this isn't going to help."

I scoffed, then, at the fact that I had resorted to talking to myself in order to regain any sense of normality. Pushing myself off the bed once more, I shrugged off my jacket and flung it on the back of my swinging chair before standing on my feet and slipping back downstairs where my parents were waiting for me.

"There you are!"

My father was sat at the table with a napkin laid open in his lap and a fork ready in his hand to dig in. I couldn't help but grin at the impatient expression that he was trying to hide from us.