She ran through the dense forest, her feet pounding with the rhythm of her own pounding heart. Her once fine garments were reduced to tattered rags and the sandals on her feet were worn thin. She had been running for so long. The forest path seemed to be endless, but she couldn't stop running. She didn't want to stop running because she was, at last, finally free.
She was free from the man she had bound herself to out of desperation and free to be with the man she had loved all along.
She ran and ran, until she started to feel like she would never get anywhere. Her legs suddenly felt so heavy, too heavy to lift another step.
When she stopped and looked up, there he was, standing right in front her. Her heart filled with happiness and relief and she collapsed into his arms.
"I'm so sorry," she sobbed. "I've been looking for you for so long. I've been so wrong and so stupid. But it's ok now, because I'm free of him. Now that I've found you, we can be together . . ."
She let the last words trail off as the air around her suddenly grew cold. The arms that had been wrapped so warmly around her seemed to disintegrate.
"What's happening?"
When she looked up, another figure appeared before her. The figure was that of a beautiful woman, exquisitely dressed. She walked towards the man with one hand rubbing her very pregnant belly.
Eileen turned to the man with pleading eyes, struggling to speak, but was unable to find any words.
He casually placed his arm around the pregnant woman's waist, before turning to Eileen.
"You're too late."
An alarm seemed to go off in the distance. No, not an alarm, Eileen realized as she slowly began to wake up. It was the telephone.
Eileen blinked and tried to chase the last remnants of sleep from her brain. She was tempted to stay in bed and go back to sleep, but since the phone call could be news from the hospital about her father, she got out of bed and hurried downstairs to answer it.
"Hello?"
"Eileen? It's Veronica. I wasn't sure you were going to answer. Is everything ok?"
"I'm fine. I was just sleeping. How's Daddy?"
"He's doing better. I'm going to stay here with him for awhile. I just wanted to check in. You can go back to bed now."
"If only," Eileen thought as she hung up the phone. It had taken her long enough to fall asleep in the first place. Too many thoughts had been swimming around in her head and still were.
She went into the living room and stared out the window as her mind drifted to the day before in the hospital waiting room with Lawrence.
"God, why did I say that?" she scolded herself and leaned her forehead against the cool glass of the window pane.
She wasn't sure how long she stood there reliving her embarrassment by replaying that moment over in her mind before she was startled by a knock on the front door.
"Hey Chloe," she greeted her friend with pleasant surprise and invited her in.
"Hi. I just came by to find out how things are going with your dad."
"Better. The doctors think he's going to be ok."
"That's good news," she said as they walked into the living room and sat down. "I'm sorry you missed the rest of the wedding though. It was a really nice ceremony . . . once they got started. The reception was a blast."
"So, she went through with it, then?"
"What?" Chloe asked, startled. "Of course, she did. Why wouldn't she?"
Eileen just shrugged and looked away.
"Hey, are you alright?" Chloe asked.
"I'm so stupid!" Eileen cried out. "I did the dumbest thing last night."
"What?" Chloe asked in a flat, reproachful tone. "What did you do?"
"I told someone I loved him," she mumbled, avoiding eye contact.
"Don't tell me you're getting back together with Hector."
"No, it wasn't Hector . . .it was Lawrence."
"What?" Chloe exclaimed, practically jumping out of her seat. "Wait, you love Lawrence? Since when?"
Eileen hid her face in her hands. "I told you, I was stupid!"
"Well, what did he say?" Chloe asked somberly. By Eileen's tone, she already knew it was bad news.
"He said that he's dating someone else," Eileen said and collapsed onto the sofa.
Chloe stared at Eileen a moment before trying to coax her to get up. "Come on, let's go out to the mall or something." When Eileen looked doubtful she added, "I'm not going to let you sit here all day and feel bad about yourself."
With a sigh, Eileen resigned herself to Chloe's plan and went to her room to get dressed.
"Good morning," Audrey greeted her brother as he entered the kitchen. "I was just about to boil an egg. Would you like one?"
"No, thank you. I've already eaten." He lingered in the kitchen as Audrey placed a pot of water on the stove. "How was the wedding," he finally asked, trying to make his tone sound light and casual. But he couldn't hide the strain in his voice.
Audrey sighed. "Aside from some problems at the beginning, where someone crashed the wedding and my date left because his boss had to be rushed to the hospital, it was actually a very nice wedding."
"Did she seem happy?"
"Oh, Justin, why torture yourself?" she rolled her eyes and turned away from her cooking to face him directly.
Justin looked away and said nothing, so Audrey continued.
"Yes, if you must know, she seemed happy. Look, I told you to fight for her when you had the chance, but you didn't. Now it's too late, so you have no choice but to forget about her and move on."
"I know," he said sadly.
Audrey softened her tone and turned back to the stove, "Good."
Just as Audrey turned to her left to get a spoon out of the cabinet drawer. Something smacked firmly against the window in front of her. She let out a yelp of surprise and jumped back.
Justin, who was just leaving the kitchen, turned back at the noise. "What was that?"
"I don't know. Something hit the window."
Justin stepped forward and looked at the window. The outside was splattered and dripping with a thick, red liquid. He leaned closer to examine it. "It looks like paint." He peered out the other window, but the sidewalk and the street outside was empty.
Outside, Lauren ducked around the corner of the building and paused a moment to catch her breath.
"Consider that your last warning."
She reached into her backpack and produced another paint-filled water balloon. Carefully she tossed it in the air before catching it again. "Now to deal with R.J."
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