TITLE: "The Butterfly"
AUTHOR: Blu
EMAIL: Blu2cool@AOL.com
RATING: PG-13
DISCLAIMER: All rights to the characters and places of General Hospital and Port Charles are reserved for ABC, Bob Guza, TPTB, producers, writers, etc. I use the General Hospital characters for my own personal enjoyment and that of others, not for profit. None of them belong to me. I own nothing, so don't expect much if you decide to sue. No copyright infringement intended.
**
**
"Ask me no questions and I'll tell you
I'll tell you no lies "
From the Offspring's "A Thousand Days"
**
His smile was disarming to me. My heart thudded so loudly I couldn't breath. Amazingly, I felt the corners of my mouth lifting, even as I fought it. I didn't give him a real smile. No one had been rewarded one of those since...
Sly watched my face closely. It was a very uncomfortable feeling, his eyes watching every little twitch. I held my breath. Finally, right when I was about to faint from oxygen deprivation, he turned his attention back to his path.
His coat was still warm from his body heat. It smelled of a familiar men's cologne that I couldn't place at the moment. There was another smell present, but my senses were so clouded from the night that I couldn't tell what it was. I placed my bare hands in his pockets.
I knew that Sly found it impossible to just WALK, not talk. His next words confirmed that.
"It won't kill you to talk to someone. To me."
I wished desperately for a cigarette to calm my nerves. Sadly, none appeared. My hands were shaking in Sly's coat pockets. My stomach was jumping around like a grasshopper. I opened my mouth to defend myself -- to lie -- but he beat me to speaking.
"I hate that you won't talk to me."
Ouch.
I had to say something now.
"I run at night when I can't sleep."
"She speaks."
I was about to be insulted when I looked over at him. He was smiling again. I felt my knees go gelatin.
"And how often is it that you can't sleep?"
I paused before answering him. Did I really want to divulge any of myself to this guy?
"Constantly. Hi, I'm Elizabeth, and I'm an insomniac."
He snorted. I looked over at him, pretending casualness. My jitters were very much still present.
"Do you carry any kind of weapon?" he asked.
I shook my head in the negative.
"Know any kind of self defense?"
"No. But I know how to run."
"And that helped you in what way, on that night?"
Rage slipped through my veins with quick precision. I was shaking again, I was so angry at his insinuation.
"You have no idea what you're talking about." My voice was ice water cold. I had stopped walking by now, and was turned to face Sly. He was shivering and silent, reading my face.
"You have known me less than a day, and you're already passing judgement on me?"
"Elizabeth-"
"No!" I began peeling the warmth from his coat off my body. "You have NO IDEA what it is like to be me. You don't know what I live through every day; you don't live in my house, with my family. You have NO RIGHT-" I threw the coat at him. Sly caught it before it hit his face. Anger graced his face now also. He took a step closer to me and gripped one of my arms with his free hand.
"Elizabeth."
My breath caught in my chest as fire raced up my arm from his hand. Sly's brown eyes were dark and unreadable to me. But they sparked with something. Something that frightened me to the very core.
"You don't know me," I whispered. I pulled away from him and my stomach dropped when I lost contact with him. I turned on my heel and took off with everything in me.
The wind whispered words in my ears. "I could."
Tears slipped from my eyes and clogged my throat so I could hardly breath. Still I ran.
"Never," I answered him bitterly.
**
I was more than out of breath when I crawled through the window into my room. I doubled over once I had shut the window. The pain in my gut was only half from running faster than I had known capable. I was halfway sick because of what I'd said to Sly. Now he would be sure to ask questions until I gave answers. Only he didn't know how stubborn I was.
**
Dawn was painting the sky with her varied palette. I sat curled on my window seat, curls of smoke from the cigarette dangling between my fingers escaping through the cracked window. My knees were drawn up to my chest. My hand shook as I raised the cigarette to my lips. Cold air seeped slowly into my bones, but it was nothing compared to the freezing emptiness present in my soul.
I think I had fallen asleep somewhere near 3:00 am. Now it was close to seven, and I had been awake for a half an hour. There is little sleep when your life is the nightmare.
I sighed and flipped the burned out butt of my cigarette out the window upon hearing a soft knock at my door.
"Lizzie?"
Sarah. I bumped the window closed with my elbow and stood up.
"Come in," I called out.
The door swung inward and my sister's blond head peeked inside.
"Gram asked me to come get you for breakfast," she said. She smiled at me. It was filled with pity, as usual.
"I'll be right down. Just let me brush my teeth."
She nodded to the window. "Don't forget to lock that, okay?"
I breathed out my nose in a silent semblance of a laugh. "Right."
End chapter 5.
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