Holding her like this, holding her small frame in my arms, brought back sweet memories, but it also brought back that dreaded day that my life began to go south.

I remember the sweet giggling that erupted as I  brought her to the ground, tickling her as she struggled to keep up with my torture. That smile I fell in love with quickly turned into one of pain as a few tears came into her eyes, the laughing abruptly stopping while she tried to blink away the droplets that threatened to escape her eyes.

I loved how she always tried to be strong around everyone, how she always tried her hardest to keep her strong demeanour intact, but I wanted her to be comfortable around me. I wanted her to be safe around me.

Before I let her fully breakdown, I stopped tickling her, pulling her into a warm embrace, giggling into her hair before the teasing started.

"You're such a wuss Maya, gheez, crying at a bit of tickling? I thought you were stronger than me."

Her head snapped up and her intricately designed hazel eyes shot an icy glare straight at me, as if trying to shoot ice beams down my eyes into my soul.

"I'll always be better than you when it comes to strength. I think you know that as well, Derek." she said with a twinge of playfulness in her voice, hinting towards the many times I let her win  arm wrestles and fights with me. Never once did it matter that I lost to this angel because her smile was blessing enough for me to drop my ego.

Never at this point would I have thought that this sweet, young, determined girl would be my first experience of the first taste of life-changing betrayal.

I remember that just days after that, she demanded that I come over to her to accompany her to the gym, yet I knew that today was one of the days the gym was closed. Nevertheless, I made my way over to her house, anxiously awaiting the surprise that she may have laid out for me.

Yet, what I encountered may have been a surprise that was out of my definition of an 'acceptable' surprise. I opened the door an stood there, eyes bulging, mouth wide open as she stood there.

She stood there, gun in her hand, aiming the barrel at me with her immaculate aim. Her face was trembling, like it was the day I had nearly tickled her to the  brink of her own personal embarrassment. I wanted to go up to her, wanting to hug her so tight, wanting to tell her it was all going to be fine but the trail of blood that stopped where she was standing made my words catch in my throat.

Lifeless and blue, a crumpled figure lay facing upwards, their eyes having been rolled backwards as a corpse lay mere feet away from Maya, the blood still fresh as it pooled around her chest and shoulders.

My heart stopped as I tried to piece together what was happening, yet, however hard I tried, my brain could only come to one conclusion.

Maya killed her own mum.

Maya killed her own mum.

I couldn't comprehend what was happening. Stepping towards Maya, I tried to extend a hand to her, a hand she had never refused.

"If... if y.. you come any cl.. closer, I'll shoot her."

Yet I didn't understand her words until she stepped to her side, my eyes nearly tearing up as I saw my mother sitting there, her mouth gagged, hands handcuffed and ankles strapped to a wooden chair,  her eyes so full of agonising terror that I felt a scream leave the tip of my tongue.

"I.. I need you  to do something, and in return, I'll leave you and your mother alone. I need you to leave, I need you to go away. I... I can't stand you being here with me all the time, I can't stand how you're always just... always just hovering around me, taking every inch of what freedom I have left of me. I can't stand how you're such a good for nothing and I want nothing to do with you, you piece of sh!t."

The tears were flowing at full force from both my eyes and hers as I felt her betrayal cut so deeply into my soul that I felt myself hit rock bottom. I grabbed her now slightly less gripped gun out of her hands and put it to my head, ready to end it  all but the one thing that stopped me from hating her forever was when she pulled the gun from my hand.

She pulled the gun from me just as I pulled the trigger, her heart wrenching scream rattling me as the bullet pierced through her shoulder. Her unconscious body slumped once more as I held her, at the time thinking this would be the last time holding her sweet little frame in my arms as I called the police.

When I look back on it now, it was so obvious that the whole scene had been staged, and the police had not failed to see that as they  solved the case but little did they know that they got the wrong guy.

That their petty ignorance was costing me her life again.

And I may not have forgiven her fully yet for taking my mother but I had some reassurance that she had never meant to hurt me willingly. That she had willingly put her life on the line, even if it meant saving me at her expense.

I was too ignorant to see that she had never hated me in the first place, so I let my ever-growing hate towards her grow so far that now, I may have set Silver on her again.

I may have endangered her life again, but now, it was more than a game of charades.

I am going to find Silver and make him regret the day he ever set his eyes on Maya.

____

A/N: I'm sorry! I lied! Once again, I have written you a fresh action piece to this story, yet I will try to calm it downnn. If you want another action chapter though, feel free to tell me as I want to know what you want to read!

What do you think of Derek's point of the story? Do you think he totally overreacted at the time or do you think his actions were justified?

If you think this chapter deserved it, please drop it a like, a comment and express your love!

See y'all later!

Lolaalvilivi