"Everybody's got their demons, even wide awake or dreaming"
-5 Seconds of Summer

Alice

I ambled down the sidewalk. The coffee in my hand was stale and colder than the winter air that cloaked me. It's been almost two weeks.

Nearly two weeks since I found out an irrefutable truth about the world: everyone and everything eventually turns out to be a lie. It sounds harsh. I know. But can you blame me? Every person in my life has told me a great lie at some point or another.

My parents promised they would always stand by me. Lie.

Sawyer said that he loved me. Lie.

Penn promised to never lie to me and never hurt me. Lie.

He's never physically harmed me, I know he never would. But he lied to me and that hurt more than a slap to the face. Especially after I put so much trust into him.

That really stung for a minute.

But the more time I spend walking alone on the cold Seattle streets the more I start to miss it. All of it.

I miss going to school and being surrounded by teenage giants. I miss Eli barging into my house at the asscrack of dawn and demanding breakfast. And most of all? I miss Penn.

I miss the way he made me blush just by saying hello to me. I missed when we sat on my couch and ate tortilla chips and watched movies. And he would pull me onto his lap when he felt like I was too far away. The way he hugged me to his chest and just held me close. The way he kissed me.

I just missed him. There is no simpler way to put it.

I came to a halt at a familiar spot on the sidewalk. My gaze drifted up to the massive building across the street. It towered at one hundred stories, casting a cold and ominous shadow over me.

It used to be my home.

Back when we lived in Seattle, not too long after everything with Sawyer went down and my dad left.

Our apartment was on the ninety third floor. It rained a lot. I used to sit at my window seat and just watch the rain. It distracted me from my depression. When my mother went out of town I would go up to the roof and watch the sky. Hoping I could glimpse the stars through the blazing city lights.

And I did. Once.

It was a shooting star. My own little miracle in a world of darkness. I remember that I made a wish. I wished that I could eventually find happiness, even if I had to go through hell before I found it.

I think my wish had finally come true. So why was I running from it?

I sighed and willed my feet to drag down the sidewalk, out of the shadow. Then I stopped again, leaning against a random building from exhaustion. I haven't really slept much since I left Red Hills. I was so tired.

Tired of being hurt. Tired of being lied to. Tired of pushing away the people I care about. I'm tired of running.

And I don't want to run anymore.

~~~

It was cold outside. Just like Seattle. Except Seattle wasn't my home. Red Hills, Washington is my home, as boring and small as it may be. Well, maybe not boring. After all, my boyfriend turns into an overgrown wolf.

Penns neighborhood was quiet, not as I expected. I thought there would be people walking and kids playing and lights on all the houses. It was Christmas Eve after all.

The neighborhood was dead silent. This didn't make any sense.

I reached Penns front door and hesitantly, I knocked. My fist cast an eerily hollow sound through the still air as it rapped against the wood.

I waited five minutes. Nobody came to the door.

My heart beat a little faster as I tested the door knob. It wasn't locked. I pushed on the wood, it opened with an eerie creak and I stepped inside.

This house was so familiar. It had always felt warm and safe to me. But right now the air in the house was as cold as it was outside. The furniture was destroyed; the couch was slashed and the chairs and tables were in splinters. There was broken glass on the floor. Most likely from the broken living room window.

What the hell happened here?

There was a quiet crunch outside. Like footsteps on the snow. My heartbeat picked up. I inched towards the front door, it was still ajar.

I stepped out onto the porch, hearing the snow squish under my boots. The entire neighborhood was cloaked in white. There was only one blemish in the otherwise perfect blanket of snow.

He walked slowly, almost as if in defeat, clad in nothing but basketball shorts. Blood covered his body. He didn't look too different from the last time I saw him. Except his eyes.

They were dark, hollow, lifeless. And then he looked up. I hadn't realized how much I had missed his comforting brown gaze until it was locked on me.

"Penn," my voice was hardly audible in the December wind. But I knew he heard me. I saw his lips move, I couldn't hear him, but the word on his lips somehow looked like my name.

Penn began to walk faster towards me. The determination in his eyes turned to panic. He began to sprint.

I took a step closer to him, still on the porch. Something hit my head. I heard glass shatter. Hot liquid seeped through my hair. I swayed on my feet. And then the world of white went dark.