WHEN THE SUN GOES DOWN

CHAPTER 2

Author’s POV

Yaella had arrived home and Apollo didn’t take his eyes off her until she walked past her wooden door, he didn’t want to look like a stalker, that is not what he does.

He just doesn’t want anyone to suffer what his little sister did a couple of years ago, and now she’s not with him anymore. 

The black-haired guy was now walking alone on the dark streets, he’s not afraid of the dark because there is nothing there that could attack him nor make him scared. He lost all his fear when his grandparents told him horror stories at night, he was never scared of them, always knowing it wasn’t true and that he would never see such things in life.

But one of his favorites was the ‘Hemera’, it was like a three that could walk around and follow people, listening to their lies and feeding themselves with them. That is why Apollo never lies, all of his lies are half true.

Just like his name.

Apollo was not his name, at least not his first but it was the name that he used to tell people when he did not want to tell his name. 

He liked his privacy more than anything, and well, Apollo, is how he likes to be called, a way that he found that would make people believe it because it’s such a beautiful name with an awful meaning.

The way Apollo lied was never really a lie, so he likes to say that he never lies, but sometimes he likes to change the truth, not totally, but just enough to make people wonder and imagine what they want.

Opening his door the boy had reached home, walking in to see nothing at all, he had moved from his grandparents’ house the night his sister died. All of the moments with her in that house floated his mind every time he stepped inside.

And he couldn’t bear that.

He was already planning on moving from that old and little house, but it wasn’t supposed to be so soon, guess that things change when people are not with us anymore.

While all of this was happening, back at school, Alena had already given up on changing Caspian’s mind. She was waiting for her mother to pick her up, when she was taking too long, Caspian had offered to give her a ride home, and well…

The girl accepted.

Both of them walking inside his black jeep, Caspian started driving to her house. She was already comfortable with him, it was not the first time that he would drive her home, so she simply turned on the radio. Just to fill the silence.

A specific song started playing, “Love Affair” from her favorite singer, UMI. 

Not being able to control herself, Alena started singing the song, making Caspian giggle a little.

He had always enjoyed hearing her sing but never said anything. When they both dated she would constantly sing to him and he loved it, even if he never told her that.

Caspian was not one of expressing his feelings and that is what made them both not work, Alena liked when people talked to her about how they felt and well, Caspian never did that. He would simply keep his emotions to him and never say anything.

Until one day he wouldn’t be able to bear everything at the same time and would ‘explode’, Alena was always there for him even when he didn’t want to tell her what was going on.

And she still is there for him but is totally different now.

When the music was over, another song filled the car, not letting it be in silence for one second but this time Alena was not singing and a feeling that Caspian was not understanding was being created.

He did not know what was going on with him, maybe he missed having her with him. 

But he can not do that, at least not now, because he doesn’t know how to.

They were almost there when Alena seemed worried out of sudden, making Caspian worried as well. She was trying to play it off and ignore whatever was going on but Caspian knew her way too well, the way she looked at the window, afraid of accidentally showing her emotions through her eyes was something that Caspian got used to her doing.

And he knew that something was wrong with her, but again, he was never good with emotions so he doesn’t know how to help his dear friend.

Reaching her house, Alena said a quick ‘thanks’ and left the car, but before gave Caspian a kiss on the cheek, surprising the young boy who was still half in love with her.

She ran to her house and got in, Caspian was somehow worried about the girl but maybe this was not the time to ask questions about what was going on, Alena used to talk to him when she needed to and he would listen, even if it didn’t look like it.

He listened to everything and some of the conversations still haunt his mind sometimes, the awful things that had happened to the innocent girl that he knew, would make him hate this world more than he already does, but that’s out of topic, isn’t it?

Caspian was still in front of her house when he came back from his thoughts, looking at the door and remembering the night that they had both ran away because inside Alena’s house the things weren’t going really well and she wanted to get away from all of it and forget for a while.

That happened before they dated but it was the day that Alena realized how much she loved him, he was perfect that day.

Listening to what she had to say and hugging her every time she was about to break down, and making her feel calm, making her anxiety calm down, and making her feel safe with him.

She had a crush on him for a while but never brought herself to, she was too shy at the time and well didn’t want to lose her friend.

But things happened differently, Caspian also had a crush on the brown-haired girl that spent most of the days with him, that day when he saw her suffering so much he felt mad, mad at whoever put her like this.

Mad at whoever broke her heart and stole her innocence.

He wanted her to be happy and hopefully, she would be happy with him and they were happy indeed, but not for long.

Caspian had changed because of some events in his life, until today Alena still doesn’t know what happened and he doesn’t plan on telling her.

He had become m0re closed and Alena thought that he stopped listening to her, she felt like he didn’t love her anymore, she felt like she had done anything wrong that had made him stop loving her as he did before.

But little did she know that she was the reason why he was still alive, the reason while he was still going on and leaving his bed every day even when everything he wanted to do was stay there and never leave.

Little does she know that until this day, she’s still what is keeping him alive, not letting him fall into the darkness of his thoughts.

She.

She is everything he has, and now he feels like she’s escaping from his hands, and even if he doesn't want to admit it, Caspian is scared, he’s scared of losing her for good, because if he does lose her...

All of the reasons he has to go on will go with her.

Leaving Caspian without any salvation, only his thoughts would be heard and his darkest demons would come out.

Just think about it, if he’s already messed up with her, imagine if she was gone.

But now really coming back from his thoughts, before he gets stuck in them, Caspian starts his car once again and starts driving home, listening to “Chasing Pavements” by Adele.

It made him think about her even more, made him think about how bad he was to her.

Maybe he should go back and try to talk to her about everything, but before he can even think of doing that, he noticed that he was on the wrong road as he saw a yellow light and heard a loud noise, which immediately made him stop the car. But it was too late. The truck hit the car, but the truck couldn’t stop. The weight of the car wouldn't let that happen. The car was under the truck, and most of the bones of Caspian’s body crashed. Everything lost color, he couldn’t go back now.

He just wished he hadn’t left her.

Already in her home, Yaella was going upstairs without making any noise, afraid of waking up her father, making him angry.

It was never a good feeling and she clearly didn’t like when it happened.

But unfortunately, he heard her, somehow he had heard her and now she was scared, more scared than she had ever been in her life.

Her father was drunk and that was clear to see, but the worst part is that he had something on his hand, maybe a belt.

“ You know that I don’t like it when you wake me up.” He said, his voice husky making her shiver. 

“ I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to,” She whispered, not wanting to make him mad, at least not more than he already was.

“ You look just like your mother,” He said as he came closer to Yaella, who was now walking back, afraid of her own father. The girl simply stayed quiet, not wanting to make any comment about her dear mother.

“Every time I look at you, I see her,” Her dad takes off a step closer, and again Yaella walks back. “ That makes me so mad,” The belt that was once on his right hand was now being held with both of his.

She knew what was going to happen and all she wished now is that someone would appear and save her again, just like Apollo did a couple of minutes ago.

But that was too good to be true, she knew that no one would save her from the nightmare she was living and all she could do now was keep living it, because believe it or not she didn’t want to die, even if her life was crap. 

She wanted to live, because she knew that life has so many beautiful things and she could simply run away when she finally turned 18, it was only a couple of months to go.

Yaella was not going to give up now.

As she was expecting the belt in her father’s hands started hitting her skin, over and over again. 

The only thing she could do now was cry and yell even if no one would hear.

She was hopeless but full of hope.

She was crying for help but didn’t want any.

She was lost, but about to find herself.

And the last thing our dear girl remembers was the pain that her father was causing her and seeing the image of her mother broken on the floor before everything turned black.

Not too far from Yaella’s house, Apollo was in front of his house, ready to go inside and finally rest and eat something, but he was stopped by a sound of steps, not far from him. They were right behind him.

He acted like he didn’t listen until they came close enough for him to hit whoever was behind him. There was a group of at least six men, at least that was what he saw when he turned back. It’s not like he hadn’t dealt with it before, it would be pretty easy to knock them down and get in the house, or just run away to somewhere with more people, so they couldn’t attack him.

It didn’t take him much time to knock half of them down, but he stopped as he heard a gunshot. It hit him, but it wasn’t in a way that could kill him. If it was like that, he wouldn’t have heard the g*n in the first place. He noticed blood on his arm, where the bullet hit him. As he was thinking about running and hiding so he could make a plan, he felt a pain in his chest. “But I didn’t hear the bullet”, that was all he could think at that moment.

Exactly. He didn’t hear the bullet. Because there was no bullet. It was a knife. Someone stabbed him in the chest. He tried to turn and hit the person, but everything went black as he felt something in his head.

He asked himself if at least he would be forgiven for the problems he caused, and the problems he solved. 

As his body fell on the ground, he remembered the girl he saved today. She seemed scared about something. About being alone, about trusting people, even about her own home. 

He asked himself if she would be ok if she could be strong enough to fight her war with herself and anyone around her. 

But even though he was dying, Apollo was happy, because he had saved a girl today, Yaella was her name. 

And even if he was going to die tonight he saved another. 

Apollo would finally see his sister again.

Going back to Alena’s life, when she was in the car, she received a message from her mother, asking her to hurry up home because she needed help.

At the time she didn’t want to make Caspain worried even if she knew it was not working, she had a feeling that something was about to go wrong so before leaving his car, she gave him a kiss on the cheek, just like she used to when saying goodbye.

Running inside her house, she yelled for her mother, asking if she was okay as she ran, looking and searching for her, being more worried as every second passed by.

When she opened her mother’s room door, she found her there, laying down…

Blood covering the sheet all around her, Alena was shocked and froze when heard someone coming upstairs, she ran to the closet thinking it would be a good option to hide instead of being there looking at her mother.

Tears falling down her face as her left hand covered her mouth so that she didn’t make any noise, she was scared of whatever was going to happen and was glad that the last person she saw was Caspian.

Memories of them both floated in her mind as she heard the steps coming closer and closer to her.

One…

 Two…

 Three guys walked into the room, they had guns in their hands and looked ready to do to her the same as they did to her mother.

But Alena was smart and she did not want to die, instead, she wanted to call for help and try to help her mother if that was even possible.

When all of the three-man went into the bathroom, Alena quickly left the room and ran, she ran downstairs thinking that she would hide before they even noticed that she had left but she was wrong.

There were more people downstairs waiting for someone to come down, and when they saw her, they smiled.

And slowly walked to her, she knew she wouldn’t come out of this alive, but at least she tried. 

She tried to run from the monsters who killed her mother and try to do something, but they were more than she could count, they were too much and she knew that now she couldn’t do anything.

The girl tried to fight them, but they were strong and obviously in a larger amount.

Caspian crossed her mind, she didn’t think of her mother at that moment.

She thought about how she could have spent more time with him instead of coming home, she thought of how she could simply have stayed with him and feel safe.

She could have told him that something was wrong.

She could have kissed him more times, not on the cheek but somewhere else.

She could have lived.

With him.

But now, all she sees is a puddle of her own blood being formed around her, and she will end as her mother did.