The Line Between Life, Death & Love

I had finally caught up to Psycho around the entrance to B&N. Catching my breath I didn't say anything, just glared at the floor as I followed him through the mall. I tried to figure out where he was taking me but it looked like circles and pointless to me. Patience, patience. I was famous for it unless I was hungry or a body part was sore or I was irritated/frustrated at something. Considering the latter was a factor at this point, my patience was thin. "Stop thinking so much." I snapped my head in his direction. "What?" "Stop. thinking. so. much." He said it as if I was slow or something. Ass. "I'm not thinking a lot. What are you talking about.?" He just looked at me and kept walking. Patience. Grumpy much? We kept walking what seemed like for another hour until finally he stopped at a fountain secluded on the far end of the mall. It was pretty deserted here I noticed. Oh god this is the part where he rapes me and-" "Shh!" He glared at me. I glared back. This guy! He had a lot of nerve going around shhing people he stole from and didn't even know. "YOU SHH! Don't tell me to shh! You STOLE from me and are practically holding me against my will via important life items!" I crossed my arms over my chest and stuck my nose in the air proud of my rant at him, a for all I knew Psycho killer. "I'm not a Psycho, 'azel. I just want to talk." My eyes widened. Did I say that out loud? I thought back..No I'm pretty sure I never called him that to his face. Plus he missed the killer part. My eyes widened farther. Or maybe he was a killer and that's why he left that part out! I took a step back for good measure. And did he just notice my eye color? What killer did that? Again he took a step forward. "Stop doing that!" He looked at me in question. "Don't give me that look, you know what I mean. Stop following me." He sat down on the border of the fountain. "I believe YOU were following ME." My jaw dropped. Seriously? "You have MY keys and phone!" A too finely shaped brow rose in question. "So?" I sputtered. I couldn't believe this guy! "So? SO?! SO they are MY property and I CAN'T LEAVE THE MALL WITHOUT THEM!" So the patience chant was not working with me on this one and I was now yelling in public with a psy- "Again, I'm not a psycho." This said with exhaustion. My face scrunched up in concentration. "Are you reading my mind?" Now he looked at me like I was the crazy one. I shook my head. "Nevermind, okay what do you want to talk about. I really need to get home." "I can be a freak, I can I can be a freak every day of every week" His lips twitched as he pulled out my phone. Looking at the screen he looked like he was going to.... Gasping I lunged at him, "NO!" Simply wrapping one huge arm around me, he banded me to his chest. "Hello?" I could here the high pitched tone of my mom as I struggled for freedom. I groaned against his chest in defeat. There would be hell to pay when I got home. "Yes she's shopping right now, I'm holding onto her stuff. Sure, I'll let her know. Me?" That's when he brought the phone away from his ear and ended the call. He released me from his hold, I was not going to contemplate the butterflys flying around in my stomach right now and the cold air that seemed to seep into me by the second after the release. I shot out my hand for the phone, but he was too quick and pocketed it again. "What are you thinking answering MY phone!?" He completely ignored me and sat back down on the border. Not knowing what to do I started pacing in front of him worried about the load of questions I was sure gonna get from my mom as soon as I placed my foot through the door. Groaning inside, I kept pacing trying to calm down and figure out what was happening to me. Why me? I just wanted to do my interview and get a good steady job to live with myself independently. So much to ask? God, why!? "'AZEL! Sit down before you give me a headache!" His command was like a cracked whip. What else was there to do but listen? Wait, what? I shook my head realizing I had sat down next to him. I shook my head again in confusion. How'd he do that? I didn't want to sit down, I wanted my stuff and I wanted to get the hell out of here. Oh jeez, what if my boyfriend called, would he answer that call too? Probably, the psy- Before I knew what happened something pushed me. Hard. I fell backwards and landed in the fountain behind me. I came up sputtering obscenities. "What the fuck!" He was leaning on the border staring down at me with a smirk on his face. That was the last straw. I don't think he expected me to do this which is the only reason why it worked. I reached up and grabbed both his arms pulling him in right along side me. It was then I realized too late what I'd done. "OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD, OHMYGOOOD! GET OUT OF THE WATER, GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT!" I screeched at him until I was pushing him out of the fountain and I followed him out soaking wet. "NO! Oh my god is my phone dead!? Give it to me now!" I ran up to him and continued to giving him a full pat down to find my phone. Victory gleemed in my mind as I found it in his back pocket. I reached in but he grabbed my wrist and forcefully removed my hand. "Not so fast." I guess I didn't realize, um, he was pissed. Not that I cared...too much. He held my hand over his head and grabbed my phone himself. Looking at it he pressed the button to power it on. My heart fell and all the air left my chest. It wasn't turning on. "Quick! Open the back and take everything out for it too dry." "Too late." Ignoring my request he stuck the phone back into his pocket. In too much disbelief at the fountain, the phone, emotions crashed into me all at once. My shoulders started to convulse and I felt new wetness to my eyes that weren't from the fountain. My shoulders slumped forward to cave in on my body. Why? Why was this happening to me? "'Azel?" I heard him all right but at the same time I didn't. I ignored him and kept at it. All I had wanted was to grab a couple books and make it home to relax and congratulate myself on a good interview and share the results with my mom. I guess life really really didn't want to work out for me in the slightest, I just thought I'd get some kind of break, what with the good news of the interview and... "'Azel?" Strong fingers gripped my chin and turned my face up to his. I really didn't want to do what he commanded my body to do but I lost the fight in me for the moment and just wanted to recoup. "Why do you call me that?" I just realized he's been calling me hazel (coming out as 'azel because of his accent) this whole time but I never said a word about it. "That's not my name." All I could do was stare into his obsidian eyes. Black as a black hole. Well no that wasn't quite right, if I stared hard enough there were some silver flecks in there. I almost couldn't differentiate his irises from the rest of his eye. Who had eyes like that? So odd. "You never told me your name." Well duh, why would I? I snorted in my mind. "Well Mr. Stranger you've never told me yours either." I pulled my chin from his grasp and out of his hold. He had been holding me this entire time? I guess that made sense since once he let go I almost fell on my ass from mental exhaustion. He started to reach out to steady me but thought better of it pulling back at the last second. Looking down at myself I'd almost forgotten how soaked I was and now I was starting to feel the cold. "Look..." I didn't know what to say but I had to get home and away from this situation. It was growing darker by the minute and Mom would be worried. Now that I had no phone she wouldn't get a txt to warn her what was keeping me. I tried again. "Look mister I don't know what you want to tell me but I need to go. This is insane. You've stolen from me, made me follow you all over this mall, pushed me into the mall fountain, now my pho