Free The Return by Nicole R. Taylor

she yelled at him.
    He sat up stiffly, perching on the bench again, elbows resting on his knees. Liz crouched in front of him, but he looked over her shoulder into empty space.
    "What do you think you're doing?" She grabbed his wrists, staring up at him horrified.
    He didn't know what to say, so he just shrugged.
    "Don't do this. I know it hurts," she pleaded. "We need you, Zac."
    "I don't know why," he said, focusing on her face for the first time. "I've never been well adjusted."
    "Zac," she whispered, placing a gentle hand on his cheek. "Give it some time. We'll be here for you. You're not alone in this."
    Glaring at her, he pulled away abruptly. "Has anyone you loved died? A grandparent, a friend?"
    "Sure, my grandparents are all passed…" she began.
    "Well, then think of how much it hurt to lose them, then times that by a billion. Even then, you wouldn't be close." 
    Liz stared at him for a moment, not knowing what to say to help him feel better. She wanted him back, even if it was the sarcastic ass he was before. Sitting beside him, she took his hand. When he didn't pull away she said, "Don't. Just don't do that again, okay?" She let the tears fall from her eyes.
    "Fine," he spat, standing up. "I won't do myself in. But I'm not promising I won't let anyone else."
    He stalked across the yard and was gone so fast, whatever Liz was going to say dying on the breeze behind him.

 

 
 
 
    Gabby had no desire to work today, but still sat at her desk staring blankly at the monitor that displayed an endless stream of emails. Her thoughts kept coming back to her predicament, despite trying to work through the massive to do list she'd compiled. The thing inside of her that was clamoring to get out.
    "Gabby!" The excited squeal of the Real Estate's receptionist, Bianca filtered through the office, breaking through her melancholy.
    Before Gabby could get up and go see what all the fuss was about, she caught sight of Bianca running down the hallway with a bunch of flowers. Not just any flowers; roses. 
    "Looks like you've got a secret admirer," Bianca trilled, setting them on Gabby's desk.
    "Why do you say secret?" she asked, winking.
    "You haven't got a boyfriend and if you had a date, you would have told me about it."
    Gabby laughed, "How do you know me so well?"
    "Woman's intuition," Bianca smiled, walking back out to reception.
    Gabby sighed, picking up the flowers. Five red roses, all the color of blood.  
    They were a message that only she would know the significance of. Five was a scared witches number ; the five points of a pentagram. The five elements. The five founding witches. Their abnormally deep red color was a dead give away and the fact that the thorns had been left on the stems. They could only have come from one person.
    Opening the card, she snorted as she read the message. Love, Arturius . Ugh. 
    She leant back in her chair and rubbed her temples. Why the hell was that freak still hanging around? And why was he sending her flowers? She had to find a way to end him before it was too late. Whatever kind of game he thought he was playing, he could just play it by himself.
    "Gabrielle."
    Jumping at the sound of a familiar and unwelcome voice, she turned to find Arturius leaning against the partition around her desk.
    "What the hell," she cursed, flinging the card into the trash.
    His eyes narrowed slightly at the gesture, but his lips curved into a grin. "Do you like the flowers?"
    "No, no I don't."
    "I know how you witches are with your numbers." He lightly stroked the stem of one of the roses, ignoring her tone.
    "I'm not a traditional witch, Arturius. I wasn't brought up that way."
    "No, you weren't, were you?" he mused. "You thought you were normal."
    "How did you get in here?" she hissed.
    "You know exactly how," he stared at her with cool eyes.
    Snorting, she knew he'd compelled everyone in the office to ignore his presence. She wished she could just ignore him. "Whatever you're trying to do,