That was a question she almost expected, but not this early. Amelia had suffered greatly throughout her life, but this was one of the biggest events. Something that she still didn't entirely understand even after six years.
How much God had put her through seemed to have no end in sight. If the years now were becoming more dark, how could she recount the days when things were so bright? The days of her coma were nothing but darkness.
Amelia remembered the day all too well, standing on a street corner with the man she once loved. Jake Parker and her, standing side by side. Hands interlocked with their fingers rubbing against each other's skin. Chatting with one another, smiles spread across their lips. A normal day between the two, something that was rare in their relationship.
Until the sound of shuffling feet approached the two, Amelia barely caught the face of a man behind shades of black. A gun pointed towards her lover, eyes widened in surprise. Her own eyes pierce the mysterious man's bright hazel eyes. She knew Jake was the target, she wasn't going to let him get hurt.
Her shoes pushing against the ground, moving herself in front of her lover. Jake had no time to stop her from sacrificing herself.
"No!"
All she felt was the undeniable pain, the ringing in her ears with the sound of gunshots hitting the air. Her feet weak, her eyes blurring with her vision. Clutching onto her stomach tightly, looking down to see the pooling of blood against her clothing, her own hands. The man was already running off in the other direction, unfeeling to the person he had just shot.
Losing consciousness, fading from the world entirely. Until nothing, there was nothing left. Not the sound of busy cars, the bustling of streets filled with people living their everyday lives. Amelia was thrown into overbearing darkness, for what felt like years.
"I don't really know.. I just felt darkness and numbness all around me. It was like I was frozen in time, and I had nowhere to go."
There was nothing she could feel in time, as if time itself had disappeared. The long awaited darkness, the echoing of walls that didn't even exist. Amelia cried out in her own subconscious, hoping for someone to release her from Hell's hold. No one came, nothing changed. If someone could understand the maddening feeling of emptiness, she would expect them to know how it felt in her comatose state.
It was painful being alone for what felt like years, searching for any sign of life. A white light, even a sign that she was able to die in some form of peace. No matter how loud she screamed, how bloodcurdling it may have sounded – No one would hear such a cry.
"And then?"
Amelia turns her head to look at Leo finally, trying not to show the tension in her body. She wasn't going to explain the entire events that followed her being shot, nor how distressing it was to be stuck in an endless loop. You would only believe such a tale from her lips if the person had experienced the same thing themselves. So many moments of her life could only be experienced by her, she would never want anyone to go through the hardships she had.
"And then nothing, I just.. Woke up." She sighs, looking down at her hands. " I woke up grasping for.. Jake's hand."
That memory still festered in her mind. The way his hand felt as she gripped on for dear life. Her senses coming back to her, her vision suddenly fixing itself to meet the eyes of the man she loved. How magically she had woken from the chaining darkness from the unknown. It was a mystery still even years later, the doctors never understood how her awakening occurred.
Maybe the screams were heard through the voice, finally releasing her.
Leo holds his hands together, nodding his head in response. "I see.. So you miraculously woke up, and became a whole new person."
Affects on her brain were evident the moment she had awoken. Amelia had done many terrible things while out of her own mental state, unable to remember fully what had happened. Not until her actions were explained to her, how cruel she had become in those moments. How she had met Leo, how they had exchanged the twisting of bodies for power. Almost falling into the hands of her grandfather, completely ruining a part of her life.
No doctor, no medical specialist could figure out what had happened to her brain the moment she had awoken. Nor how the effects disappeared, it was a medical mystery.
"No one can explain it, it still doesn't even make sense to me." Amelia breathes out, " I'm just very glad I'm alive."
What a bold-faced lie. Looking back at her life, she wished that bullet had killed her. If it had, no one else would have fallen shortly after. There would have been no motive for Jake to have killed everyone she loved, people would have gone on as nothing had ever happened.
Leo's hand is placed on top of hers, his stare holding onto her own. "I'm glad you're alive too. It gives me a chance to apologize for who I was. I cleaned up, and that's not me."
Amelia shakes her head, "Leo there's no need to apologize–"
"I don't regret anything I did however, but my wife can never find out what I was for a period of time." His tone was serious, yet his hand still stayed on hers.
She scoffs, "You think I'm going to tell her? Leo I don't give a shit about any of that anymore." Amelia pulls her hand quickly away from him, "I don't know what you're getting at. Your attitude has changed all of a sudden."
"If you say a single word, you don't know what I'll do to you or the people you care for."
There it was: Leo had not changed one bit. He was still the disgusting, rancid, and vile man she had met so many years ago. The house, the wife, it was nothing but an act. A way to appear as if he was normal, well adjusted now into society. He was far from it, he was never going to be considered normal. The words have Amelia's blood boiling, her heart pounding against her chest.
"Are you basically threatening me?" Amelia snarls, standing up quickly from her seat on the couch. Hands balled into fists, she had half a mind to beat the man where he stood.
She had a mission, a deal to uphold. She could just take the man where he was. Completely get rid of him with no trace, no witnesses. Yet her body betrayed her, it stopped her from knocking the man unconscious.
Leo stands up shortly after, towering over the woman. "Take it as whatever you think, don't say anything to her." His eyebrows furrow over his eyes, "I warned you."
Nothing else is to be exchanged as Leo's phone buzzes, the man quickly pulling it out of his pocket to check it. There's a smile that pulls on his lips followed by a small sigh. "Awe, it looks like I have a job. Please enjoy the house."
Waving the phone in his hand, Leo is moving away from her. Grabbing a suitcase, and a coat off of the coat rack. In a moment he's gone, leaving Amelia's teeth grinding against one another. Her eyebrow twitching, hands in fists at her side.
Amelia groans, "Still the same recide bastard."
It wasn't going to be so hard to take the man out after all, but what was Amelia going to do about his wife. The innocent woman who had married a man with a dangerous past. Someone who had not changed, no matter how perfect of a smile they presented.
If the man was so worried about his life knowing, Amelia could reveal secrets in other ways. Perhaps, do much worse to his entire facade. A little treat of payback before he would fall to his knees at her mercy.
Some fun before the real bargaining began: Begging for his life.