His blood pulsed through his injured, bruised fists as he stood just a few inches from the front door with a strand of his charcoal black hair down his face.

It was so quiet that he could hear his heart beating and his blood running through his own veins. He listened some more, and only heard the slick sound of his tongue sliding across his bottom lip. And right then, he knew it was time.

He told himself many times that Mattie would be his future, his path to something that would add a light to his world that was so, so dark.

It was like a tunnel and he was walking through it. Dark from the start but bright at the end, the end where Mattie was waiting for him with open arms. Jaxson was in the middle of it now, fighting his way through just to get to that damned light that he needed to feel on his skin and take in his arms.

Jaxson slowly reached his hand to the doorknob before sticking the key in the slot with caution and patience. He got it from the plant pot lying on their porch from seeing Mattie's mother putting it there just a few days before.

He had to push his fingers through the moist, recently watered dirt under the yellow flower sprouting from it to retrieve it. And when he did he smiled and moved his finger across a soft yellow petal, watching it fall onto the dirt afterward.

Jaxson bit his lip after finally unlocking the door to Mattie's home, and walked in with wide and alert eyes before taking in the smell of Yankee candles surrounding the home.

The living room was dark, the only light present being from the candles and the moonlight that shone from the thinly curtained windows. Jaxson enjoyed the sight, mentally getting off to the thought of Mattie standing exactly where he was just hours before. He thought he could smell her, for her smell was something nobody could ever forget.

It was always cherries and vanilla. Each time he kissed her neck it was all he could smell, and he took his time to inhale her scent that he practically got high from when he hugged her to hopefully get her smell on his clothes.

Jaxson inhaled and exhaled softly, carefully taking step by step across the floor until he got to the stairs. He climbed them slowly, not making a single creak.

Her smell seemed to be getting closer, causing him to bite the inside of his cheeks and clench his fists before walking a tad bit faster just to get closer sooner.

Her room was at the top of the stairs, and her door was closed.

He stood in front of it and closed his eyes, praying that the door would not make a sound. And as he opened it, only one creak sounded through the hallway on top of the stairs, however Mattie sleeping in her bed did not budge.

He watched the covers rise and fall with each sleeping breath she took, and it calmed him.

Jaxson walked over to her bed, breathing softly and more easily now that he was in her presence. He admired her full, parted lips and held back the urge kiss them.

Instead, he turned around and exited her bedroom to do what he came to do.

He closed her door with darkened eyes, liking the way his black clothing blended in with his dark surroundings.

Jaxson held onto the railings as he walked back downstairs, squeezing the wood at the thought of Mattie's hands doing the same thing every morning before going to school.

He wanted every bit of her on his hands and under his fingertips for his keeping. He wanted to turn around and lay on top of her in bed with his lips grazing against her soft neck. He wanted her, and without changing her mothers mind in someway, that was never going to happen.

Her mothers room was through the living room and down another small hallway right beside a bathroom, and it was wide open unlike Mattie's. She clearly didn't have much to hide anymore after she physically and mentally broke just years before. Jaxson knew about her and Mattie's past, he knew everything just like everyone did in that small forsaken town that he desperately wanted to flee.

Her bedroom was cold and her bed was big though it was only for her. There were more lit Yankee candles on her dresser, one smelling like sugar cookies and the other smelling like soap. He didn't like the mixture.

He slowly closed her door, but this time didn't care for it to be silent.

She moved around after he closed it with a small thud, and not to his surprise blinked her sleepy eyes before slowly but surely awakening.

Jaxson crossed his arms and watched, silently waiting for her to look at him. He wanted to see her afraid, he craved to see the fear creep upon her features as he looked at the boy in black. And when she did, she swore he was the devil himself.

He quickly walked close to her before she could scream, and held a large hand over her mouth as she did exactly that.

"Shut up." He hissed, a sly grin forming upon his mouth at the sight of her squinted eyes and the feeling of her lips quivering against the palm of his hand.

She clawed at his arm over and over, but Jaxson didn't budge a bit, for he's felt worse pain than that.

"Has a guy ever asked for your blessing to date your daughter like this?" Jaxson joked, the only one thinking it was funny.

Silence finally took over the room as Mattie's mother stopped thrashing her arms, however her eyes were still wild and raged with fear and her nails were still dug into his skin that was close to bleeding.

"How long has it been since a mans been in your bedroom?" He whispered closer to her face, feeling her breaths against his palm.

"How long has it been since you've been touched?" Her mother tried to scream once again, but as Jaxson pushed his hand harder upon her mouth she stopped only to let out a sob, a tear falling down her cheek immediately following. He wiped it away with a grin.

"If I remember clearly it was three years ago, in my backseat." He kissed a fresh tear away as soon as it fell from her sleep deprived eyes.

"You remember, don't you Miss Noelle?" Jaxson's voice was laced with venom, and a chill raked down her spine at the remembrance of the one time she lost control with the brown haired boy that lived next door. He looked older at fifteen, so it was easy to lie about his age just so he could have his way with a real woman.

"You came next door and we went to that old empty field that used to be the drive in, remember?" He hesitated to move a strand of hair from her face. "Then you rode me until you were quivering."

She began to shake her head and sob some more, getting the palm of his hand wet from the saliva falling from her lips at how afraid she was and how hard she was crying.

"And all the while you left your little daughter at home to cook dinner over the stove for her slut of a mother." He barked, his smile erasing at the thought of Mattie waiting for her mom to come back home.

Jaxson didn't know much of Mattie then. He only noticed her after opening his black curtains one day, and that was a day he would never regret nor forget.

"Is that why you're so pissed that I fucked your daughter?" Jaxson chuckled and shrugged, "I guess any parent would be pissed that I fucked their daughters, but it's different when you've done the same thing with their moms." He used his free hand to run his fingers through his jet black hair, a contrast to when it used to be a milk chocolate brown like Mattie's mother remembered it.

She remembered tugging it and smearing her red lipstick across his neck. The thought had her instantly having to bite the inside of her cheeks to hold back the bile that was rising in her throat like burning lava at the thought of her own daughter, her own flesh and blood, doing the same thing to the same man.

"Get out," she muffled against his palm as more unwanted tears slid down the side of her eyes that was aging with crows feet.

"I love your daughter. And you're not gonna keep her from seeing me, in fact, you're going to apologize to her for telling her how to live her fucking life and you're going to tell her she can start seeing me." He moved his hand from her mouth, and before she could even think to scream he had his hand on her neck tightly.

"Go to hell," she choked, staring him deeply in the eyes, too afraid to look away.

They were darker than she remembered. They held determination and fear, fear at the thought of ever losing Mattie.

"The only reason I'm not snapping your god damn neck right now is because you're the reason I ever noticed her in the first place." He squeezed her neck harder just then, admiring the sight of how her face began to turn red before it became blue.

He love the fact that he was just minutes away from feeling her pulse stop under his finger tips. He loved how he had her death in the palm of his hands, he found it exhilarating.

He stopped to watch her inhale deeply with the widest eyes he's ever seen. She didn't bother screaming or fighting, for she didn't have the oxygen nor the strength.

"If you go to the cops, or tell a single person," he hesitated to move closer to her face and slowly press his lips to hers, feeling her shake in fear underneath him. "I swear to god you won't see Mattie again." Jaxson whispered against her mouth and walking towards the door to leave before turning back to face Mattie's mother that was still catching her breath and choking on air.

She nodded, visibly afraid of Jaxson's past and what he was capable of. And even though she didn't want to, she believed him and that he could take Mattie from her.

"Oh yeah, tell Mattie to invite me over for dinner sometime. All three of us." Jaxson smiled a devilish smile and left the once peaceful home, leaving his mark on it for good.

____