A/N: Okay, so some of you were annoyed that I made the army call Neela instead of showing up on her door step, but you've got to understand; it was all for dramatics. You've go to admit that that was pretty dramatic the way the phone slipped out of her hand like that, right? Alright, I get it, enough of me, on to the story. Presenting, the fifth chapter!

Disclaimer: Do I really have to do this every time?


Chapter 5- In the Dark:

Ray's POV:

How many nights do I have to go through this? How much longer do I have to spend alone? I didn't think that I could get this dead drunk and still be able to think straight. I can't eat, can't sleep. I'm going insane without Neela. I always thought that there was a fix for everthing, but even this drunk i can still feel the pain and loneliness of being alone without Neela. There's no fix for this. I've tried so hard to hide it at work that i don't sleep at night. I try to pull as many double shifts as i can before they realize that I haven't gone home in days.

I can't go home. Too many memories. But here I am, sitting here in the dark at my apartment because Abby threatened to drag me home herself if I didn't go home and get some sleep. So i went home, grabbed a twelve pack of beer and started to drink here at home. Home. It's not really home anymore since she left. It just some empty place for my to crash at. I can't close my eyes because everytime I do, I see her there; next to me. Sometimes she's laughing, but most of the time she's looking at me the way she did when she was standing at the cab, getting ready to leave; refusing the shirt.

Damn! Why is my head so screwed up? She's married. Here I thought I saw the signs. "She's into you. She's got a thing for you." Lies, all of them.

Smmmaaaassssshhhh!

What the fuck is wrong with me! I don't throw things. But hell, my life is just as shattered as this broken bottle against the wall. Shit, another thing I have to clean up.

I've stopped calling. It's pointless now. So many on answered phone calls, it's a wonder I didn't stop a long time ago. She hasn't answered one of them. Not one! Well that's saying something. Best friend? Bull shit! If she's what I've got for a best friend, then my life's a little more screwed up then I thought. I am a loser. Why would Neela want me? Why would someone with he life in order want someone who's a loser? Sure, opposite's attract, but we're way too different, way too opposite.

Narrator's POV:

Hot, painfull tears began to slide down his cheeks. Once again he was reminded that he was alone and his mind went back to the time when he was maybe five or six.

XxFlashbackxX

Here, young Ray is looking out the window in the middle of the night. It's dark outside and his parents had yet another fight.

Sllaaaaaaaaammmm!

Ray hears the door slam and he watches his father speed away from the house from his bedroom window. He hears his mother crying in the next room. Queitly, he slips from his window and creeps to his door and slowly opens it. You can tell his hesitant about leaving his room but he still wants to go to his mother. He wasn't supposed to be up. He wasn't supposed to hear the yelling of his father and the cries of his mother as his father hit her over and over again, but he did.

His mother had threatened to call the police if he didn't leave so his father left. Finally making up his mind, young Ray goes out to see his mother.

"What are you doing up?" his mother says to him harshly.

Ray is silent and doesn't answer.

"I asked you a question!" screamed his mother as she smacks him full in the face.

"I- I- I heard D- d- daddy yel- l- ling." Ray says clearly frightened.

"And what does a ungreatfull bastard care about that?Huh?"she hits him again.

"I- I- I-I'm sorry mommy. I- I- I couldn't sleep." stammers Ray through sobs.

"You know better than to be out of bed, don't you? Don't you?"

"Y- Y- Y- e- e- s momma."

"Then you're getting what you deserve for being out of bed."

Ray begins to fade out as his mother begins to beat him.

XxEnd FlashBackxX

Ray sat on the couch rocking back and forth, trying to forget the past. He remembered thinking back that later on that night after she let him go back to bed, sneeking out the his window and running away. One of his neighbors found him walking and called the police on his mother because this time she was careless and left him horribly bruised. He was moved from foster home to foster home after that. He never really had a home after that because nobody adopted him and when he was eighteen, he was on his own.

So, Ray's been by himself all along. Untill Neela, he had no one else. No family, no friends. Just him sitting in the dark.

RRRiiiiiinnnnngg!

The sound of the phone interrupting his train of thought made him jump. Nobody called his place after Neela left. All the phone calls were for her. Ever since his band left him for California, he no longer had anymore friends.

"Hello?"

"Hey man, it's me, Pratt."

"It's three in the morning. What is it?"

"It's Michael. He's been killed."

"What! How's Neela taking this?"

"See that's the thing, nobody's heard from her and we've called her to see if she's alright but the phone's of the hook."

"Shit," Ray said as he ran his hand through his hair. "How long has it been since the phone's been off the hook?"

"Three hours at least."

"And nobody's gone to check on her?"

"That's why I called you. We're slammed really bad right now, nobody can get over there."

"Alright, I'm leaving as we speak." and with that, he hung up the phone, grabbed his jacket, and left.


"Neela! Neela, can you hear me?"

Nothing. Ray tried the handle and prayed to God it wasn't locked. It wasn't. The door swung open to an empty living room. He walked in to the kitchen and saw her passed out on the floor and the phone hanging of the hook; beeping like mad.

"Neela!" he ran to her. Switching to doctor mode, Ray began checking her vital signs. There was a faint pulse. Ray then went to the phone hung it up and called for an abulance. Neela was going to need all the help she could get.


A/N: Mmwwaahh! I leave you with a cliffie! You know I only do that so you'll stick round a little longer, right? Come on, tell me how much you're mad at me. Or don't. Tell me how much you liked it. All you got to do is push the lil' button. It's not that hard. Just move the mouse, click the button, and tell me how you feel!