Killer Love: Part 2

My breath came in ragged gasps as I stumbled through the wooded park. Branches scratched my arms and roots continually threatened to tangle my feet, but I couldn't stop running. Flashing lights still spotted my vision each time I blinked—police lights. Handcuffs slicing my wrists. My dead classmate's face etched in blood behind my eyelids. It was all wrong, yet also sickeningly real no matter how desperately I wanted to rewind the past twelve hours of spiraling madness.

Somehow I found myself in the hidden grove Ella and I often picnicked in on golden afternoons that now seemed to belong to someone else's life. Crumpling at the base of the towering oak we once napped beneath, I fished my phone from my pocket with trembling fingers. As expected, 37 missed calls and too many frantic texts to process from Ella after police undoubtedly woke her with this hellish nightmare. But I just couldn't bear worrying my angel any more tonight. Tomorrow I would form a plan to reach her, explain somehow...

A twig cracked sharply. Heart lurching, I glanced up expecting to find the barrel of a police gun leveled at my forehead to finish me off for good. Instead Ella stood haloed in moonlight on the edge of the grove, hair in wild disarray and chest heaving like she'd sprinted the whole way here. I blinked hard, sure she must be a desperate hallucination.

"Zach!" My name tore from Ella's throat in a choked sob. She rushed forward before I could scramble away. This feverish illusion of my girlfriend couldn't be real, couldn't see me like this with madness and danger clinging to my skin...

But then Ella's soft palms were framing my face so tenderly even angels couldn't replicate the sensation. Her familiar lavender scent wreathed me as she gently turned my face up to hers. Eyes welling rapidly, I leaned into her heavenly touch despite myself.

"The only place I should be is right beside you," Ella insisted fiercely. And just like that, the remaining fractures inside me sealed back up. My fighter angel had come flying to my rescue, reality be damned. If anyone could help me defeat demons right now, it was Ella.

I clung shamelessly to her slender frame as words I'd bitten back all night came rushing out in cathartic confession...

I recounted everything about that awful night in vivid detail just as it replayed infinitely behind my lids: the innocent study session with my friend Veronica, returning her forgotten jacket only to find her savagely murdered minutes later. The bloody accusations scrawled by her lifeless hand. My split-second decision to run that damned me under cops' suspicious glares.

As my story poured out, Ella merely stroked my hair and back soothingly. No accusations or disgust flashed across her delicate features, only dawning horror and determination. When I finally exhausted my grim tale, she took my face firmly between her gentle hands once more.

"We're going to clear your name and find out who set you up, Zach," she promised, steel flashing in her violet gaze. "Together."

I searched Ella's face desperately for any hint of doubt in her astonishing faith in me. Finding only unwavering certainty, I let out a choked sob and yanked her body to mine fiercely. My fierce girl believed me innocent when the rest of the world already hung me. With Ella by my side, I finally felt a tiny spark of hope reignite within the dark chaos.

We spent the next week enacting a risky plan of attack. By day, Ella played her part flawlessly as my unworried, oblivious girlfriend still going about her normal school routine. Meanwhile, I committed Veronica's habits, friends, and schedule to memory from my hideout, searching for any clue pointing to another suspect. We built a detailed map marking each place Veronica frequented and everyone potentially linked to her last fatal steps.

One name swiftly rose to our top suspect: Victor Walsh, an eccentric psychology professor whose longstanding feud with Veronica heightened right before her death. Though his supposed office hours gave him an alibi that night, Ella sensed the holes in his story immediately. While she took over interviewing students linked to Victor's circle, I helped her sneak a recording device to finally catch him admitting something incriminating.

The night Ella captured Victor raving drunkenly about covering up sins with his brother, euphoria roared through my veins. We had our break in the case! After Ella alerted cops of his location, I knew my redemption waited right around the corner thanks to her relentless courage.

I swung Ella ecstatically around our tiny cabin hideaway while she laughed breathlessly. As her eyelashes fluttered up at me, the adoration shining unconcealed across her features in that moment punched the air clean from my lungs. Reality crystallized in startling clarity: throughout this harrowing ordeal, Ella became my lifeline, my whole world. And I wanted to spend every moment proving I could be hers in return.

In the golden glow of dawn after Victor's confession freed me officially, I turned to the crowd gathered outside the courthouse beaming and triumphant. But instead of joining the celebration, my first instinct was scanning their ecstatic faces for one person alone.

A familiar floral scent warmed the air just before Ella catapulted herself into my arms. Joyful laughter bubbled out of me as I twirled her effortlessly like we were the only souls on earth. Everything we endured seemed worth reaching this euphoric moment with my fighter girl in my embrace again.

As cheers continued erupting around us I knew I couldn't delay this question pulsing urgently in my heart another second. Still cradling Ella close with one arm, I reached into my pocket and sank gracefully to one knee before her. When she registered the glittering vintage ring I revealed, those captivating violet eyes went endearingly round before flooding with happy tears.

My voice cracked under the weight of emotion. "Say you'll keep fighting with me always, Ella - as my partner, lover and friend...Make me the luckiest man on earth by becoming my wife?"

Ella yanked me up by our joined hands and kissed me fiercely. Against my smiling lips she whispered "yes" over and over until it became our shared heartbeat thundering exultantly toward our future.

Whatever came next for us now, with Ella's petite but mighty hand tucked fearlessly in mine, I knew we could weather any storm - even emerge stronger for having braved the darkness together. My angel gave me back my freedom and restored my faith in hope's beautiful light. Now I intended to spend my whole life striving to deserve her.