The Tell-Tale Heart

(Chapter 15- Stone POV)

This was where I belonged. With her. With my Ella, my Medusa.

This was where I belonged. Yet there was one thing missing. Her.

She was right there, yet I could not touch her. She was right there, yet she was too far away from me.

"Why do you think I am like him again?" I grumbled at the pale man on screen, needing to hear her voice to soothe the aching need to pull her to me.

I had purposely sat myself so that she was as close to me as possible during this time of me unable to freely touch her.

I would wait an eternity for her.

I was thrilled that the sofa was small enough for me to make it seem minuscule, and also small enough that I had a valid excuse as to my reasoning behind my arm being set firmly on the cushioned part behind her head.

Throughout the start of the movie—which I was trying very hard to pay attention to solely for her benefit—she had tried to move further away from me.

It did not work, of course, because I would simply abolish the stupid fucking distance she had created by moving closer and closer to her until she had nowhere to go but by my side.

"Lurch is tall and scary." She said, laughing at the figure on the screen that she is convinced is similar to me "You are tall and scary."

"You do not seem scared of me." I said, motioning to small yet heart-stopping touch of her leg against mine.

"The closeness is not my fault." She pointed out "It is all to blame on your wide shoulders."

My heart dropped as she shimmied further away from me, the self-control that had previously held me back from picking her up and plonking her on me slowly fading away the more I worried she did not want to be near me.

"Move closer, Medusa." I demanded, hating the distance more than anything.

My heart leapt as she turned her attention to me, her brows furrowing as she questioned "Why?"

"You are hanging off the edge of the sofa." I pointed out in a grumble, wanting nothing more than to pull her to me.

"If I move any closer then I am going to end up on your lap."

Little did she know that that was exactly what I had been envisioning for the entire time of this torturous happening.

I smirked, turning my attention back to the television so that she would move closer to me quicker.

She let out a sigh, pretending that she was not at all happy about it as she propped a leg on mine.

My heart leapt in a way that she would find laughable.

Her attention remained on the movie as i touched her leg. My hand completely engulfed the width of her thigh before I ventured my hand beneath it.

Unholy thought invaded my mind at the position my hand found itself, but I tried my very hardest to place that somewhere else in my mind as I focused on the task at hand.

I lifted up her leg, placing it on my lap and smirking when she squeaked out "What are you doing?"

I remained silent. I took her other leg and placed it with the other so that her body swivelled and she was lying across me.

My heart stopped beating and the world stopped turning at the sight of laying across me.

I watched her, I watched her instead of watching the movie she loved so much and I could not tear my attention from her.

"Medusa." I called quietly, wanting to know something yet also needing her attention on me.

She hummed in reply, half of her attention on me whilst the other half remained on the movie.

"Where is your Dad?"

I did not at all miss the way she tensed up at my question, nor did I miss the way her breath took a pause as it hitched.

"He is still on his business trip." She answered, my stomach dropping when she crossed her arms and sat back on the sofa.

"When is he back?" I asked, glaring at her arms that were no longer on me.

"Maybe next week."

I could tell that she was lying, I could tell instantly by the uncertainty of her tone. Yet I could not fathom why on earth she would lie to me.

"What does he do?" I deepened my voice, interrogating her into telling me the truth.

"A real estate agent." She said after a few moments of questionable silence, staring at the screen.

I frowned as the tips of my fingers gently ran across the soft skin of the back of her neck, I ran my fingers through her unfamiliar brown hair, smirking to myself at the feeling of goosebumps rising beneath my touch.

"He is selling houses in Paraguay." She said, still not at all convincing me.

"Why did you not go with him?"

"What is with the interrogation?" She huffed out a sigh, making me feel guilty for pushing my needs too far "I have school. I had to stay because I need my education."

"I doubt that." I chuckled, trying my very best to cheer her up "You are already a massive know-it-all."

At the words know-it-all, she grabbed the pillow from behind her and tried to throw it at my face. I caught it before it hit me whilst chuckling, throwing it back at her with a small amount of force, being extremely careful not to hurt her in any way.

"Like you are not a massive know-it-all too." She mumbled with an adorable pout "I know that you are secretly a nerd."

I was an Ella-expert. That would be the only single thing that I would ever admit to being a know-it-all for.

I sent a small glare her way that completely vanished at the sound of her heavenly laughter that consumed my entire being.

For the next hour, my eyes remained on her. The only time I found my eyes faltering from her was when she would laugh at the movie, the sound of her laughter instantly making me need to know what was amusing her every single time.

My breaths had not been even since the very moment she had laid her legs back across my lap, her feet were on my leg and my hands engulfed her calves as she laid comfortably against me.

She sighed before looking up at me and asking "Do you want to stay and watch the second movie?"

I felt my lips hike up into a smile at her antics. "There is a second movie?" I asked, already knowing that I would pretend to watch every single movie if it meant her laying across me like this.

She gasped in faux horror "You haven't seen the sequel?"

I chuckled, lifting my arms until they crossed and rested behind my head. I smirked at the fact that she secretly wanted me to stay, the thought warming my heart in a way that only she is capable of doing.

"I will stay, Medusa." I grumbled out, secretly beaming with joy "Only because you insisted."

She rolled her eyes as she got up, she walked away from me and into her bedroom, making me need to know what she was up to.

I instantly needed her next to me again.

I walked over to the disc machine, carefully handling it so that she would never ever stop watching it with me.

The second she entered back into the room I knew, her presence warmed me without me even realising it until I felt my cheeks heat up the more she grew closer.

She passed me the new one and I handed her the old one back, our fingers brushing for a few seconds in the process.

I instantly joined her back on the sofa and reclaimed the larger portion of the small seat. I made sure that she was squished between me and the side of the sofa so that I could move her legs back into their rightful place across my lap.

My eyes wandered around the bland walls of her apartment, an instantaneous need to fill the walls with fairytale green consuming me to the point where I felt the urge to go and buy some paint.

"Your house is not what I expected." I voiced, immediately wishing that I had not been too fucking stupid and offended her.

She tilted her head at me and questioned "What did you expect?"

"Something more Ella." I said, desperately needing to know why the place did not feel like my Ella.

"What is that supposed to mean?" She frowned.

"Even your bedroom walls are plain." I uttered lowly with a rough sigh "I thought you would have something more green."

I was already planning exactly what I was going to do with that room.

"Yeah. I hate my bedroom." She said, the small agreement being my entire go-ahead for my growing plans "I plan on painting it but I haven't had the the chance. I can't reach the wholewall."

Her comment warmed my heart, I loved her tininess, I loved how she only just reached my upper stomach, I loved everything about her.

But, despite that, I still found myself taunting her "I am surprised you can reach the door handle with your tininess."

She grabbed the pillow from behind my back and launched at my chest. I did not feel it, the only reassurance that it did indeed hit me was the sight of the pillow bouncing off me and landing somewhere on the floor.

"You infuriate me." She bit out adorably, crossing her arms.

My lip quirked up when she tried her very hardest to glare up at me, an action that she is not at all capable of doing without looking utterly adorable.

All the amusement drained from my expression when a sudden thought crossed my mind, making me demand to know "Why don't you get your dad to paint your room?"

"I told you why." She bit out, making me know that she is in fact hiding something "He is in Uruguay."

Uruguay?

Perhaps that was a simple slip up, perhaps she was getting confused with something else, but deep down I knew that that was not the truth.

I frantically scanned her face, searching for any hint that she herself had noticed the slip-up, but my gaze grew more intense when she appeared not at all fazed.

She was lying to me, and it hurt me in a way that I did not think I could possibly be hurt.

"I thought you said he was in Paraguay." I murmured so lowly that it came out as more of a growl.

"Same thing." She blabbered, very obviously shocked over her mistake.

I looked away from her as my thoughts got the better of me. Did she not trust me? Had I made her feel uncomfortable? The thoughts swirled in my head like a viscous cycle, poking me so that I would eventually crack.

A few minutes passed and neither of us spoke.

I glanced at her several times, needing to reassure myself that she was in fact there and that she was not scared of me like everyone else.

"I was not shocked when I seen all your books in your room, little nerd." I remarked, desperate to hear her teasing voice again before I became a madman "Your whole floor was covered in them."

"I do love books." She stated the obvious, making me add reading her favourite books to my very long list of things to do to impress her.

"Is Edgar Allan Poe your all time favourite?" I questioned, already knowing the answer "It was on top of your pile and it looked like it had been read a few hundred times."

"Try a few thousand." She confirmed "The poems and the short stories are some my favourites. I reread them like every week."

I wanted for her to read them to me.

I chuckled at her enthusiasm "Which work by him is your favourite?"

"That is like asking a mother who her favourite child is. I really like The Tell-Tale Heart."

I smirked to myself at the fact that I was very much educated on the short-story, the realisation making me secretly excited to impress her with my knowledge.

"Is that why you let me in?" I challenged, searching her beautiful face that no longer accompanied her bright-green hair "To kill me and keep my heart under your floorboard."

My heart warmed further when her lip quirked up at my reference.

I knew that she was pretending not to be shocked at my knowledge as she laughed it off "I only keep things that are valuable. That does not include your heart."

She sent a smile my way, reassuring me that she was in fact joking "So you are a book nerd then?"

"No." I grumbled, not knowing why I did not want her to know.

"It is okay, Lurch." She let out a laugh, winking at me "Your secret is safe with me."

Her laughs made me feel as though I was living on entire different planet, the sound sent me to a place of pure bliss.

"If you were a nerd then it might make me like you more." She mentioned, yet I knew that that was her secret way of getting me to admit that I was I fact a book nerd.

"You like me just fine." I replied, still trying to convince my doubtful self.

"No." She smiled as she lied "I really don't."

"Brennan's mom reads a lot of books." I mumbled quietly "I might have read one or two from her."

Try seven-hundred, Stone. Why was I saying this bullshit to her?

I answered every one of her questions truthfully, I wanted for her to know everything about me so that she would eventually open up to me too and realise that I would never ever judge her.

I loved her attention on me. I loved that she was talking to me.

"I bet your parents were not too happy about you fighting and getting kicked out of school." She said, referring back to one of our previous discussions.

"No. They were not." I affirmed with a single chuckle, thinking back to that time in my existence, the time before I met her and began living "Brennan's mom Kelly was mad but not as mad as she was when I got my first tattoo."

Her gaze drifted across the lines of ink on my exposed arms, goosebumps rising along the path where her eyes trailed across.

"You have quite a few." She mentioned before asking "How often do you get them done?"

"I go every few months." I tell her, knowing exactly what she is going to ask me and knowing exactly what I was planning.

"I noticed on the beach that you don't have your back tattooed." She spoke up, making me smirk at the fact that she was checking me out but also the fact that she had no idea what was to come "Are you going to get that tatted up too?"

I nodded, envisioning the giant Medusa I was set to ink into my skin with great pride.

"So what is going to be your next tattoo?"

I did not want to scare her off, so I simply replied "I have an idea for one."

Over the next two hours, i did not watch the movie. I cherished every single second of her laying across me and I made sure to touch her as often as I could.

I listened to her entire conversation with Lara, smirking to myself when she tried to think of a story to hide the fact that she was currently in half of my embrace.

My phone suddenly rang, forcing me to leave my Ella and leave the room in which she was in.

I cursed the fact that it was quarter to nine, no longer having a single reason to leave her, no matter how much the fights meant to Brennan.

My conversation with him was extremely short, I spoke curtly to him until he eventually got the hint that I was not coming and hung up.

I sauntered back into the room without a word. I instantly picked up her legs from the sofa and then sat before placing them back down so that they were on top of me again.

"Is there somewhere you need to be?" Her luscious voice questioned, instantly calming me down.

I shook my head, feeling the anger of having to leave her simmering down at the feeling of her touch on mine.

"You don't have to stay here, you know." She informed with a sweet smile "If there is somewhere else you need to be then you can leave."

I would not fucking leave her. Ever.

"I don't want you to feel you have to stay here. I can always watch the movie myself and-"

"I am not leaving." I cut her off, hating the fact that she thinks something else mattered to me more than her.

All anger subsided from me at the sight of her secretly smiling at my stern statement.

I could practically hear each thump of my heart as she slowly drifted off to sleep. My heartbeat quickened and echoed in my ears when her small hands trailed across the sofa until they landed on my chest in her sleepy daze, the contact suddenly making my skin grow extremely hot.

I completely stopped breathing when she crawled on top of me, I was unable to even think as her small sleepy self wrapped her legs and arms around me like a koala bear.

My arms instantly wrapped around her, never ever wanting to let go.

She is my Medusa, my Ella. My everything.

———a/n - okay okay I know I said I would update for a while but I just couldn't help myself! I love writing LI characters like Stone in my books and suddenly had a need to write here too!

I'm slowly working my way through requests for this fanfic so thank you to whoever suggested this one! I will continue the rest of this chapter in a part two in the future hopefully <3

Lots of love!

-NOT EDITED