Love is a Sacrifice by Samara Fitzgerald (graded readers .TXT) 📖

I have to call Erin to see if she is alright."
I went into my room and got my cell phone. When I called Erin, at first it went to voicemail, but the second time, she answered.
"I thought you wanted me to leave you alone."
"Shut up, Erin. I need to tell you something important."
"Well, I hope its so important that you had to call while the pastor was preaching."
"Bill was here. Erin, he found me."
"Wait, hold up. Did he put his hands on you? Did you call the police?"
No. John was here to protect me. John send Bill off for me."
There was a sigh of relief when I told her this.
"That's not all, though."
"What? What happened."
"Erin, John is Bill's brother."
"No, you have to be lying."
"Nope. Both of them are brothers.."
"Why you don't sound mad?"
"Why would I be?"
"Well, since John's Bill's brother, don't you think you need to be careful."
"But John protected me. Also John and Bill could barely stand each other."
"I'm just saying that you need to protect yourself. We'll talk later. You'll have to give me the details when I get bak. I have to go."
"Alright, love you."
"Be careful." After we said good bye, I hung up.
Man, this is too much. Erin does have a point.Whar if John is really on Bill's side and he's just playing me so I can go back to Bill. This is so sonfusing.

I've been pacing my room for a long time. There was a knock at my door.
"Hey, Iris. Are you okay? You've been in there for an hour."
"You can come in." I sat down on my bed. John opened up my door and walked in and sat beside me.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm just tired. I'm going to go to bed early."
"At 4 o' clock in the afternoon."
"Yeah."
"Alright. I'll be in the living room if you need me."
Once he left the room, I changed into my night gown and brushed my teeth. I was so exhausted that by the time I laid my head down, I fell right to sleep.

***

Not again. Now I'm back in the forest, running. Now I'm back behind the tree. As I stood there, I notice something was different. Instead of having a knife in my hand, I had a gun. I notice that I wasn't alone.
"Iris, where are you?" The voice sound so familiar. I looked around the tree. Since it was foggy, I could see nothing but a figure. My legs were shaking.
"Who are you?" I hid the gun behind me. The man start walking toward me. When he start getting closer, I start backing away. I held out the gun.
"Iris." Once the figure got out of the fog, I start getting scared. It was Bill who was calling me.
"Go ahead. Shoot me. You know you want to." My hands start shaking. Bill start laughing.
"Shoot me!" Next thing I know, I pulled the trigger and a loud thunder-like sound came. Bill is now on the ground, bleeding to death. Something told me to get close to Bill. Once I got to him, it felt like I nearly died. Instead of Bill being the one who was shot, it was John.
"No." I dropped down to my knees.John was trying to breath, but the blood coming out of his mouth made it difficult for him.
"John, I'm sorry." I felt tears coming out of my eyes.
"Iris...I..." Before he got to say the rest, he died.
"No, John. You what. John!" I start crying harder.
"I can put you out of your misery." I turned around and found Bill standing behind me with a gun to my head. Before I got to say something, Bill shot me and all I saw was darkness.

"Iris, wake up. You had a nightmare." I woke up finding John beside me on my bed, holding me. I felt my cheeks feeling that it was wet, I was holding on to John.
"What happened?"
'I heard you screaming 'no' so I came in here to check on you, finding that you was having a nightmare. What were you dreaming about?"
I told John what happened. At the same time, I was crying.
"John, it was horrible."
"It's okay. It was just a nightmare."
"But I've been having these so called nightmares for two years and I am getting tired of it. What if it's a sign."
"I told you I will protect you. Can you trust me?" I looked John in his eyes.
"Yes, I can trust you." John intertwined our fingers. For a while, we laid on our sides, looking at each other.
"John?"
"Hmm"
"Why do you put up with me when you can easily have any woman you want. My life is messed up, but you are willing to put up with me still."
"There is something about you that fascinates me. A part of me that wants to help you and keep you safe."
"But you don't even know me."
"You keep saying that. I want to get to know you and get close with you but everytime I try, you get scared and push me away."
"I'm sorry. I'm just having trouble trusting men after Bill."
"Well, I'm not Bill. All I want you to do is try to let me in. Let me get to know you." He touched my cheek softly.
"I'll try."
I looked back into John's eyes. I saw honesty and truth in them. My heart start beating rapidly. I think I am falling in love with John. John's hand that was on my cheek moved to my hands. He lifted my hand and kissed it. He then looked at me and leaned his face near mine. Once our lips touched, a little spark came. When we were kissing, John put his hand around my waist and pulled me close. At that moment, I felt safe in his arms. That's when I knew I could trust him.

Chapter 10

It has been 3 weeks since Bill has visited me.Even though I am relieved, I know Bill is not done with me and he would still come after me. When Erin came back, I told her what happened. At fir, Erin seemed so mad that she start saying how if she see Bill, she would make sure he pay for all he had done to me. Once John and I calmed down, Erin's 'gospel' side start kicking in and se went to her room to pray. For me and John, these last few weeks were good. John and I get o know each other a little more. Some nights, John would sta the night and comfort me whenever I had a nightmare. Erin was okay with it of course. Everything was going good. At least now.

I woke up happy. John was laying behind me with his arms around me. Last night, he spend the night because I asked. It is easy for me to fall asleep when John is beside me, but I never told John that. It was never this way with Bill. I would always have to keep a knife under my pillpw, just in case Bill lost it and tried to attack me. I never felt safe with Bill. I turned around and found that John was awake.

"How long have you been awake?"
"I've been awake for a while. I was watching you while you was sleeping." He start playing with my hair.
"Why?"
"You was sleeping so peacefully." I sat up and stretched. John was still laying on the bed.
"Is Erin still here?" Since John sleeps with his shirt off, I was fascinated when John sat up and stretched . His muscles start flexing. I couldn't take my eyes off of him. When I looked up, I noticed that John was looking at me, smiling. I felt myself blush.
"Erin's still here." While John was saying this, he start getting closer to me.
"John, Erin could be awake."
"Last time I checked, she was still asleep." After that, he grabbed my waist and pulled me closer." I looked up at John, his eyes filled with passion. I grabbed his head and pulled his face down until our lips touched. We start kissing passionately and things start getting heated up. John put both of his hands on my waist and pulled me closer to him.

Before things got any furter, I heard someone clear their throat. Both John and I looked up at the same time to find Erin standing at my doorway. I quickly pushed John away and smiled at Erin.
"Hey, Erin. You're awake."
"I was already awake." I did a side glance at John, then put my attention back on Erin.
"You need something?"
"Can I talk to you in private?" I turned to John and he sighed and left the room.
"For real, Iris."
"What?" I tried to sound innocent.
"Nothing. I need to talk to you about mom. She called today."
"What? What happened? Is she okay?"
"She just called and told me she misses us so we are going on a road trip to California to visit mom."
"No, I'm not going. You know that everytime mom and I are near each other, there is always a prroblem."
"Well, mom asked for us to come and visit her."
"Well, I'm not going. I already have other problems I need to get rid of."
"Please, Iris. At least go for me." Erin tried giving me the puppy eyes.
"I'll think about it." Ater that, I left the room. John was sitting on the couch. He must have heard the door open because when I went into the living room, he automatically got up.
"What's wrong?"
"Why do you say that?"
"Once you left your room, you had this angry expression on your face."
"Oh. Well, Erin wants us to go visit our mom."
"What's wrong with that?"
"My mom gets on my nerves."
"Even though she gets on your nerves, she is still your mother."
"I don't know."
"What about this. I'll go with you."
"You're willing to do that for me?"
"Yeah."
"Okay. I'll go. I'll go tell Erin that I'll be going after all. I'll just use some of my leave and count this as a vacation."
When I told Erin, she was so happy. I'm so happy that Erin is happy because I'm sure hell not happy. The next day, we were on on the way. Since John's car was bigger, we used his car. We all decided to take turns and Johndecided he will go first. When we pulled off, I laid my head back and closed my eyes. This was goin to be a long trip.

"Iris, wake up." I woke up to the sound of someone whispering.
"What?" I opened up my eyes. I looked around. We stopped in front of the gas station.
"What happened?"
"We're about to switch."
"What? How long have I been asleep?"
"Youve been asleep for five hours."
"You got to be kidding me. Where's John?"
"He went into the store to get some smacks." after Erin said that, John came out of the store with some potato chips, candy bars, and some soda.
"Hey sleepy head." John said when he got in the back seat with me.
"Hey." I layed on his shoulder.
"You going back to sleep?"
"Yep."
"You've been sleeping alot lately."
"I know." I snuggled against John's shoulder so I can get comfortable.
"Hey guys. I was thinking that maybe we can stop and eat."
"That sound good to me." John said as he began to sit up. After a while, Erin stopped at Olive Garden. Erin got out of the car so she can reserve a table for