Echoes in the Darkness | Demi Lovato

Chapter 45- Echoes in The Darkness

//Just a little warning, but this chapters a long one. Like, 2000 words long, so be prepared and bear with me//

Recovery was hard. Like really, really hard. The first couple of weeks were pure Hell and I was convinced that I wasn't going to make it. But then, things started to get a little easier. Piece by slow piece, eating became easier and the urges to cut myself slipped from my thoughts to the back of my mind, hardly noticed.

And then, I didn't notice at all, and I had actual good days.

I can feel it in my heart, I can feel it in my lungs;

And then I got to go home. Back to my aunt where I could see Nikki, and Lauren, and Mila, and Dinah, and Mani, and Ally, and all the rest of my friends and family. Just like Demi said. She didn't leave me. She became the first ever person to actually come back.

I made it. I've been clean for almost a year now, and I'm back to being a healthy weight. But most of all, I'm happy. Really, truly, happy.

It's burning me from the inside out.

"Max!" Demi's voice called from outside the window and I glanced out giggling when I saw her chasing our dog, Batman, around the backyard, trying to get him to go back inside.

"What!" I shouted back. The window was open so I'm sure she could hear me.

"Nikki and the girls will be here soon! Listen for the doorbell if I can't get Batman and Cinderella inside!" My aunt instructed, clearly out of breath from running around for the past ten minutes.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Today's my birthday. Yeah, I guess I did make it.

It hurt's, but I'm used to it.

I looked away from the window, glancing in the mirror and looking back at myself. My eyes are blue-er than ever, which sounds really weird, but it's true. And my hair is longer too. Those are the only things I let myself focus on. Well, that and my outfit. I'm wearing black tights with a purple skirt and a black and white short-sleeved shirt. Oh, and of course the black converse that I can't go anywhere without.

There's darkness in the air, slowly creeping in.

Right as I was about to go outside and help Demi catch the dogs, the doorbell rang and I felt a smile break out across my face as I sprinted across the house and to the door, opening it to reveal the members of Fifth Harmony.

"Hey!" They all greeted in, you guessed it, harmony, before I felt myself being pulled into a group hug. Yeah, I definitely missed this.

It surrounds me, drowning me.

"Where's Demi?" Normani asked once we finally let go of each other and I pointed to the back door.

"Outside, trying to get Batman and Cinderella," I responded, still smiling so big that I was sure my cheeks were gonna fall off.

I can't breathe.

"Those dogs have more control over Demi than she has over them," Lauren stated with a chuckle as we walked through the house and into the living room where Marissa already was as she had come over earlier this morning.

"So how are you?" Mila asked once everyone was settled in, watching TV as we waited for everyone else to arrive. The De La Garzas are supposed to be flying in from Texas, so they should be here soon.

"I'm good," I responded, actually meaning it. I was sitting between Dinah and Camila as Normani sat on the armchair, and Lauren, Ally, and Marissa sat on the floor all of us watching a movie called My Girl. Demi and I watched it before. It's really sad, but overall a great movie.