The Ghost of The Lightner Museum

Chapter Thirty Four

Dedicated to 01winterbear26⚘🤣

No.

This couldn't be happening.

I blinked at him wordlessly, allowing his proposal to wash over my reality in nothing less than shock. How could he even think to ask me such a question?!

He frowned and leaned in closer, stroking my arm gently as he said,

"I made love to you, Charlotte. I want to marry you. I can keep you safe, give you a good life."

"I am not the one who needs to be kept safe, Aaron." I nearly hissed in my emotional state, "You know what you're doing. Why? Why do you wish to die?"

I couldn't stop the words from pouring out, for they were the only ones ingrained in my heart at the moment.

He merely smiled and chuckled,

"I have no intention of dying. I have a plan, love. It's a sound plan and it will definitely work. But I...I want you to stay. With me." His voice died off into a thick silence that settled over us like a heavy grey cloud.

"Aaron--"

"Just think about it. Anywhere you want to go, I'll take you. Anything you wish for, I'll do everything in my power to make it happen. Charlotte...you make me a happy man. And I know I can make you happy if you would only give me the chance."

My rounded eyes meant nothing to him as he pressed his temple against my own and held me like that for a moment. The words were stuck inside my throat to argue. I was aware that customs were far different in this olden century, but this felt entirely personal, not just out of moral duty or anything of the sort. When the words finally came to me, I whispered,

"He will kill you. Everything has been happening exactly like time destined...if I do not try to leave again, I don't know how else to end this."

Aaron sighed deeply, angling his face to press tender kisses to my lips as he murmured against my mouth,

"Do you truly wish to leave, dearest? Is there naught else to be done? For I believe there is always another way. You have already cheated time by even being here, Charlotte. Why can we not cheat it again?"

I kissed him back deeply for a long moment before wiping away the fresh tears threatening to fall down my face once again.

"I don't know. I just can't lose you...I can't. Aaron, I don't even know if I'll ever be able to see my family again. That thought terrifies me. But to lose you too would absolutely devastate me. I have no chances. No choice I make will ever go without a terrible risk! I feel as if I'm finally beginning to understand my fate, my very purpose of existence. I never liked myself...not in my time and not in this era. I have always been a fool, an immature, negligent fool. I do not want to be this girl any longer. If I have a chance to save you, than I shall take it."

"What are you saying?" He murmured in a low voice while easing away from me slowly. I shook my head helplessly and grabbed hold of the blankets before tossing them off of me. Aaron moved to let me stand.

Without turning to look at him, I focused on the rain pouring down against the windowpane. I walked towards it, pressing my hand against the glass and staring out over the lit city.

"I'm saying I cannot stay. You must leave this place if you wish to live. I must try to return to my own time. If I fail...then at least I am the only one who will fall. I believe I was sent here to warn you. Nothing more...for anything else will only lead to an end. At first I believed this was all a catastrophic mistake, that I was never meant to fall in time but it happened, thus needed correcting. Now I'm beginning to understand that maybe it was intended in the stars all along that I come here. Come here and save you, from John...and from myself."