Beyond the Black Curtain

Chapter 46 - The Call and the Nightmare

They leave after an hour of questions for me, my fiancé and Chris. I take Seb's hand and give it a little squeeze. He lifts it up and kisses the back of mine. Meanwhile, Chris stands up to get me a glass of water; I was trying to catch my breath a little at having to speak in length about my career and how I got here.

"You okay?" Seb asks before kissing my crown. I nod and rest my head on his shoulder.

"This is so left field," I say. "I haven't been here a year and someone already has a beef with me? My only friends are your friends then there's your assistant, my assistant and the people I work with in the magazine. I mean, they didn't like me at first but surely none of them would go so far as to threaten my safety. I don't get it."

"I would love to say it comes with the territory," Chris' voice chimes in as he comes back with two glasses of water in hand. He sets them on the coffee table before sitting in the sofa next to us. "But this isn't. What I wouldn't give to hurt the bastard who tried to scare you."

I smile at Chris, albeit sadly to show my appreciation at his worry and care for me. I look at him and back to my male, and somehow both of their presence calms me a bit knowing they would do anything to make sure I'm safe.

I make a few calls later in the afternoon to make sure things are in order before I go on indefinite leave. The longest conversation was with Jo and Taylor where I had to apologize profusely for being such a burden over the last few months. Sebastian stayed with me during the entire call, which I put on speaker, ready to interrupt if any of my two bosses were to react negatively about my current situation.

"Are you kidding right now, Rae? While it's very unfortunate we'd be without you for at least six months, you've set up the team nicely while you were still here. We could use guest editors while you rest, your staff works like clockwork now," Taylor explains, which Jo echoes. "If Sebastian is up for it, since he's on shutdown mode like you are, it would be an honor to have him guest ed for us!"

Sebastian makes a face and shrugs. I laugh and slap his shoulder.

"Oh my god, he's there, isn't he?" Jo asks. I chuckle a 'yes' out to my boss while my future husband says a small hi.

We speak for a few more minutes and promise to catch up every now and then. They both promise not to bother me at all, only if an emergency arrives, and even then, they also promise that I wouldn't even need to be physically present in the office. I thank them for their patience and understanding and in return, promise them both an invite to the baby shower.

"Whoo," I huff out as I slouch back on the La-Z-Boy. I rub my belly gently before resuming conversation with my fiancé. "Sooo glad that turned out well. I was so sure I'd get fired this time."

About six months through the pregnancy though, I decided to give up my post at the magazine anyway. I've been asking Olivia to drop by as often as she could and teaching her everything I know. Just after a month, Jo and Taylor agreed to my recommendation for Liv to take my place. I was so relieved to find that everyone was also in agreement for her to replace me, even though it meant they'd see me less. Seb did guest ed for 1 issue and he did such a great job, even Chris volunteered as he saw how much fun his friend had.

I set the phone down with a sad smile after finishing my exit interview from Escape. Sebastian comes and crouches down in front of me, taking my hands in his kissing my knuckles one by one.

"You okay?"

I nod slowly. "Yeah, I guess. It was a short time, but I loved every second with Escape. Sometimes it didn't feel like work at all. I'm gonna miss it."

A couple of days after I quit Escape, I got a very weird phone call. I said 'hello' a few times but all I heard were breathing sounds and something that sounded like cars in the distance. I made sure I ended the call with a few colorful choice words though my chest was pounding and I was heaving breaths right after I ended the call. I didn't notice my fiancé at my side until he was skimming his fingers up and down my back.

"Hey, hey...what's going on? Who were you screaming at? What happened?"

I made to take a few steps to sit down, Sebastian taking my hand and his other resting on the small of my back as he guided me to a seat.

"I got a call," I say a little breathlessly after sitting down. "No one seemed to be on the other line and all I could hear were cars not too far away. And then someone picked up the phone because I started to hear someone breathing through. That's when I lost it. Prolly when you heard me screaming."

"Where's your phone?" Sebastian asked. I could hear an undercurrent of panic in it.

"Here," I fished it out of my pocket and handed it to him. "Why?"

He took a deep breath and opened my call log. He grunted afterwards and held out the phone to me. "An unknown number babe. I'm getting a feeling this has something to do with the accident."

"What?!"

He muttered a curse under his breath before dialing the police officer who swung by our place a few days ago. After about 20 minutes, we were dressed and Sebastian was driving us to the police station. After briefly telling them about the phone call, they had me surrender my phone so they could try and trace the call.

Turns out the number was unregistered and traced back to a burner phone found somewhere in the suburbs. It only contributed to the weirdness and randomness of the entire thing. By the time we got home, and mind you it was just noon, I was already feeling like I was running around the city the entire day.

"I want to lie down, would you be alright with getting lunch on your own?" I asked Sebastian as I slowly waddled my way to our room. He was beside me in seconds once more.

"Nah, I still feel full from this morning, I think I wanna join you."

I nod and we were asleep within the next ten minutes.

"You don't deserve this baby, you don't deserve Sebastian, you don't deserve anything!"

"Wait, please," I plead weakly as I felt all of my energy seep out of me. "Don't take...my baby...he's...please..."

And then all of a sudden a piercing, searing pain rips through my body, causing me to scream in agony. It felt like someone literally pulled off something inside me and the pain was unimaginably unbearable I thought I might as well just die right there. The person who was talking to me held up a wailing child, bathed in blood. Whoever it was gave me a sinister laugh while I lay there bleeding out to death.

"This child will never experience your love, much like how your own parents didn't let you experience theirs. Goodbye, Rae."

And with that, the person vanishes from thin air together with my baby. I let out a drawn out scream one last time before everything drowns me in a sea of black.

I felt hands shaking my shoulders and a frantic voice asking me to wake up. My eyes shoot open and I instantly felt the dampness in them down to my cheeks. It took me a few seconds to realize the blue eyes staring at me in worry was Sebastian's. My hands fly to his arms and I was crying uncontrollably next.

"Hey, ssshhh...it's okay, it's okay. It was just a bad dream. You're here, you're safe. You're safe."

I sit up and Sebastian immediately covers me in his arms while I hold on to him as if he was going to vanish from my sight at any moment. He kept murmuring things to calm me down, alternating it with soft kisses to my crown.

It must have been a few minutes until my sobs died down to hiccups. Seb loosened his hold of me but did not fully let go.

"Care to tell me what happened? You were screaming and pretty shook up," he asks while he searches my eyes for any signs of distress.

"Someone took my--our baby and---and..." I stop because the images came back as clear as I saw them in my nightmare. I let out another pained sob and Sebastian hugged me tighter again.

Afternoon nap longforgotten, we stayed huddled together like that for the rest of the day untilit went dark out.