Stone Cold

Chapter 15

Days turned to weeks, weeks changed into a month. His traces were starting to disappear from her life. She hadn't seen him since that night. He stopped visiting her in her dreams, too. She settled back into her previous routine. Her life seemed to be going back in its usual direction. Everything was normal, except for her. She didn't feel like herself. She didn't feel whole. He left her with a gape in her chest. A gape only his presence could fill.

His thoughts accompanied her all the time like an unwelcomed guest. It didn't matter wherever she went, whatever she did, they stayed lingering in the back of her mind, rendering her unable to concentrate on anything. At nights, she would lie awake for hours, brooding over his vanishing existence as those thoughts held her tighter in their embrace, smothering her. Her disheveled appearance bore witness to this silent torment she was going through, day in and day out.

Occasionally, she'd get an insane idea of endangering herself, hoping he'd come save her again. But the thought of someone getting sucked dry because of her, didn't settle well. Bad or not, she didn't want to be the cause of someone's death.

There were nights she could sense him near, sneaking inside her room, watching her sleep. Large rough hands would touch her cheeks lovingly, tracing every nook and cranny of her soft features. But evertime she forced her eyelids apart through her sleeping haze, he'd be gone like the wind. These incidents made her question her sanity. Was it really him? Or was it her own mind playing tricks on her?

"Excuse me? You're sitting in my seat."

She looked up at a tall woman smiling politely at her. She realised the train had come to a stop.

"Oh, I'm sorry for the inconvenience." She slung her bag over her shoulder, scurrying out of the seat.

'April was right. I've become extremely absent minded these days.' She stepped out on the station gazing around at her surroundings. Because of her nervousness, she hadn't paid much attention to it last time. The train station was just like the town it belonged to. Unmodernised. Its red brick building casted a dull shadow on the pavement as the sun glared down at it from behind. She stood there for a moment, staring at it. History always fascinated her. But she had no idea that it wasn't history that tugged her towards itself. It was the one who lived in the history.

She walked out of the station shaking her head. 'Now I know why they say love makes you poetic.'

She had called a cab on her way out. The driver arrived in about 10 minutes. She climbed inside, facing forward to find the driver already staring back at her through the rear view mirror.

"Where to?" He was a gruff middle aged man. A  cigarette hung from his half parted lips. She narrowed her eyes at the cancer stick, but refrained from saying anything.

"Uh, There's a castle near the outskirts of the town. Not exactly near but..." She left her sentence hanging in the middle

The man looked at her quizzically, "Do you mean Ypres Tower?"

"No, No. It's an abandoned castle situated on top of the hills. No one goes there anymore. It's a manor of a medieval Lord." She licked her dry lips. Saying his name out loud felt ominous. "Lord Ares King."

The driver looked at her weirdly. 'Great. Now he thinks I'm stupid.'

"Not many people know about this castle. Good for you, I'm one of those who do. I can take you there but this car isn't in a good condition to move uphill. You'd have to climb up on your own."

"No problem. Thank you!" She felt ecstatic. She hadn't thought about the consequences of her actions, when she had left her apartment early in the morning. She just wanted to see him one more time. She didn't care that she'd be in an unknown town with no address whatsoever to reach his forbidding manor. The need to be with him was too strong.