Till The Clock Strikes Gone

22 | stay

William was once again confined to the four walls of his house. A snowstorm was slowly picking up the pace and it annoyed him that the weather wasn't kinder to his spirits. He had borrowed a book from Harvey to pass the time. 'Crime and Punishment' was another one of his favourites and he had just finished reading it for the tenth time in his life. He didn't regret a moment he spent in the company of his beloved books; they meant the world to him.

He had published his first piece at the age of nineteen, on his birthday. 'House of Time' was soon on the bestsellers list. Thereafter, his second novel, 'The Last Flight' became a hit. It was a psychological thriller about a woman who, at the age of sixty, boards her last flight. The flight was her last because she ends up murdering every passenger on board when she starts hallucinating certain events and at the end, she kills herself in the cockpit, leaving only the pilot alive. The book was acclaimed as a masterpiece and he rose the ladder of name and fame at the mere age of twenty. Then followed his other works. All of them were bestsellers- 'You Can't See Me', 'Rise', 'MIA', 'IVANA', 'Boy In The River', 'AMARA'. The last one was his latest work that was released in October of 2019.

He had been working on a murder mystery. He was just finishing his last draft when the turn of events threw him off his schedule. Now, he had no idea if he would ever be able to complete it.

He sighed as he lay on his bed, trying to catch a nap when a knock at the door found its way to his ears. He got up, glad to have some company, whoever it was. He opened the door and saw Eliza standing there.

But Eliza wasn't wearing her usual clothes. She had on more...colours?

She wore a white dress that touched her thighs and black stockings underneath. Her jacket was red and she wore a pair of white boots and a pink beanie. She suddenly reminded him so much of his Eliza; she dressed like that too.

"Can I stay here for some time? Papa isn't home." Her voice broke his thoughts which were going somewhere very dangerous.

He was thinking of how wonderful it would be if he could just get to help her out of all her clothes.

Slowly

One by one.

He pushed away those thoughts. "Where's your Dad?" he asked, his hold on the door tightening.

"I think he went to Aunt Lorna's," she answered.

"Oh." He opened the door further to let her in. "Sure. Get in."

She quickly stepped in and he locked the door. He turned to her and saw her opening her jacket. He watched as the heavy jacket fell off her shoulders and she hung it on the chair. He was growing so hot for her that even a damn jacket made him feel like she was doing a striptease. Her beanie followed next, along with her boots and then she stopped, making him dig his nails in his palms.

It would have been better if she didn't stop.

He could feel a familiar pain in his head growing. The migraine was back. He groaned and she looked at him and he quickly covered his expression with that of cheerful delight.

"What do you wanna do?" he asked.

She bit her bottom lip and he saw her fingers fidgeting at the hem of her dress. "I don't know. I'm sorry...I'm disturbing you. What do you want to do?"

"No idea," he said. He did have lots of things in mind but none of them involved clothes.

"I should go. I'm probably troubling you."

He laughed at that and instantly regretted when the pain in his temple began to reach down his neck. He put a hand on the nape of his neck as the first signs of nausea started to appear. He closed his eyes. Suddenly, the daylight from the window was making him sick and he wanted it to be darker.