𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟕 - 𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐝𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐥𝐲 𝐝𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬
All painted red. The room was dark and red was all that I could see. White roses painted red with a pail full of blood; a low cackling voice made me shiver as I walked down the long dark hall. The path is endless; I keep walking and walking, meeting no end for it.
Then I see at the far end, white light and a familiar voice calling out to me. "Adeline, Addie... Petal... Please wake up."
The moment I opened my eyes, that's when I remembered. I passed out. It all came back to me. I passed out after breathing a sigh of relief in Bernard's arms. I was in his arms, but I can feel that I'm in a completely different person's arms now.
I stared up at the person who was holding me as they walked. It was Nicholas. His ash-brown hair bobbed lightly as he strode. He wears worries on his face. His eyes were half dead and his lips dry, looking ahead at where the rest of the people were.
"Nicholas?"
He turned his head down to look at me. I can see colours returning to his face as a smile plays softly on his lips.
"You're awake."
"What happened?"
"You fainted, but you're alright now. You're safe."
"Being in your arms, I know I am," I said, smiling. "Nicholas, do you know where Bernard is?"
At the mention of Bernard, Nicholas' eyes turned cold. "He's caught and soon to be exterminated, the same time as the witch."
My eyes turned wide in horror. Not Bernard. They shouldn't do that to him. "What? No. Where is he?" I let my eyes travel around the area in search of him, until my eyes fell on a certain sandy blonde hair, being held, arms in arms by two sturdy-looking knights. "Please, Nicholas. He did nothing but treat me nicely during my horrible stay. Can't you tell them to stop?"
"Why should I?"
"What?"
"Did you know what those people did to Feiya yesterday, Petal?"
"I- I know. The witch told me while I tried to escape last night... But he didn't take part in that, he was asleep, left at home to be with me."
"He's still a monster."
"No, he's not, Nicholas. He was nice and he tried to help me."
"Did you not see him turn into that monster?"
"I did. But there must be a cure for it. I'm sure of it."
"Petal, how can you heal something that monstrous?"
Hopelessness consumed me and worries overflowed me to the point that I could taste it on my tongue. Then I remembered the amulet he once wore.
"T–The amulet. Where is it?"
"Pierre told us to give it to him but the boy said, without the witch, his transformation wouldn't be able to fully be contained by the amulet."
The witch must have had a cure or at least a resistant spell for it. My face lit up slightly at the possibility. That might be one way to save Bernard from his fate.
"The witch's book. I have to go back for it."
"Are you serious?"
"Yes. There must be something in it."
Nicholas groaned, his brow creased, but he nodded, "I'll try to save the boy and we can get the book tomorrow. Will that be good enough?"
I nodded, smiling in return as I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him closer, hugging him. "Thank you, Nicholas," I said, a soft smile playing on my lips until I winced in pain as I pushed myself too hard on him.
"Look at you. You're in a horrible state where it's a miracle you're alive and you still had it in you to worry about others? How very noble of you."
I said nothing as I lay weakly in his arms, slowly feeling my pain again. My wounds are healing, parts of me are growing back and my broken parts are healing, but it takes a while and it hurts. It hurts so much I rather wish myself dead.
"I'm going to shut my eyes for a bit... Is that okay?"
He nodded, smiling. "I don't know what's happening to you. Your organs were a mess but weirdly enough, I can see it coming back to you and I can see you healing but still, you look and feel so weak that I was afraid you couldn't make it. I was afraid I'd see my hands covered in blood again."
I smiled weakly at him. "I'm going to die someday, but that day is not going to be today. Don't you worry. This time, it will be different.." without waiting for his reply, I feel my eyes grow heavier.
Then it was all back to dark pitch black.
I felt my body being put on a soft mattress. My head lay lightly on a fluffy pillow. I opened my eyes to study my surroundings. I'm in a room, which wasn't mine, and I can see Nicholas sitting at the far end of the room.
Once again, he looked as if he had a lot on his mind. His features scrunched in pain. Seeing him so broken, I pushed the cover off me and walked up to him, making his head lift up to see me. When I was just a few feet away from him, I bent down and pulled him into a hug.
"Petal?"
"I'm sorry for what she did to you."
"It– it wasn't your fault, Petal."
"I'm still sorry. You did nothing wrong to deserve it."
Staying quiet, he circled his arms around me, pulling me into his cold embrace. His warm tears started falling, continuously weighing me down as he kept crying silently. I pulled him impossibly closer, only for him to nuzzle into my neck.
"I'm really sorry.."
Nicholas pushed me gently, enough to part us a few inches apart and he stared right at my face. His expression turned blank, and his eyes seemed so empty that they just appeared hollow. I noted every detail of his face as the dubious seconds and minutes ticked away; from the rosy tint returning to his cheeks and the awareness seeping back into his eyes. He was close enough that his elevated breaths flicked at the loose hairs framing my face.
I stared back into his eyes, and my hand found its way into his hair as I stroked it, lightly, dropping it onto his cheek, and I rested it there, not looking away from his eyes.
I'm not sure if it was true, but I'm sure, I absentmindedly leaned in first.
It was nothing.
Barely anything.
But it was a beautiful nothing.
Just a small clash of breaths and closed eyes as Nicholas's upper lip fell between both of mine, and his tongue ghosted across my lower lip. Just a little connection of flesh and taste that lasted all of two clicks of the clock's quickest hand, before reality and cruelty shattered it.
Wild, grey eyes snapped open, and Nicholas lunged away, ripping his face out of my hands like he'd been scolded; scrambling away from me with frantic movements. His chest was heaving with confusion and shock was evident in his facial expression. I could hear him panting just as loud as I.
Everything was slowly coming back to me; sights, sounds, just everything beyond him. I glanced at him and watched as horror dripped without the effort of hiding it, arise on his face. I would be lying if I said it didn't hurt me because his reaction does upset me.
What was I thinking?
How could he have allowed this to happen?
How could I allow this to happen?
And why the HELL wasn't he moving or talking?
All that sliced the silence between us was our volatile and bewildered breathing. I could still taste him in my mouth; my top lip was damp from his, barely-there suck.
With a final horrified look at me, he pulled himself up and stumbled to the other room, only leaving the shrill slam of the door for me to remember him by.
I looked down at where he once sat, in front of me. I couldn't see him now, but my tongue and nose still buzzed with his essence and scent, and I didn't know if I wanted to melt in the bliss of it or block my nostrils and tear out my own tongue to be rid of him.
I was vibrating with shock and mortification; my face was covered by my palms as stubborn flashes of his yielding lips and bare skin pulsed at the backs of my lids. A growl rumbled at the front of my throat and teased my tonsils as I tried to shove the images to the back of my brain, but it wouldn't shift; wouldn't leave me be. God, I hated this, hated myself, hated every sodding detail of the events that had led to this humiliating and degrading incident.
I knew then that I'd gone mad. Funny, though; I've never felt more real.
And he tasted dangerously delicious.
Fuck...
I find myself staring at the door of his room, yearning for more.