The silhouette exposed its true form as it moved closer to her. Light shone on the man's face, who started to step up onto the flat stone she was sitting on her knees upon.
"You—" Victoria mumbled, gasping in shock.
"Are you alright?" His face was tight, and his eyebrows were clenched in worry as he bent closer over her fallen form.
"Victor!" She took his name in a whisper, not sure if she was hallucinating.
Her head was spinning. There was a chance this was not real. Maybe, it was her heart's craving that her mind was now playing with.
He spread a hand before her to take, to help her get up. Confused and filled with some hesitation, looking from his hand to his face a few times back and forth, she finally took it. And the familiar sinewy feeling of that hand again, the warmth on his flesh and skin, the feeling of his pulse—they all confirmed to her.
It was undoubtedly him. Truly, it was him.
Not a hallucination of hers. Not a ghost. Not a look alike.
For some reason, Victor had come to the lands of sushi and teriyaki. And somehow, he was here in the forest, in the depths where no one casually wandered, helping her up to her feet, forcing out the emotions she had worked hard to tame in a long and arduous week's timeline. He had managed to undo all her efforts in a mere few seconds.
"What are you doing here?" she mumbled. "Why are you here?"
Her dizzy mind made up probable replies when he just remained quiet, staring at her. Perhaps he had come because of a new business venture. Many people came to Japan to undergo cosmetic surgeries, but Victor already looked flawless, so it was pretty unlikely. Then, maybe, he was here vacationing with Kate and Owen accompanying him since he was now a free man. But that meant he had already signed the divorce papers...
"You."
Her trail of thoughts broke because of his sudden, bold reply. And although she clearly heard what he had said, she still couldn't decipher the meaning of it. "What?"
There was a soft look on his face. A prelude of a smile shaped around his mouth.
She stared at his mouth—his lips. And he recalled the way he had kissed her—oh, that all-consuming kiss.
Suddenly, he held her face with both his hands. His hands trailed down his neck and shoulders. The earlier worry had returned to his face. "Why did you get so deep in the forest? And why the hell did you leave the path! Why would you do such a reckless thing!"
"I'm alright," she said. She was about to ask him again why he was here out of all places, but then he said something that punched her in the guts.
"Alright—my foot! You were lost for almost two days! Police and volunteers are scouring this freaking weird forest to find you."
Two days!
She could swear she had spent three to four hours max since she entered. She definitely hadn't spent a single night in this forest.
"Stop kidding!"
"I'm not." Victor narrowed his eyes. "You look pale and dizzy," he pointed. "You didn't have enough food or water, did you?"
"It's been just a few hours!" she protested.
However, Victor seemed not to believe her with that stern look he was giving her. But as she swayed again, her eyelids feeling heavy as she blinked, his gaze changed to a panicked concern. "Will you be able to walk?" It was unclear whether he asked her that or was pondering it loudly. Because when she nodded, instead of heeding to it, he muttered, "I doubt it." And then, out of the blue, he bent down to slip an arm beneath her knees and another behind her shoulders.
"Aiiii..." Victoria shrieked as she was tilted to the back with her feet swept off the floor without prior notice.
"Let's go then—" Victor stated before starting to move.
"Wait—" she urged, her eyes registering an unmoving body fallen sprawled on the uneven forest ground. Fighting through her blurry eyes, blinking rapidly, she realized it was Ben.
"Ben!" she was more than amused.
As though Victor being here was not a surprise enough. Now, it turns out Ben had accompanied him too. What the freaking hell was going on!
"Ah," It looked like Victor remembered Ben, the unconscious version of him, was present in the scene, too. "From afar, he was certain that your silhouette was the demon of Aokigahara."
"Eh?" His revelations were filling her with more confusion than lessening them.
Voices of people, footsteps, and movements through the dense foliage reached their ears.
Victor stated, "I think they are the volunteers and the police. They will take care of Ben." Then without waiting for another second, he started making his way out, following multicolored threads and chalk marks on the trees and stones.
That is quite wise of him—Victoria thought as she rested her head on Victor's sturdy shoulder. In silence, she wondered why she couldn't spot a single thread she had tied on the trees.
Listening to the steady beating of his heart, she closed her eyes. Like all the times he had sneaked into bed next to her, the subconscious comfort and feeling of safety manifested within her. She didn't realize when she drifted off to the depths of sleep.
Carried in the arms of a man she hadn't thought of seeing anytime soon, she glided out of a mysteriously marvelous sea of trees.
--
"My intentions regarding her are not evil as you are insinuating—"
"Then why had she divorced you, huh? I clearly remember her telling me that she was married before but was single now—"
The tremors of a car moving, the navigation's directions, and male voices talking between themselves were what Victoria felt and heard before she opened her eyes waking up.
The heated argument continued between the male voices.
"Ah, so that is making you want to charm her so bad! You think she's single and available."
"Even if I am, should that perturb you psychologically so much?"
"Well, news for you, I did not—"
It was time to let them know she was awake. Their constant bickering was now starting to make her head throb. She rubbed her eyes and blinked them open.
It was a moving car.
Surely it was her rented car, which was being driven by someone else.
She looked at her either side and discovered she was sitting between Victor, who was wide awake and staring at her, and Ben, who was sitting wide-eyed—resembling a dead man.
"You're awake," Victor pointed out the obvious in a soothing tone.
Not suffering anymore from blurry vision and spinning head, Victoria now had a proper look at Victor and his condition.
He hadn't shaved in days. His eyes had dark circles underneath. Even his eyelids looked somewhat swollen. It looked like he hadn't slept for days. The blue shirt and pair of suit pants he had on were wrinkled almost everywhere.
They were both looking at each other, studying each other's features.
There were questions—a strange fear, Victoria could see, written on Victor's face. She couldn't look away from him.
Pedro's voice sounded from the driving seat, "Ah, welcome back, kawai girl."
"It was just a few hours," she said, sighing. She still thought Victor was joking. People were perhaps patrolling for some other reason. Lots of visitors committed suicide in that forest. They were probably searching for bodies or something.
That explanation seemed sane to her, although it was pretty scary to be around a dead body. It was a good thing that her camera missed such a terrifying and gloomy scene.
Her camera!
Damn, her camera had slipped to the ground when she fell. And Victor had carried her out of the forest. He certainly didn't carry her camera and the bag as well.
So, she started to freak out, looking around for signs of them, "Where's my camera bag? My camera—the lenses—"
With narrowed eyes, Victor said indignantly, "Instead of talking about your disappearance for freaking two days inside that godforsaken forest, you start asking for your camera. Don't you realize that your life is more precious than a camera—"
Cutting him, she protested heatedly, "It's not just a mere camera—"
"I understand it is extremely valuable to you," Victor said, overtaking her. "But you can always buy another camera. However, I cannot get another you if anything—" and he halted into silence midsentence with a look like he had let out classified stuff.
Victoria's breath stuck in her throat as she stared unblinking at Victor. And then, she looked away.
Why was he acting like she was so precious to him? Especially when both of them knew that it was someone else. He had even admitted it himself. And he had proved it numerous times. She had seen enough.
She tore her eyes away from Victor when Pedro cleared his throat and broke the uncomfortable silence. "I put the camera and the bag with your lenses in the safebox at the back of the car. There was not enough space on the seats and such sensitive stuff couldn't be kept where it could get damaged because of the moving car."
Victoria released a hearty sigh and thanked Pedro. As she bent a little to the side to get a proper view of Pedro's face while thanking him, she noticed the bruised mark on the side of his face.
It turned out that an old lady with her car had crashed into Pedro's. Fortunately, the lady was driving incredibly slow, resulting in just some minor injuries. For a very short, formal investigation of this case, Pedro was going through a driving ban for a few days. The result was clear, though. The old lady had already admitted that she was feeling under the weather, and the mistake was hers. Pedro was lucky.
"I was in no state to come out of the house because of the pain for the first day," Pedro said, not moving his eyes off the road. "Then, I found him lurking around your building when I went to your place after failing to contact you."
"I absolutely wasn't lurking—" Victor heatedly started to protest.
Pedro cut in, "And he started to talk and behave like he was jealous of you and my friendship—"
Victor groused, "I was definitely not, you piece of—"
It was like a competition of who could raise their voice and cut off the other more successfully.
"I would have clubbed him in his stubborn head. But then I figured that finding you, Victoria, comes before anything concerning a mad person," Pedro concluded.
Victoria could feel Pedro's smirk without even getting to look directly at his face.
"What did you just say!" Victor challenged maddeningly.
This was a bloody fight between egotistical testosterone. She intervened loudly, "Stop it, both of you!"
Despite both men grunting in discontent, thankfully, they listened to her.
They had reached close to her home. In the remaining few minutes in the car, Victoria wondered how she had passed two freaking days in the forest in just a few hours. Her mind brought up many theories—none had any scope to get proved. Therefore, she decided to let it off her mind altogether. She had gotten a good amount of photographs of the forest. That was enough.
And honestly, mysteries more important than the forest were waiting for her to dissect.
Ben screamed awake when Pedro was backing up her car to park it behind her apartment building. "Get away from me, demon. I blast you with the holy ghost's name!"
Everyone in the car jumped because of the suddenness of his screaming.
Victor had to reach out over Victoria to grab a hold of Ben's collar and shake him furiously to his senses. Ben fully sobered up and started to relax after some thorough explanation that the silhouette was no ghost or demon but Victoria, whom they were looking for.
From the back of the car, Pedro brought out a plastic bag filled with food he had bought on their way back—Victoria was in deep slumber at that time. There was enough food for all of them that they distributed between them.
Victor took her camera bag. The sight of the precious part of her life filled Victoria with satisfaction.
Pedro insisted on ushering Victoria to her door while Victor protested about why he couldn't be the one to do it.
By now, Victoria was getting pissed by these testosterone fights breaking out between the two.
"Why don't we all cooperate, be a proper team, and spend the night together," Ben suggested with a blank, still scared look. "Things can follow us home from that place, you know, miserable things!"
Victoria huffed. "Nothing like that has happened. And no, we cannot do as you suggested, Ben."
Ben looked disheartened. "Then let's at least guide you to your door, Victoria." He turned to Victor after that. "Please don't leave me alone, Victor. Look where has your crazy ass love for—"
Victor abruptly clamped a hand on Ben's mouth so that the rest of his words went muffled.
Victoria and Pedro both raised their brows.
Victor sighed. "Let's get you home, Victoria. You need to rest after the ordeal you had to go through."
Pedro had a tight face as he gave Victor a long look.
"Will you be alright alone, kawai girl? I'm worried about your health," Pedro asked, turning to face Victoria with a softer look.
"I'll be alright, Pedro, no need to—"
Victor cut into it like the cobra he had recently turned into, "I demand to know what is the meaning of this kawai!"
Everyone turned to give Victor a strange look.
Ben commented, "Well, I'm also curious about some of the words' meanings," he cleared his throat with some discomfort. "But not with such passion."
"It means beautiful." For some reason, Pedro had a smirk on his face.
Victor's face turned red like he was seething.
Victoria had had enough. "Alright! I think it's time you all return to all of your respective abodes, as we have reached my door now. I'm truly grateful to all of you for saving me from whatever weird shit happened in the forest."
"Abode—" Ben huffed. "We're basically living in the cyber cafe in the next block."
Really? Victoria had thought that they were living in a hotel. Seeing the question in her eyes when Ben had just started to explain the reason for them staying in the cyber cafe, Victor again clamped a hand over his mouth and dragged him away.
As the coast was rid of all the foolish men, Victoria entered her apartment.
She was feeling batshit exhausted, but seeing her phone had died in her pocket, she stormed to plug it in charge. As it turned on, she let out an amused, shuddering breath, seeing the date that truly two days had passed since she went to the Aokigahara.
No matter the weird, haunting mystery, the wisest and most prudent step now would be to let go altogether of this topic of a possible time loop she fell into.
It would also be relieving to put rest, at least for tonight, to the questions regarding Victor's shocking arrival here.
Filling the bathtub with hot water, she laid into it. A relaxing, steamy sigh escaped her mouth as she rested her head on the wall behind her. Her eyes closed in satisfaction. The hot water slowly worked on her tired muscles.
Water was always relieving.
The intercom blared from her bedroom.
The relaxed, sleepy state she had slipped into slowly got shaken by it quite brutally.
Someone was at her door.
Yet she lay lethargically in the tub, not wanting to move an inch. Maybe if she did not open the door, the person would even go away eventually.
But the intercom blared again. And then, again.
Agitated, Victoria straightened.
It was eight at night. Not that late. Nevertheless, she was not in the mood to entertain any guest at this time.
Subconsciously though, she knew who it was.
She had seen it in his eyes—he was holding back tons and tons of words to throw at her in the absence of the rest of the world. But she did not want to be on the receiving end of his angry, fear-filled (because of her father's threat to his family) and misconceived outbursts.
However, would he travel this far only to blast her ears and humiliate her?
She let out a shuddered sigh, shrugging on her white, fluffy bathrobe.
See, the whirlpool was back again with his presence at her door. With that bipolar blockhead around her, she couldn't let go of the cyclonic thoughts in her mind ever.
Truly, she saw Victor standing at her with a deadpan face.
Suppressed emotions began to rise within her at the sight of his condition again.
Had he missed her?
She felt mad at herself.
Damn, she would give him a piece of her mind tonight.
Why did he have to come back? Why did he have to make her feel this way?
Suddenly getting agitated beyond imagination, she padded to the main door and opened it halfway, and leaned sideways so that only her face until her shoulder could be seen..
For the most part of her, she had felt caged in all sorts of ways. Before Victor entered her life, it was only running away with her camera that made her feel free. Then Victor made it into the list. But it was a joke by fate as he was not hers.
"Why are you back?" She asked.
"You don't look surprised now," Victor pointed out instead, not replying to her question. "Like you were back in the forest."
He was still in his wrinkled blue shirt and pair of suit pants. The scrubby, exhausted condition of his features had only worsened.
"Wasn't it normal for me to get surprised seeing you in the forest?" she cross-questioned him.
But it seemed he had his weapons memorized already. "Really? Imagine how bewildered I was by your back-to-back stunts before that," he started in a cool manner, but his tone escalated the more he spoke. "Not only did you send a divorce notice at home, but you were also kind and intelligent enough to send me a copy at home! And guess how stupefied I was discovering that you'd left with your belongings already, that too, out of the country! It's so thoughtful of you not to let me give me a hint of your rash plans, NOT EVEN A FREAKING BIT."
Why was he screaming at her? Victoria's fingers shook at the doorknob in anger as well. Wasn't their marriage a forced one? Wasn't it a prison for him? Wasn't he in love with someone?
"So, is that why you're here? To know why a copy of the papers was sent to your office? Or are you crossed that I did not ask for your permission before I left?" she demanded. "I clearly called you before my flight departed. You were busy with the woman you want to spend your life with," it just slipped out of her mouth. "I gave you your life back and the chance to be with the person you love."
Hearing her, Victor stood stiff for a few breathless seconds before he narrowed his eyes. He said slowly, the underlying fury still reflecting in his eyes, "Is that what you thought? That I love Kate?"
"Don't you?" she was breathing heavily now. Her question was less of a question and more of a statement.
"I liked her incredibly," his eyes were genuine. "I was infatuated with her. And I thought I fell in love with her," he said. "Head over heels."
If a knife had been plunged through her heart, she would have felt less pain than what she was feeling now. There was an empty feeling in her mind. Her ears rang.
The pain fuelled her anger. "You didn't have to come all this way to tell me what I already know," she said, straightening up. "You've already told me back on the beach."
There was a long silence from his side.
She noticed he was looking at her from her head to her toe. That's when she realized that she had thrown open the door entirely in her fit of rage. And she was completely naked underneath the protection of only a bathrobe that barely reached her knees, and the outside air felt freezing against the wet, exposed skin of her body.
When his eyes fixated back on her, there was a sort of fire in them she had never noticed before that moment. There was fury, of course, but there was also something else that burned like an inferno.
At last, and in a slow, deep voice, he said, "You missed the main thing I told you, woman," he paused for a brief second before continuing, "The information I told you is starkly in the past tense."
What!
She didn't expect that.
And she certainly didn't expect him to cross the doorstep next and come to stand a breathing distance from her. It made her gasp by the suddenness of it.
"Do you," he asked, leaning closer to her face, making her heartbeat quicken. "really want me to sign the divorce papers?"
No, she didn't!
But she couldn't say that—could she?
"Victor—" it was certain that she didn't quite know what to say.
He was leaning even closer, and she put a hand on the middle of his chest to halt his movement as he was beginning to infect her with the fire in his eyes—the fire she now understood.
It was passion; it was hunger. A primal need that doesn't care about the consequences.
Before she could predict his next move, he bent his head, and his lips brushed against hers, making her shudder. Liquid desire pooled up in the most sensitive part of her body.
"I thought I was in love," he said, his eyes suddenly turning glossy. "Until I knew what love is as I started loving you."
Her heart stopped right there.
The emotions that glossed in the form of water in his eyes now felt like the lava of a volcano suppressed for decade after decade and beyond.
His lips touched hers again. His mouth devoured her next.
Her eyes fluttered close—lost in the moment.
She was powerless in front of her own desires and emotions, making her kiss him back—lips upon lips, tongues swiping against each other.
The swirl of their anger, frustration, emotions, and confessions made them swirl closer.
His wandering hand slid down to drag the bathrobe down her shoulders. She gasped as he tore his mouth away from hers and placed a trail of wet skin that he had revealed. His
It was hard to realize who insinuated the movement, but the tangle of their bodies was soon backing toward the bedroom.
The door which she was holding open closed. The lock remained open, however. It didn't matter, though, because robberies and theft in commoner's homes were rare in the country.
Her robe fell to the floor, attacked by his sensual ministrations as they reached near her bed.
His mouth detached from hers to look at her—with hooded eyes and heated breaths.
Goosebumps erupted everywhere on her body—everywhere.
The tips of her breasts pebbled.
In unison with her cheeks, many other parts of her body blushed.
Months and months of her pent-up desires for this man bloomed in its complete form as his eyes took in her bare form with a kind of hunger in his eyes she had never seen before.
His unmoving, dazed gaze upon her made her self-conscious as well, though. Lowering her eyes, she was turning around to cover herself shyly. However, his hand on her arm stopped her. Slipping a hand around her waist, she was dragged into his embrace to be missed madly again.
The fire was reignited—with a force more ferocious than before.
All that happened after that was a sensual, all-consuming, otherworldly blur.
Impatient, she dragged open his shirt while he helped her in the process. His sinewy form, the light splatter of hair on his chest that trailed down his pants—pants that they both fumbled to remove next. He stood only in his boxer shorts now.
She gasped when he suddenly bent down to pick her up and thrust up the bed. He was impatient, she could see, to waste any time to have her climb up the stairs to her bed. He galloped up only bouncing on just one of the steps.
In a lightning second, he was over her. She fell back into her pillow, gasping, thrilled, and aching down there.
Many more wet kisses on her mouth, shoulders, her breasts, and down the rest of her body, making her writhe with a growing pleasure—only paused to reach her most sensitive spot down there. She looked at his heated gaze as he softly held her knees to have her open up to him.
And then, he touched her there—in all ways possible, making her throw back her head, lightly squealing in helpless pleasure. Her hands clutched his hair at the back of his head. Her back arched, and she bit the back of her knuckles to contain a scream as all came undone from the deepest within her.
She didn't realize when he had removed his boxer shorts.
Still, in the midst of pleasure, he entered her and extended it and repeated the pleasures of them becoming one, forgetting everything else until both of them fell asleep in each other's arms, none knowing how it would all resurface the next morning.
Because it was a tedious task to reconstruct one's own self.
~
Word Count: 4202
~
A/N:
Hello, everyone!
I hope you're all doing well, aren't you?
I had a wonderful time a few days ago, hiking on the mountainside and discovering some pretty amazing places. It's an incredible blessing to be able to find out and appreciate incredible scenic places. God is truly the most magnificent artist.
No photos for today's chapter. However, I'll share some of the images I clicked myself on my Insta account by tomorrow. If you're interested, then do check them out.
Victor and Victoria finally did it! Yayyyyyyy! hurrrr! Brrr!
But what will be the consequence?
Their issues weren't entirely resolved, after all, before they hopped into bed.
Please don't forget to vote, comment, and share! Fan/follow to get notified of my updates!
Thanks to all the lovely people for your support! The story will be marked completed this month because of your constant motivation that made me write like a storm and update weekly. Afterward, I will be updating some bonus chapters to my other stories. And then, the sole focus will be to complete Truly Madly deeply! It's high time to end that one as well.
Love,
Lara.