___________________________________PART SIXTEEN____________________________________
Beep…beep…beep…
The slow sound of the heart monitor woke me. I was sitting in a hospital room chair, sitting directly up. I started to yawn, but as I began to lift my hands to stretch, I felt a cord tug my wrists back down again.
The hell…?
I looked around the room puzzled. It was then that I noticed Donovan, arms and legs sprawled out over a gurney, Jeff standing over him. I saw something faintly sparkle and Don’s hand twitched fervently and his body writhed slightly in pain.
“What are you doing to him?” My voice was unsteady, as well as my body.
“Oh,” Jeff turned to face me, a scalpel held in one of his gloved hands. I saw Donovan’s head which had a small slit in the top, rosy blood trickling from the wound. “You’re awake.”
“What are you doing to him?” I repeated my voice stronger, clearer, and more confident this time.
“Oh my dear girl,” Jeff said morbidly, running his gloved fingers across my cheek, I could not pull away because of the restraints. “I’m ridding him.”
“No.” I whispered. “No! You can’t, please!” My sobs filled the room, causing Donovan’s head to lift up slightly.
“Ciera?” he moaned. “Ciera is that you?”
“Donny!” I whimpered.
“Oh stop!” Jeff butted in, separating our view from each other. “Enough romance.”
“Let him go!” I panicked, heart thudding. He did not reply, he simply walked over and continued his disturbed work to Donovan’s face. Anger swelled inside of me, as well as adrenaline. I flung my legs out at him, sending the chair with me in it, sailing forward. The chair and I tumbled into his lower leg, he crashed to the floor. Hearing Donovan’s painful moans, I used all my strength, and ambition to save him, to bite the cords repressing me, breaking me free. I bolted over to Donovan, who had a slit on his upper forehead. He looked up at me, unable to speak, as I broke the zip ties holding him to the gurney. Jeff was evidentially unconscious, because I hadn’t seen or heard the slightest of anything since he’d tumbled to the floor. I reached my hand down to help Donovan up, but his eyes grew dim and lifeless.
“No, no, no, no.” I leaned down and checked his vitals. A slow thump, thump pressed against my forefinger.
“Donny wake up.”
Nothing.
“Please…” I started to cry. My sobs were audible to anyone still awake in the room, at that his eyes shot open, and he gasped. I dragged him up and rubbed his back to bring air to his lungs. His breathing steadied as I clasped him in my arms.
“I thought you were gone…” I whispered with my face pressed to his neck.
“I’m never gone sweetheart.” He comforted me, grasping my shoulder tightly. Slinging his arm around my shoulder, I propped him up and helped him out of the room. We instantly went down to the lobby and told one of the doctors what had occurred. We were told to go back to the resort, and we did accordingly.
___
As I dabbed the cloth against Donovan’s wound, he flinched.
“Ow, ow, ow! Watch it please.” he gritted his teeth.
“Sorry. It’s rubbing alcohol, it’s going to be painful, but I have to clean it.” I continues dabbing the cloth against his skin. Soon, he adjusted to the sting and he settled. Once I was finished, I realized the would was just a mere slice. It wasn’t even half an inch deep. We bandaged his forehead and with the help of my “expert” medical skills, (medical skills my ass) the blood finally stopped and he was-hopefully- not going to die.
“So…what was the gunshot I heard?” I asked once we were finally sitting down and each others’ embrace.
“Gunshot?”
“Yeah.. You were covered in blood…and Jeff was there to take me.”
“Oh, he shot at my side. He fixed it, though. He just tried to make it as if I died.” Don explained. “But it’s okay I’m alive now.”
“I’m aware.” I gazed at him, chuckling a little. I was still curious about Fantasize, so I hesitantly asked him about it.
“What’s the deal with the whole Fantasize group?”
Donovan looked at me a while before he replied, “They want us to help them.”
I scoffed, “Help them?”
“Yeah. I mean… with murder. They’re trying to find what your dad’s been hiding in one of his bonds in the bank.”
“My dad’s hiding something?” I questioned, immensely confused.
“Apparently.” he blurted. I shrugged it off as he did, bringing out conversation to a close, but leaving me hanging on the edge of a cliff by my fingernails, just as Charles Dickens had once done in the end of a chapter in one of his books. Hence the term ‘cliff-hanger.’
I curled into a ball on the bed and Don loomed over me, keeping me warm from the drafty Maryland snow. I reached up and kissed him, in charade for “I’m glad you’re okay”. He pulled me up by my shirt collar, kissing me passionately. I giggled and smiled in mid-kiss as he opened his eyes and did an awkward eyebrow dance. He pulled away laughing, as we plopped on our backs, back down on the comforter. I grabbed his hand and squeezed it as he looked at me, smiling, I smiled back.
“Do you think it’ll be alright?” He asked me at length.
“What?” I didn’t understand his question.
“Never mind.” he replied, I let it rest at that. We’d had a long day- and week- and we were both mentally, physically, and emotionally tired. He nuzzled his head onto my stomach, his chillingly cold nose making me giggle at the sensation. He slid his hands up my jacket slowly and unzipped it, leaving me freezing.
“No, it’s cold.” I protested, slipping my jacket back on.
“I’ll keep you warm.” He smiled, taking it back off.
“Fine.” I pushed my jacket to the floor, allowing him to wrap his arms around me gently, kissing from my neck up. I blushed as his eyes met mine, and a tingling sensation went off in my fingertips. He kissed hard, forcing his lips onto mine, and I kissed back, pulling away just in time to slip my hands up his shirt. Before I did, I warned him,
“Don’t flinch like you did last time, I nearly died, remember?”
He nodded. “Shut up and kiss me.” He kissed me passionately, leaving no room for breath in between. Every minute or so we’d part slightly for a breath, only to bring our lips touching again. His arms snaked around me, gliding sweetly up and down my shoulders. His lips tasting bitterly of blood, which I was not so very fond of, but also of hot tea, which beckoned me to kiss further. His tongue ran across mine, and we finally pulled apart, breathing heavily and laughing.
“I’m glad you didn’t almost die that time,” he laughed.
“I am too. I’ve gotten injured a lot during this whole foray, haven’t I?”
“Yeah, you have.” He looked at me, and I looked back at him. We sat in silence. I swiftly moved in and gave him the most passionate and quick kiss I could, biting at his lip and pulling at his ginger hair. He attempted to kiss back, but he was too surprised by my effort. I pulled away at last.
“My god.” he gasped. I simply smiled at him and winked, as if that would somehow turn him on. I got up and changed- there- directly in front of him. Now, what was going on, I was not sure of, but I’d done it anyway. I clambered into the bed next to his, and rolled over to face the wall.
That’s when I heard it.
Knock.
“What was that?” I asked Donovan.
“I didn’t hear a thing.” he replied, shifting back on his side to sleep. I shrugged it off, and rolled back over.
I heard it again.
Knock, knock.
“Donovan.” I said louder this time.
“What?” he turned on the light, looking around the room. “There isn’t anyone here. Go to bed.” He turned the light off.
I dozed back to sleep for what seemed like mere seconds, then I heard a new noise this time.
Grrr….
A faint growling sounded from somewhere within the next few rooms. I started to grow worried and uneasy. Shaking, I stood up and paced the room silently, waking Don only when I curled up in his arms in his bed.
“Ceira what’s wrong?” He pressed his nose to my shoulder blade, nuzzling it into my shirt.
“That noise. I’m so scared of it. I don’t know why but it scares me…” I whispered.
“There’s no noise, you’re probably just uneasy. It’s alright.” He tried to ease my hysteria, but I was sure that I’d heard something. Eventually though, I managed to drift into sleep in his arms.
Knock, knock, knock….grrr…
I pushed the noises form my mind and closed my eyes again.
Scccrrrappppeeee.
My eyes parted open, but I clenched them shut. My heart was pounding like a snare drum, I was surprised that Donovan didn’t notice, but he was sound asleep. I heard another noise.
Thud!
It was so loud, that I was simultaneously drawn to see what it was. I slipped out of Don’s grasp, walking over to the door and opening it as quietly and secretively as I could. There it lay, at my feet, a limp, pale, lifeless, dead body. I gasped, but covered my mouth quickly as to not wake anyone around. The dim light in the hallways brought out the colorless tone in the person’s eyes, which were wide open. I looked around for the killer. No one.
“Don….do….don..Donovan..” I tried to scream, but my voice was too low and scratchy for anyone to hear.
That’s when I heard it. Not the noises like I’d heard before, but the voice.
“Tiger, tiger.”