--- *** ---
---The next morning ---
Several hours passed after Timothy's whispering promise as his inner voice echoed in his right hand's head as radioactive waves were signaling her by thinking twice whether to believe his promise or on the contrary repudiate it as if another false hope was delivered to her.
False hope by deluding her to be jailed behind Briarcliff's dull, lifeless walls with the other patients, who were destined until their days were reckoned. What she doubtlessly feared was losing her son Edward Ralph by sending him to an orphanage, although the unconditional love his parents had for him, especially his mother.
Cracks gapped her mind in the wee hours of the morning, even during her peaceful slumber with her newborn son who nestled in her tight, warm, maternal embrace by leaving tracks of hesitancy.
What was oblivious for the former sister of the church was her bed sheet was inundated with a fresh blood as its lake of blood trickled her inner thighs shortly after labor.
The morning was embraced by the eloquent, merry songs of the chirping birds outside by encircling the old unwelcoming mental institution's façade with their lovely, monotonous songs, whereas a tad autumn breeze blew outside.
As soon as the former nun woke up, due to her ray of sunshine's bewail which swam in the cold, barren cell of hers, the sudden clink of old, rusty keys' in the women's wing hallway wasn't audible for Jude as she was rather focused on alleviating Edward. Her heart raced as if Edward interrupted her slumber by opening reluctantly without blinking for a single second her drowsy hazelish-brown eyes, glinting criminal disquietness by keeping her wits about her peckish son.
"Shu, shu, shu, sweetie! Everything is alright! Mommy will feed ya, my little sweet ray of sunshine!" The blonde rocked her baby son into her scooped elvish, secure hands by peppering his temple and cheeks with loving, tender kisses until her cell's rusty door cautiously, slowly opened, as a result of one more uninvited visitor paying a visit to Jude.
"Good morning, rare bird!" The man of the cloth just emerged in the corner of her honey brown moons by meeting her neutral, glassy gaze as a grotesque, emotionless frown cracked upon her pale, dry complexion, highlighting her recurring hostility to him , even when she opted to be as amicable as possible last night when she gave birth to their bastard child. Both former lovers' facial expressions contrasted.
The younger man's beaming, content smile of seeing his rara avis with their son was a genuine, roseate paradise, encompassed by angels and servants of God to guard him against the searing devils, remorseless sins as hell's scourge. Despite his heart ached, beholding Jude and Edward in despaired condition since her current status of being imprisoned patient by figuring out how deplorable eventually was, howsoever, a mended gap of his pierced heart was melting at the sight of the single mother with their son.
An inevitable irritation at the mention of the word rare bird, which he addressed her proudly and happily the past months when they were collaborating in the church and mental hospital's duties until it wasn't Jude's favorite young nun and the elder blonde's foe. They were responsible for manipulating, even turning the Monsignor against his right hand without any ado.
"Good morning, Timothy! Could ya please wait for a while to feed Edward?" She refrained from bickering with her former lover when he approached her patient's bed by seating on the edge of it as she was undoing her patient's robe gown buttons in swift motion by swinging continuously the infant. To stifle another blubber, even sniffle linger on his frail lungs and tongue ever again especially when he is in sure and secure arms.
"Of course, Jude!" Pristine calmness vomited in his honeyed voice as Jude was about to breastfeed Edward whilst Timothy's chocolate brown jewels which were fueled with pure innocence, warmth and vulnerability as a virgin as they wandered at each corner of the sufficiently expansive ward by chewing his bottom berry-coloured lip. It was the day when he was more than determined to rescue not just one blameless, rich innocent soul. Even two souls, who are incarnations of the divine goodwill and sinlessness.
The cold climate assaulted the middle-aged woman's mossy, creamy flesh as goosebumps swept every inch of her exposed flesh.
"Let's not forget your packed belongings and your documents are already in my cab. I will wait for you to feed our little sweet angel."
At this moment, the older woman heard him when he mentioned her paraphernalia and her patient documents were stored in his vehicle, to get her out of Briarcliff's morbid madness which cast back on her appearance. No response and reaction followed after his utterance as Judy was Fundamentally focused on Edward by feeding him since he was exceedingly esurient after collecting the necessary nutrients during his sleep shortly after his birth.
Suddenly, the pervasive stench of blood reached the priest's sensitive nose by sniffling inwardly the suspicious stench was inescapable for such a cell, especially in a ratty madhouse. Initially, he commenced to wonder from where it emanated until he came to the conclusion his former lover gave a-birth to their baby son the night before. Besides his biology classes about women's anatomy and pregnancies were giving him a hint of the knowledge he had gained almost two decades ago.
Shortly after Jude finished feeding the infant, all of a sudden, the tangy miasma of blood caused urgent panic, cooking inside her as her face flushed entirely. The sanguine heat crawled underneath her cheeks' skin by bowing lightly her head by resting her forehead against Edward's nuzzling his button nose, factly, opting to disregard the embarrassing situation she was located. Her panic spawned Timothy's abrupt concern, imprinted on his youthfully handsome complexion.
"Judy, are you alright? You seem more than panicked."
"Oh, Timothy! I am so ashamed." The former woman of the cloth huskily, glassily muttered out rolling her eyes as she got from the bed and unwrapping the cotton blanket as she held Edward.
"It is going to be alright. You should wait for a while as well. I will change the bedding in a jiffy, but first of all I don't want you to be in trouble as you should be in the car with Edward as I will delay for a split minute, therefore getting back in the vehicle by driving to Father Malachi to formally resign myself from the church and its duties. Okay?"
In the meantime, the ashamed inmate was snuggling her sweet little ray of sunshine in her scooped arms in a warm, protective embrace by planting a kiss on Edward's cheek, whereas Timothy took out his paletot since the days were as cold, windy and rainy as the autumn's days were dying and the winter ones will dawn in a matter of handful of weeks only.
"It is going to be fine, my baby boy!" The little boy cooed to his mother as his hand extended to reach his mother's jawline by tracing it clumsily with his tiny, plump fingers, admiring her ethereal grace.
As soon as Timothy took off his coat, he strolled up to Jude by wrapping it around her weightless, slender body by ushering her to follow him. She accompanied the holy man, who opened the rusty, creaky ward door by stepping aside, permitting Jude to set a-foot in the long, profound hallway of the unholy by glimpsing attentively in both directions, incessantly, faintly rocking the love child in her arms by alleviating him to not bawl his eyes.
Meantime, he pursed her lips in a coy, girlish manner. Afterward Timothy discreetly closed the ward's door without drawing further attention.
Fortunately, nobody was wandering in the asylum's corridor as the Monsignor, himself, was actually the one who guided his former lover to the exit. A velvet whisper verged to be vomited by lingering on his tongue as his face was alongside her ear.
"If somebody starts questioning why you are in the car, think of a lie to say."
It didn't take a long to pace in the women's wing hallway by walking away as the other inhabitants of the mental institution were oblivious to them a patient was being escorted to the exit, thanks to the Monsignor's help. Whereas the newborn boy dangled clumsily his wee arms, bracing his mother's neck by snuggling in her bosom as the both former lovers were departing for the vehicle even to Father Malachi's place.
As soon as their footsteps invisibly tracked to the exit as if they left traces on the sand until they vanished, Timothy's shoes clicked against the cement flooring as he was holding the door for Jude. Although the security guards were gone, fortunately. If they were guarding the front door of the old, grandiose building, on the contrary, they would stop the riots, even beginning to question Jude's escape which was plotted by the administrator.
"Phew! No security guards." The blonde murmured as its murmur hugged her dry tongue as they passed through the front door, thereafter, imposing the massive stone stairs as luckily almost nobody crowded the grand yard.
Once they imposed the massive, Timothy resumed escorting Jude to his black cab as her frail skeleton was almost giving up, in fact, she gave a-birth the last night and the hours of rest were as an average goodnight sleep only.
The holy man's free hand lowered to his obsidian slacks by delving in its pocket by surveying for the keys until his long, dexterous fingers dabbed something harder, rustier and yanking them promptly as he was unlocking his car's doors by opening the passenger's back seat door for his right hand. He held it as she seated with their love child. The coat yet shielded the blonde and the infant's bodies against the cold, chilling climate, though little did Jude know what day it was today.
After the orderlies and nuns were equipping her violently, relentlessly with heavy medicaments, her mind was nothing more than a mess, besides the barbaric, aberrant electroshock therapy, which consequences were worse than the heavy medicaments that she were being given. Hazy, even diaphanous memories of her past and other events that took place in the past were fading as if she resembled a brainless zombie, whereas her memories ebbed in limbo.
Last but not least, the middle-aged mother didn't know for what to mourn over more. Over her past as its memories were vague at this moment or by the way she's treated as a guiltless patient, who was imprisoned against her will. That was the question.
"Jude, as I promised I will be right back in a few minutes to clean your bed and get rid of the old mattress! Just don't leave the car as I am saying now and everything is going to be okay, okay?"
He bent forward against her as his mammoth, unarguably smooth and warm hand pushed stray, unkempt strands of her angelic halo golden ringlet of old Hollywood curls. They hung down to her back by tracing with fingers her forehead as sore scars of the electroshock therapy were impacted, incarnating dreadful, abominable memories.
Their stares met as a small, soothing smile cradled his berry-coloured, damp lips in a crescent shape by planting a tender kiss on Jude's desolated, lukewarm cheek as she abided paralyzed even spellbound by its cheek kiss.
She just nodded humbly, vaguely with her head, affirming his words by keeping her promise to stay in the car until his return by slamming the passenger back door by retreating up to the former tuberculosis hospital for a split minute.
When the former nun was all alone in the car with nobody else than her sole medicine for her ultimate felicity, namely her baby son, subsequently, her hazelish-brown eyes shifted to Edward's plumpish, flushed face by inspecting studiously, gingerly his facial features once again after his birth. She admired his indisputable beauty as he has inherited marvelous facial features from his parents uniformly.
Her slim, still trembling fingers caressed his sparse, soft chestnut hair by tracing them down to his button nose, pinching it lightly as he giggled absently, impulsively.
"Look at you, little handsomer! You are as handsome as yar fathah." Soft and merry as satin caution dallied on her tongue as if wine-stained breath pinched lightly the surrounder's complexion. "I love you more than anyone would love you in this world." A lovingly delicate kiss scooped his temple by her dry lips.
Perhaps the silver-tongued, enraptured and tedious twittering songs of the birds as if nature's symphony was playing, exposing its genuine hues of the tunes that followed its composed rhythm were encompassing the unwed mother with her bastard son. Relishing the loneliness with him. Her brittle heart's gaps were thronged with warmness and love at the sight of her peacefully asleep son, who rested securely in the middle-aged lady's arms.
Jude's honey brown pools couldn't be averted by her ray of sunshine by cooing quietly, softly to him, despite his slumbering condition. It was her Achilles' Heel as her potent, interminable love she had for him.
Even more, the wind played outside as it blew the huge trees' crowds as a scourge of crispy leaves were tumbling down by blanketing the ground with a rich carpet of leaves in a variety of colours.
The sky was flecked with grayish, solid clouds as they insinuated the impending storm and rain invading the small city of Massachusetts for the rest of the day or a handful of hours only.
All of a sudden, in the interval, the sound whose source was clicking shoes was approaching the cab distracting immediately Judy's attention by noting Timothy getting in his car by buckling his belt, turning to the former woman of the cloth by making sure she's alright.
"Is everything alright, Jude? Did somebody try to question why were you there?"
"Everything is fine, Timothy! Nobody did." The former sister of the church replied dryly as she bit her bottom, plump lip by casting a mere, jaded look at him by bowing her head.
"Alright, Judy! Now before driving to my owned property in Vermont, we should drive to Father Malachi as I will announce my official resignation of the church." His colossal hands were on the steering wheel spinning it as soon as his car engine started as it whirred, building immense ounces in her eyelids as they were heavier with each advancing moment.
During their forthcoming destination up to Father Malachi, the older woman was chanting a mellow lullaby, humming to her newborn son as her hoarse voice was vaguely improving once the lullaby zinged her vocal caverns which were inéluctably audible for the holy man. He was utterly focused on the driving process as soon as his car was leaving Briarcliff's area by gliding the Boston cement motorways in the countryside's fields.
Furthermore, the member of the clergy wondered from where Jude possessed such a breathtakingly eloquent voice.
Suddenly, lighting bolts jolted down as they shook the ground, bearing a resemblance earthquake which woke up the little boy from the peaceful kipping as he squealed in murderous panic. Resuscitating Jude and Timothy's concern the former lovers' hearts throbbed heavily in their frail ribs.
"Shu, shu, shu, sweet little boy! It is just a lightning bolt. Everything is fine." The blonde attempted to soothe Edward by rocking him in her embrace by peppering his temple with doting, velvet kisses.
"It looks like our little angel is afraid of the storm!" The high-pitched snivels subdued as they were no longer floating like radioactive waves, giving a-birth to the apocalyptic turmoil. In the meanwhile, the younger man exclaimed mildly blissfully trying to increase Jude's spirits, although her bitterness and lack of emotion, imprinted on her pale, porcelain as a feeble ghost complexion. "Just imagine how he's going to sleep in the middle of the night during the big, fat storm."
Jude continuously cradled Edward without any ado by shushing harmonically.
No response. No action responded in the barrens. The silence whose somber, waxen rays dispersed by overspreading inside the vehicle as if the ebon taciturnity was consuming, muting every peeled word, every laughter, every sniffle, every cry, every whine. Literally every sound.
"J-Jude?" As soon as he halted on a red light, he turned again to his right hand by noting her unconscious condition as she was already conked her eyelids and body muscles no longer bear the natural circumstances that the giving birth process produced. Timothy lastly realized she was already asleep with their little sweet ray of sunshine, scooped in her protective arms as he couldn't help but smile in awe by falling in love even more with Edward and Jude. "You are so beautiful, my rare bird and Edward! Why didn't I get you out of the snake pit earlier when you were still in your Mommy's tummy?"
The almost ex-priest felt mist depression consuming him. Due to this fact, he profoundly regretted his late determined decision to get his rara avis out of Briarcliff shortly after their love child emerged in this world, via her womb by gliding slowly by escaping her bump, where he populated for straight nine months.
Little did he know why his conscience, which was plagued with borderless guilt for months, he does nine months later after their child is already in this cruel, cold world, polluted with the humanity's hellish manners of destroying slowly but surely the world, itself.
What if otherwise, Timothy rescued Jude much earlier from Briarcliff's morbid, bashing terror?
Will his guilty conscience for blindly believing her foes like Doctor Arden, known as a former Nazi war criminal, who emigrated to a different country with a completely different biography and name as if they were fake? Their once favorite possessed juvenile sister of the church, Sister Mary Eunice? And the vicious serial killer, known as the murderous Santa Claus, Leigh Emerson, heal even revamping the gaps of significant mistrust, mindless betrayal and unrequited love?
Is it even possible for a second chance and not permitting the gravity of the atonement otherwise lose its balance by elongating the rusty, reinforced chains of its chances of their mutual atonement?
A waterfall of questions splashed in the shore of his mind as the crucial ones resurfaced, even in the shallowest parts of the shore.
Afterward, he turned to his direction as soon as the green light shone by keeping on with his impending destination up to Father Malachi taking him several minutes.
--- *** ---
An hour later, after the juvenile, aspiring man of the cloth formally declared to his tutor his resignation from the church and its ecclesiastical duties, he was no longer the administrator of the most notorious mental institution in the entire state.
He was officially a mere citizen as his taken solemn vows since being part of the church and its grave responsibilities were just like dandruff, a trace of his past life. His past life as a priest.
At first, the elder member of the church was beyond leery when an articulation behind his motives of fleeing the church and the facility was for the better since two taintless, innocent souls were ultimately under his control. Living an ordinary life as a man with his own needs of loving, lusting, being intimate and so forth.
Moreover, Father Malachi wasn't very fond of the former promiscuous nightclub singer since she joined the church. By rescuing herself from the darkness of insanely boozing the sinful, sweet alcohol, getting laid with one-night-stand lovers and singing in local nightclubs, to live a better life, especially as a nun.
Subsequently, Timothy carried on with the final journey which was namely his, Jude and Edward's home.
A handful of hours driving without stopping were as weary as the nettling of some irresponsible drivers or otherwise those type of drivers, who enjoyed the higher, the-more dynamic speeds. In the interim, the blonde and the infant were still asleep, relishing their kip altogether.
When they were eventually in Vermont as the Boston's scene was dying even vanishing, especially in the younger man's chocolate brown chasms' corners as they were ultimately focused on his way to his owned property which he bought with his own family's fortune he emigrated in the USA a couple of years ago.
Lightly scintillating sun rays zapped everything below by illuminating partly Jude, Timothy and Edward's as white as cream faces, despite the swarm of clouds which almost concealed the sun as if it was precisely outnumbered in the sky. The wind wasn't flaring as it was invisible, reckless hem by blowing every surrounding as the natural spirits were calling from everywhere.
In the meantime, what the former member of the clergy's sensitive ears were as honed as bat's ones when the stirring sound of Jude as a casual yawn fled her oral caverns, whereas the young boy was yet slumbering peacefully in his mother's arms without rendering any sound by drawing the both adults' attention in no time.
As soon as the former sister of the Roman Catholic church rubbed reluctantly her drowsy eyelids, at first her vision seemed blurry as if she had been overdosing doggedly, restlessly as its haziness bedimmed her hazel eyes.
An optimistic, sympathetic smile hoofed across his berry-coloured lips as if they were soaked in relief and glee, due to the fact Jude was awake at last and he had the opportunity to give her an explanation of their current location.
The blonde shook faintly her head. Her vision's blurriness was fading away, ebbed its effect until she wore a flabbergasted, dumbfound look on her complexion whilst studying the surroundings that encircled them during their driving destination up to his owned mansion, located in Vermont's outskirts.
"W-Where are we?" Whisper tugged her tongue.
"In Vermont. We need a few minutes until we are home. Don't be so anxious, Jude!" The former lover clarified calmly, which caused Jude to arch an eyebrow in bracket form.
Something as an utterance which she crowed to utter than anything to persuade her former lover everything is fine, howsoever, the heavy medicament and exhaustion were responsible for letting it die as if the imminent exclamation would be the newborn one and it was miscarried, due to her condition.
"Timothy?"
"Yes, Jude?"
"N-Nothing! II just wanted to thank you for getting me and Edward out of this place." The middle-aged lady stuttered in a raspy voice as if it bore semblance to purling, affecting the motion of her neck in its spelling of each syllable.
Smugness highlighted upon the former holy man's facial features, especially biasing his crescent-shaped, alleviated smile, lighting up his ego and heart as its everlasting flame blazed inside his chamber.
Even the most compact fragment as an imminent step in achieving a mutual redemption, was emphasized in its notion of Jude's gratitude and Timothy's kept promise.
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Author's Note: Of course, Jude earned her own freedom along with their little ray of sunshine!
✞ What do you think about the second chapter? ✞
✞ Do you think Timothy and Jude will have fierce struggles to repair their tremendously toxic relationship, in spite of their persistent attempts? ✞
✞Don't be shy and feel free to leave your honest feedback! ✞