Past,
I’m humming as I trot down the path in the middle of the garden.
Ma said she’ll read me a story today. She stopped reading me stories since the one who shall not be named disappeared.
A red rose is tucked carefully between my small fingers. My brows scrunch as I try to keep the rose pretty.
It’s for Ma because she likes red.
Our house isn’t in the city. Daddy has to drive for sooo long to arrive where he works. When I asked him why do we live where there aren’t other people, he said he and Ma don’t like to be bothered.
He’s like the prince who took the princess to his faraway castle and is living happily ever after with her.
Or maybe it’s not happily ever after.
When does forever end in them fairy tales?
Near the back garden, sounds of fighting rise in the air.
No. Not fighting.
I stop in my tracks, my heart beating loud and fast. My clutch tightens around the rose.
Them monsters are here again.
I hide behind the plum tree and hug the rose close to my chest.
My eyes screw shut, so hard, they hurt.
Them monsters won’t take me.
Not anymore.
No other sound comes. I slowly open my eyes and search around me.
Movement catches at the top floor of our house.
Ma stands at the window of her room, staring at the distance and putting red lipstick on.
My mouth parts to call her name, but I close it again. Them monsters will find me before she does.
They always do.
I breathe as quietly as possible while hiding behind the tree. There are wires in the distance, surrounding the entire garden.
Daddy’s friends who wear black and don’t talk to us put those so no animals or people come inside.
But even the wires can’t stop them monsters.
“I told you to back off.”
My spine stiffens at the voice coming from around the corner.
Daddy?
With snail movements, I place a hand on the stone and peek. Daddy sits at the garden table, his back facing me.
He’s wearing his black suit. His chestnut hair is short at his nape but is long at the top.
The view of his back alone makes him appear far like I can’t reach him anymore.
Maybe them monsters come after Daddy, too.
Uncle Reginald sits opposite Daddy and facing me. He has scrawny looks and bulging blue eyes that used to scare me when I was younger.
But not anymore.
Monsters escape when Uncle Reg is here.
He’s like a superhero.
Ma and Dad don’t like it when I speak like him and say ‘them’ instead of ‘the’. They say that’s not how educated people speak, but I like saying ‘them’. I just have to not say it in front of Ma and Dad.
Now, Uncle Reg appears angry like Daddy when I don’t stay in my room at night.
“It’s your last chance, Steel.” Uncle Reg spits on the ground — eww, gross. “If you don’t give me what I want, I’ll find someone who will.”
Daddy stands to his full height and my heart shrinks. Daddy is scary when he speaks with so much calm. “You think a cockroach like you can cross me?”
Uncle Reg stands, too. “Try me, boss, and you’ll see what a cockroach is capable of.”
“Get off my property,” Daddy grinds out. “Now.”
I flinch at the tone, my nails digging into the rose.
Uncle Reg smiles and comes in my direction. I hide back against the tree, holding the rose close to my chest.
I’m so going to give Uncle Reg a scare.
“What do we have here?” Uncle Reg speaks from in front of the tree. “I can see your hair, princess.”
Uh-Oh.
I step out, pouting. “Not fair, Uncle Reg. I was about to scare you!”
He places a hand at his heart. “Oh, I’m terrified, princess.”
“It’s okay, you can stop being scared now.”
“Thank you, my lady.” He straightens and points at the rose. “Where are you taking that?”
I grin, showing him my missing tooth. “To Ma! She said she’ll read me a story today.”
He lowers himself so he’s crouching. “Your ma has been good, yeah?”
“Yeah! She’s putting red lipstick.”
Uncle Reg’s expression falls.
But why?
Ma is totally cool when she’s putting red lipstick and wearing red dresses. It means she’ll read me stories and put me to sleep. She’ll be there for me when them monsters voices start coming from the basement.
Ma is bad when she has no lipstick on and wears that white dress. That’s when she makes me sit on her lap and sings me that haunting song. That’s when them monsters come to take me away.
Uncle Reg motions at my rose. “Is that for her?”
“Yes!” I grin. “Ma loves red.”
A heavy sigh leaves his lips as he stands to his full height and pats my head. “Careful, princess. Red also means blood.”
Uncle Reg morphs into a shadow.
My heartbeat picks up.
No, no…
I shake my head.
It isn’t real.
Not real.
I need to take the red rose to Ma. She’ll read for me. She’ll put me to bed when them monster voices come.
The rose’s sharp thorn pierces my finger.
Ow.
The first droplet of blood hits the ground. Another follows.
Then another.
Before I know it, a pool of red surrounds me, its surface is like a mirror.
My breathing turns shallow when I look down.
Hollow black eyes stare back at me.
I shriek.
Present,
I startle awake, screaming and frantically studying my hands.
No blood.
There’s no blood.
There are no dark hollow eyes gaping up at me.
No monsters.
“Hey… hey…”
A hand clutches my arm. I claw and hit them.
The monsters won’t take me away again.
I escaped them. They can’t find me anymore.
“Elsa!”
My breathing catches at the sound of my name. I blink twice and realise I’m in a bed in a familiar room.
Aiden is trying to hold me to his chest. A scratch mark runs down his left pectoral muscle.
My eyes widen.
Did… did I cause that?
Aiden grabs both my hands in his. The same hands that I just used to smack him with.
A deep frown etches between his eyebrows as he watches me intently as if preparing himself in case I have another episode.
Oh. God.
The nightmare. I had an episode after the nightmare.
I close my eyes and a tear slides down my cheek.
“Hey.” Aiden brings my fingers to his mouth and kisses them one by one.
I slowly peel my lids open.
How can he kiss the same fingers that I just hurt him with?
No. He’s not only kissing them. He slides his lips over each fingertip as if he’s worshipping them.
“What are you doing?” I murmur through hiccoughs.
He offers an easy-going grin and speaks against my fingers. “Getting you back.”
“Getting me back from where?”
“From whoever was trying to take you away from me just now.”
A sob tears its way out of my throat and I let my head fall against his chest. My cheek rests to his hard muscles and I listen intently to his heartbeat.
His soothing, normal heartbeat.
I run the pad of my finger over the scratch mark on his chest. “I-I’m sorry… I’m s-so sorry. I didn’t mean to do this… I… I…”
“Shh,” Aiden’s arms come around my back and he wraps us both in the sheet as I cry softly into his chest.
I can still feel the prick of the thorn and see the blood.
So much fucking blood.
It’s on my hands, under my skin, and all around me.
Was that a memory or a nightmare? If it was real, how could there be that much blood and no one knew about it?
And who’s Uncle Reg? Is he a real person or a play of my imagination?
Careful, princess. Red also means blood.
A shudder shoots through me at his words.
“Another nightmare?” Aiden asks calmly.
I nod against his skin but say nothing.
He draws small circles at my back. I’m all sweaty and dishevelled, but that doesn’t stop Aiden from holding me close until his chest crushes my breasts and all I can smell is him.
And my scent on him.
And the scent of sex in the air.
He barely let me go to sleep and only after he wrenched two more orgasms out of me. I still feel sore and sensitive.
But right now? Right now, I feel something else.
I feel the familiarity of Aiden’s embrace and how much I need it. How much it’s just right to be in his arms.
No. It’s wrong.
I can’t fall for his games again.
I try to squirm away, but he only tightens his hold on my back as we both fall to the mattress facing each other.
He wraps his hand around my midsection and I place both palms on his chest. His heartbeat booms under my fingertips, and I instantly feel calmer.
It’s like my own custom-made lullaby.
“Just sleep,” he murmurs in that husky voice.
I shake my head.
“Why not?”
“What if they come back?” I sniff.
“I’ll be here.” He wraps a hand around my head and places it on his chest like that’s where I’ve always belonged.
Like he can’t have it any other way.
We remain like that for a few, and I’m too tired to fight anything at the moment.
“Remember when I told you that I’ll protect you?”
I nod, my eyes starting to flutter closed.
“That includes the monsters from your nightmares, Elsa.”
I make an unintelligible sound as sleep whisks me away.
Aiden will protect me from the monsters in my nightmares.
But how did he know they were monsters?
I never told him that.
Right?
