CHAPTER 52: THE THIRD FLOOR

Many times he has carried her in his arms. Countless times she had melted into the safety his hands made her feel and had breathed in the satisfaction his scent brought to her lungs. It was something she knew she could do forever.

But Tonight, everything was different. It was the very opposite of what she was used to. She was being carried by the same man, but she didn’t feel safe with him. Instead, she was looking for the perfect opportunity to run from him. The man reeked of danger like it was a natural part of him, and the air around him was snuffed with blood.

Her lungs could not take it anymore.

His hair had been let down again, with most of it shielding her from getting a good look at his face. Her heart pounded with every step he took, bringing them closer and closer to the mansion.

It didn’t help that her body was still hurting badly from the accident.

From all she had witnessed up till this point, it’s very easy to say that Alastair...was not human. Everything about him has always been different from the usual, every single thing. He was stronger, and faster, had an aura that could cause an uproar, and the man did not have a heart.

Swallowing, Aaliyah tried to wriggle but he instantly clutched her even tighter. She could not begin to imagine what would happen when he finally gets back to the mansion, owning to how he has been insisting that she was to pull out the Maqbath.

And...her deadline was Tonight.

If she wanted to get away, she had to do it now. But, how is she supposed to get away from someone like him?

"I’ll walk on my own. Please drop me down," She cracked out with her fingers crossed.

He remained silent.

"You’re holding me too tight. It’s making my injuries even worse," She tried again, her heart in her throat, "Just drop me. I’ll come with you. I won’t try to escape again,"

"Liar!" He growled.

"I’m not lying," She retorted loudly, "We just had an accident and my leg hurts. Everywhere hurts. If you keep this up, I’m gonna pass out before we get back to the mansion. You need to drop me. I can walk on my own... Alastair!"

He halted all of a sudden, and Aaliyah almost gasped thinking she might have hit a nerve. The silence of the night coupled with the dense air between them had her heart pounding even faster.

The night suddenly became bright for a second as lightning filled with sky, followed by an earsplitting thunder strike. Aaliyah squeezed her eyes shut as another lightening brightened up the place, and she caught a glimpse of his eyes she could see through his hair.

Dark clouds were gathering fast in the sky, starting to block out the Moon.

The Full Moon.

Aaliyah refrained from gazing too hard at his chest. It’s usually not this prominent, but tonight was different as she could see every edge of it right there. It was an object she could stare at and admire, but the problem was she could not let him catch her staring.

It would only make things worse.

The next step Alastair took was faster than the last. He had increased his pace and did not look like he was going to let Aaliyah walk on her own.

Soon enough, Aaliyah sighted the mansion down the road and Alastair’s pace increased. She felt all her chances of escaping slipping off her fingers and did not think twice when she took drastic action over this.

This time she didn’t just wriggle. She stretched and squeezed and curled herself, fighting with everything she had to get out of his hold. Aaliyah grabbed his shoulders and bit down hard on it till she was drawing blood, but all this never made the man bulge.

"You cannot do this to me. Let. Go. OF. Me."

It was useless. His strength was unparalleled.

Even when she punched his face, it was her knuckles that hurt instead.

When she tried to squeeze his neck, it felt as if they were made of steel.

His body has always been hard, but tonight, it was tougher.

Why was today so different?

Now that she thought about it, he was emitting the same aura as the night they had gotten married. And that night had been a Full Moon too!

Thinking about it was making her head hurt, and she could only quake in horror as he walked into the compound of the mansion...and the iron gates slammed shut behind her on their own, making a creaking sound as they went.

In front of them, the entrance was already open as if waiting for him to walk in so it could also slam shut like the gate.

"Why are you doing this?" She looked up at him again as another thunder struck, "I told you. I cannot see the Maqbath. I cannot see anything. I am not the person you need!"

But he wasn’t listening. They walked into the sitting room just as the door closed behind them.

Maybe it was because of the wind and thunder shaking the skies, but the lights in the house were flickering on and off. Whenever it off, the whole house would turn pitch black before becoming bright once again.

Theodore, Kekoa, and Yuan were nowhere to be found. She could not feel their presence.

Alastair climbed up the stairs, and Aaliyah began praying to the heavens that he was just going to take her up straight to her room and tuck her into bed so she can fall asleep. Then when she wakes up the next morning, he would be back to the same person he was this morning.

But as he ignored the second floor and climbed up toward the third floor, the skin crawls she had been feeling skyrocketed. She could hear the wind outside blowing even harder, and the dark clouds must have filled the skies by now.

They walked down the hallway of the third floor, and dread had clogged up Aaliyah’s throat. The warning bells ringing were threatening to burst her ear drums, and she knew tonight was going to be the worst of her life when Alastair stopped in front of the door to his room.

She’s never been in his room before.

And there was something in there too.

"Took you long enough," A voice that sounded all too familiar said from inside the room just as the door opened softly, creaking as it went.

Sitting inside the room...was someone she had once seen before. He was the man she had seen behind the rotating door on the fourth floor, the one that looked exactly like Alastair Hawthorne.