Masterpiece (A Chris Motionless Love Story)

Chapter Five - Promises

At some point I must have fallen asleep because I woke up to Chris calming me down from a nightmare. He was holding my head against him as he stroked my hair.

"Lilith, it's okay, I'm right here. I'm not going anywhere." He rocked me a little bit and kissed the top of my head. My throat was sore from screaming, and I had tears on my face. I felt like my nightmare was everything I went through with my husband, but it was with Chris instead. I felt like I had watched him get shot, and there was blood everywhere. I clung onto Chris' shirt as I gasped for air, and he handed me a bottle of water that was next to his bed. I looked over at the clock and it was already 7am. I had slept through the whole night at Chris' house, and it was peaceful. There weren't any interruptions from people coming in to go on night calls, in fact, there weren't any calls that came through last night at all.

As I cooked breakfast in his kitchen, he stared at me, and then broke the silence.

"Do you want to talk about the nightmares, Lilith?" He asked. I shook my head as I plated the vegan "eggs" for him.

"It was just a bad dream. It happens." I left it at that, because that's all that it was. A bad dream.

"Lil, bad dreams don't make people scream in the night and cry. How long have you been having the dreams? Have you talked to a therapist?" He started probing for answers. I sat down next to him with my eggs and coffee, then grabbed his hand.

"I'm fine, Chris, I promise. It's just part of the grieving process. Now that I am accepting this has happened, and I am slowly but surely moving on, my dreams are going to project a lot of my inner feelings." I explained. He kissed my forehead, then started to eat his breakfast.

"What was it about?" He asked. I put my fork down and looked at him.

"I had a dream that you were my husband." I said. He raised an eyebrow, and looked at me confused.

"And that made you scream and cry? If you don't want this relationship that's okay, I'll only be a little hurt." He joked. I laughed a little and slapped his arm.

"No, not like that. I dreamed that you got shot and killed. It was awful, there was blood everywhere and-" he cut me off by giving me a kiss, then held my head close to his.

"I promise, I am not going anywhere. Nothing is going to happen to me." Right after he said that there was a knock at the door and it made me jump. He kissed me again and got up to go answer it. I felt like my heart was pounding in my chest as he opened the door. It was just Ricky, though.

"Hey, dude, you haven't answered your phone. I was needing to talk to you about the tour." He said as he walked past Chris and into the living room. He looked over at me, and then back at Chris as a smirk came across his face. "Is this what I hope it is? I mean, ever since I heard about her the first time, I routed for this. Now it sounds a little fucked up, I was hoping for a divorce not death, I'll just shut up now." Chris and I were both silent. We still weren't sure if we were ready to publicly come out and say we were a couple. At least I wasn't, Chris was ready to shout it from the rooftops. However, the cat was out of the bag.

"We're a couple now." I told Ricky. He smiled and high fived Chris.

"This is great! So did you decide if you were coming on the road with us? I know you're busy with the funeral home and all, so I don't blame you if you decide to stay." Ricky was excited, and I could tell by the speed of his talking.

"I may or may not have made a rather hasty decision, I think I am going to sell the funeral home." It was a decision that I had kept to myself since my husband had passed away last month. Chris looked down at me, almost flabbergasted and Ricky's jaw just about hit the ground.

"You're going to give up the business just like that?" Chris asked. I looked down at the ground, and then back up at them. It was a business my husband and I had made together, as a team, and I didn't feel like I could run it on my own. Of course, if I told Chris that he would offer to help run it, and that would be a disaster.

"It would have been what my husband would have wanted. We went into it together, it was our first business, and it was a success. People are always dying! However, I can't picture doing it with anyone else. So it's time that I step back and give up the business." Chris was still astonished at my decision, then grabbed my hand.

"I will stand behind whatever decision you make, Lil." He finally said. I yawned and Chris leaned down to kiss my forehead. I was exhausted, the many sleepless nights and nightmares were catching up with me.

"Why don't you go lay down and sleep a little longer? I'm going to talk to Ricky." Chris suggested. I groggily walked back upstairs, and landed on the bed. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out cold.

CHRIS' POINT OF VIEW (POV)
Lilith passed out as soon as she laid down, and I went back downstairs to talk with Ricky. He sat down at the bar, with his fingers interlocking.

"Chris, is this really a good idea? I mean, she's obviously grieving." Ricky asked. I stood across from him and leaned on the countertop.

"Ricky, trust me, this is meant to be. I mean, how long had I dreamed about having this woman by my side? Since high school. Since the day I met her, I wanted to be with her." I admitted. Ricky shook his head, and looked down.

"You're not understanding me, Chris." He whispered, obviously frustrated, and my voice got louder.

"What am I not understanding?" I shouted at him. He stood up and slammed his hands on the counter.

"God damn it, Chris! You're going to wreck her! Her husband just got killed, and you're going to rip her apart because Gaia is going to come back, and guess what you're going to do?" He yelled as he pointed his finger. He sat back down and took a deep breath, and I stared at him in disbelief. He had never taken that tone with me, and what hurts the most is that I felt like he was right. I ran my hands through my hair, thinking about what needed to be done. I mean, Lilith was finally sleeping for the first time in weeks from what her employees said. They told me she had been taking every night on call that she could, and embalming every case that came in. I had finally been forgetting about the pain that Gaia caused. Lil and I had to work out. We just had to.

"I am going to make this work, Ricky. This is the one. She's grieving just fine, she's in grief classes and therapy. I go with her." I told him. He turned his head to the side.

"Isn't it weird to go with her considering her husband was the one that died?" He asked. I shook my head.

"I'm just a really supportive friend to them, they have no clue." I told him. Ricky pressed his lips together tightly and squinted his eyes, then pulled out his phone.

"Chris, you haven't been on social media lately, so let me just show you." Ricky turned his phone to face me, and it was a picture of Lilith and I at dinner, kissing. My eyes went wide as I looked at his screen with a headline that read, "Motionless Locks Down with Local Widow and Funeral Home Owner". This was bad. She wasn't ready for everyone to know, but now they do.