The Melody Of Destiny

chapter 17

Mateo:

"Arrrgh .... she... she hung up on me again! Unbelievable. The nerve. She's driving me insane." Allex practically yells to no one in particular, throwing his phone onto the couch.

I stand frozen in the doorway, his voice sending chills down my spine. My words stick in my throat, my heart starting to pound. The once comforting room starts feeling suffocating and I can't step through the threshold, but Ben pushes me, and I am stumbling through it feeling disconnected almost as someone else is stumbling past Alex. Someone else is looking at his face too tired to decipher it. Someone else is perching on the window ledge their fingers tightly gripping it. It's the hot air blowing in that calms me slightly drawing me back to the prince catching a few words – something about a family emergency. What is he talking about? He looks at me expectantly.

"Five days really?" he says like he's waiting for me to say something.

"You should have been here." He says an unspoken accusation hanging in the air. But he does not elaborate, and I can't seem to get the words out. Any words for that matter. Not to my mother, not to my granny.

"Or were you just too embarrassed to be seen with me during the scandal?" He snaps starting to pace.

"Alex I..." I try and speak the first words I have said since I threatened Ben. But the words stick in my raw throat. His every step echoing in my ears. That pacing sounding way to familiar. My skin feels cold sending me recoiling closer to the window into the hot light, but it does nothing to ease the chill. I try and speak again but his name feels bitter on my tongue an anger I didn't know I could hold seeps up to the surface. I struggle to name it. Name this nagging feeling that has been stirring beneath the surface.

He's talking again. I should listen if only to distract me from the cold I'm feeling, from each step, the sound of boots whispering into my head.

"...I thought after the stupid ball they would let me.... Grounded. I have been grounded." He scoffs sarcastically like he can't believe it. I catch bits and pieces of his rant. "A prince trapped in a...

"Gilded cage." I find myself muttering.

"And she. She is toying with me. Teasing me. Ignoring me. Hanging up on me. Me. Tormenting me with her smile and then nothing." He's looking at me wanting something from me, but I have no words. He went to a ball? While I was... The dungeon its sensations, the sounds, the smells they start threatening up to the surface. I try and smash it down. Stuff them into an endless pit but they keep clawing up. He's complaining about a lady. A lady who didn't fawn over him amongst sips of champagne and twirling dances. Whilst my mouth was dry, dehydration taunting me, my muscles caged, the reaper the only person captivating my mind, the only one haunting my dreams. A pretty smile tormenting him, a castle as a cage. It's ridiculous. Absolutely laughable. Nauseating. I look at him almost seeing him for the first time, but my vision is blurring. Each shuffle making me twitch. A foul smell tormenting me clawing up from the pit. What is happening? What is going on? I try and identify the smell. I am with Allex. I am safe. I am in a ginormous opulent room by a window. I remind myself. But why does it feel like it is closing in on me. That feeling is bubbling up again, anger boiling, hurt, the ringing in my ears but there's another one I cannot name.

"I can't stop thinking of her. She's haunting my dreams. I have tried everything. I have sent her messages, called her. But she ignores me, will not see me. She hangs up on me. Me! Teasing me, daring me." He keeps pacing his words spilling out like a runaway train, no brakes, no control. I used to listen, used to care, used to be there for him, no matter what. But now? I can barely look at him. I can barely move.

Suddenly stopping he practically yells: "I can have anyone." I jump.

"Anyone, but her... " I find myself spitting using every ounce of strength to not run. I bore into him feeling a million miles away suddenly seeing Allex in a different light. The sound of a gate starts ringing in my mind. Stop it. Stop it. I murmur to myself to the gate.