His Little Wife

Chapter 15

The sound of light party music filled the air of a large open room I'd been in before. There were tables and chairs scattered throughout, yet everyone stood mingling with anyone close enough to talk to. His eyes met mine across the room, but before I could call to him he was gone. I pushed my way through the crowd in Lucians direction, following him away from the herd of people. I stumble down a corridor surrounded by nothing but white. White ceiling, white walls, white floor and white light illuminating the empty, quiet hallway. He was here but he had disappeared. I walked down the hall, hoping to find a doorway that would lead me to him but the further I walked the less likely it seemed. There were no doors or window for as far as the eye could see. It was just white. Nothing but white.

'Oi.' A voice shouts from behind me.

I turn to the voice not realising someone else was with me. I thought I was alone.

'Me?' I ask as I turn around to see a man I know. The face is so familiar... 'I know you.' I say to the man.

'You killed me.' He tells me as his hands reaches over to my shoulders, pushing me into the wall.

'I... I didn't.' I try to protest. 'It wasn't me'... I think.

'He killed me because of you.' He seethes, breathing down my neck.

'Please, I didn't know... I'm sorry...' I try to say as I press my eyes shut, wishing I was anywhere else.

My breathing becomes laboured as I struggle against the panic running through me. I didn't know Lucian would kill him. I didn't even know he had a gun. This isn't my fault, but the guilt still eats at me as his fingers dig into my skin.

I raise my hands to try and push at him to get him away. I try so desperately to put some space between us, but he won't move and I'm left feeling weak and hopeless.

Then something touches my hand. Wet and cold, like a rain drop. Then another. His grip on my arms starts to loosen with each and every drop that lands on my hands and just as I feel him let go I open my eyes, looking at my fingers covered in a bright red liquid. I turn them over, looking at the thick blood that coats my hands before my eyes drift up to the man who was just holding me. His hands are at his sides, but he's still standing close as my eyes move up his chest, to his neck and then his pale face to see blood running down from gaping wound at the side of his head.

'You did this.' He utters as he lunges forward, reaching for me again.

A scream rips through me as I swing my arms around me as I try to protect myself.  Frantic, I push against him with my eyes closed. This can't be happening. Not again. I move a hand away from his chest and swing it at any part of his body hoping it'll cause him to let go, but it doesn't. So I swing my hand again... nothing. He starts to shake me, his fingers digging into my shoulders with his unrelenting grip.

'Anna.'

'No, get off!' I scream 'It wasn't my fault. It wasn't me.' I shout, still pinching my eyes closed.

'Anna!' a voice shouts again as his hold on me continues while I'm being shaken.

'I'm sorry, please. Please let me go.' I cry as sobs start to take over my body.

'Anna, wake up. It's me. Stop. Just stop.' Lucian shouts, still holding onto my shoulders. 'It's a dream, you're dreaming.' He tells me, trying to get through to me.

I stop flailing my arms about as I look around the room, finally aware I'm no longer in the white corridor. I try to control my breathing as I hold onto Lucian for some sort of support I know he won't ever be able to provide. Then something in my mind clicks. He's touching me. I drop my hold on his arms and turn against him.

'I'm fine, get off me.' I say, smacking his hands away from me.

'What were you dreaming about?' He asks.

I shrug my shoulders and pull the blankets up under my chin as I wipe the wetness from my face.

'Tell me.' He demands, not giving me a choice.

'Frank.' I tell him in one word, snapping at him.

'He's gone, he won't hurt you again.' He tries to reassure.

'I know that.' I raise my voice at him. 'It just... he was the first person I've seen die. And it's stuck in my brain. The way you killed him. The blood. All the blood. It's stuck in my mind, playing on loop.'

'It's nothing he didn't deserve, just forget about it.' He says as if it was nothing.

'How can I? How can I ever forget the look in his eyes before you pulled the trigger. How am I supposed to forget the way he dropped to the floor and how the blood seeped out over the tiles?.'

'I did it to save you.'

'No, you didn't. You already stopped him. I was standing behind you. You did it to prove a point. He's dead because of me and that's something I'm going to have to live with because of you. I don't understand how you don't get that. It's like you don't even care' I accuse him.

'He's not the first person I've killed, Anna.'

'Well he was the first person who I saw die, so you'll excuse me if I'm not ok with that.' I retort, rolling over onto the bed to face away from him.

There's a long silence after I last spoke and I start to think Lucian had gone back to sleep before something very unexpected happened.

'I'm sorry.'

Did he just apologise? Did he just say sorry to me? This seemed like it was starting to become a regular thing and something inside me told me he wasn't the sort of person to say sorry to just anyone.

'It won't happen again.' He adds as I feel his weight shift closer to me on the bed. 'But I will do anything to protect what's mine and I'm not sorry he's dead. I'm just sorry you had to see it.'

'Okay.' I whisper, not sure what else to say.

That was the end of that as we laid next to each other in silence. I didn't want to go back to sleep after that. I didn't want to dream about my attacker again, but eventually I started to drift off, this time dreaming of something nicer.