Unfeeling

Five | Another World

Amberley

I am in a soft cotton bed, sheets pulled up to my chin, with heat cocooning me. I see familiar stone walls and fluorescent lights and realize I'm back in Clandestine Institute. Oh no...

But I savor the feeling of soft sheets and warm skin against mine. Warm skin.... my eyes widen immensely as I take in the sleeping boy next to me and my all my muscles seem to clench.

Blonde, blonde, blonde. Back, back, back. That's all I can see, his silky blonde hair and his contracting back muscles, prominent through his tight grey shirt. I don't dare move an inch. Last time I saw this lion of a man, he had driven a dagger into my stomach.

I steady my breathing and contemplate what I can do to get away. Even if I did, there's hundreds of hallways and mazes making up the large expanse of Clandestine. I try to recall what I've learned about this strange underground asylum.

I brace myself before tightening my stomach muscles and lifting myself up and out of the sheets, careful not to wake the blonde boy. My plan backfires miserably.

The boy rolls over, his eyes open, sleepy and golden. I gasp. He's beautiful. His face is angular and soft in all the right places, he looks like an angel fallen from above. He's also the boy from the carriage.

"There's only one thing better than waking up next to such a beautiful girl... catching her looking at you," he murmurs sleepily. His voice is husky and seductive. It's music to my ears.

He grins at my stupor and rolls over suddenly. With a groan, he lands on top of me. I am paralyzed as his head full of blonde lands on my sternum. Every nerve and every blood platelet rushes to every spot he touches me. I suck in my breath.

"What... what are you doing?" I say, my panic clear to me yet the blonde boy only sighs contentedly as if I have questioned him many times before now.

"I just want to lay here and listen to your heartbeat..." he whispers, sleep still evident in his tone.

I am perplexed and terrified. This has to be one of his plans to get me weak before withdrawing his dagger once again. But why does this feel so good? Why do I feel so safe?

"Why?"

He chuckles at my inquiry and the sound makes my whole body stand on edge. I feel a tear streak down my face. His touch... makes feelings in me awaken from a deep slumber and the hollowness of my heart seem a little fuller. He wraps his arms around me and presses his lips to the top of my chest. More tears streak down my face. This isn't right, nobody would treat me with such gentleness, such love.

What a lovely dream...

"So I am sure that you're real."

"Why wouldn't I be real?" I ask quietly, inwardly afraid that my voice will fail me.

The boy lifts his head and moves his body. But he doesn't go far, he pulls me so I'm flat against his body. Now my face is against his chest. The embrace makes the world stop spinning and all memories of my pain vanish. This is home, I realize.

"Because I'm afraid one day I'll wake up and you won't be here looking at me. Because I'll never stop loving you, never stop wanting you, never stop needing you. Promise you won't leave me, Amberley. Promise me you'll always be there when I wake up and go to sleep. I don't think I could live without you, you make me who I am..." he rants, pulling me tighter against him. His words make my heart burst into a thousand little pieces.