Melaine

Chapter 30

He shuddered curling his knees against the sheets that itched and scratched his bare legs and pressed them into his abdomen to relieve the aching pain in his stomach. The room had grown unbearably cold in an instant with electric heater had been unplugged from its socket. A draft of cold air from the slit of door hit his form which raised goosebumps on his naked arms and thighs. He shivered, tugging down the hem of his polo shirt to cover his thighs that had been at the mercy of his shorts. The mattress shifted beside him, and he further curled into himself pressing his balled fists into his stomach as fingers snaked into his hair. Sweat poured out of every single ounce of his body at the touch and he felt the sheets completely drenched beneath him. Fingers scratched his scalp that made his skin crawl and his stomach churned at the unnamed sickening feeling. It must have been her but his mind didn't register any sign of familiarity between the two sensations. The fingers glided to the nape of his neck which disturbed his body into spasming with fear. Cold deep breaths ghosted over his face and chest, fleeting touch of cold hands that tingled his numbed toes and he felt sick in his stomach. He moaned, incoherent words tumbled from his quivering lips which meant to be the name of girl. Ice-cold hand rubbed side of his neck which closed around his bobbing throat and his body shot up in a defensive mode as his instincts kicked him awake. His eyes snapped open and he frantically searched around his empty bedroom. Beads of sweat ran down his back, sticking to the base of his spine. Black hair were plastered on his forehead and neck. Grey  shirt was clinging to his drenched torso as if he had been running a high temperature and suddenly doused with a bucket of cold water. The chill in the room made him shiver and he wrapped his arms around his body.
"Lanie..." Rohan spoke to himself or rather into the emptiness of the dark room from the absence of the girl of his concern. He reached to touch the side of the neck. It had felt too real in his mind and he wondered if he had  been really dreaming or his mind playing tricks on him because of the medication. He stood up from his bed and stumbled inside the bathroom, shakily fumbling with the switch to turn on the light as giddiness got worse of him. The light blinded his eyes that burnt like acid and nausea finally hit him .He staggered inside the bathroom to empty his stomach in the bowl. He threw up the eggs and soup, medicines that he had had before taking afternoon nap.

"Melaine..." He coughed and spat his saliva, desperately trying to call for the girl but met with a nerve chilling silence. His entire body convulsed before he leaned over the bowl and threw up bitter liquid one more time. His chest heaved, wheezing he clutched his aching ribs and rested his light head against the bath tub in exhaustion.
"Melaine?" Rohan covered his eyes with arm and clenched his stomach hard enough to dig his fingers in the taut muscles. He met with another silence in the house that could have upset his stomach again. 

Thinking that the girl must have been out, he pushed himself on his aching feet and made to the washbasin to clean himself. He washed his face with lukewarm water that calmed down his agitated nerves and took in his reflection. He looked like a real mess, he thought, examining his pale pallor like a ghost . He looked like a patient of anemia; dark circles under his eyes that could have been taken as symptom of insomnia but he had been sleeping most of the hours of the day. Medicines were to put him to sleep to recover faster and give him peace of mind. But nothing seemed to help him with his nightmares that had started to come back. He felt himself constantly being watched by someone inside his own house and the idea of it which was unnerving tied knots in his stomach again. Rohan wished Melaine were here with him to talk him out like she had done before to have him convinced.

 'It's pure paranoia', she would say, that there's no one in the house or rather it is what she had wanted him to believe. He knew that she must have known, ought to have known something but refused to tell him. He's sleeping most of the day, always slipping into realm of unconscious with unexplained tiredness and drowsiness without remembering much before sleeping as if knocked out with an anesthesia which he didn't question but had suspected too often to be suspicious about. He brushed his teeth and rinsed his mouth thinking about the strangeness of Melaine's absence who wouldn't leave him alone especially when he's asleep given his condition.