Crimson Peak [COMPLETE]

Chapter Thirteen

I didn't want to believe Thomas. I didn't want to even consider the idea that Christian could be hurting me in any way. But, sadly there was a part of me that did believe. Just a small voice in the back of my mind that would whisper Thomas' words over and over again whenever I was with Christian.

"Rose?" Christian's voice broke through my thoughts. "Are you alright?"

I looked away from the fire that I hadn't realized I was staring into and looked, instead, at my husband's concerned face. How could someone so kind want to hurt me? I offered a smile. "Yes, just a bit tired. Sorry."

His smile was just as soft, just as loving as it had always been, and I pushed any and all thoughts of Thomas and his crazy ideas out of my mind.

"It's getting late," Christian said. "Would you like to head up to bed?"

I was going to tell him that I enjoyed the time we were spending together and that I'd like to stay here, in the parlor, for a little while longer, but I was interrupted with a yawn and Christian laughed.

"I'll take that as a yes." He lifted my stitching out of my lap and set it on the chair beside me, offering me a hand up. "Let's go, darling."

It was laying on the old, rickety bed that the thoughts returned to my mind and I found that, this time, I couldn't push them away as easily as I had before.

The idea that I could be pregnant wasn't a totally foreign idea. Christian and I had done as man and wife are supposed to do so it wasn't as though it was completely impossible. And I had been feeling quite sick lately. When my cousin, Anne, had been pregnant with her first child, she'd been sick for weeks, laid up in bed and not allowed any visitors.

But did that mean that I should seriously consider the fact that my husband, and father to my potential child, was trying to hurt me? I looked over at Christian, just barely able to make out his silhouette in the darkness of the room. How could he possibly want to hurt me?

I rolled onto my side and forced my eyes shut. I was done thinking about this.

It wasn't long until I heard my name being whispered in my ear. I woke up to the feeling of someone's breath against my cheek and was so paralyzed with fear that I couldn't see who was leaning over me.

Fingers wound around my throat and began squeezing, slowly cutting off my air supply. When I realized that I was being strangled, my eyes shot open to look at whoever was doing it to me.

Christian was leaning over me, his face twisted into a cruel smile, as he tightened his grip on my neck. I gripped his wrists, tugging at them as if I could pull a full grown man off of me. I was getting faint, dipping in and out of consciousness, and I could practically feel the bruises forming from Christian's fingertips.

But then he wasn't Christian anymore. It was a woman choking me. She had charcoal black skin and was dressed in a black dress with a matching black veil. She was grinning like Christian had been.

"Rose!"

Someone else was shaking me and I couldn't focus on both the woman choking me and whoever it was that was shaking me.

"Rose, wake up!"

I jolted up in bed with a hand pressed to my chest as I gasped for breath. I expected Christian to be the one with his hand on my shoulder, calling for me to wake up from the nightmare I was having, but I saw a candle and Thomas's kind eyes.

"Tho-Thomas?" I said, my voice hoarse. "What are you doing here?"

"We've gotta get you out of here," he said. "They're going to-"

I swatted Thomas's hand off my shoulder. "I told you: Christian wouldn't do anything to hurt me. The fact that I could be pregnant doesn't change a thing."

Thomas cocked an eyebrow. "Is that so? Why haven't you told him your suspicions then?"

"About how some...hobo living in our attic told me that he's trying to kill me?" I scoffed. "Wonder why I haven't said that out loud."

Thomas shook his head. "Not that. You could be pregnant but you haven't told Christian yet. It's because you aren't quite sure what to believe."

My blood ran cold and I blinked. "That...that's not it."

"You're just waiting for the right time?"

"Why are we even talking about this in the middle of the night in the bed where my husband--" My words caught as I turned around and saw the other side of the bed was empty. "Where did he go?" I was mostly asking myself but Thomas couldn't help and give me an answer.

"I told you we had to leave," he replied. "My sister and he..."

"Your sister?" I demanded. "I thought she was dead."

"She is. But, Rose, this house, it doesn't let go of things easily. Ghosts live here, Rose."

I knew suspicious people in town that believed in ghosts and possession and those kinds of things. But I never gave into that kind of thing and my parents had always told me that it was all a bunch of nonsense made up by people who didn't believe in a God and were looking for something else to cling to. I'd never really had the chance to give into the nonsense because not a lot of people in town tried to claim that they had ever encountered ghosts. 

I was prepared to laugh at Thomas, to tell him to stop messing with me and tell me where Christian was. But something is his eyes...he really looked concerned. Something in me was telling me to trust him. To believe him.

"Okay."

"Okay?" Thomas seemed surprised by my reaction. I could really blame him. I doubted anyone else would react the way I did.

"Let's go. You seemed like we should be in some kind of hurry so," I gestured towards the door, "lead the way."