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HILL HOUSE, NOW
Bare chest to bare chest. Heart to Heart. Luke and Camille lied in bed, both of them mere moments away from sleep. She was pretty much on top of him and one of his hands played with the ring that sat on her left hand finger. Luke brought her hand up to his mouth — he kissed the palm of her hand before kissing each finger, then he kissed the ring.
"I can't wait to marry you," he whispered.
"I can't either," Camille responded. She couldn't stop the smile that tugged at her lips. It was odd for Millie to be so giddy about such a topic. She'd never really seen herself getting married, because she never truly understood the concept. Of course, it was a celebration of love, but why should it involve hundreds of people, and thousands of dollars, and a single piece of paper? But despite that, she couldn't help but revel at the thought of having her first dance with Luke.
"You know," she continued, propping her chin on her hands that laid on Luke's chest, her head bobbed with each word. "We should just elope. Nothing big, nothing extravagant. Just us."
Luke sighed but still smiled down at her. "You always liked it to be just us, didn't you?"
His reply was sarcastic and Camille furrowed her brows at his tone. "What do you mean?"
He sat up and removed Camille from his chest. She scrambled for a sheet to cover her bare chest.
"I mean, that you've lost everyone else in your life and now you're basically attached to me at the hip. Your parents died, then Nellie died, and now I'm all you have left."
"What the fuck is your problem?" she asked angrily.
"There's no reason to get angry, Camille. You're alone. You don't have a mom to give you advice, you don't have a dad to walk you down the aisle, and you don't have your best friend to be your maid of honour; so, I guess, I could understand why you just want to elope. Because you have no one."
He gave her one final, sarcastically pitiful look before lying back down and closing his eyes. Once he laid his head on the pillow, his skin turned pale and then went a dark grey-blue. Every vein in his body became visible as they turn a sickening black. Bits of his skin seeped open and maggots began to crawl along his skin.
Camille had seemingly became paralysed at the sight in front of her. It was a dream, it had to be a dream, but no matter how many times she pinched herself, she wouldn't wake. She soon began to hyperventilate and she reached for her inhaler that normally laid on her nightside table. Only this time, it wasn't there. She searched through each drawer but it was nowhere to be found. She clutched at her chest as tears filled her eyes.
"Millie," a voice she hadn't heard in a while whispered behind her.
Still clutching the thin white sheet around her, she turned around to face Nellie. Camille had expected her to look like she always did in her nightmares: the same bent-neck and bloody dress and white eyes. But, instead, she looked normal. Just as pretty as the last time she'd seen her.
