Secrets

Chapter 18

It hurt to walk into his kitchen, to see where we had shared a few moments of time together. Where he had walked and lived before, he had met me and had to flee the vampires who had come for me. I could feel Zila watching me as I walked through his home. Knowing that I was the reason he ended up trapped in Arilis under a mountain of stone and dirt was hard to get past in his home. I froze next to his sink and stared down at it with a guilty look.

Inside the sink sat the empty bowl he had given me tomato soup in. Beside it sat the spoon. The bowl had a spider web in it and the spider was crawling around its web towards a trapped ant. I turned from the sink, looking towards the fridge. A rank smell was coming from it, and I struggled not to gag on the reek of festering rotten food.

I looked towards the floor, staring at where I had kissed his cheek not too long before we almost kissed.

"Oh, my lord, are you alright?"

"Y-Yeah. Just a small headache. Are you okay?"

"I am... Thank you for catching me."

"Why are you so jumpy and injury-prone?"

"I'm jumpy because I have gone through hell and back the last couple of years."

"Oh. But why the injury-"

"April!" Zila snapped, causing me to turn to face her.

I stared at Zila with confusion at her anger that had vibrated from her tone. She stood there with an annoyed and frustrated look as if she was ready to pounce at me. I frowned as she groaned and rolled her eyes.

"I'll say it once again. What the hell are we doing here, April?" She grumbled. "I thought we were getting the blueprints with where the vampires guards are and not reminiscing about some foolish fling. You're supposed to get that map, find this old woman you're looking for, and then get the hell out of here so I don't have to see you around here anymore."

"If you're so concerned with getting rid of me, why don't you try to search for the blueprints as well?" I snapped as I glared at her. "Alexander wasn't a fling. I love him more than Luke and if Alexander was still alive and asked me to marry him, then I would have married him in a heartbeat and would have been known as April Pool instead of April Patrick."

Zila was silent after that and only glared at me as she made her way further into Alexander's home. She was thankfully looking for the blueprints he had drawn up all those years ago. Leaving me to go down memory lane once more as I stepped out into the living room.

I didn't even realize I had started drifting off to sleep. It was a bright mid-afternoon when I woke up, but now there was a storm, and it was pitch black outside.

"April, what's wrong? Why did you flinch back like that?" His voice was smooth like caramel but was thick with sleep as he yawned.

"I heard thunder... I think I dozed off."

Compared to his succulent voice, mine was drowned in the sleepy tone. All the confidence from it was gone as if I was but an innocent child struggling to make sense of the reality of this dreadful world. I wanted to hear more of his voice. To be trapped in the caramel smoothness of his voice. To never stop hearing every word he would speak to me. I wanted to go back in time and have just one night with him where I could hear his voice and cry against his chest as he held me close. Oh, what I would give up having one more night with him.

"That's an understatement. You were out like a light." He said as he removed his arms from around me, a chuckle hidden behind his words.

I wish I had noticed before that he had found it amusing.