Bending The Rules

Chapter 29

A/N: To the Guest who left the comment: Ana doesn't need to get some food inside her. What she needs is Christian inside her for a very long hard time ;) I was at work and started choking on my peanuts when I read this! HAHAHA...very naughty!

This chapter was more than complete and only needed editing, but then my father passed away a week before Christmas and paused this whole process. So always, thanks to all of you for the kind words of encouragement, even after several weeks went past from my hiatus.

As always, you all rock!

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Chapter 29

Christian POV

I'm drifting. The small wooden boat rocks gently as the waves lap at the sides. It's rhythmic and soothing...but there is a clanging mechanical countdown in the distance like some mechanised steampunk crow clock. The clamor is scraping and stinging my skin like nettles... 10...9...8...10...10...9....8...

I manage to pry open my eyes, but I can't even see my hand in front of me from the thick grey fog. It's heavy and sickly sweet, almost like cloying novocaine. ...7...10...10...9...9...

This boat cannot deny it from following the din anymore than a released arrow can avoid meeting its target...8...7...6...5...4... And I'm dumped unceremoniously upon the sand. I dust myself off and head to the only lights and electric static which permeates the darkness: neon.

...10...10...9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4. I push my through the overgrown brush and see... clocks?

Faces that show spite and some depicting tragedy. Some comical or melancholic like bereft and out-of-work circus clowns. White-gloved analog hands spinning and failing to hold on to time. Some small hands are clinging to its second hand. Neon digital lines threw a shimmering coruscation around the clearing while changing and gaining speed as time is counted and then discarded. Just everywhere around me. They wax and wane like oil bubbles splitting and rejoining.

10,10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1!

"It's time to go, silly!" A rusty and chipped talon grips my shoulder. "Wake up, it's about time!" It caws.

I startle myself awake. For that one brief moment I forgot that I am in my hospital bed. Since the head injury I get these disjointed and crazy dreams. I open my eyes but sense that I am not alone. "Ana?" I whisper. I'm afraid to move. If she isn't real I can't bear to be fooled. I lost her once and the pain was too unbearable.

"Yes, it's me." She says so sweetly and softly. Hope builds in my chest and my heart opens. The room is dim and her long hair is down. Odd... I have never seen her hair down before. She seemed to have preferred it up. She is sitting away from me, halfway to me and the other halfway facing the curtains.

I reach for her hand and she immediately takes it. "I thought I lost you, but you're here," I lick the dryness from my lip. I am fully lucid and I know that Ana, in fact is here beside me. I feel a weight is lifted off me.

"Shhh," Ana says and reaches for her MP3 player. "There's so much I want to say, but I think this will say what I need to." She presses play.

I don't recognize the song, but it's sweet and melodic. I listen to the words and I hope that I know what she is trying to say. It's very beautiful.

She's telling me that she loves me. Every fear inside me dissolves. Tears fall but they are tears of relief. Tears which were held back like prisoners when Elena said Ana was in danger. Tears that choked and seized and held me down.