Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 96404 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 482(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96404 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 482(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 321(@300wpm)
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
I strain, but tight tentacles of pain keep me confined in place. I try again and a burning sensation shoots through my limbs. The drumming continues, getting louder and more intense, like a musical’s crescendo.
And then, right in the middle of the darkness, a shaft of light peeks through. It’s slow at first, dim, almost blending with the gray shadows until, all of a sudden, it bursts through, rushing toward me with no pause or deviation.
As if it knows exactly where I am.
As if I’m the only one it sees in the pitch-black.
As if it’s well aware I need to get out of the darkness.
A soft hand wraps around my face, warding off the invisible figures that were about to drag me under.
“Sebastian…please…please…”
Naomi.
In my fight against the darkness and its lure, I forgot that she was still here, alone, unprotected.
The thought of anyone touching her while I’m crippled provokes red-hot pain to flare over my skin.
Fucking fuck.
I stir, then groan when my shoulder explodes with fire. Holy shit, they never say in the movies that being shot means hanging on to life by a chapped, faulty straw.
“Sebastian? Can you hear me?”
“Yeah…baby.”
“Oh, thank God!” She sobs, fussing over me.
It’s still so dark that I can’t see my hands. But that’s not why I want the light. It’s the fact that I can’t watch her delicate features and get lost in the darkness of her penetrating gaze.
Not seeing Naomi is no different than living without the sun. I sound cheesy as fuck, even to myself, but I now recognize how much this girl means to me.
She is the meaning.
I lost that meaning somewhere between my parents’ deaths and my grandparents’ upbringing. I was an image to flaunt around, a makeshift mask of fake emotions.
Then Naomi barged in like a wrecking ball. She didn’t care about my outside image and saw straight through it. She didn’t want me because of what I am. She wanted me because of who I am.
The imperfect, flawed monster.
The beast who woke up in the hospital after he lost everything when he was six.
“You…said you’ll marry…me…” I croak, not recognizing my own voice. It’s hoarse, exhausted, and on the verge of collapsing.
“Yes…” she snorts between sniffles. “I can’t believe that’s the only thing you’re thinking about right now.”
So, it’s true.
She said yes to the most horrible proposal ever.
But even if the method was trash, it wasn’t impulsive or spur of the moment. I wasn’t proposing to her because we’re in danger and might never get out of this alive. I proposed because this woman right here is the one I want to spend the rest of my life with.
It’s not a hot-blooded moment where two young people make a decision that’s seemingly too old for them. It’s not about age for me, it’s about mentality. I know it for a fact, so what’s the point in delaying the inevitable?
Naomi tucks my jacket around my sides so that I’m fully covered. Her hands are cold. She must be freezing without her T-shirt, but she doesn’t stop fretting about me.
“You were out for so long. I think it’s been more than a day or two. It feels like fucking months.” She sniffles. “I got to the toilet and had to use the water to cool you down. I also made you drink some from the bottle. I think it helped bring your fever down, but you’re still too hot and I don’t think your wound is doing so well. I tried to see if there was a bullet inside, but I didn’t find anything and…and I didn’t want to hurt you more, so I stopped searching and…”
“Baby…” I attempt to raise my good hand so I can touch her, but my energy fails me and it falls to my side.
Naomi grabs it and places it on her wet cheek. “What is it? Are you in that much pain? What can I do to make it better?”
“Kiss me.”
Only a fraction of a second passes before I feel her soft lips against my dry ones. She’s gentle, careful, as if she’s afraid a kiss will kill me.
Maybe dying while kissing Naomi is the right way to go.
I growl deep in my chest as I attempt to deepen the kiss and taste her properly. But my mouth barely moves. I’m too weak that I can’t even kiss my girl the way she deserves.
A groan spills from me, filled with pent-up fucking frustration.
Naomi pulls back and grabs my face with both her small hands as if she can see my expression in the dark. “Did I hurt you?”
My hand drops from her face and I grunt a “No.”
There’s nothing I hate more than the helplessness. It’s fucking insane how the human body can become weak in a fraction of a second.
Right before I went to the forest, I was running over ten miles in an hour and lifting weights like nobody’s business, but now, I can’t even touch Naomi without help.