Under The Heavy Rain
1317 Words
I felt like drowning.
Not because of being underwater or because of the heavy rain. But because of the people who betrayed and hurt me, a few minutes after I just managed to escape from the Wright Mansion. The splattering noise was so loud that my wolf ears couldn’t hear anything other than the frantic beating of my heart.
The street was eerily empty and the cold breeze felt like tiny needles piercing my skin. I was totally drenched in the rain and my clothes were dripping wet. The feeling was agonizing. I trembled from head to toe while I walked like a zombie, wishing that they just killed me rather than leaving me half-alive, not knowing where to go anymore.
Why me? Why did I have to suffer such humiliation from all of them? Why do people hate me like I did something evil to them?
I looked at the dark sky as the rain fell on my pale, cold face. I wanted to scream. But I was too dizzy to utter anything.
My heavy feet brought me to the middle of the road. My mind was in total chaos and the coldness of the night made my body bitterly numb. I couldn’t feel anything other than my heart which was dying slowly… tormenting me with heavy emotions I couldn’t control. I wanted to run. I couldn’t.
All I knew was I was a worthless she-wolf—a trash that Lawrence Wright wanted to get rid of. He lied to me. He said he wanted me. He told me he loved me…and I couldn’t believe I ignored my wolf’s instinct—that all of his promises were just a bluff. My desperation to feel loved by someone brought me to self-destruction. He shattered every piece of me and I didn’t know how to recover from it. I knew even though I wasn’t in that place anymore, I still hadn’t escaped the horror Lawrence Wright brought to my life. He would always be a part of me.
All I knew was I wanted it to stop. To end the pain.
I thought I was just imagining things but I heard someone screaming my name. The unfamiliar voice scared me. My instinct told me to run but my wolf recognized the man. And before I knew it, there were these invisible cords wrapped around my body, bounding me to somewhere else—-or to that someone who I caught running towards me under the heavy rain. The feeling was uncomfortable. Painful at least. But it gave me a sense of freedom I never expected.
“NO PLEASE! Stop running away!”
Was it Lawrence?
Did he come back for me?!
“Go away!” I screamed at the top of my lungs as the heavy rain drowned me with my sorrow, “Just don’t go near me!”
I got distracted by that dazzling light that exploded behind me. Approaching me at a blinding speed. I froze for seconds until I heard that ear-splitting sound of a ten-wheeler truck that came straight in my direction. My heart skipped a beat. I knew what was coming.
There was a scream again. But it wasn’t mine.
*****
I gasped between my teeth and reached for something in the air.
The first thing I did as soon as I recovered was to fill my aching lungs with air. The feeling was overwhelming but I checked myself and nothing hurt other than my back. Every joint of my body popped as I moved. How long was I asleep?
I pushed myself up the bed and groaned. My head felt like it was going to split into two as I leaned against the headboard. I panted and squeezed my eyes shut until my eyes focused on the surroundings. The place was unfamiliar. My instinct told me I hadn’t been in that room before. But then when I made an attempt to remember something, my head felt like it was going to explode!
“Goddess!” I hissed between my teeth and heard the door open.
My instinct was to curl into a ball and crawl against the soft pillows. I trembled when a tall man entered the room while holding a tray in his hand.
Our eyes met. His eyes reminded me of something as flashes of memory came back to me like bullets piercing my brain.
Heavy rain.
A silhouette of a man running in my direction.
A dazzling light.
“WHO ARE YOU!” I screamed. I scrambled against the headboard and gave the man a threatening look. My fingernails were ready to tear his face if he ever dared get close to me. Fear and anger filled me as I snarled, “What place is this!?”
“C-Calm down, Astrid. I am not here to hurt you,” he replied after he put the tray down on the nearest tabletop and raised his hands to the level of his head. “I am here to help.”
Astrid? Did he call me Astrid? Was that my name?
“How do you know my n-name? W-Who are you?” My voice sounded a little softer this time as I studied the face of the man.
He gave me a soft smile. I curled back to the headboard when he slowly, carefully, sat on the edge of the bed, without taking his eyes away from me, “It’s me. Astrid…I’m Simon…remember?”
I paused to remember anything but my brain was like a blank sheet of paper. I shook my head fast. I didn’t know him. Even though I couldn’t remember anything, my instinct told me that this man was a stranger to me. But something about him felt so familiar and my wolf told me that I had a huge connection with that man.
Then his scent… my nose caught that amazing scent of lavender on him. It was so alluring that I couldn’t help but close my eyes for a second and when I opened it, our eyes locked, understanding what that connection meant for the both of us.
His lips stretched into a smile when he saw that my eyes widened after realizing something.
“Do you recognize me now?” he whispered. His eyes went intense and serious as he looked down at my lips. His hand reached for my hand but I refused to touch him. Simon…Simon was so considerate, though. He remained calm in front of me. His gentle, searching eyes stayed on my face as if he were trying to read the flood of emotions flashing in it.
I wanted to trust him but I was too scared.
“I can’t remember anything.” I confessed to him with a cautious look, hoping my timid voice was audible enough for him to hear after I calmed myself down, “Who are you and what am I doing here?”
Then his face suddenly looked worried and troubled, “You were in an accident, Astrid. I didn’t know why you suddenly ran away from me under that heavy rain but you looked like you were in shock and I almost had a heart attack when you went running in the middle of the road.
I froze. The dream. It was real!
He sighed so deeply and then he took my hand. This time, I didn’t refuse because my mind was so occupied trying to remember anything.
“Astrid, listen to me. This is your home,” he whispered, and then he kissed the back of my hand and my eyes widened in surprise, “And I am your husband.”
I frowned. Confused.
“What?” I breathed, my heart thumping fast and hard against my chest.
When my eyes went past him, I saw a small picture frame of me in a wedding dress smiling so happily with Simon beside me.
He wasn’t lying.
- Writer
