LURKING IN THE DARK

Inside the plane

"You should take a picture of it. It is really beautiful."

The air hostess, who had come to serve them some snacks and drinks said on seeing both couples giggle loudly at the beautiful sight.

"Yeah, you are right."

Sarah replied, smiling sweetly at the hostess before turning to capture the beautiful view.

Click! Click!! The camera shuttered.

She also took pictures with her husband and then chatted for almost an hour before Collins fell asleep.

Lost in thoughts while at the same time looking at the beautiful clouds as they passed by, Sarah took a deep breath and turned towards her husband who seemed to be sleeping in a really bad position with his neck turned in a dangerous position.

After adjusting him, she muttered to herself after she had stared at her husband, who had been fast asleep for a long time.

"Gosh, he is really handsome."

She could vividly remember how they met.

That night, she had gone to buy a bag of menthol sweets at the request of her aunt and while she was yet to get what she had ordered, a robbery started. She could vividly remember how she leaped from where she was standing to where some containers were arranged and hid behind them. She was already crying although she covered her mouth so her cry does not attract the robbers who were shooting at anyone they saw on sight sporadically.

She could vividly remember how her mind was racing recklessly and all she could think of doing at that moment was to blame her middle-aged aunt who had sent her on an errand and insisted that she bought the menthol sweets she wanted at the big mall while giving reasons that weren't cogent enough for Sarah or rather sounded immature. She could have easily gotten the sweets from a small shop not far from their house.

A "Shhhh!" sound came from beside her in a darker area where the containers were arranged, startling her and making a short, sharp scream escape her mouth, followed by a sudden silence.

She knew she had attracted the robbers with her scream, and they were going to find her. She had started to pray silently within her while still covering her mouth and crawling in opposite direction to where she was before, where a young man who apparently also seemed to be hiding was at.

He was the one who made the "Shhhh" sound and urged her to join him so she wouldn't get caught. The young man, whom she later discovered was Collins, was hiding in a dark corner more secluded than where she was at, and truth be told, you wouldn't even know someone was hiding there because it was pitch black!

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From what she had later learned, Collins had told her that he heard a lady sniffing and crying silently.

He only wanted to get her off from where she was to where he was to avoid her dying at the hands of the robbers, a proposition that seemed to later turn true as they both heard footsteps approaching and then stopped.

After about five seconds, gunshots followed, targeting where Sarah had stayed earlier and destroying the entire place with bullets.

Collins had peeped to see the robber from afar, lowering his head to check the area clearly before moving.

He must have wanted to confirm if there were people hiding there or not.

Sarah couldn't remember all these, as she had earlier fainted from just hearing the robber shoot quite close to where they were hiding.

It was Collins who told her the remaining happenings and how she landed in the hospital that same night.

Apart from the fact that she loves Collins, she also believes she owe him her life because if it had not been him who had called her to hide with him that night, she would have been dead by now.

At this point, Sarah was already overwhelmed with love and gratitude as she kept staring at her husband snoring peacefully.

She could also remember some stuff Collins told her when they started to go out together at that time.

He said that while she was with him, hiding in that pitch-black corner, he suddenly no longer became scared unlike before because Sarah was with him.

That in the midst of it all of the commotion that night, all he found himself doing was admiring the beauty in front of him, even when she in turn was crying helplessly in silence that night.

He then went on to describe the beauty he saw.

In his own words he said...

"I had lost focus on what was happening around me, and all I could see was a brown-skinned girl with long, curly black hair. Her eyes, which were at that moment wet with tears, made her eyeballs really vulnerable, shining in the midst of the pitch black corner they were in, like blue diamonds shining amongst rubbles." Sarah blushes every time Collins recounts moment.

She turned to look at him, blushing again.

When he had later come to visit her with a beautiful rose flower at the hospital where she was being treated for shock and some minor injuries, Sarah smiled sheepishly on seeing his face, like it was reflex.

He has a beautiful and alluring face, with his arched eyebrows bringing out the uniqueness in his face. She had known at that instance that she was taking him as hers. Even after she had been discharged from the hospital, he kept coming to visit her with flowers and seriously, she could not deny that she was already deeply in love with Collins. She had to be just so patient and wait for him to ask her out.

Sarah chuckled on remembering her silent prayers to God at that time, telling him Collins should sooner than later ask her to be his girlfriend, which of course finally happened, after a long time of dying of impatience.

Of course, she didn't tell him that part!

Smiling broadly now, Sarah took her camera again and snapped herself a couple of times with her husband, who was still sleeping. Gravy, who had been lying in the basket Sarah was holding, stretched and jumped on Collins, wrapping itself around his hands.

A sudden act that jolted Collins back to reality.

"You don't want Papa to sleep, gravy?"

Sarah smiled a little, stroking the cat in the back while at the same time staring sweetly at her husband, who was having some difficulty opening his swollen eyes fully.

"Ohhh sleepy head."

Sarah said, teasing her husband.

"Whoa, you took a photo of me sleeping?"

He asked rather rhetorically, checking through the pictures his wife had snapped before.

"I slept that long?!"

Collins continued with the questions, still checking through the pictures Sarah had snapped. There were up to 60 pictures in total.

"Feeling sleepy, Collins. Wanna take a quick nap too."

Sarah said, resting her back well into her seat and closing her eyes.

"Of course you should. You have been watching me sleep for quite a while."

He replied, adjusting his wife's hair behind her ear and pecking her cheek afterwards before resting back on his seat to continue checking the pictures his wife had taken.

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After staring at the pictures for some minutes, he raised the camera and it shuttered a few times. He wanted to also show his wife when she woke up.

He rested back on his seat again and took a quick selfie of himself and then proceeded to check the pictures out. They were all so beautiful.

He started to zoom in on one of the pictures to get a better look at his beautiful wife who was fast asleep, when he noticed something.

Right there in the picture behind his seat was a red head popping up, even though it wasn't clear enough. He checked for other pictures and noticed the red head either flipping the hair or turning sideways, but her face was not showing at all.

He then went to the last picture he took, a picture of him smiling, and saw the face behind the red head.

His guess was right!

It was the lady from the hotel whom his wife had said was acting strange and he never believed her.

Well, now he has to believe she is weird because why in the goddamn world is she sitting behind him?!

He quickly looked back and saw Stephanie rolling her tongue sexily at him, the buttons on her shirt loosening slightly while a tempting smile followed.

She was obviously there to seduce him!

He took a quick look at his wife and saw that she was fast asleep. He was getting annoyed already at the display of foolishness the strange woman behind him was doing.

Looking at the picture on the camera again, he wasted no time in deleting it, facing the girl afterwards.

"What's the meaning of this young lady?"

Collins, whose eyes were slowly filling with rage, questioned Stephanie.

"I have a crush on you ."

She replied, chewing her gum loudly and still smiling at Collins.

"Crush on me? … Okay, you have to stop this act. You obviously don't know me from Adam, and because you saw me for the first time with my wife at the hotel, you think you can be doing this?

Did you follow us all the way here?"

"Okay dear, Calm your nerves. Why will I follow you all the way here? I am obviously going on a vacation and when I saw you at the airport with your woman, I figured we are going the same way and besides,you are cute and it's not bad if I hit you up.

Your wife is not going to know if you eventually give in you know ."

Stephanie replied with a wink which showed she was enjoying the act she was playing.

"You must be crazy. I can't imagine a total stranger acting like this. My wife was right after all."

Collins said, irritation written all over him.

"She talked about me already?"

Stephanie asked with a smirk.

"Just never near us, please. Else, I will report you to the securities around."

"It's okay, I am off."

Stephanie said, adjusting her clothes and then standing up to go back to her initial seat.

A middle-aged woman who seemed a bit scared and looked confused came back to sit reluctantly behind Collins.

He then remembered that he saw the woman there when his wife was showing him where to sit. She was behind him before they took off. Stephanie must have somehow moved the woman and sat there instead.

" Evil Woman!"

He muttered to himself.

He didn't know if he should tell his wife what had transpired between Stephanie and himself when she wakes up.

He didn't want that to spoil their vacation because, obviously, his wife would worry about it for - ever and might even create a scene with the lady.

He should just keep it to himself since he had shooed her off already. He wants his wife to enjoy this vacation to the fullest, and nothing should hinder that.