My Tormentor Is My Lover

It Hurts Everywhere

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission of the author.. My Tormentor Is My Lover © A. Gupta 2021. All rights reserved.

This is a work of fiction. Unless otherwise indicated, all the names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents in this book are either the product of the author's imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

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Rose

Last time you all read about me being in the hospital… But, it wasn’t the first time…

Let’s get back to the time when he left me and what happened that week…

First Week….

Everything was fuzzy. Last seven days, I didn’t remember any of it. But I remembered the days before that, all the days I had spent with him, in his arms- wrapped around his body. Yeah, that was my bad luck. Sometimes I was smiling like crazy then I was crying like a broken record. I knew it must be the effects of all the bottles I had drained in these seven days. God bless alcohol, at least half of the time I was feeling numb to all the rage and the thunderstorm of sorrow. I was missing him like my next meal. I wanted him like my next breath. And... I was seeing triple. “Ha… guess, I finally had enough.” I hiccupped, then I laughed full belly laugh until tears rolled down my cheeks. “I fell in love!!” I shouted in my empty apartment. “I gave him my heart and he paid me back by giving me heartache. But, it wasn’t the only thing he gave me.” I stood up from where I was sitting on the floor in front of the floor to ceiling windows. “He left me this.” I encompassed my surroundings, waving my hands like a lunatic. “And, this!!” I flung my arm at my forehead in the reflection seeing the red vermillion still there, mocking me with its presence. He was just not a domineering and controlling jerk, he was also a cruel and mean bastard.

Stomping through the floor I grabbed the cushions as I tore them apart, yelling all the while and crying. It was a constant. My eyes didn’t stop producing the tears. The damn wet liquid keep pouring out of my eyes. I threw the bottles on the table, shattering it into millions of pieces. And then, my eyes fell on the papers still lying on the floor where they had slipped from my bloodless fingers when I had read them the first time.

My fingers were trembling, I was feeling cold and my gut was churning, wanting to expel all the liquid toxic I had drunk as I walked toward those papers. I crouched down ready to tear them apart, but just before my fingers touched them darkness closed around me and I was out cold.

I woke up to the sounds of beeping. My head was hurting like at some point it was split apart. It felt like tiny little hammers were beating down on my head. And, worst of all my heart was hurting, which only made every f*****g thing hurt like a b***h. I groaned, apart from my head my throat ached from the dryness and my stomach hurt like crazy.

Shouldn’t have drunk like an addict. Yeah, got it.

I peaked through my lids, there was only one bedside lamp lit and from the beeping and all the smell of disinfectant, I guessed I was in a hospital. Great, Rose. Well done. But, who brought me here and how? Last thing I remembered I was in my apartment while tearing the cushions. I cringed at the memory. I moved my head to the other side, and that’s when I saw him. 

Michael.

Who did you think? I know. Let's not take his name!

Michael was slumped half on and half out of the sofa. So, without disturbing him, I tried to sit up and looked at the door as it opened and another person walked into the room.

“Thank f*****g god. You're awake!” Monica came rushing to my bedside. She was holding a cup, which smelled like coffee and almost made me gag.

“Can I-“ I swallowed, or at least tried to, before asking, “Can I have a glass of water?”

“Oh, sure..” Monica put her cup on the stool as she held up a water bottle to my mouth.

I gulped down the cool liquid as quickly as I can. Damn, that felt good. I nodded for her to move the bottle away. She capped the bottle and put it on the stool as she sat down beside me on the bed.

“How are you feeling?” She asked me, her eyes roving over my face and her hand came up to caress my forehead.

My eyes prickled with tears, taking in all her kindness. I gave her a wobbly smile as I said, “Like I jumped from the rollercoaster.”

She smiled back, but it was restrained as she took hold of my hands. “Rose, there is something-“

“So finally, you decided to join our living world.” Michael’s words echoed behind her and we both turned to look at him. This time my smile was genuine as he came toward us. “I plan to lock you in a room filled with nuns so you’d never even think about the words that even resemble beer, vodka, scotch, bourbon, much less drink it.”

“Believe me, I already plan to stay as far away as I can from them.” I said in reply, but I didn’t think he heard me as his eyes were focused on Monica and Monica’s on him. Both the siblings seemed to have a silent conversation.

I let them have their sibling moment as I took the water bottle from the night stand and drank some more. When they both turned to look at me, I said, “Can I have something to eat? I’m really hungry.”

“Oh. Yeah, of course.” Monica mumbled something under her breath that I didn’t quiet understood as she left the hospital room, presumably to get something for me to eat. Damn, I was so hungry. I didn’t even remember when was the last time I ate.

Michael came forward as he sat beside me where a moment before Monica was sitting, he smiled softly at me as he said, “You know, you scared us.” He caressed my head and it felt good to have not one but both of them here with me. “Monica more so, she was so afraid for you, Rose. Don’t ever do that to my sister, again. Okay?”

I felt my eyes welling up with tears as I nodded, but I couldn’t help it as a sob broke free from my lips and I said, “I miss him, Michael. I miss him so goddamn much!” I hiccupped, “He left... He just f*****g left!!”

“Shh…” He gathered me in his arms, holding me closer to him. I buried my face in his shirt thankful for the warmth and support I was getting from him. I just wished that instead of Michael he was here. “Its okay.”

“It hurts, Michael. It f*****g hurts everywhere.” I grabbed him like he was the only person holding me together as I cried.

“It’ll be okay, I promise, Rose.” He rubbed my back, calming me. “Just stay strong.”

We stayed like that for a long time. Until my breathing became normal and I relaxed in his arms. “Uh-huh,” a throat cleared behind us and we both parted to look at the doctor who was standing in the doorway, looking awkwardly everywhere but at us. “Time to check the vitals.”

“Yeah, sure.” Michael looked at me with amusement clear in his voice as he placed a soft kiss on my forehead and stood up, giving space to the doctor.

The doctor fiddled with the wire and glucose bottle, checking my blood pressure and heartbeat. After a while, he started to say, “All things considered, I would highly recommend you that you don’t indulge in the alcohol like that, it can have a negative affect on the—”

“Oh, here she is…!” Michael exclaimed loudly, catching my attention as I followed his gaze and looked at Monica, and laughed.

She was standing there with a bouquet of flowers under her arms and a bunch of balloons tied to her finger, and hands filled with big brown carry bags. And, from the smell of food, it seemed that she was carrying everything that I want to eat. She rushed inside and I forgot about everything else. In the periphery I noticed Michael talking to the doctor but my eyes came back to the treasure Monica was unveiling.

Muffins. Chocolates. Chips. Cake.

Oh, god. I could've kissed her in that moment. “I didn't know what you'd like to eat. So I brought all this.” Monica gestured helplessly to all the things she had taken out and put in front of me.

“It's perfect. You are the best.” I said to her as I picked a packet of chips and tore it open, with my other hand I held up a muffin to my mouth and took a huge bite out of it.

Somewhere a phone rang and I paused, identifying the ringtone of my iPhone. My heart started beating furiously against my chest, I felt my breathing stutter. With all that I was, I wished and prayed and begged to god that it was him.

DON'T WORRY, THERE IS MORE...

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