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How does a girl cope when her twin flame is the definitive bad boy? (18+ Erotica)
Chapter 9 | Chapter 10: In the Light
Sally.
Stephen stood outside the A&E, trying to calm himself down after his altercation with Daisy in the men’s toilets. What a fucking mess I’ve made of things.
“Cheer up, love,” the receptionist said as she came up from behind him, fixing the collar of her toffee-coloured duffel coat, and wrapping a thick red woollen scarf around her neck. “Everything will be all right, you’ll see.”
He turned round with an acknowledging smile. “Thanks, Maude,” he said. “You could’ve had us thrown out if you wanted to. I appreciate your help.”
“Think no more on it. I recognised Miss. McMasters right off, but I didn’t feel it right to say,” she replied, donning a pair of woollen gloves. “Tony hadn’t recognised her, and we’d all had a long night.” A thoughtful look crossed her face. “She’s been through the wars that little one has.”
And I haven’t made it any better.
She clapped her gloved hands. “Goodness, I’m starting to feel the cold a little earlier each year! Anyhow, I’ve spoken to Tony. When you’re ready, he’ll take you up.”
“Again I can’t thank you enough. For everything.”
She gave him a peck on the cheek, as a large van drove up beside them. She nodded at the driver. “You remind me of my man when he was your age. A temper the likes not seen. But a heart of gold. You take care now, you hear?”
She got into the van, waved to Stephen from the passenger window, and was gone.
Clouds overcast the sky with their fiery-dark underbellies. The rain began to spit. He turned to walk back inside.
He knew she would be blaming herself for this.
I’m here, Sally. I hope you know that.
Stephen. His name echoed in her mind.
“It’s funny, you know. You reading my palm, seeing Stephen- and then he appears-” A fleeting look of shame passed across her features, as she said, “I- I first thought seeing him out there- I blamed him a little, and myself - somehow it felt like we’d caught my brother up in our mess.”
Molly said, “Did you even know you were going to see him at the fair?”
She shook her head.
“It’s not like you went out to meet him then, is it?”
“I went out to forget him. I thought he’d gone from my life for good.” She gave a small grimace. “My feelings have been so up and down ever since- Oh, I am all over the place. One moment on such a high, I think I can achieve anything, and then in the next I feel so low I can’t move. This is what meeting Stephen has done to my life. And yet, when you asked me about someone who believed in me, his name was the first one I thought of. Can you believe that?”
Stephen believes in me. At least he makes me think he does.... Stephen, are you even still here?
I’m here, Sally. I’m here.
Sally thought she would go crazy. “But I keep asking myself how will these feelings I have for Stephen help Iain? It’s already made me a bad guardian. Look at me. Emotions just cloud judgement... but then he makes me- he makes me feel, you know? He makes me feel.”
Sally stopped, a little fazed from her outburst, but Molly prodded her gently. “Go on, my dear.”
“I didn’t think anything could feel like this ever...” What I feel for Stephen is like nothing I’ve felt before, but every time I think we’ve found our way, we just lose the road again. “You know what we are? Curse and cure all wrapped into one. That’s what we are to each other.” And yet it kills me to think of us apart.
“If he’s the handsome boy I saw sleeping in the waiting room of the A&E, then he looks like more cure than curse to me. Maybe you both are to each other.”
So, Stephen had spent the entire night here. She knew it, hadn’t questioned it, but somehow hearing it now spoken out loud surprised her. She described Stephen’s physical attributes, and Molly concurred. “That’s him," she said.
“As soon as I knew what was going on, I was going to let him know.” She didn’t know why she felt the need to explain that to Molly. Maybe it was more for herself.
“You didn’t even question that he’d be here, though,” Molly observed. “That must mean something to you?”
Before Sally could reply to Molly’s questioning glance, the light outside darkened, causing a rift of shadows to spill across the hospital room. In the silence, the gentle patter of raindrops from outside began a muffled drum against the window. “You were right about the rain,” she said quietly.
With the coming of the rain, and the shadowed daylight encroaching into the room, the mood had changed, but it wasn’t a frightening tone. Rather it was as if the hard lines of the room had softened, yielding to the shadows. The dull light shining through the blinds turned a translucent orange. The room, bathed now in a peach glow, resonated with the steady drizzle of rainfall.
It was almost hypnotic. Her heart seemed to beat a tattoo in her ribs in time with the rain. She heard the sound of her voice, and realised she was speaking her thoughts out loud. “Every time I think we are great for each other, another dark hole opens up for us to fall right into.”
Molly listened patiently, waiting for her to continue. “If Stephen and I are meant to be, as you say, then why is it so hard?” Sally stood up, and placed her empty glass on the bedside table, moving towards her brother. She looked down at his cherubic face, searching for a tiny flicker of life. The machines hissed and beeped at her instead through the patter of rain.
“I hear everything you are saying, Molly, truly I do, and you make so much sense when I listen to you, but I just can shake the feeling that if I hadn’t gone to the fairground, I might not have seen Stephen again, but then my brother would be tucked up safe in his bed right now. Surely that means we are not meant to be?”
Sally thought back to the palm reading tent. She clasped her hands together, rubbed the inside of her right palm with her left hand, as though subconsciously trying to erase the lines. “Do you remember what you told me in the tent? To clarify what I value most in life... and I’ve been thinking what if these things can happen for that reason? A choice between my brother and-”
Molly didn’t wait for her to finish. “And your own happiness? What foolish Victorian notion are you stuck in, child? You think your brother would ever ask for a sacrifice like that?”
“He has to be my top priority.”
“But not your only one.”
Sally said nothing. She kept a thoughtful silence, trying to visualise what Stephen was doing right at that precise moment. He had waited for her, and that mattered to her more that she was ready to admit.
Kevin was a giant. Both in heart and stature. Stephen smiled as he watched his friend dip his head to walk in through the open main entrance doors, holding a cardboard tray of boxes which he hoped housed their breakfast. His seven foot tall barracks buddy seemed to dwarf the A&E’s waiting room as he sauntered towards him.
“What took you so long, Kev?”
“Is there somewhere we can talk?” Kevin’s tone was serious.
Stephen led him to the men’s toilets. “Walk this way to my office,” he said dryly, opening the door. “After you.”
Kevin walked in, Stephen followed close behind. Once through the door, he half-expected to still see Daisy in there, but the toilets were empty. With some relief, he leaned against the sinks, arms crossed, facing his friend. “Now tell me what’s so serious you’re making my breakfast wait?”
Kevin seemed to hesitant to speak, as though internally debating whether he should tell him or not. “Reason I’m late is I thought I would make some enquiries about your girl’s brother, see if I could find out what happened. I have a few mates in the police force. We go way back.”
Stephen straightened up. “Good thinking. And?”
“And things are not right. The reason the police haven’t got round to even talking to Sally yet is they are on a manhunt as we speak.”
“For who?” All his suppressed instincts that had told him something was not right suddenly surfaced. A frightened boy falling down a flight of stairs, yes. But through a window?
“Her brother’s babysitter has completely vanished. Daughter of a family friend. Gone without a trace. She never returned home.”
Stephen could see from his friend’s demeanour that there was more to come. “Go on.”
Kevin looked around him, as though someone might be listening. “What I was told is still not official, my mate could get in trouble if it comes out. But the initial thought is that the boy didn’t jump out of the window. He was thrown. They say it’s a miracle he survived. For all intents and purposes he should be dead.”
“Shit. Shit.” Who the fuck would want to harm a nine year old boy?
“They think it must be some psycho the babysitter let in, the boy woke up, tried to stop the attacker, and got thrown out of the window.”
“But why would the girl let in a stranger?”
Kevin shrugged. “They don’t know. There’s no evidence of forced entry. Whoever it was they think must have been let in by the babysitter.”
“Who has vanished?”
“Right. Without a trace. The police are looking for her now. It’s on the news, but they’re keeping the fact they think the boy was thrown out of his bedroom window to themselves, until they’re certain.”
Stephen let out a low whistle. What’s the world coming to? It seemed that even small communities were not immune from the sicknesses of their modern world. His thoughts threatened to turn to his time in Afghanistan, but he refused them entry. Now was not the time.
“But they will find out, make no mistake. Scotland’s forensic scientists are first class. Their success rate is over ninety percent. They will find out what happened.”
Tell that to Sally. He ran a hand through his hair. “Fuck.”
“You know what this means though don’t you? Your Sally was lucky to be out when it happened.”
“Yeah, but she won’t see that way.” Without realising it, Stephen had clenched his hands into tight fists. “You’re right, though. If it’s some intruder, then there’s nothing she could have done.”
“I’m sorry mate, but I thought you should know.” Kevin held up the tray. “Still hungry?”
As Stephen weighed up in his mind whether he should tell Sally or not, he suddenly realised he’d lost his appetite. “No, it’s all right man, but don’t worry. You did the right thing. I appreciate it.”
She was the last person to deserve something like this.
Sally.
Stephen.
Sally stared at Molly. “Did you ever hear of the saying, love laughs at locksmiths? The romantic notion where if you put a barrier between two lovers they will always find a way through to each other. Except they don’t, do they? That’s the trouble with poetry and romantic fiction. It raises false hopes. When I was younger I imagined love meant being known by someone, simply and honestly, but how realistic is that? Who knows anyone really?”
“You knew your boy would still be here.”
“He told me he would.”
“And you trusted him at his word?”
I’m here, he had said. And he had stayed.
She nodded. “Then I met Stephen, and he makes me feel like no one else has. It’s like he unlocks my soul-” She stopped herself once more, feeling she was crossing uncharted emotional terrain, towards a no man’s land too dangerous to venture into, because she might not get back out. “You talk about twin flames, like there’s some huge cosmic plan for us to be together. But if I hadn’t gone out this wouldn’t have happened, and I wouldn’t have seen Stephen again. It just seems cruel to me.”
“I see it differently. Looks like Stephen appeared just at the right time to help you.”
She felt warmed by the thought, like comforting arms wrapping themselves around her. “I’m lucky to have him here during this. I know that.”
“Not luck, fate - it was meant. You keep bumping into each other, don’t you?”
“Bumping?” The lights of the fairground’s big wheel, as bright as the stars, spinning as fast as her mind flashed before her eyes. Stephen going down on her in the dark. The back of neck went red from the recent memory. She wondered what had conjured the image up now.
“You know what I mean. Fate throws you together.”
“That sounds like something out of a horoscope,” she said, in what she hoped was a light enough voice to disguise her thoughts.
Molly smiled. “Horoscope, indeed! You can make fun, but you can’t deny what you share with him is very real. You can’t put a lock on it. You can’t control who you love.”
She considered Molly’s words for a moment. “You really think we are fated?”
“I’m not selling you a line here. It’s not opening hours at Madame Rosario’s if that’s what you mean...”
“No! I didn’t mean it come across that way.”
“I’m just teasing you, lass. But seriously it’s not important what I think. It’s what you believe that counts.”
“I just can’t see how there can be a grand plan that would lead to this.”
“But the big picture is so large, no one can see it, my dear. I’m of the opinion that science gives us the what and the how of life, but it’s our spiritual beliefs that give us the unexplainable why. It’s what gives us our moral compass, and the faith that there is a bigger picture.” Molly stroked the bedsheets, smoothing out the creases. “Do you think you could have prevented this had you gone home any earlier?”
Sally shook her head again. Her emotion was audible. “I would have probably found h-him instead of Daisy. Which is another thing that worries me. If the timing is right, Daisy would have arrived almost at the time it happened. What if I hadn’t argued outside your tent with Daisy? What if I hadn’t seen Stephen, what if I had just gone home...”
“I’m afraid what if doesn’t count in life, my dear.”
“I know... It’s a pity you couldn’t see that in my palm- I’m sorry, I didn’t mean that, either.”
Molly beamed at her good naturedly, putting her hands in her lap with an air of assurance that no offence had been remotely taken by her remark. “Of course you did. You’ve been thinking it for a while, haven’t you? But it’s only natural. You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t. But there are things the palm does not show, or things I choose not to tell. Things not in our power to change.”
“You mean you did see it?” She looked at her palm incredulously. “Here?”
Molly gave her an enigmatic stare. “I didn’t say that.”
“It’s just I have so many questions... things I need to know. The more I think about things, the more they don’t make sense.”
“Like what?”
“We’re a close knit community, whoever Daisy found to mind Iain would be a friend or a daughter of a friend. I assumed she got my neighbour’s eldest daughter. Iain has a soft spot for her... Whoever it was, it was always going to be someone we know, and who knows Iain. Babysitting a child with autism is challenging because they think and react differently, but I had already put Iain to bed, and when he sleeps, he doesn’t get up until his alarm goes off. He sets it specially, and everyone knows that.”
Lost in tracing out a line of thought, she began to pace by the bed. “Daisy was adamant to arrange it, and of all Daisy is, she absolutely dotes on Iain, always has done. I thought she was trying to make up for what she’d done...” Her voice trailed off once more into that no man’s land she was unwilling to traverse. “Well where was the babysitter? Why did Daisy have to raise the alarm? Something is not right with this picture. But what? I just can’t seem to see it.”
Molly shook her head. “It’s not for me to say, my dear. But in life there are so many things we don’t understand.” She sprung to her feet, briskly for her age, and put her arm through Sally’s, directing her towards the armchair. “Why don’t you humour me and just listen to what I have to say? Shall we have some more coffee?”
Sally allowed herself to be mothered. She sat down in the armchair. Molly poured coffee into their pitchers from the flask, and handed Sally her pitcher. The coffee was still warm, and she took a sip. She noted it was as good as the first, and reclining back in her seat, she realised her body had been as tense as a tightly sprung coil. The drink and the onset of rain had worked to unwind her.
As she allowed herself to relax, her vision blurred, and she blinked, stifling a yawn. It seemed the soft glow of the room had wrapped itself around Molly’s hands, just at the point the lady took hold of her brother’s hand, perching herself once more on the edge of the bed.
Were her eyes playing tricks on her? Sally chided her fertile imagination. It looked as though Molly’s eyes shone like stars, reflecting the translucent peach coloured haze emanating from her hands.
Great. I’m finally losing my mind. That’s just what I need.
Molly smiled at her. “Comfortable?”
She nodded, thinking suddenly: Stephen stayed. He stayed for me.
I’m here, Sally. I’m here.
She imagined the flashing lights of the Ferris wheel colliding with the stars in the night sky. Stephen’s breath. His touch. His strength.
I know you are Stephen. I know that now.
Molly seemed to read her thoughts. “Good,” she said, soft as the rain against the window. “Let’s begin.”
End of Chapter 10 | Read Chapter 11
Yours in love,
