Chapter 22 Chapter Twenty-Two - Jartre
I freeze in my tracks, the bronze-coloured crystalized walls around me echoing sounds that have the blood in my veins turning to fire. Wild unabashed moaning reverberates around my ears; a moan I have memorised down to the decibel. Mixed in with the moans are unfamiliar guttural grunts that pierce through the very depths of my essram.
With slow, languorous movements, I make my way into the bedroom only to feel my essram shatter into a million pieces when I see the love of my existence, straddling and riding my friend, in all her naked glory. Her glowing bronze skin moves sensually as her fingers move through her long bronze hair, and I remain frozen to the spot as the pain growing within me makes way for something unimaginable.
Beneath her grinding hips is someone I thought was my friend; his dishevelled azure blue hair becoming matted as it thrashes with every move of Apaki’s hips. His hands roam her body the way mine always have, caressing her with reverence and inexplicable desire. I feel a sickness coming over me, shaking my very being to the core as tears build behind my eyes but refuse to let themselves be known.
As I remain frozen in time, not knowing what to say, think, or do, Apaki – the woman I have loved more than every star in the universe combined – looks over at me, her liquid silver eyes shining deviously as a smirk that rips through my heart takes over her exquisite face.
“Took you long enough,” she says with gleeful malice.
At the sound of her words, and the look on her face, a violent tempest rises within me so all-consuming that I find my mind and my vision plunging into darkness.
I awake with a start, gasping for air as I feel sweat drenching my body. I look around my room, disoriented as my mind slowly regains its clarity. It was just a nightmare. I swing my legs over the side of my bed and scrub my fingers down my face feeling the drops of sweat coating my fingers. My heart is pounding furiously and the images from my nightmare are seared into my mind. It doesn’t matter how many thousands of years go by, that night will live in my mind vividly as if it happened only yesterday.
I haven’t had a nightmare of the night I discovered Apaki’s betrayal in five years. While it still haunts me, I don’t think of it too often. The last time I relived it was when Zarseti went and blessed Oshmin with a fucking animai. Knowing he was being blessed with eternal love and happiness while I remained suffering left me almost as enraged as I was that night. It wasn’t just the fact that he’d been blessed with an animai that enraged me so, but the way he spat on such a gift. I begrudgingly admit, I did not handle it well. I took my anger out on Zarseti’s daughter, and she didn’t deserve it. She didn’t deserve my wrath, but Oshmin sure as fuck did and no one can convince me otherwise.
He was given a rare and precious gift and what the fuck did he do? Tried to throw it away like it was trash. He lied and deceived her hurting, her far more than I ever could. The fact he was able to deceive an irshiust at all just goes to show how fucked in the head he was. He went to fucking Zarseti demanding she reverse it. Not a care for what that would have done to his animai because he only cared about his own selfish wants. Knowing that Gabriella is a frail and fragile human – and I mean this only when it comes to her physicality – worries and concerns me, yes, but I would not trade her for all the power in the universe. She is the most precious thing to ever grace my existence and I would be an idiot to throw that away. In the short time I’ve known her she has begun surrounding me in light that I believed would never enter my life again. She truly is my starlight.
I get up and walk across the room, stepping out onto my balcony. I take in deep, soothing breaths as the cool air blows across my sweaty skin. I look up at the now dark sky, taking in the unobstructed stars glittering above me. As if from habit, my eyes zero in on that one constellation that has my stomach folding in on itself. I had made that constellation for Apaki as a declaration of my love. She was my everything and I wanted her to know it. So I painted her in the stars. I still see the way the stars form her eyes and her flowing hair. I hate it. Those stars taunt me with their glow, and yet I can’t seem to erase them.
As I look upon them, that rage from earlier returns when I’m reminded that Gabriella was subjected to that same kind of betrayal. She might be okay with it, but I will not let this go unpunished. My love will have her justice.
I stand in front of the flat walnut door, resisting the urge to cross the hall and visit Gabriella and find peace in her presence, but I’m a God on a mission. I place two strong knocks on the wooden door and listen as I hear the sound of a television going quiet and footsteps walking to the door. The door is unlatched, opening to reveal just one half of the source of my animai’s disrespect. Brown eyes look up at me in surprise and I have to hold back a snarl. The unimpressive looking iniquitous human before me, licks her dry lips hungrily, leaning against the door frame, flipping her red hair over her shoulder as she looks at me hungrily. I’m tempted to plunge my thumbs into her sockets to prevent her from ever looking upon me in such a way. Only my animai has that privilege.
“How can I be of service, handsome?” she asks in what she probably thinks is a sultry voice, but to my heightened senses sounds nothing more than a rabid animal in heat.
“I didn’t appreciate the way you spoke to Gabriella this morning. I also don’t appreciate women who open their legs so wide it’s as though they’re in competition with the Grand Canyon.” With each word, her sultry demeanour vanishes to be replaced with shock and anger. “And another thing I don’t appreciate,” I say, leaning down to her level, “Is women like you who get their thrills from destroying the bonds between two people,” I say in a menacing voice.
She gulps, registering my tone, but lacking any self-preservation, decides to open her trap anyway. “Who the fuck do you think you are? You can’t just come to my door and start insulting me because of some bitch you’re fucking!” she shrieks in outrage.
“I see why you called on my services,” says Merlos, announcing her presence. She pushes off the wall to the side of the door where she has been leaning silently, and steps into Julie’s line of sight. Julie’s tirade ceases as she now takes in both of our giant forms towering in her doorway.
“Julie, I’d like you to meet my friend Merlos. I think it’s time you two got better acquainted,” I say with a devious smirk.
Merlos steps through the threshold of Julie’s apartment, forcing Julie to retreat in a panic. “If you don’t leave I’m going to call the cops,” she feebly threatens.
Merlos glances back at me, “You owe me for this one.”
I step into the apartment and close the door behind me, relishing the absolute terror on Julie’s face. “Name it and it’s yours. It’s more than worth it,” I say, folding my arms and leaning against the wall.
“This animai of yours must be a hell of a woman,” Merlos says, shaking her head as she turns her attention to Julie.
That she is. And if anyone dares to harm my woman in any way, I can guarantee it’ll be the last thing they ever do.