Chapter 46 The Reveal

Chapter 46 The Reveal
Daphne
I open my eyes from the worst nightmare I’ve ever had, exhausted. I peer straight into burning white lights overhead.
“She’s stirring,” I hear someone’s voice beside me. My neck aches. It feels like I’ve been stuck in a nightmare for eternity. Where am I? It’s definitely not my room in the motel.
“Hello, can you hear me?” A uniformed doctor asks. He pokes my eyes wide open, shining bright light into it. I blink frustratedly, trying to get away from him.
“Hey, hey, you are okay!” Hades’ comforting voice booms through.
My heartbeat slows down as soon as I see him. All the anxieties leave my body. His face is the comfort I need right now.
“What happened?”
Hades brush my hair away from my forehead. He lowers himself further and plants a kiss there. A soft, tender, moving kiss.
“I thought I’d lost you forever,” he says. For the first time since I know him, his voice almost cracks with tears. The anguish on his face is indescribable. I have no recollection of what happened. I just went to sleep in my motel room and now, I’m waking up in a hospital?
“We still need to conduct a few tests but so far, I think she’s in the clear. It’s almost a miracle,” the doctor says.
Hades shakes the doctor’s hand before he leaves with his legion of nurses. Then, we are finally alone. Hades returns to my bedside. He takes my hand, caressing it smoothly.
“I am so sorry,” he murmurs, his eyes are almost wet.
“Why are you sorry? What happened?”
“This is all my fault.”
I am a little confused. “What is?”
“It’s my fault you are here. My presence in your life will always put you in danger.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I am not who you think I am.”
The lights are too bright; they are hurting my head. Maybe it’s the headaches but I still don’t understand what he’s talking about. “I don’t know what you are saying, Hades.”
Before he could reply, I burst into a series of chest-clutching coughs. Hades springs up. “I’ll get you a cup of water. I’ll be right back.”
He runs out of the door before I could stop him. I am left alone for a few minutes. I adjust myself on the bed, and look around.
What in the world happened to me? I feel fine. Except for the nightmares, there’s nothing out of the ordinary for me.
The door opens again. I glance up, eager to see Hades again but it’s Randy. Randy enters, carrying a bouquet of flowers.
“Hey, you. You look better. Goodness, you scared us,” Randy says, extending the bouquet to me. I accept them.
“What in the world happened?”
“I don’t know exactly. Someone called the ambulance. They said you weren’t breathing properly. Did you know you had a congenital heart disease?”
“No, I don’t have any heart disease. I feel fine.”
That’s ridiculous. I have never had a heart scare in my life. “I’m sorry, Randy, I really didn’t know –”
Randy steps away from me. He walks to the foot of my bed. “No, I am sorry for this. You really did seem like a nice girl.”
“What?”
To my shock, Randy begins to transform into a fucking winged creature. Terrifying, dark, and deformed. The screams escape my mouth for the duration of his transformation. He growls at me, hungrily.
He lunges at me, flying straight into the bed. I leap out, down to the floor and roll under the bed. I tuck away under the bed, covering my eyes and ears. This can’t be happening. No, this is still a nightmare. I am still stuck in my nightmare. It can’t be ----
Randy yanks me out of the bed and throws me against the wall. I hit my head on the wall and fall to the floor.
“Randy please stop!” I yell. Not sure why I did that, or that he could even hear me. Randy isn’t even Randy. He’s a fucking monster.
He flies in the air, preparing to lunge at me again. I am weakened on the floor, unable to move. I just know this is how I’m gonna die.
I cover my eyes and wait for it. That final moment when he’ll finally sink his teeth into my skin, rip my brains out and skin me alive.
Just in that moment, a different energy enters the room. A darker, menacing force. I hear its growl first. A deep rumble that shakes the ground. The room grows darker.
When I manage to glance up, I am paralyzed with fear at what I saw. Hades. In a devil form. His suit burns with fire. Two horns on his head. His eyes fiery, too.
 He grabs a hold of Randy’s monster and tears it in two. Like it was nothing. He holds Randy’s monster body in two pieces. A clean cut from the neck down to the body. Blood pours out, covering Hades’ body.
My belly rakes with fear. I just can’t believe what I’m seeing. I would wipe my eyes or pinch myself to see if I was having a dream but I can’t move.
Hades dumps the body and starts moving toward me. That horrific, scary figure approaching me makes me dash backwards, away from him.
“I am dreaming. This is a dream.”
“Daphne,” he murmurs. His scary figure is tempered by the tenderness in his voice when he calls my name.
“No, no, stay away from me! Stay the fuck away from me!” I scream at the top of my voice.
“I can explain, Daphne. I promise I can explain!”
“I don’t want you to explain. I just want you to leave me alone. Oh my God!!”
Hades continues pacing toward me until I run out of room. There’s nowhere to escape to. Nowhere to run. I am stuck. Between a wall and him, a monster.
It just doesn’t make sense. I fell in love with a monster.