Chapter 132 A Wrong Test
The world was mute, too mute to the point it was questionable. As if all of it had ceased to exist. Only her words rang.
William lay paralyzed, eyes fixed on the ceiling where the shadows seemed to pulse.
‘She is doing this again,’ He thought powerlessly, head pressing harder into the mattress,
‘Taking over my mind, my heart, my soul until I will be reduced to nothing.’
Her whispers from the night before were still warm on his skin, but they felt like a trap.
Her words, her actions, all of it almost melted his heart only to get terrified once again. Doubts raised, weakening him too much.
‘She will leave me miserable in the end. My world will crash again. My heart will break. I will lose like I always had.’
He swore to himself he won’t lose but halting was impossible, especially when she was near enough to be his day and night.
He squeezed his hand into a fist, the knuckles white, and slammed it into the bed. His path was becoming blurry.
“Fuck!”
The outburst did nothing to fill the void of the room, or his heart. The word was swallowed by the room.
He sat up, his breath hitching. Hands clenching and unclenching to soothe his suffocating heart but to no avail.
Usually, Arabella would call out from the terrace or the dressing room, asking what was wrong. But it remained graveyard-quiet.
He stood up, his heart beginning a slow, heavy thud against his ribs.
"Arabella?"
No answer.
He checked the bathroom,“Bella? Are you there?”
The marble was cold, the towels perfectly folded.
He checked the terrace, the two empty wine glasses from the night before sat untouched, the chair was empty.
He moved faster now, his bare feet echoing too loudly on the hardwood. He threw open the door to the hallway, his mind spinning.
"Bella? This isn't funny."
She was nowhere, amplifying the dreadful beats, suffocating him to fathom where the woman who refused to vanish from his sight could have been.
How else was he supposed to breathe?
“Arabella!?”
He reached the top of the grand staircase, his hands shaking so violently he had to grip the railing, eyes scanning the rooftop.
"Arabella! Come out!" He screamed, his voice cracking, heartbeats dropping when she was not in the sight.
“Don’t do this to me, please, don’t-” His eyes madly searched around to land on a familiar silhouette from afar.
Arabella was standing a few yards away. She wasn't hurt. She wasn't gone. She was simply... watching.
She stood perfectly still, her dress fluttering in the breeze with a twisted, satisfied smile to find him losing his mind.
“Maybe now you will realize…” She murmured.
“You…?”
Hitting the railing, not bothering to put on shoes, he sprinted down to cease the sting of his soul and reach her proximity once again.
The terror in William’s chest curdled instantly into something dark and acidic.
"Arabella!"
He closed the distances the sun was setting, the orangey speckles dispersing in the sky, forming a breathtaking view behind her.
But, he stared at the one who took his breaths.
He reached her in a blur of motion, his trembling hands catching her shoulders with a grip that was far from gentle.
"Where were you? I-I called you, I screamed for you!" He panicked, checking to see any sign of harm.
She didn't flinch. Her calm was a blade, slicing through his remaining sanity, worsening his state.
"I wanted to see-" She took a pause, lowering her gaze, “-What would you do if the silence lasted just a little too long."
The last thread of William's control snapped, perturbation converted into uncontrollable fury. His vulnerability vanished instantly.
His hand from her shoulder led down slowly to her arm, gripping with a brute, painful force, evoking a whimpering.
Without warning, absolutely displeased, he jerked her into his hard chest. His grip determined to not release her ever again.
"You were testing me?" he hissed, his voice vibrating with a dangerous edge, "You stand here and listen to how I was losing my mind?"
He buried his face in the crook of her neck, his breath coming in hot, barely controllable, terrifying heaves.
“Taking too much advantage of the leniency I provide, huh?”
He pulled back just enough to look at her, his eyes bloodshot and wild. His fingers dug into her arms, bruising the delicate skin.
"Fine. " he breathed, the words dripping with a dark, obsessive heat.
“If this is the game you want to play, I will win it by making sure you never breathe an inch of air that I don't provide."
She whimpered, “William, you are hurting me-”
Startled by his lost cognition, Arabella made a futile attempt to release herself but to not avail.
He dragged her harshly across the grass, ignoring the small pebbles bruising his bare feet, taking her back inside breathlessly.
“Why do you love testing me so damn much?” he growled, his functioning shut down, only replaced with a dread of never finding her next to him again.
“Stop it! I was only out here for minutes, I wasn’t leaving-”
“YES, YOU WERE!” He roared, his voice echoing in the air when he yanked her inside the villa, to their room before kicking it close.
She could feel her heart thumping madly. Distress numbed her body when he pushed her in the middle of the room senselessly.
“That’s why I don’t let you go! That’s why you stay exactly where I put you!”
“I would never leave you! Stop it, you are scaring me!”
“And you have terrified me!” He gripped her face, forcing her to look at the wreckage in his eyes, his eyes narrowed with a trace of tears.
His hands were freezing, panting like invisible hands were choking him. She staggered when he was on the verge of devastation by one little stunt.
“I was right. You were just looking for the exit. You never wanted me, you wanted me to free you, you never desire me-”
“No!” She snapped, slapping his hands away, grabbing his shirt outrageously when he stuck stubbornly to his perception.
“Snap out of it! I was only-”
“Playing around?” He hissed.
His hand smoothly slid into her locks, grabbing a fistful of her hair in order to lock her body firmly over his, his hot breaths grazing her skin, frightening her by each passing second.
“Did you have fun doing that?”
His voice went lower, more dangerous as her dread enhanced. Simultaneously, a tear rolled down from their eyes as William whimpered, on the verge of crying.
“W-While I was standing there, l-looking at the bed…” he choked on a cry, converting it into a shouting of a wretched one.
“Wondering if I had ever touched you, or if I was just a lunatic in an empty room!?"
“What happened to you?” she cried, tears finally breaking through, “When did you become this?”
“YES I HAVE BECOME A FUCKING MONSTER,” He screamed, boundaries shattering as the bottled up grief found a single narrow escape and liberated from his lips.
“AND YOU ARE GOING TO LIVE WITH THE MONSTER ‘YOU’ CREATED!”