Damaged Beyond Repair by Kashmira Kamat (KittyKash) (best short books to read TXT) 📗

"Rowan." I glanced around, "Rowan. Come back."

"Rowan"

"Rowan."

My eyes fluttered open, I sat right up. Rowan had his arms around me. I scanned my surroundings.

No dungeons.

No screaming Rowan.

No fog.

"Hey baby, what's wrong?" he brushed the hair away from my face, "I'm right here."

I had been breathing hard, sweat trickled down my forehead. I clenched him hard as he whispered in my ear, "Just a bad dream."

"You've been calling my name." Rowan offered me a glass of water, I took it from him and downed the whole glass, "You okay?"

I nodded, taking a gulp.

"I'm really sorry about earlier." His usual mint cologne smelled different, "I was being ridiculous. I never meant to say all that Alana, I swear. I would never hurt you."

I inched closer to him and a foul smell entered my nostrils, the mint lingering onto his breath-- he thought I was trying to cuddle, so he nuzzled the nape of my neck, giving it a lick that sent a shiver running through my body. Yeah, talk about Distraction? The guy was difficult to resist, but I needed to focus.

"You reek of alcohol." I continued, "Were you drinking, Rowan?"

He squeezed his fingers closer to show me the amount, "A little."

I hopped off the bed and made my way towards the mini-bar. A bottle of Absolut Vodka remained on the counter with half contents. Last night the bottle had been filled to the brim. Good as new.

I raised the bottle, "You downed half a bottle, that's little for you?"

"I just needed a drink." He was challenging me to speak.

The dream from earlier had scared me shitless. It just seemed so real, like I was living it. My fears had already taken over my subconscious and I wasn't going to let it turn into a reality, "You're gonna quit drinking."

"Now, you're gonna tell me what I should do and what I shouldn't? Trust me, Alana, I can live without you bossing over me all the time." he snarked at me.

Nothing I hadn't expected.

"Back at ya" I teased him, "I'll flush down all those bottles at your place or maybe I'll just wrap it in a fancy pink wrapper and send it to my grandpa. He likes a drink occasionally."

It was my way or the Highway.

"Pack your stuff, we are leaving." That said, he walked out the door in a decent manner. Half a bottle of alcohol wasn't having an impact. I wondered how many gallons it would take for him to stagger and fall. I had to make sure that didn't happen at all.

Just as the door shut with a bang behind him, my phone began to vibrate on the bed. I checked it and it was Nina. The phone flashed five texts and six missed calls. It occurred to me that she must've called when I was asleep.

"Hello."

"Hope I wasn't disturbing you guys." Nina said from the other end.

"Nope." I pulled out my bag from the corner of the bed and zipped it open, might as well start packing while I'm talking, "How's your weekend going so far?"

"Sucks as usual." I could imagine Nina scratching her head with the back of her pen, "It's like Mr. Masters, your boyfriend, our then demon professor..."

"Nina." I warned her.

"Okay, okay. I was just saying, if Mr. Masters was the Demon professor, Ms O'Hara definitely qualifies as the Queen of the underworld. She has ruined my life, Alana. I don't think hells any worse than this."

"RIP then" I said, "How's Chez holding up?"

"He doesn't like the idea of you spending a night with Mr. Masters."

"Well, it's not news flash exactly." I packed my toiletries and other pointless stuff lying around.

"So...the actual news is.." that intrigued my tired brain cells, "There was a lady at my doorstep asking for you."

"And?" I just had a bad feeling about it.

"I told her you weren't around."

"Good." That was like rubbing an ice to my sore ass. "And?"

"She asked for your number and I told her it wasn't mine to give."

"Who was she again?"

"She told me her name was Lauren."

She's got to be kidding me.

"Did you by any chance say, Lauren, Nina?" It was like rubbing some salt on my sore ass, "you don't suppose her name was Lolita? Or Lola? Or maybe Lila?"

"Nope. She was LAUREN." When Nina didn't hear me respond, she asked, "Was she some old witch disguised as a pretty woman or something?"

"That woman is bad news." There was lump in my throat, what could she want from me? "it's the same woman we saw that night with Rowan. Remember?"

"Really? I mean, I must have recognized her." I heard her sigh on the other end, "I wasn't drunk."

"I doubt you weren't. Listen Nina, if that woman turns up again asking for me; tell her I'm on a long leave, like I wouldn't be in Carmel for the next sixty years. I don't want to see her, let alone talk." I pulled out a large bottle of champagne I had packed as a gift to the Masters, not long would that day be when I'd be admitted in a ward for a case of Amnesia. How the hell had I forgotten about a gift?

Blame it on Rowan.

He wasn't giving my poor brain any space to think. What with the mood swings and all, it was almost like switching to different channels and not pausing at one.

"I'll be in the dorms in a couple of hours, okay?" I let the bottle of champagne sit on the side while I packed other stuff, "we'll talk about it. About her."

"Yeah and I need details about yester..." I hung up on her before she said the 'S' word.

I stayed in Rowan's room for what felt like an eternity, doing some snooping. I hadn't found anything that would shock me into a coma or make me unconscious, though I did find some papers in Rowan's walk-in closet. Those were some of his discharge papers from a psychiatric hospital, with test results that diagnosed manic depressions, dated about three years ago. According to the documents, Rowan was on some antipsychotic medication like Dwight had mentioned. I skimmed page after page and decided it was all beyond me. Just when I was putting those papers back into its original place, the door to the room barged open.