Chapter Thirty
Isabella
Fog…
I’m here again.
Back in the house, stuck in the dream. The nightmare and just like last
time I’m aware.
Stuck in a dream within a dream, knowing what’s going to happen before it does. cursed to watch it play out over and over again.
I’m on the stairs, fully reverted to my ten-year-old self.
I’m walking then rushing down the steps as my mother screams. The scream like always pierces through me chilling me to the bone. I feel it the same as I do every single time I see this moment play out in my mind.
She’s there on the floor and my father is stabbing her over and over again.
“No!” I scream as if I can stop it from happening.
I can’t.
The stabbing continues and then I see that man behind my father.
The Italian man with mid-length hair and a crooked nose.
He sees me and I fixate on him. Who is he? What is he doing here? Why did he stand back and watch my father murder my mother in such a brutal way.
As arms grab me I jump out of my sleep.
My eyes snap open and I see Candace standing over me. her face a mixture of concern and curiosity.
“Hey, it’s just me,” she says. “You were dreaming.”
I open my mouth to talk but I can’t catch my breath. She rushes over to the table with the pitcher of water and pours me a glass.
When she comes back over to me she sits on the edge of the bed and hands it to me.
I take it and practically down it. The cool liquid soothes my throat and calms me.
“Thank you,” I tell her.
“Feel better?”
“Yes, thanks for the water. Hits the spot every time.”
I might have calmed from the effects of the nightmare but now my heart is racing because of her. I don’t know if it was her who saw me and Tristan the other night in the garden.
Before Tristan left, he told me Candace would take care of me, but my embarrassment made me avoid her yesterday. I figured it could only have been a select few people who would have seen us and she was one of them. There are two guards I’ve seen making rounds but the majority have their positions around the island and inside the house.
The thought that it could be her makes me blush. Yesterday she came up to give me food and invited me to come downstairs but I told her I wasn’t feeling well. Now she’s back, most likely with instructions to keep me company. I’d rather she didn’t until I know for sure who saw us.
I’m the sheltered princess. I can’t believe someone caught me having sex outside, and I don’t even know who it is.
“You okay? The dream, or rather nightmare seemed pretty bad,” Candace says.
“It always is,” I answer and think about it. I’ve been seeing that man in the nightmare more. I never saw him at all until I came here.