CHAPTER 149
What was it?
What is it? What was the song?
A Thousand Years by Christina Perry pops into my head and I immediately jump out of the bath and
Google it on my Spotify on my phone.
I frown and press play then sit in the dark and listen to the words.
Heart beats fast,
Colors and promises.
How to be brave?
How can I love when I’m afraid to fall?
How to be brave.
He said he wasn’t brave enough to love me in the beginning. Am I brave enough to love him now?
Fucking hell. I’m so confused.
In the dark and alone, the tears slowly roll down my face. What does that song mean? It’s the theme
song for Twilight? What the hell does that mean? Don’t be afraid. What is he trying to tell me?
I lie in the bath for over two hours, until finally, my wrinkled skin can take it no longer. I climb out of
the bath and drag my heavy soul to bed. Lying in the darkness, the tears run onto my pillow. I don’t know
what to think. I don’t know what to feel. I am so confused. Am I going fucking crazy?
I’m in love with a criminal who speaks in cryptic code and I don’t know how to stop it. How do I turn
this love off?
Am I searching for answers that just aren’t there?
Is it wishful thinking?
My email pings on my phone and I sit up suddenly. Finally, it’s the maps of the castle that I have been
waiting for. They must have only just come through. I get up and turn my computer back on to open the
map before I lay back in bed in the darkness. I trace my finger along the screen as I try to work out where
we were in the castle the other night. After twenty minutes, I finally find the room with the staircase and
my heart skips a beat. I put my hand up to my mouth in shock as the hairs stand up on the back of my neck
once more. The staircase went to the very bedroom that Alastar and I were staying in.
I shake my head as exhausted tears take over, and I flop back down onto the bed.
“I don’t understand,” I gasp into the silence though my tears.
I lie in a semi-conscious state as I listen to Christina Perry’s song on repeat. Somewhere between
utter heartbreak and psychic Twilight hell.
The light flickers in my eyes and I squint to make out the shapes. It’s me and I am sitting in the sun outside.
I can hear birds chattering around me. This is a happy place and I feel relaxed and warm in the sun. I’m
lying on a lounge or something soft.
“Just put your head up to the sun,” he tells me.
Huh? Who’s there? Glancing up, I see a man painting on an easel. He studies me and goes back to his
painting. He’s painting me. My eyes drop down to see that I am arranged on the couch with a cashmere
blanket draped over my naked body.
I gasp in shock and sit upright in bed. Perspiration wets my body and my nightgown sticks to my skin.
I breathe heavily as I try to control my racing heart. What was that? I swing my legs over the side of the
bed and put my head into my hands as I pant, out of breath.
Painting.
What does a painting mean? I stand and walk back over to the table where the folder of stolen artwork
images lay and start to flick through them. I’ve never really looked at the pictures carefully before. The
first is a woman with long dark wavy hair. She’s in bed, and I narrow my eyes as I think. She’s sexy and
her blanket is strategically placed. My eyes look at the room surrounding her. The bedroom is luxurious
and I hold the paper up close to study it. I would say it’s around the seventeenth century based on the
furnishings.
Hmm. I flick to the next painting to see it’s a woman sitting outside on a chair. She has dark hair that is
an elaborate up style and is wearing a beautiful red evening dress. Her back is ramrod straight and she is
wearing a corset, her breasts high in her low cut dress. This woman has money and she appears to have
social stature. She’s wearing a ring and I hold the printed paper up to my face.
Hang on. That’s my ring.
Huh? I hold my hand up to look at the ring on my hand. They must have been common back in the day.
What a crazy coincidence. I flick to the next picture and frown. It’s a lead pencil drawing. I put my hand
over my mouth in shock. It’s of a young girl I’ve seen before. She’s smiling and sitting on the bed of a
creek.
It’s Elizabeth.
Henry drew this.
Oh my God. Tears form.
My book isn’t imaginary.
It’s real.All content is property © NôvelDrama.Org.
I look to her hand and she also has a ring on as mine. Goosebumps scatter my skin I begin to hear my
heartbeat in my ears and the room starts to spin. I flick through all of the paintings at double speed. All
women, all have the same ring on.
My ring.