Page 169 of His Cursed Heart

My hand begins to tremble in her hair, fear taking control of my body.

"I'm so fucking scared, Althea." I whisper brokenly. It's the first time I ever admit that out loud. "I'm scared that you may not be the love of my life in another universe... I'm scared that if you don't wake up, I'll be forced to live a life without you. I want to love you in every life we will relive, I want you to be mine forever, just as much as I am yours."

I let my forehead fall to hers.

"I got lost in your heart, Althea. The heart you claim you don't have and I'll be damn if I want to find my way out. So please, don't force me to live without you."

Keres's laugh makes me roll my eyes at her dramatics.

"You had paint even in your ass." She laughs harder as she remembers that time when I was eight years old and I wanted to surprise Mamma with a painting, and completely by accident, I painted myself because there was no greater gift than me.

"You had purple cheeks for a week," She continues, her laughter turning into wheezing.

I lean over the flowers, pinching her ear. I can't just stay here and let my big sister laugh at me. She starts moaning in pain as I flick her ear in every direction.

"Do you want to remind me who created a song only by burping?" I ask her as she tries to free herself from my hold.

She gasps, clearly knowing what I'm talking about. "You swore you would never bring that again!"

"And you swore you would never talk about my two head dog painting!" I yell and I almost punch myself from reminding me that horrible painting.

She chokes up again, laughing with her full mouth, forgetting about the pain.

"It had double personality, Keres." I say for the thousand time.

"And double dicks." She laughs again and this time, I laugh too.

I let go of her ear, laughing along with her as we share moments from our childhood.

In not even a day, we almost finished Mamma's garden. It looks so much better than when I arrived here. We took care of the broken flowers, the dehydrate ones. We even plant new ones.

My heart breaks at the thought of Mamma. How could she do that to her own daughters? How could she just watch me cry my heart out in front of her and do nothing? My entire life was spent of loving my Mamma when she didn't even care about me.

A soft hand pets my hair and I look at Keres who is giving me her ocean eyes full of pain. She feels it too, the painful weight in my chest every time I think of the real world.

"Are you ready to live for yourself?" She asks me with a small voice, but I just stare at her.

I don't feel ready to go back, but I'm not going to lie. I miss Everette so much that I feel like breaking this purgatory and go to him. I need to feel his arms wrapped around me and his hard, passionate kisses. I don't know how I stood a day without him, but if a day feels like this, I don't want to know what an eternity is like.

"Althea, you've been here for thirteen days." Keres says in my head and my body freezes.

Thirteen days? When did the time go?

I look around and everything is just like when I first got here. Emptiness after the gates, light and butterflies. What is this place?

I flinch when a ringing breaks the silence. I look around confused, trying to find the source of the ringing. Is there a phone? But it sounds like it's coming from the sky.

"Hello, Gianna." I hear Everette's tired voice. Tears are filling my eyes when I hear the roughness of his voice, the one that I miss so much.

What is happening?

It's a piece of reality. This is happening right now in your world, Keres says again in my head.

"How is she?" Mamma asks and I know her enough to feel the tears in her eyes.

Is she in the place where my body is?

Did she left her nest to come and see me?

---