Page 23 of Teach Me How To Fly

I pressed the call button, waiting a few moments until that particular sound notified me that he picked it up.

“Who do I have to kill and where are you?” he growled at the phone and I furrowed, not knowing if he was already awake or I just woke him up.

“I’m home, you don’t have to kill anyone. It’s fine, I mean, it’s not fine, but…”

“Tell me what happened, Annalise.” His harsh breath hit the microphone along with his demanding words.

“I had a nightmare and it was so bad I woke up my dad and he came into my room to check up on me. But it was awful. That man,” I slowly explained and felt how the tears were starting to form behind my eyes again. “He took my heart out and then he laughed at me, bit from it, and touched me,” I added and I felt him tensing at the other end.

“Put your hand on your chest,” he demanded, this one colder, lower.

I gulped and raised my hand to my chest, resting it on it.

“Did you do it?”

“Yes,” I quickly answered and sobbed.

“What are you feeling right now?”

I was so confused that I almost forgot why I called him in the first place. “What do you mean?”

“What do you feel now that you’re keeping your hand on your chest?”

I spent a few seconds thinking about the right answer, and I quickly found it. “I’m feeling my heart beating.”

“Feel its rhythm.”

What on Earth is he talking about?His last demand made me even more confused, but I tried to listen to him and closed my eyes to feel the beat of my heart.

It was pounding slower now, considering how fast it did a few minutes ago. It was beating steady and in a way that calmed me down instantly.

“I did,” I whispered and let myself fall on the bed’s surface.

“Is it steadier now, calmer?”

“Yes.”

“Good. Then learn that rhythm and remember that every time you need to feel it, I’m here for you. Anytime, Anna. One phone call away. Same rule applies if you want it to beat faster.

I felt my cheeks getting warmer as I heard the last words he spoke. He noticed that my heart beat faster when I was with him; he must’ve felt it when I hugged him at the cabin.

He kept silent and didn’t say a thing until he heard me sighing again.

“Your heart will be safe as long as I’ll live, Annalise. No one will touch it.”

But you already touched it, and you didn’t stop there, you stole it and now it belongs to you, I said to myself and felt how my body trembled with emotion.

He had such power over me that he could’ve calmed me down even if I was on the edge of a cliff and at the risk of falling off it. And it scared me that we were becoming closer to each other even though we weren’t supposed to.

“Thank you for talking with me, and I’m sorry for waking you up,” I murmured and started playing with my fingers waiting for his response.

“You should’ve said sorry if you wouldn’t have called me, Annalise,” he declared and I noticed a slight change in his tone of voice.

And what would the reason be? I asked myself and my curiosity sent a shiver down my spine.

It seemed to me that Maksen was refraining from telling me exactly what he had in mind, but I remembered that my dad might’ve listened to our conversation and he couldn’t say more of what he wanted.

“I’ll let you sleep now. Good night, Maksen.”

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