Page 62 of Scent Of Obsession
At my scorching gaze, he shifted, glancing at his feet. I loosened my brows that had bumped together in a scowl. I finally nodded, trusting Hugo with her. The searing pain of my flesh had grown with the lack of rest.
Without a word, I fled the room with long-legged strides to return to my own. I prowled the hallway, encountering Mrs. Walton walking back with fresh laundry inside her arms.
When she caught sight of my face, her eyes widened. She was slack-jawed, and a gasp escaped her muted mouth. The fresh towels dropped to the floor as she stood immobilized by terror. After all these years, I still disgusted her. I bent down to pick up the laundry and handed it to the old lady. She hesitantly took it, bowed her face down, and hastily left away from me.
Finally, inside the peace of my bedroom, I ran the water from the sink of my private bathroom. I took off my unbearable clothes that stuck to my damaged skin before peering over my reflection in front of my only mirror.
I was a beast.
The flesh wound was still oozing blood, my repulsive scar sewn up. Cuts were on my skin. I was stitched up like a Halloween monster performing in a circus. Everything about me was meant to be terrifying, from my imposing height, to the muscles I had developed over the years to be invulnerable, to my face carved by an all-devouring force.
My fists tightened on the edge of the sink. My bloodshot eyes manifested the wrath of the villain inside me. Rage flowed through me like lava. My lips twitched backward whilst my chin shook.
My fury sprang to life, and I slammed my fist against the mirror. It shattered, forming a spider’s web with a trace of blood. The cuts of it distorted my reflection. My bruised knuckles and the pain were nothing against seeing my hideous self.
I was ridiculous.
I rescued her, but I wasn’t the prince.
I was the monster.
Recognition dawned on my face—I needed Lily.
That was why it was time to let her go. She needed to get further away from me before we destroyed each other furthermore.
Because more than needing her, I needed those feelings to die.
My eyes slowly fluttered open.
My vision was still blurry when I distinguished a vague shape in front of me. A halo of lights flew across the whole room, like dandelions that had been blown on. I thought I had gone to heaven. Each part of my body gradually bloomed. I felt like a flower whose petals had been folded during the somber night to awaken in the splendid spring.
“Lily, you awake?”
My vision sharpened, and I refocused upon the shadow. The forms became noticeable as my nostrils flared in the cold, salty air. Hugo was standing next to me, a smile dangling on the corner of his lips.
“That was one hell of a fall,” he joked.
I readjusted myself on the bed, sitting straighter, my body feeling sore. Blue bruises covered part of my exposed skin, as if I was a corpse brought back to life from her grave. Taking sight of my surroundings, I tried to place what had happened. I remembered falling, drowning, and then nothing. The oblivion. I searched across the room for Radcliff. He wasn’t present, and my heart wrenched at the thought.
“I don’t remember… How am I alive?” I couldn’t tell what had changed, but my room at Ravencliff Manor looked so much brighter than it was before.
“I saved you. Saw you drowning from the beach and took you back to the shores.”The beach?
“But what about Radcliff?” My brows snapped together, trying to make any sense of it.
“He stayed by your side, making sure you’re okay. Now, he’s gone. He went to work,” he recited, all of those words ringing wrong in my head.
I held his stare forcefully, but Hugo didn’t flinch. “How did you notice me from the beach when you rescued me?” I plastered an innocent beam on my face. “It was probably because of my screams. I’m glad you heard me.”
“Right, thankfully,” he moved on.
“You didn’t rescue me.” I crossed my arms around my chest and raised a brow at him. “I didn’t scream, Hugo.”
A squawk of laughter jerked his head back. “Well, fuck me. You got me like a debutante here.”
My skin bristled as I took a shaky exhale. “He did it.” Radcliff had saved me.
“He made me promise not to tell you.” Hugo took a seat at the foot of my bed, abandoning his joyful mask to hit me with the seriousness of his face. “You know what the cliff represents to him, right?” I shook my head as a no before he continued, lying horizontally on my bed. “His mother committed suicide from that same cliff. He saw her dying.”
