Episode 16: "You Have Bad Dreams Too?"

Alicia placed her clean clothes in drawers, while she discarded the dirty ones in a pile. Some clothes she would donate. Sliding a drawer shut, she picked up the rest of her clothes off the floor and placed them in a bin.

Christian shouldn't mind her doing laundry now, would he?

Oh well. She thought. It wouldn't be a long load.

There was a cool part to all this though.

Picking up her bin of clothes, she walked over to the other side of her room, and slid up a latch that camouflaged into her wall. It was perfect for an escape, as she could fit down the entire chute should she have to make a clean get-away.

"Here comes bin number two." She said, sliding it in. She watched it slide all the way down and hit the first bin.

Now she had to go all the way downstairs, but the laundry room wasn't that far once she reached the final step. She went around the stairs and towards the living room, making a sharp right, otherwise a person would miss it.

She figured it should be more or less around the kitchen, but then again that was where food was kept. She opened the door and the smell of fresh clothes greeted her even though no clothes were being washed.

He had two washer and dryers respectively. Both sets were on either side with counters to fold clothes or in her case, sit on. Above them was a shelf lined with cleaning detergents, dryer sheets and pods. There was also a space to keep the rest of the things needed to clean his home. Swiffer. Mop. Broom. They were all neatly tucked and out of the way, displayed on a wall.

The chute was behind a counter, making it perfect for the bins to slide through and set on them without a mess.

She scanned the washer. The directions were simple enough to follow, even if it was the top of the line. She'd say she had a large load. They were all color clothes.

She slid up the latch in the wall having to reach across the counter some. The first bin slipped through. She slid it to the side along with the second one that came through.

If she was learning anything about the man known as Christian Royce it was that he was very efficient.

Not just a bartender at all.

She placed a couple pods into a washer and began to fill it with her clothes. Placing everything inside, she closed the door and locked it into place. She pressed 'start' for 'normal wash' and took a deep breath. Blowing out she ran her fingers through her hair and then stacked the bins together and set them off to the side.

She looked at the remaining wash time. Thirty-five minutes left. She turned and left out of the room, closing the door.

She ran up the stairs a bit winded once reaching the top and walked to her room. She grabbed her phone off the bed and set a timer for thirty-five minutes.

She sat down on her bed and then tossed her phone to the side some. She looked around the room. Her clothes boxes were all broken down. The first thing she did was set up her 'home office' when they had come home. She looked to the desktop. Then she looked at her laptop. They were hers.

She smiled to herself. Even if she didn't come from money, she had a taste of what it was like to have it. It made little improvement for overall mood.

She blew out and fell back on the bed. "Ow!" She shot up and turned over.

She had forgotten the notebooks she had laid out. She picked them up and remembered her yellow notebook had doodlings in them from when she was very young. She placed the others on her desk, noting she needed to buy a small bookshelf to house her books and things.

She took a seat in her computer chair, it rolling away some and opened up the first page. It was a big faced girl with a well proportioned body for a seven-year old.

She chuckled and continued to flip through her pages of young doodles. She had even wrote the date on some of them which really took her back in time. Her eyes watered a little. When she was innocent. She still was, but in only eleven years she had seen some changes, her surgery and current situation being the most major of all.

She chuckled and closed the notebook. She guessed everyone cried a little on the inside when their childhood faded away.

She blew out again and cupped her face. She would rather go to work than deal with a whole bunch of nothing. Work!

She whirled around and eyed the clothes she would be donating and breathed a sigh of relief. Her nurse uniform was in the washer. She remembered because she had placed it in the pile of dirty clothes.

What could she--should she be doing right now! The thought was driving her crazy! Should she try her hand at dinner? No. Christian wouldn't approve of her in his kitchen yet. Should she look for places to live? No. Everything was too sudden. Ironic, but still very true.

Maybe she could look for new clothes?

Yeah, maybe some other time. She thought, not in the mood for surfing through sites. She blew out and got up from her chair. She figured she mine as well rest. Rest while she had the chance. Her life wouldn't be this...tranquil, she ran that term over her mind bitterly as she felt anything like it.

Pushing her chair in, she walked over to her door and closed it. She wouldn't go to sleep. Or try not to as she had clothes in the washer and didn't want Christian scolding her for leaving them in there.

Turning, she walked over to her bed and climbed on, moving her things out the way. She made a mental note to buy a throw blanket for herself as she didn't want to keep getting under the covers and messing them up. Pulling back the top blanket, she slipped inside, and placed her phone on the nighttable beside her. She laid down and closed her eyes.

***

She snapped open her eyes. Darn it! She promised herself she wouldn't fall asleep! She hurriedly quieted her alarm--it being over an hour late--and rushed out of bed, nearly falling. Stumbling forward she quickly opened her door and ran down the hall. Coming to the stairs she whirled around and began stepping down them two at a time at times. Reaching the bottom, she ran into the laundry room and nearly threw open the washer's door. She flinched some at her force. She probably shouldn't man-handle any of Christian's things, deliberately or otherwise.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

Going over the dryer's instructions, she placed all of her clothes inside with a few scented dryer sheets and started it for a forty-five minute dry on hot. She'd be sure not to fall asleep again.

It was a little passed nine o' clock now and she doubted Christian would approve of laundry at this hour, but hey. Would he rather just have her leave her clothes inside? Since he was so neat she figured he wouldn't approve.

Walking back up the stairs she heard the sounds of moaning and looked toward's Christian door. Walking closer she observed that the door was adjar.

That wasn't like Christian and being nosy wasn't like her but given her situation, it was a toss up on whether being ignorant was blissful or not.

She slowly peaked her head inside and saw that Christian lie on his bed, still fully dressed, but his shirt unbuttoned. He moved his head back and forth and butterflies settled in her stomach as she had only seen people toss and turn in their sleep from a nightmare only in the movies. To see it displayed before her very eyes was frightening.

She stood there frozen for a moment, in a panic on what to do. Should she wake him up? She thought, once she had calmed down from her hype of what should she do? He could become violent. Thinking on this still left her stumped on what to do as she didn't want to continue to see him suffer. She thought of her own little nightmare the night before and how she awoke from it. Maybe she should just painfully let him do the same. Sadly deciding on this, she was about to close the door when he shouted a 'No'  so loud that it made her heart elevate at a rapid pace.

She threw open the door, she getting the idea that loud sounds from reality would hopefully wake him up. But she wasn't dumb. Her throwing things at him or poking him with a some long object, even her shaking him was dangerous as she had no idea what the man was capable of. For all she knew he could breathe fire and that would be all she wrote.

So she stood at the foot of his bed, eyeing the pillows on the cushioned benched he had placed in front of it, and prepared to crouch each time she threw it at him.

"Christian!" she began. "Christian wake up!"

He still struggled within his sleep.

"I said wake up!" she tossed a pillow at his face and then ducked.

He moaned, the pillow coming off to the side.

"Christian! Come on! You have to wake up!" She tossed another pillow at him and ducked again when he lunged from the bed in a sudden frenzy, the pillow was incinerated, all that was left of it was brief feathers and Alicia whirled around to look at the man responsible only he looked nothing like the Christian she knew, well met, as she didn't know him at all.

It seemed his shirt had burned up as well as all he was left in was his pants. His blonde hair reached beyond his back, seeming almost platinum than blonde and his body emmitted a white and orangish glow before it turned all red.

Alica couldn't speak. She knew better than to, but her tongue was glued to the roof of her mouth and she found herself holding back tears as there was no doubt in her mind that this version, this form of him would kill her. Kill anything that made any sudden movements. She deduced that much from him.

Eyes a molten red-orange, then a blue-green, Christian surveyed that he was in his room with no immediate danger. But he was not alone, hearing a heartbeat and smelling a scent that was not his own he whirled around and Alicia jumped again.

His eyes. They were orange in color to her but that was not the point, his look was anything but friendly. He looked as though he were prepared to ram her through.

She watched a blade appear in his hands out of thin air and her lips quivered. Yep. That was his intention. He didn't recognize her.

Her lips tried to utter his name, but she only found herself mumbling. He drew it back and was prepared to ram her through indeed. All he saw was a target. Not Alicia. Not the girl he agreed to help. Or the one he had taken pity on. Just an intruder.

Alicia made herself speak. "Christian it's me Alicia!"

He furrowed his brows some. "Alice..."

His voice seemed a little deeper, and he prolongued Alice's name as it rolled off his tongue.

"No, no, not Alice! Alicia!" This girl Alice must have really done a number on him--oh! What am I saying? I'm about to be chop suey to this man! "Christian it's me Alicia! The girl you agreed to help! You know! The one that got kicked out by her family!" she dove to the side as Christian had rammed his blade straight into the bench...where her head was moments ago.

Screaming, she shot up and ran out the room. She deliberately fell, thankful, as that could have been her head again as Christian had made a swipe for it.

Alicia pulled back and quickly ran back into his room. She closed the door in his face and swiftly went off to the side, knowing he'd charge right through it. Slouching down some, he burst through the door as expected and she attempted to run passed him when he lashed out and caught her, his hands making contact with her jaw in a painful way.

She cried out in pain. "Christian! It's me!" she yelled as she was painfully held into place by his bare hand upon her face.

His grip was tight and it hurt her. It hurt her a lot.

She sobbed.

He brought her closer to his face.

"Christian! Ahhh!" she whined.

Staring at her more, though his sight was unparred, it shocked him to his core that he had Alicia in his grip. Not Alice. How could he have mixed up the two of them when they looked so different? The only answer was his mind. He wasn't in control of what his mind was perceiving. That scared him more. He dropped Alicia suddenly, she cried out as she hit the floor and backed away from him. He backed away from her too.

"Oh, Alicia," he said. "I am, sorry..." His eyes welled up with tears. "I am, so...sorry..." And then he spread a pair of wings and made a beeline exit to his left and then he was gone.

Alicia just sat there on the floor, crying her eyes out. Her mouth really hurt and that caused her more pain in that moment than Christian abandoning her.

She touched her jaw and winced. There was a large lump placed upon her face. As though someone had hit her. In a way he had. He just lashed out and grabbed her. He proabably didn't intend on going for the face, but that was what was in his reach within that moment. Within that moment of he attempting to kill her.

She wished more than anything to be with her parents then. Her mother's embrace. Just the love of a mother and what they were expected to give their child. But they were not there. Christian was not there. Nobody was there for her.

Cupping her face she cried more and then remembered that she was still in Christian's room. She didn't want him coming back to still find her in there, so she with reluctance made herself stand up, step over the pieces of broken, sturdy wood, and make it to her room.

She didn't feel any safer and thought that maybe sleeping in the laundry room would help. But that would do no good either as this was Christian's home. There wasn't anywhere she could go and he wouldn't find her. Walking out the house was a no too. If only she had a car and could drive! If only she wasn't so freaking useless!

Going over to her purse, she pulled out the screwdriver she had. She wanted no part of Christian anymore. Just his money. She'd work for him, give him what he needed in exchange for her checks, and then get the hell out of there.