Chapter XIII - Nightmare

Chelsea woke up in her empty room. She rubbed her eyes with her hands and put away her blanket to her right side. Looking at her surroundings, she furrowed her eyebrows, confused about something.

First, she was not in her own recent room. Second, the room was her old room with her husband. She remembered every detail of their room despite being away from it for years. That room was a part of their house that started her family. How could she forget a memorable moment of her life? She can't and wouldn't forget it.

She touched the pillow beside her and to her surprise it was warm. 'Did Michael sleep on this pillow?' she asked in her mind. She grabbed the pillow and hugged it, wanting comfort from it. Being close to the pillow, she accidentally sniffed it. Her eyes widened and her hands tightly hold on to it.

It smelled like Esmond's shampoo, mint scent. Smelling a part of him made her emotional again. She began to think if this is a kind of joke to her. It haunted her from remembering her husband's mint scent. Why it would not leave her? She was done with reality's game, she can't do it anymore, her playing the cruelty of her life.

She came back to her sense and put back the pillow to its respectful place. This doesn't make sense, her situation today didn't make sense to her. 'Where's Michael?' she questioned herself. A while later, she faced palmed internally, she thought if the situation is weird then there's a large chance that Michael was not here. She sighed and decided to get up from the bed.

She went to grab the knob of her door to get out of the room but then a sudden noise was heard outside. Chelsea flinched from the loud volume sound and made her body stiffen. After she recovered from it, she proceeded to do her plan. With bravery in her heart, she stepped towards where the noise was coming from.

She carefully watched her every step and guard herself against anyone who might jump onto her. Chelsea sneaked through the living room where she had thought the sound came from. She peaked at the door to have an idea of what's happening around. She noticed a shadow from the kitchen, it was moving furiously and banging all the things he was seeing.

The person grabbed something, Chelsea can't see it. It threw the thing into the living room making Chelsea jumped from surprise. She grabbed the nearest weapon she found which is a fragile vase. She walked slowly to the kitchen and carefully to avoid the object that might throw at her accidentally. Chelsea went to the safe spot that can make her see the things that are happening inside the kitchen and identify the person behind the tantrum.

She noticed that it was a man, it was strangely familiar to her. With the tall figure and style of hair, she can't help but uttered his name.

"Esmond?" she whispered quietly, her tone filled with hope. The man heard her and made him turn around to face her.

"Chelsea?" he asked her.

Chelsea came out from her hiding place and face the man with full emotion blaring at her face.

"Esmond..." she repeated with disbelief in her voice. She went running to him and hugged him with all her might, she didn't want him to leave her again. She had enough of days, years of his missing.

She noticed that he wasn't hugging her back and decided to break their hug. She looked at her husband with a confused gaze, she didn't know why he was not hugging her after she was just reunited with him once again.

Esmond just displayed no emotion on his face and looking back at Chelsea. Then, his face changed to disgust still looking at her. His expression made Chelsea hurt and confuse. Esmond grabbed her arms which were placed on her side and push her away from him.

"What are you doing here?" he asked with a stern tone laced to his words. Chelsea gaped at him, not understanding what's happening, she thought that he should be happy that she finally found him.

"Ummm I- I..." Chelsea stuttered not knowing what to say. "I came to find where the noise coming from and discovered that you were the one making it," she said directly to him. "What's the problem?" she asked concerned even if he was wearing a disgusted face for her.

"What's the problem?!" he half-shouted to her and huffed feeling like he was just insulted by her question and how stupid of her to ask him about such a thing.

"Yes, what's your problem?" Chelsea said looking at Esmond now getting mad at his changed behavior. She hasn't had a clue as to why he was acting this way. He replied by sneering at her.

"Why are you asking a ridiculous question?" he said, pointing out that her question was foolish. He glared back at her.

"I want to know why you're angry," Chelsea said after she calmed herself by breathing deeply. She didn't want to make things worse by shouting back at him.

"Why I'm angry?!" he shouted. "You left me!" he continued getting riled up with his emotion.

"Left you?" she asked confused about his latest statement.

"Don't act like you didn't know," he said still sneering at her.

"No, I didn't know," she said with an even tone and started to glare at him. "Please enlighten me, for me to recall it," she continued with fake kindness into her voice.

"You left me to be tortured, leaving me to die with those merciless people," he said darkly and started to step forward to Chelsea. In defense, she moved backward.

The person in front of her was not the same person she knew. This person was not her husband, it was another man taking his body. She refused to think that the person near her, dominating her was Esmond. He wouldn't do this to her and wouldn't use that tone to her.

"I- I..." she was left speechless again. Chelsea was now drowned with guilt and was disgusted in herself. How could she left him and die, she didn't even try harder to find him when he went missing and ignored his body language and emotions in his eyes when they last parted away.

"Can't say anything?" he said mocking her. Chelsea bent her head down looking defeated. Esmond darkly chuckled then laugh at her. "You are always good at this!" he exclaimed, making fun of her, wanting for her to be ashamed of herself. "You didn't listen to my actions and left me!" he shouted in front of him, he was now domineering Chelsea's small body and heavily breathing upon her, seemingly seething from anger. "You were the reason why I died..." he venomously whispered in her right ear, closing their gap of space between them and smirked villainously to her but unseen by her.

Chelsea stopped backing as he said those words, resulting for him to over tower her, displaying the power aura Esmond was creating. She seemed to have no voice over his statement, it left her breathless and stuck in her place. It came down crushing down on her, started blaming herself for his death, and thinking of her being a criminal.

She thought that she should know better. The clues he had given her, the emotions, the desperation in his eyes speak clearly and yet she just ignored it. She let him go and be gone forever in her life. 'It's all my fault,' she thought.

She was widely staring down at the floor, not minding the tight hold on both of her wrists by the man who was wickedly smiling down at her, getting pleasure from hurting and breaking her into pieces. She was numb and busy torturing herself inside her own mind, Chelsea was trapped in the cage of her own thoughts full of guilt and pain.

The dark void was hungrily waiting to indulge her, eating all of her positive memories, emotions, and thought, replaced by darkness, emptiness, and pain. Suddenly a muffled sound called to her.

"Chelsea..." it whispered to her. At first, she ignored it, thinking that it was just a voice lost in her own mind. "Chelsea," it repeated, now clear to her. Coming to her senses, she was confused all of the sudden and then she felt pain in her wrists. With a powerful and tight hold on her wrists, she glanced to her side, noticing that it came from the person in front of her.

She tried to fight his iron hands but to her dismay, it didn't do anything, not the slightest. Chelsea whimpered when Esmond gripped more tightly. She tried to move her whole body, but it was stuck due to the man's large structure of the body. "Unhand me!" she shouted, getting panicked by the intense pain she felt.

"Why would I?" he taunted her with a smirk. Chelsea was still looking down, not being able to look at him because of his chin holding down her head. "I will not let you go after you left me," he continued and growled after saying his statement.

"Chelsea!" the voice earlier exclaimed to her. "Wake up!" it shouted.

"I am!" Chelsea shouted back. Esmond was taken back at her outburst and made him loosen his hold on her wrists. She immediately acted fast and broke away from him, pushing him with all her force resulting for him to fall down onto the floor.

"You bitch!" Esmond shouted and a fire was displayed in his eyes. He was much furious at the situation that had taken place.

Chelsea instantly darted away from him and decided to go to their bed. She closed the door and blocked it with heavy objects. Hearing the fast pace of the man nearing her location, she felt panic rushed all over her body. Esmond banged the door wanting to break the door for him to enter the room.

"Open the door, wife," he said sternly while still pushing the door.

"I'm not your wife!" Chelsea exclaimed. "You were not the person who I had been with!" she continued, now having awakened in the situation. She thought that it must be the person's message earlier saying to her when saying 'wake up'. "You're not my Esmond," she said having her own point.

The banging stopped which made Chelsea be more nervous about it, she didn't know what the man playing with her. She didn't like the silence that was happening. She decided to went to the bed with trembling feet but before she took a step, a booming sound was heard through her door.

She instantly looked at the source of the noise with panic in her eyes. Chelsea was horrified by was she witnessed. The man earlier was not in normal Esmond form but this was a traumatic vision for Chelsea.

It was a man with burned skin to his chest up to his face, a bloodied form, and scratches, bruises, and wounds were all over his body. Chelsea remembered Mr. Larson's description of her husband. How he was tortured until he died.

The man came slowly towards her and Chelsea automatically moved backward. She was shock and afraid of the outcomes he might do to her. She thought that this was just an imagination and not real.

"This is very real, darling~" the man hoarsely said with an alluring tone. Then, he suddenly ran quickly towards her. Chelsea saw this but she was too late to move, the only thing she did was scream loudly.

Michael was getting bored watching the television in front of him. The yawn escaped from his mouth and just proving it that he was very much bored. He decided to turn off the TV and went to his friend's room to check if Chelsea's awake. He walked calmly towards her room and when he's in front of her door, he opened it for him to enter.

He went back to his previous location earlier which was sitting on his chair. After he sat, he began looking at the woman laying on her bed. Glancing at her face, from her autumn long straight hair down to her light chin. 'her little nose where all air came in and out for her lungs,' he said describing her features, as he said the word 'lungs', he glanced at her chest.

He squinted his eyes to see if she was breathing properly, he noticed that it was not moving, not even a faint movement of up and down. Panic surged through his body, and he instantly came beside her and move his head sideways above her air passage to check if she's actually breathing.

He can't hear or feel her breathing, he acted quickly and the first thing that came to his mind was to wake her up. "Chelsea..." he said, shaking her. "Chelsea," he repeated not having a reaction from her. He shook her with much more force and earning for her to struggle.

'Thank God, she moved,' he thought, internally sighing for relief. He stopped shaking her and continuing to watch her, noticing that she was still struggling with something. Michael shook her again, this time, determined to wake her up.

"Chelsea!" he shouted. "Wake up!" Michael continued, exclaiming at her. Chelsea inhaled deeply and stopped her struggling, still not waking up. He sighed again, knowing that she was now breathing properly.

He guarded her, waiting if there will be another complication in her sleep. After a while, her body started to tremble then she suddenly shouted loudly making Michael cover his ears. The scream was full of fear and desperation.

Michael saw her eyes opened widely, still afraid of her nightmare. "Chelsea?" he asked carefully, not wanting for her to be startled by him. She didn't react to his call and continued to stare at the ceiling, obviously, shocked by what she experienced. Michael slowly moved his hand to touch Chelsea's right shoulder. When his hand came to contact with her skin, she immediately flinched and moved away from him.

He was concerned to his friend. Thinking that her nightmare was horrible to make her in this condition. Michael gave her time to recover from it and moved back to his chair. Chelsea moved to curl herself, seemingly wanting to hide from any harm that might come to her. She cried quietly but Michael knew she was crying by the sniff he heard.

"Chelsea?" Michael tried to ask her again if she was ready to talk to him. He didn't receive any response so he waited for her to calm herself. He sighed and watched his friend quietly crying on her bed. 'She didn't deserve this,' he thought and think of the things that connected to her nightmares. He apparently thought of one reason that has to do with Chelsea's situation and he guessed that it was all about Esmond, her husband.