Chapter 19
~Meanwhile, in the earth realm~
Matt/Adrien's POV
Screams dragged my attention away from the monitor screen and my body moved before I could think about it. It was Aly, my wife. There was no one else in the house but us.
I tried not to stumble over anything as my feet hurriedly took me from my home office to the bedroom. I looked around, from the full length closets on my right, and the balcony adjacent to it, to the four poster king sized bed on my left opposite the closets. She wasn't in there, so I rushed to the adjoining bathroom. She was crouched on the floor under the sink and shivering badly.
I pulled her up and out of the bathroom, and I gently sat with her on the softly carpeted bedroom floor, waiting for her shaking to subside.
"Aly? Babe?"
"Matt, it was there again. It was right there." Her words broke as she was still shaking intensely. "There was 2 of me in the mirror, what is happening to me?" Rapid tears followed her words.
I rocked her back and forth to try to calm her down.
"Shhhh my love, I think you've just had a really long day. I'm sure it's nothing."
Aly was softhearted and it didn't take much to scare her or make her feel creeped out.
"Stop crying baby, let's just go to bed."
"Matt I know what I saw, something is wrong, I can feel it."
I look into her teary eyes. Her fear was evident, and the moisture made her brown eyes pop. I loved this woman so much, much more than I could explain. The 2 years of our marriage had been the best time of my life. Not that I remembered what my life was before, but surely, this had to be the best.
When I woke up 5 years ago, Aly's face was the first one I saw. I was barefoot and lying on the side of the road. She came to me and asked if I was ok, and I fell for the brown eyed woman. I'd had amnesia and couldn't remember anyone or anything. I didn't know my family and I definitely didn't know who I was.
She went out of her way to help me. She gave me purpose. She became the reason for my whole existence. My life was literally nothing else but she and my job. I dropped a kiss lightly on her quivering lips.
"You're fine, nothing is wrong. You're just tired." I tried to sound reassuring even if I was creeped out too but surely it was nothing. Right??
She nodded and her black hair bounced around lightly. I stood up with her in my arms. Aly was a little thing and I liked carrying her a lot. She nestled her head on my chest and sighed. This would pass.
I carried her to bed and she clung to me. I wasn't finished with the app I was working on but that could wait.
Poor Aly, she was still shivering at intervals. I rubbed a palm up and down her back while I cuddled my wife closer. I lit a lavender scented candle earlier and the relaxing fragrance filled the air, it helped me relax too. After some time, her breathing slowed and Aly slept. I allowed her slow breathing to lull me to sleep too.
I awoke to a sense of unease crawling up my spine a while later. The room was colder than usual and goosebumps littered my skin. The bedside clock read 2am, unusual for me to wake up at this time. I checked the bed for Aly, and understood the reason for my unease. She could have gone to the bathroom, or to the kitchen to get something to eat or drink, but I knew she went to do neither of those things.
I stood and left the bed. The bedroom was big, and the king sized bed occupied one corner of it. My feeling of unease was growing and when I walked quickly to the other side of the room, what I saw sent my blood pressure soaring.
The door to the balcony was open, and the curtains rustled in the night breeze. The moonlit night was beautiful. What looked even more beautiful and yet very terrifying was Aly standing on the railing with her thin nightwear. The light breeze let the white gown and her hair move around gently. The moonlight bathing her body made the white gown a sharper contrast against her black hair.
"Aly?" I called to her quietly to not startle her.
Our house was a one story building and the bedroom was on the upper floor. If she fell from there, she wouldn't die, but there would be some major damages done. The rail was so thin. It baffled me how she managed to stand and balance well on it. She didn't react at the sound of me calling her name, she just stood there, looking ahead.
I quietly approached her from behind and when I got to her, I lifted her quickly from the railing. She showed no resistance and her eyes looked blank. I called her name again and she still didn't answer.
When her feet touched the floor and she was free of my arms, she turned and headed into the bedroom. I stood and let my blood pressure calm down a bit first, my breaths were haggard.
I followed her into the bedroom a minute later after closing and making sure I locked the balcony door, to meet Aly sleeping so soundly on the bed. She didn't look like she was standing on the balcony railing a second ago.
Aly did sleepwalk sometimes but it was a rare thing and never so severe. The last time she had a sleepwalking incident was ages ago.
She was probably really stressed at the moment, with the faces she thought she was seeing in the mirror. I sighed, maybe she was doing too much at work. I checked and made sure all doors were locked before sliding in beside her this time.
*****
When I woke up again, it was already morning and the room was bright with the rays of sunlight piercing through the windows. Aly wasn't in bed, and with last night's events fresh in my mind, I was still uneasy, but the sweet aroma of coffee wafting around assured me that she wasn't in danger. I visited the bathroom briefly before going downstairs still wearing my pyjamas.
The stairs led directly to the dining space which we hardly used, and the space opened up to the kitchen on one side. The other side led to the living room. I followed the smell of coffee to the kitchen.
The kitchen was brightly coloured compared to the darker hues in the other parts of the house. The kitchen also had several windows and light flooded in from different angles. Aly believed cooking should be a lively thing. She repainted the kitchen different colours from time to time depending on her mood.
Speaking of the love of my life, she stood there flipping pancakes and humming a melody. She was still in her nightgown, and her hair was put up in a bun. I crept up to her and enveloped her in a hug from behind. She was startled and almost dropped her spatula, but her surprise turned into laughter when I nuzzled her neck. Her skin was soft and she smelled nice like she always did. I inhaled deeply, I wanted to get drunk on that smell that was just hers, just Aly's.
"Matt!" She exclaimed, while still laughing, and relaxed in my arms. "I could have burned you or something."
"But you didn't." I nuzzled her neck some more. She seemed brighter this morning, the darkness of the night before long forgotten. "How's the love of my life doing this morning?" I let her turn in my arms to face me.
"She's you know," she flipped an imaginary lock of hair. "Pretty as ever."
My laughter rang loud and rich. I dropped a kiss on her lips.
"I love you baby."
Her laughter transitioned into a soft smile. "And I love you too." She remembered the pancakes in that moment. "But you'll be eating burnt pancakes for breakfast if you don't let go of me this instance." She tried to sound stern. I laughed and dropped another kiss on her lips before letting her go. I went to the coffee maker and poured myself a cup.
She had stacks of pancakes piled up on a plate on the kitchen island already. I sat on one of the stools and waited for her to finish cooking while I took sips of my coffee. Watching her do mundane tasks added pleasure to my morning. I had deadlines to meet and I would dive back into setting up apps after I've had my breakfast.
The kitchen windows afforded a view of the front yard. Our house sat on a high-rise portion of land, and it was close to the outskirts of the city. We had a bit of land in front and we did a lot of gardening. It was early spring and our garden already boasted an array of greens.
I saw a beat-up truck pull up to the driveway. I could spot her red hair from this far. Giselle. Aly's adopted sister, raised by the same foster parents. Their foster parents were long dead, but the strong bond between the two of them remained. Aly looked up as well.
"Giselle is here really early, hmmm." She said before turning her attention back to her cooking.
"You have plans?"
"It's the weekend love, and you're going to be busy." She brought the last sets of pancakes to the island. "Me and Giselle are going to have a girl's day out." She winked. I liked seeing her this playful.
"Well now I'm jealous." I heard the front door open and Giselle's voice reached us before her body did. Always so loud.
"Who's home!"
"In the kitchen Gil!" Aly screamed back as she arranged the stacks of pancakes, eggs and orange juice on the kitchen island, she added some honey and syrup as well.
Giselle reached the kitchen. Her red hair was untamed per usual and she was dressed in jean shorts and a big blue dress shirt. She had her usual black boots to match. She was the exact opposite of my Aly.
"Brother-in-law." She said and did a weird wave thing with her hand.
"Giselle, I haven't seen your red mane in a while." I said as I loaded some pancakes onto my plate.
She ignored me, a weird woman that one, and spoke to Aly instead.
"Alyssa Carter, how long will I have to wait for you?" Her tone was playful.
"You arrived in time Gil, grab a stool and eat before we go." Aly was saying to her as she sat too. Giselle sat on a stool beside me, while Aly was opposite the both of us.
"We both know you'll take half the day to get ready." Giselle whined from her spot. She earned a scathing look for that.
Ignoring them, I tried to eat a forkful of pancake and Aly slapped my hand lightly. She had a scowl on her face. I sighed and dropped my fork, she linked hands with me and Giselle and said a short prayer. Then the scowl was gone. We weren't religious people, but Alyssa was insistent on doing this every time before we ate. Giselle rolled her eyes and started eating, I so wanted to do the same.
For a while, it was just the clink and clank of silverware on dishes that filled the spacious kitchen.
When I finished eating, Aly and Gil were still not done so I decided to leave them. I dropped my dish and cup in the sink behind Aly.
"Thank you for breakfast babe." I kissed the top of her head from behind. In her sitting position, I stood way taller than her. "I'll head up and start working, that deadline is inching closer." She nodded lightly. I tapped her waist before walking away.
"See you later Gil."
I didn't wait to hear her reply before I left the kitchen, and headed to the bedroom. I ran through the process of having my bath and dressing up for the day. I was eager to go back to work.