304 Hellish to heavenly

In Alex's room.

Abi finally opened her eyes. She looked around and saw a man sitting there by the window with his long legs crossed, looking like an olden day emperor. No, a handsome deity?

"You're awake," his deep voice echoed in her ears and she watched him walk gracefully towards her. He bent down and his perfect face hovered over her.

The events in the dungeon slowly returned to her as her brain started to make sense of what had happened - that someone else was there with her, that she felt like something was strangling her, that she had tried to call for help but couldn't and then she lost consciousness.

Abi shut her eyes again to stop herself from reaching out and calling his name. But then, she felt his cool fingers touch her cheek.

"Are you alright?" she heard him ask. "Shall I call the doctors to come?"

Abi could only open her eyes and she shook her head. She felt fine. She didn't feel anything wrong with her body. She just felt a little sluggish but his touch and voice were enough to jolt her fully awake.

She pushed herself to sit up and she stared at him, wondering. She knew that he was the one who jumped down and rescued her from that abyss. Did he remember anything?

He bent forward and gently pinched her chin. "Don't worry, little lamb, that will not happen again. I will kill anyone who dares to harm you," he told her, eyes dangerous and a serious warning in his voice. It seemed he still didn't remember anything, because if he did, he would be calling her by her name right then.

She looked away and stared at the open window. This was really, really hard. She just wanted him to hug her, to console her and soothe her battered heart, the way he used to. She just wanted to lay her head on his chest, hear his soothing heartbeat, and feel the warmth of his body settle into hers.

"I don't know why you are saying that when you're the reason why I was punished in the first place. You're the reason why I experienced all of that," she uttered, sullenly, not looking directly at him to stop herself from wrapping her arms around his neck, and to try to dredge up a different emotion to help relieve the pain.

"You're the one who kicked me away," he replied and Abi glared at him, her eyes sharper than ever. This was good. Anger was good and this ice cold creature was doing a fabulous job of driving her to the edge and now, all she really, really wanted to do was to beat him up.

"Yes, that's right… it's my fault. Are you happy now? Did it make you happy to watch me suffer? Did you have fun?" Her anger rose to the surface, but in the next second, her eyes started to well with tears. "Were you thinking it was too bad I didn't die –"

"SHUT UP!"

Abi was suddenly pinned by him on the bed. His eyes were blazing infernos as he looked down at her.

He was losing it again. This woman was messing him up. And the thought that she hated him was something that was unacceptable for him to accept. Why did she matter so much? So what if she hated him? Everyone hated him anyway so what was the difference if this woman hated him as well from the bottom of her heart?

F*ck. His anger was starting to eat at him. He needed to leave or else he might end up hurting her with his own hands. It seemed that he couldn't accept her hate for him. It seemed that this was something his demons would never accept. And he would rather…

His jaws clenched and he pulled away, ready to disappear from the room again and leave her when out of the blue, he felt something warm touch his hand.

He froze. His eyes fell on her fragile hand holding his wrist. And just like that, everything, even his uncontainable rage, stood still.

His eyes traveled upwards and he saw her crying. Tears were falling down her cheeks silently and she was looking at him with eyes filled with sorrow.

"I don't…" she uttered. "I don't hate you…" I love you… I love you so much I could die… Abi's lips trembled. She couldn't take it anymore. Alex thinking that she hated him was more than she could bear. Seeing the look in his eyes, his rage in thinking that she hated him made Abi's heart squeeze in pain. Maybe she was being too hard on him. Maybe the both of them were being too hard on each other.

Alex didn't remember anything about her but he was somehow here by her side, not leaving her and getting angry at the thought that she hated him. He also came and saved her and he had even said that he wanted her. He was doing all this despite the fact that his current self didn't know her at all.

Abi realized this was getting too much for her. She was tired and she didn't want any more pain. She could see he was struggling too and he ended up like this because of her. It was senseless to keep hurting each other at this point. And it seemed like this wasn't working. Whatever she and Zeke were doing to make him remember wasn't working at all.

Maybe, they were doing it wrong. Maybe she was pushing too hard, way too hard. She was so desperate to bring him back that she didn't care if the process would end up breaking her or him, or both of them.

A full twenty-four hours hadn't even passed yet and already too much had happened. Too much heartache in less than a day. This was not what she wanted. This felt wrong!

"Y-you don't hate me?" he asked. His rage seemed to have disappeared with just her words and touch.

She shook her head and his brows pulled together. "Then why are you pushing me away? Why do you glare at me and why are you crying?"

"I just don't like that you're too forceful! You're not gentle at all. You keep threatening me and you keep hurting me." she told him as she wiped her tears.

Alex swallowed. His eyes widened for a moment as if he just heard something unbelievably good. She didn't hate him. That was right, she said she didn't hate him.

As if the sun had finally smiled to him, a smile curved on Alex's lips, surprising Abi. He was smiling? He was raging like he would go out and slaughter people just a while ago.

Suddenly, he pulled her hand to his lips and softly placed a kiss on the back of her hand. His gaze scorched through his long lashes as he looked at her.

"Rest assured, little lamb. I will not force you again," he uttered and he reached out, wiping her tears away gently. "I'll be gentle… yeah, I will try. No, I will!" He smiled again. "I won't hurt you either."

Abi almost melted, completely. How could he switch from hellish to heavenly so fast? Here she was still sniffling and he was already smiling?

"What about your threats?"

"Hmm… depends."

Abi creased her brows and he let out a throaty chuckle.

"Okay, that too," he uttered and his smile faded. "But don't rile me up too much. I'm afraid I might lose control over myself and do something you don't like," he whispered as his hand slowly traveled down her nape.

"I-I'm not sure about that. Everything I do seems to rile you up for no reason."

"Yeah, you're right. I wonder why that is. Even now you're riling me up even without doing anything. Right now, I want to break my promise of not forcing you because I really want to kiss you so deeply that your brain will never forget my name."

". . ."

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