Melaine

Chapter 10

She tossed and turned in her sleep. Her hand was fisted fisted in pillowcase and she breathed heavily as door creaked open revealing a black silhouette standing in the film light of the doorway. The boy pulled his knees up, his moistened eyes with unshed tears stared at him, not daring to blink and hugged his lone company in the darkness; his teddy bear closer to his chest while shaking with fear. She whimpered, cold sweat trickled down her spine to her tailbone that made her shiver and her voice died in her throat if someone had muffled her mouth before she could scream, as the shadow of a man grew bigger when he advanced towards the bed that made boy shrink back against the headboard. She arched her back that constricted muscles of her neck painfully, when the man caressed the cheek of the boy. The man brushed the boy's lips with his thumb pad, and she flinched at the contact closing her lips tightly.

"Let's go inside the basement", the man whispered dragging the boy out of his bed who was in his night blue pajamas and was holding his teddy bear behind him.

"Please don't!", she pleaded curling into a ball as the boy balled his hand into his trousers.
"Papa, please don't..." She gasped as the man placed his hands on boy's eyes leading him down to the basement. Once inside the basement, she flinched when the door closed shut behind her with a bang and the man removed his hands from boy's eyes baring him to the pitch darkness of the room.
"What are you going to do with me?", she whispered in man's ear who smirked back and kissed her cheek. The bulb that was hanging from the ceiling flickered back to light and the man knelt before child unbuttoning his shirt.

"What are you doing? She gasped hugging her chest.

 "Does it scare you?', the man asked the boy who shook his head furiously and Melanie had to bit back her tears that threatened to fall from her blue eyes.

"Tell me, what's up there?" The man pointed upward, towards the ceiling and the boy trembled in his arms clutching onto his teddy bear.
"It's...a b-bulb", the boy whimpered staring at his bare feet and Melanie covered her mouth back treading from the man.
 "You can't do this to me!", Melaine shouted at him.
"Why dear, are you still afraid of bulbs ?" The man turned the boy around and kissed middle of his spine. The boy extended his arm reaching out for Melaine in a plea to help but stepped back from him.

 "Or should I put it as what I do with the bulbs."

"Shut up!", Melaine shouted and ran out of the basement ignoring the screams of the boy and locked the door behind her. Her eyes shot open and she flang herself out of the bed running straight towards her cellar room. She pressed her ear to the wooden door to listen his muffled cries of mercy or bloodcurdling screams but she met with no sound. She let out a sigh of relief and chuckled to herself, slapping her head. Of course, there wouldn't be any sound coming from the basement since she herself was outside...
and it was perhaps another nightmare. She fed herself with another lie. Truth was painful for her to swallow and lies kept her sanity going. Melaine's eyes fell on the bulb and she grimaced grabbing the table to stand on it. She balanced herself on it and screwed off the bulb from lantern. She heard her doorbell rang and in confusion she tucked the bulb inside her trousers' side pocket and went to look through the cat eye of the door before opening it to reveal him standing at the doorstep.

"What's it you want?" She questionably arched her eyebrow at him who didn't look quite amused himself.

"Come with me", his fingers enclosed around her wrist and he dragged her outside of her house in her night pajamas,  wearing nothing but red printed trousers and a cream tank top that showed straps of her red camisole.

"Where are you taking me?" She panicked as he took her inside his house. She shivered in the pitch darkness of the house and he covered her eyes from behind.

"What -What are you doing? Melaine gasped as the fear kicked in her body as if she had been transported back there in the darkness of the basement and what had awaited her there.
"Do you trust me?" He whispered in her ear asking something impossible of her when she even couldn't trust herself. Rohan steered her towards the patio, and slid the glass door taking her to the swimming pool. He removed his hands from her eyes, and her brown orbs widened at the sight of hundreds of tiny bulbs hanging in the air, some sparkling inside the glass bottles, that illuminated the entire area in their warm golden and the swimming pool reflected the colour of striking ochre against the blue night. She turned to look to at him who was smiling back with crossed arms. Rohan walked towards her and rested his hand on her lower back while his other hand was placed on  the middle of her back, where 'he' used to kiss the boy.

"Happy Birthday, Melaine...", he whispered in her hair swaying them side by side underneath the golden lights of bulbs. It's first time, she noticed, that Rohan spelled her name correctly and the way it rolled out of his tongue in a smooth primitive manner she wondered if he had moaned it or called out for her. Her own hands were fisted in his maroon shirt , wrapped around his torso, and she herself swayed with him slowly. Rohan looked at her. Golden tresses of her hair were resting on her right shoulder exposing her creamy skin of neck and shoulder to his eyes and he controlled himself from pressing a kiss on her shoulder.

"Do you like it?" He asked bumping his nose against her. Melaine looked up at him and noticed how their faces were dangerously close, his lips were almost brushing against hers at the corner and she resolved to rest her head against his shoulder.
"Yeah", he tightened his arms around her and smirked in his embrace. She looked up at the glittering bulbs scowling at their sights and spared him a glance which was oblivious to him, and slipped her hand in her side pocket holding the dome of bulb.

'Melaine, he's mine this time.'