Double the Trouble, and Maybe the Fun

•50•

I was lying on my bed, staring up at the roof. My mind was blank but still to active to let me sleep. Ah sleep, the beautiful abyss of darkness that saves you from the real world.

I heard the door swing open, and the footsteps of a man entering the room. "Haven?" He whispered.

"Hey baby." I called quietly.

"Where the fuck were you?" Kiran asked, anger in his voice.

I would've told him, if I knew. But the past few days have just been a blur. Everything happened so quickly.

"You've been gone for weeks and you can't even say where you've been!" He roared.

I was gone for weeks?

He started to pace back and forth, back and forth. Stopping only to start back up again. I pulled my tired body out of my bed to stand near him.

It had been so long.

"Kiran?"

"What?" At least he stopped pacing.

"I missed you."

"You were gone for so long, I didn't think you were coming back." He sounded so fragile, so exposed.

"Of course I was coming back. I would never leave you." I looked him in the eyes, I meant it.

He pulled me in close, wrapping his arms around me and resting his head on the top of mine. I wrapped my arms back around him and places my face on him chest.

He felt harder than when I left. "Have you been working out?"

"I needed to do something to take my mind off you, and training was the only way." He answered into my hair.

I felt the tears start to well up. I was not the type to cry but I was just so exhausted.

Kiran picked me up bridal style and walked me over to the bed. After he placed me gently on the bed, he sat next to me.

Even sitting down he still towered over me, although intimidating to some, I just finally felt safe.

"Haven?"

"Yeah?"

"I need to ask you something."

"Ok, Kiran."

"And I need you to answer me honestly." He looked really serious.

"What is it, Kiran?"

"Will you answer honestly?"


"Of course I will." I answered.

"Where were you?"

"To be honest, I have no idea." And that was the truth. In the end I never asked where about I was.

"How can you be gone for so long but have no idea where you were?" He was angry again.

"Because, Kiran, I was taken from my bed in the middle of the night and awoke in a strange, dark, and cold room. Because I had no choice and no one would tell me where I was. And because, when I finally got away, I didn't have the time to ask where I was, I just knew I had to get away." I explained, frustrated.

"Wha-a-t-t?"

"Kiran, what exactly did they tell you?"


"Who's they?"

"They, the ones who told you I left." I had a feeling I knew who 'they' was.

"Well, your father said that you did this regularly. That you would just disappear for weeks at a time and no one would know where you went or when you'd be back. It was just another one of those things you just did."