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Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Sixteen

*TICK TOCK. TICK TOCK*

The strange sound filled Michael's ears causing him to frown. It felt as if his eyes were nailed shut as he struggled to open them. After several moment he realized it was useless and ceased his struggle. Instead, Michael used his other senses to take in his surroundings.

In addition to the strange sound he could hear, the attic smelled different as well. He couldn't smell the dust and the dirt that he'd grown accustomed to smelling. The bed felt softer--a lot softer.

There was only one thing that seemed familiar and that was the body curled up against him and the head resting on his chest. Without opening his eyes he knew it was Allie. But why was his body hurting so badly? His face ached, his head throbbed and every time he took a breath the pain in his ribs was nearly unbearable.

"Michael," Allie's angelic voice filled his ears, "I can tell you're waking up but please don't open your eyes yet. I need to explain something to you..."

As if her words were what his struggling eyes had been waiting on they flew open and Michael felt his heart seize with fear.

Where was he? This wasn't his attic. The walls around him were all pinks and greens and the furniture was polished and shining. Where was he and why wasn't he in his attic?

Michael tried to raise up but the pain in his body and Allie's gentle but firm hands upon his shoulders held him down to the bed. Michael looked up at her frantically, staring into her soft brown eyes, "I n...need to b..be in the attic!" he pleaded. "Ma'am... will be angry."

Allie shook her hand and Michael felt his panic mounting. Didn't she understand? Didn't she know how angry Ma'am would be? How scared he was? This wasn't his attic and that thought alone terrified him. The attic was home and all he'd known for his entire life.

The amount of fear welling up inside his heart began to overwhelm him. Michael began to fight against Allie, desperate to slip out of her hold and go back to his home. The pain in his body was intense but his terror outweighed it. He was blinded to all else other than the undeniable, all-consuming need to get back to the attic.

"Michael!" Allie exclaimed as she fought to hold him down on the bed. "Michael, stop this! Ma'am is not here. She's gone, the whole family is. You're safe, Michael! I won't let those people do anything else to you, I swear it."

Michael was past reasoning. He cried out, yelled, kicked and tried desperately to pull away. Suddenly Allie's lips were on his brow and Michael froze.

His body reacted to her lips on his skin in a way that surprised and confused him. He knew a little about desire and what happened between a man and a woman thanks to books but he had never imagined he'd feel that heat they talked about. He felt it now.....

Allie pulled away and Michael found himself trapped in her eyes, "Michael, you're scaring Amelia, you must calm down. Will you stop fighting and listen to me now?"

Michael nodded slowly. He had already stopped fighting and was simply staring at her with wonder. He had already known that she was special but now... His Allie, his angel, was his one love just like the poets wrote about.

Michael nearly laughed out loud at his own foolish thoughts. A woman like Allie would never fall in love with a man like him. No woman would fall in love with a man like him. He was ugly, deformed; a monster. He was weak and pathetic enough that two boys with sticks had bested him. He remembered now. He remembered the pain, the fear, the humiliation when Theodore had scorned him.