I turn again in the bed to face Wallace as he pulls me closer to him.
"What is the problem princess?" he asks me as he notices the distraught in my face.
"Ace, you would never keep a secret from me right?' I ask him. He hesitates for a while.
"I won't keep anything from you that you need to know. I promise." he says, "Why? Do you doubt me?"
"I'm sorry I even thought of doubting you. I know you love me more than anything else in this world. And I should trust you fully." I say.
He smiles and pulls me to his rock hard chest and I make myself comfortable as he caresses my hair.
"You know Iris, it's somehow sad that I have fallen so hard for you, the only thing that will separate us will be death. I love you too much. Excessively. I know I shouldn't, but I love you too much to the point where even if I make a grievous mistake just for the sake of our love, then I won't regret a thing. I will do everything to keep you mine. Whatever the cost. I love you Iris. You hear me? And everything I do, everything I say, is to protect our love." he says, in a scary tone. He was so lost in me I don't know if he can be found. He wasn't in his right senses I could tell. But why would he say that our love pushed him to make a grievous mistake. As we slept, I kissed his forehead.
"Wallace, I also love you. And your past is the past. We cannot do anything about it. But what is important is our future together. We have one. We have a future and a really good one..." he chuckles sarcastically.
"I'm not so sure about that Iris." he says then silence dominates the room. What did his statement mean?
**********************************************
"Iris Phaneah, do you take Wallace Accardi to be your husband, in sickness and in health till death do you part?" Father Agustus asks me.
"I do." I reply.
"Well, does anybody oppose to this?" Father Agustus asks.
Just then, I hear gunshots then everything goes silent. I start hyperventilating then someone puffed an inhaler into my mouth. I looked up, but I couldn't make out his face. He had no face. But what was weird was that his arms were very secure.
"Raul...Raul...Raul..." that was the name he kept on saying again and again, getting louder and louder until the voice started becoming distorted and creepy. I ran out screaming at the top of my lungs. As I was running, I looked behind, I see that the figure had stopped speaking and was just standing there. Just when I looked ahead, I bumped my head on a rock hard chest. When I tried to look up at his face, he pulled me towards his chest and immediately his arms were around me, a strange love enveloped me. I even purred in his arms. As he ran his fingers through my hair, I felt safe. Until, I saw Wallace calling out to me. He started running towards me, but then the faster he ran, the more the distance between us was getting bigger and I drifted off with this complete stranger.
**********************************************
I jump up from bed and Wallace follows immediately, but not from a nightmare like me.
"What is the matter Iris? Did you have a nightmare about your parents again?" he asks.
"I had a nightmare, but I don't know who it was about. It really creeps me out because it feels like more of a memory than a nightmare. I don't know what to make of it, and it has just slipped my mind." I lie.
His face goes pale and I could tell Immediately he knew what I was referring to. But then why was he keeping it a secret from me. What was he hiding so bad?
"Do you remember anything from the dream?" he asks trying so hard to mask up the fear in his tone.
"I remember nothing. I just have a nagging feeling about it." I say.
"Well, when you remember anything, please tell me. I want to help. Maybe your dreams are a sign." he says.
That was it. Wallace only goes to church because he loves me. But he doesn't believe in any religious belief. And now here he is confessing that this may be a sign? It has been a year and a few months since Wallace and I got married. He has never hidden anything from me. I think that lady is getting into my head and this Raul was just one of my husband's arch nemesis. I took a deep sigh, and he turns me to face him and caresses my cheek as I lie on it.
"I'm sorry I've ever doubted you Ace. I also want you to know that I love you with all of my heart. And I forever will." I tell him as I look deep into his eyes, and all I see is an undying love for me, staring at me though his ocean eyes. As I laid my head on his chest, he wraps his arms around me like someone is going to steal me from him.
"Promise me that you will never leave me Iris." he says, with a venerability that I have never heard from him.
"I promise. But why do you ask." I ask, obviously intrigued.
"I am addicted to you Iris. I don't think I can feel anything without you. If you ever leave me, I will lose my sanity." he says. Strangely, those words sound oddly familiar. But I just think of it as deja vu and I push it aside.
"That will never happen. I will never leave you Ace. I promise." I say and kiss his cheek.
He continues to hold on to me like I was the only thing keeping him alive. What had I done for him to love me that much? All I remember was him claiming me at the church. From that , we went straight on to the wedding, and he seemed really cold and distant. Even scary. I can't remember how he transitioned to this warm, loving husband. But I loved it . I loved him.
**********************************************
"Doctor, doctor!" the nurses yell and I quickly rush to the patient brought in. He was flickering his eyes, trying to open them. I put on my face mask because of the toxic gas his body emitted and glasses to see well because this looked like a serious case. The man was in a black suit and soon after, his father followed behind. He resembled the man but looked like an older version of him. As I took him to the ICU, his father tried to enter, but I have one of the nurses stop him.
As he was arguing with her, I quickly gave him an anaesthetic and removed the bullets. Six to be exact. How is this man not dead? One in particular was really close to his aorta and would have killed him. I quickly work on his wounds and his blood, which we luckily had in the blood bank and in a matter of minutes, he was already out of danger. I quickly bound his wounds to prevent further bleeding. I finally get out of the room after an hour or so to give the news to his dad. He was releasing an aura of anger, revenge death and power. He scared the hell out of me, so I pulled up my glasses.
"Well sir, we are luck to have brought him in on time, otherwise an infection would have gotten into one of his vital tissues. He is now out of danger, but he still needs rest." I tell him.
He sighs heavily then puts on an expressionless face.
"I will be honest, if he would have died, you all would have died with him." he says with an unapologetic tone, and a certain sincerity in it that scared me.
"Well, it's good that he isn't right?" I ask, trying to compose myself. For a while, he looks at me as if searching for something. He started reading me from head to toe like I was a storybook.
"Excuse me." I say and walk away to avoid having to confront him again. Besides my shift was over, so I headed to the locker room to change.
After I was done, I headed to wait for Ace. As I was going down, I saw Ace talking to the patient's Father. The one who had threatened me. I stood there for a while trying to figure out who he was but then my mind told me he was one of his business partners. Just as I was about to walk away, the man and I locked eyes for a split second, I smiled at him, then I left and headed to Ace's car. A while later, Ace gets into the car as if he was being chased.
"Iris, you are not going back there. Not for a while." he says to me.
"But why? " I ask.
"Just trust me on this." he says and I nod, then he kisses my forehead.
Now this was strange. Really strange. Who was that guy? I have to find out.