III.

ALESSANDRA

The time was over now and I was relieved. Thank God, I was leaving. Thankfully, today I was lucky because I was troubled by this person a lot but at last I was leaving. He is only beautiful in appearance, otherwise this person is very arrogant. Neither does he know how to talk well nor does he answer anything properly. Sometimes he does not even answer my question. I was dumbfounded many times. Literally many times. But I was happy that I was free now. 

“How was your day, huh?” Arabella asked me as soon as I came out. 

“Not bad.” I scrunched up my nose. “He’s kinda arrogant.” I added, shrugging my shoulders. Sorry, but I could not keep it to myself. If he is arrogant then I am going to tell everybody that my patient is arrogant and does not even reply to me. Sometimes he even insults me by ignoring my questions. 

“After all he’s got an Apollo face!” She giggled at her own joke. I rolled my eyes. It was not that funny, right? 

“Ah, did I say something wrong?” She stopped laughing when she found I was not throwing my head back with a loud and terrible laugh. 

“No, you’re actually right.” I nodded, agreeing with her statement. “By the way, what does he eat?” I ask her, going closer to the huge desk. Maybe he eats some kind of ‘arrogance’ and ‘being an asshole’ fruit? 

“That tasteless food.” She tells me monotonously. 

“Hm,” I nodded. Actually in many asylums, I found the staff treating the patient just like normal people but here it is not like that. Otherwise he’d have been ruling here because of his beautiful appearance. I do not understand why my subconscious is drooling over his appearance every time? 

“Okay, I’m leaving now. Bye,” I wave my hand and leave when she turns and kisses on my cheek. 

I sigh once I sit inside the car. I drive to my place and reach in a few minutes. Coming out and locking the door, I make my way to the entrance. My day was hectic because my patient was damn annoying. Anyway, forget about him, Allie, he is just a patient. I make myself understand and knock on the door. 

It takes some minutes to open the door as I keep standing outside. I cross my arms over my chest and suddenly, I start feeling someone’s gaze over me. 

I frown when this foreign feeling sits inside my chest. Why would someone stare at me? Especially when I am at my place. I shake my head as I close my eyes. By reading criminal psychology, I am becoming insane that I am starting to feel someone is watching me. 

Seems funny! 

The door finally opens, revealing my charming young lady. 

“Hey, young lady, welcome home,” she says and holds my bag from my hands. I let her hold it and follow her. 

“How was your day?” She asks me midway and I answer her, “Good.” 

We reach the living room and I flop on the couch, taking a deep breath. I missed this comfy couch. By sitting on that wooden chair for almost two hours, my ass is hurting. 

“But you know my patient is kinda arrogant. He insults me by ignoring me.” I tell her in a loud voice. She giggles from the kitchen and soon arrives back with a glass of water in her hands. 

“Thank you,” I mumble, taking the glass and relieving my dry throat. 

“Then I wonder how you tolerated him?” She giggled and I joined her as only one thought beamed inside me—that’s my lady! She knows I am allergic to arrogant people. Especially the one who does not show some respect. And that is why she asked me directly.

“Right! But mom, he’s my patient. I can tolerate anybody for money!” 

She giggled once again. 

••

Once my dinner is done, I enter my room. As soon as I push the door open, an unfamiliar scent ascends my nostrils. Wait, am I dreaming? I frowned bitterly. Just why does someone else’s scent float in my room? 

Is it my imagination once again? 

I think I am just overthinking. My mom visits my room many times. 

I walk ahead and look at myself into the mirror. I rake a hand through my short and silky hair and settled them behind as the strands were poking my cheek and eyebrows. 

I lean forward and take a close look at my pretty face. The skin is clear and I admire it. I stroke my cheeks and an unwilling smile makes a way to my lips. Yes, I am self obsessed but sometimes only. I do not praise myself every time like this. I mean while looking at my own face and smiling on my own!

I then hurriedly grab the bottle of night cream. I apply it on my skin and suddenly, a pair of eyes catch my attention through the mirror. 

With a small gasp, I snap around but find nobody.

What? My forehead hurts as I frown too deeply and tightly. There was literally nobody behind the long curtains on the balcony side. 

I shake my head at my imagination. I am literally becoming insane. Seriously! 

I turn around and continue applying the cream. Once I am done with a tender massage, I put it back and go to my bed. I crawl inside the sheet as I am already wearing my night dress, and close my eyes after covering myself with the sheet. 

••

My eyes opened because of the coolness I was feeling around myself. It was pinching the skin of my legs and I felt as if my chest was being pressed harshly. 

When my eyes opened, I saw my blanket was not covering me anymore. It happened for the first time in my life that I had removed the blanket from my body while sleeping. I do not sleep so carelessly most of the time. I always keep myself covered like a cocoon in bed due to the cold. I am ashamed to say that but I feel a bit more cold. More than anyone else feels.

I huffed and grabbed my blanket to put on my body. Even though I did not want to notice, I slept like an idiot. A careless certified idiot. My shirt was heaved up a bit and my flat tummy was in view. 

I huffed, but hurriedly closed my eyes to sleep peacefully. I swear I am not going to let the blanket fall from my body. 

••

The next morning, I do my daily routine before going downstairs for breakfast. When my mom finds me entering the kitchen, she wishes me a good morning with her morning smile. It is beautiful and fresh like always. 

“Good morning.” I say and sit on the chair. She serves me pancakes and I start pecking on it. She then serves herself and sits with me. 

“How did you sleep last night?” She asked me and unwillingly I remembered what happened to me last night. I am still telling myself that it was just a coincidence. I mean, nothing meant last night. I was just overthinking. 

“Good. What about you?” I ask back with a smile which is not convincing. I do not know why it is getting hard now. Even though I am trying hard to convince myself that it was just my imagination, I am not ready to understand anything. Or my mind? 

“Good. I’m glad you didn’t get in any trouble last night.” 

“What?” I muttered as I could not stop myself from doing it. Just why would she ask me something like that? 

“Allie! You couldn’t hide your problems from me! You looked so tired last night, that’s why I was just concerned.” 

I sighed when I got her. 

“No, mom, I’m completely fine. It was… it was just my patient and he’s mentally disturbed so it’s obvious to react like that.” I rolled my eyes when his face flashed in front of my eyes. That arrogant patient. 

“Oh! Well, I can understand.” 

“Do you?” I cocked my brow and she chuckled when she understood what I meant. 

“Don’t forget I’m older than you, Allie, I’ve seen much more than you.” She patted my head before getting up as she was done with her breakfast. My eyes stuck on my empty plate but my mind was replaying her words. Yes, she has seen much more than me. She knows more than me. 

“What? It’s empty, kiddo! Should I take it?” She giggled when she saw me clicking my spoon against the plate, but her voice interrupted me. 

“Yeah, I was just thinking—,” 

“About?” 

“This world.” I looked at her. My answer just stopped her for a moment and she took a whole minute to stare at me. 

She sighed. “You should.” She nodded and then took my plate. I got up and held my bag. She is washing dishes now. I go to her and hug her from behind. 

“Bye, will miss you.” I say and kiss her cheek. 

“Me too. Did you take your jacket?” She asked me, without turning. 

“Yeah, I didn’t forget this time.” And I see her smiling. She nodded. “Take care.” 

“You too.” I say and rush to leave. Today I am not late so I do not have to rush to the hospital. I take my time and settle myself inside the car before leaving. 

••

“Hey, good morning, Allie.” Ara wishes me and I wish her back. 

“How’s he?” I ask her as soon as I pull myself away from her as I just gave her a morning hug. 

“He has taken a shower a while back.” She tells me. 

“Does he get up this late?” I point out, remembering his pride-holding face. Mr Arrogant is not perfect. He gets up late in the morning. 

“No, he wakes up by 4 in the morning but takes a shower at this time to give some time to exercise.” She smiles. 

Okay, I take my words back. Mr Arrogant can be perfect if he wants. 

“Oh, the man is impressive with such habits.” 

“Quite.” She winks at me and I just roll my eyes. 

“I should go now.” I say and she nods. I take my bag and bring out some papers. I present them to her and she scans them through her eyes. 

“Oh, agreement.” She mumbles while her eyes never leave the papers. “Okay, you can take him out.” She tells me and I nod at her before leaving for his ward. 

When I reach there, I knock twice before pushing the door open. I know he is not going to say anything. 

Please, do not think I am mannerless but this man is quite irritating. He does not speak, yet he expects others to understand him. How? Well, that is not possible for the staff around him but being his psychiatrist, I know I have to enter the room without even asking for his permission. 

He does not bother to say a small ‘come in’ but I understand he cannot stop me from entering. 

“Good morning, Hayyyy—,” my words die peacefully right on my tongue when I see his muscular naked body in front of me. Not fully, but his upper half is in view and he is wearing a pair of bottoms. His one hand is rubbing the towel on his hair—drying it, and his eyes are looking at me—emotionlessly. 

Neither he is scared or embarrassed by seeing me here but I feel my cheeks burning and my eyes widening with his mere movement. 

His body is just perfect!

I gulp hard and immediately push myself back. I take a deep breath once I lean against the wall and look up. 

Oh no! I should have knocked. I should not have used my brain. It already works a lot. And just because of it’s working, I embarrassed myself in front of him once again. 

So what? I even got to see his muscular body! He is like some Greek Gods. I gulp hard, realising he looked desirable like that. Like shirtless. My eyes accidentally even noticed his abs and I must say wowww. 

But that was literally embarrassing! He must have seen my red cheeks and widened eyes. Shit, I must be looking like a cartoon at that time. 

“Idiot!” I curse myself under my breath and shake my head. “So shameless of me!” 

“You can come now.” His deep but low voice interrupts me but unfortunately I flinch like a fish. 

God!

I prepare myself and rub my cheeks. I hope the redness has decreased now because the heat was still felt by me. I take a deep breath and then straighten myself before entering the room. 

I close the door behind and then look everywhere but not at him. I did not even try to confirm if he had worn something or not. 

“Good morning, Psychiatrist.” He muses and I feel so annoyed right now. Yesterday he was like a stone and today he is chirping like a bird. 

“Morning.” I say, still looking down. 

“Not good?” He taunts like yesterday but I find excitement in his voice unlike yesterday. How is it possible? Did he practice for this?

I sigh and shake my head, not bothering to answer him. I take my seat on the chair and ask him to sit in front of me. He does it quietly and then rests his elbows on the table. I unwillingly notice his muscles flex a bit when he does so. He is wearing a half sleeved t-shirt today. He does not wear a uniform.  

“Hades,” I begin telling him but his smirk does not let me continue. It is evil as well as sexy. 

“I’m all ears.” He tells me once he notices my silence just after his name. It is attractive and sounds good. 

Hades… means God of the dead and underworld. A giver of wealth. 

“I have submitted the agreement, according to which you can walk out with me but only for an hour. I hope you will not have any problem with this.” I say, gathering some courage. For fuck’s sake, I am a psychiatrist and I have met such patients many times. Then why should react this stupidly around this man? He is a mere patient who cannot control me. 

“I don’t have any problem.” He says and I am happy this man is behaving like normal people today. 

••

Soon, with no argument, we came out of the ward. He follows me and I feel uncomfortable once again. I do not know why but I feel him drilling holes on my back through his gaze. 

They are mysterious, no doubt, but why would he scare me like that? Or am I overthinking once again? I believe that sometimes our brain plays tricks on us but only when something is eating us inside. I am not depressed. I am not anxious. I am not scared of anyone, yet I am feeling stares on me. 

No! I cannot fool myself again and again like that. God has given me senses from which I can sense what is happening around me. I just cannot ignore them.

But I cannot even accuse Hades for staring at me like that. I have read that they avoid eye contact but as they like manipulating others, they use their psychotic stare to manipulate the person or to scare them. 

Once we reach the lobby, I look up at the TV. The news is being shown on the screen. 

“Wait a moment.” I tell him, without looking at him. I focus on the screen and read the headline. Another murder. I had to focus more. 

They show that another man of the city was brutally murdered. His body was found in some street. And after investigation, the report came out that the killer had stabbed his chest with a knife about twenty times. The man’s thumb was also chopped off. 

This all sends a chill down my spine. To scare me more, they even showed the place from where they found the body. And I realized that that street is two blocks ahead of my house. 

“Oh Lord, it’s horrible.” I hear a voice from my side. 

“I guess it’s the same serial killer who killed a black man two days ago, right?” A musculine voice interrupts and I eventually realize he is Oliver. 

“Can say! Only a serial killer can kill like this.” She says monotonously and then leaves. Maybe it was Sofia who left with Oliver after muttering with him. I look around and find Arabella and Yami with me. I ignore them and look around to find Hades. 

Fortunately he is sitting on a desk and drinking some water. His eyes emotionlessly look at his front, which is a wall and a poster is pasted on it. A poster for the schedule of psychiatrists here. 

I go to him. His mouth is full of water and he senses my presence. His eyes, which were down, now land on my shoes. I do not know for what reason he lifts his eyebrows and then he lets his gaze travel up to me. 

“Done?” He asks and I nod. 

“Ready?” I ask him and now he nods. Closing the lid of the bottle, he gets up and I crane my neck to match his gaze but he avoids looking into my eyes. He looks away and gulps for no reason before heading towards the door. 

There in the room, he was trying to catch my gaze and now he was avoiding. What is that for? He is mysterious.