Chapter 6 - Nightmare

Elijah's POV

After staring at what he was reading for a long time, he blinked multiple times. He glanced at the clock, which was already eleven at night, but he didn't hear anyone trying to open the door. He put down the papers he was holding, as well as his eyeglasses, and stepped out of the room. It was obvious to him that his household staff were already asleep in the house, and the downstairs appeared clean when he peeked.

He went to the adjacent room, slowly opening it and peeking inside, but Charlotte wasn't there, nor was she in the third room.

Where could she have gone again?

He descended the stairs and checked the entire house, but Charlotte was nowhere to be found. He was about to go to the servants' quarters to see if she was there, but he refrained, not wanting to disturb them. Now he stood in the middle of the living room, contemplating, but when his gaze drifted to the row of car keys, one was missing.

He approached and looked at the keys. Would Charlotte be capable of driving? It didn't seem likely, based on what he saw whenever she came home, just commuting, so he randomly grabbed a key and hurriedly went outside, but he paused in his steps because the car that was missing the key was still parked inside the yard.

He slowly approached the car with a frown on his face. He inspected the front of the car; the engine was running. He quickly stepped closer and tried to peer inside to see Charlotte, but was unable to do so because of the tinted windows and the lack of visibility inside. He tried to open the door, but it was locked.

What could this woman be thinking of locking the door while she was inside his yard?

He attempted to awaken Charlotte by knocking on the window, but she remained asleep like a log. She didn't even flinch when he knocked on the window. He believed that Charlotte's presence would make his quiet world chaotic.

Charlotte couldn't stay inside the car because even with the engine running and the air conditioning on, there was still a risk of the car stalling, especially if it ran out of gas. She might have even set the air conditioning to a high level, which would consume more gas.

He left the car and went back inside the house to retrieve the duplicate keys for his car, which he remembered now because he hadn't lost the original keys of his car yet since he was meticulous. He had duplicates made just in case they got lost, and he kept them in a drawer for easy access whenever he needed them in a hurry.

He opened the drawer containing all the duplicate keys for his cars, obtained the key for the car where Charlotte was, and returned outside.

He quickly unlocked the car door and opened it. Charlotte was fast asleep, not even waking up from the noise he made earlier when knocking on the window. He had intended to wake her up, but his hand clenched into a fist, irritated, as he opened the driver's side door to turn off the engine. He would just carry Charlotte back into the house.

As he entered the car again, he struggled to lift Charlotte, so he simply grabbed her hands to make her sit up and lifted her from there.

Instead of sleeping at this hour, he went looking for the missing woman.

He laid her down on the bed to make her comfortable, but Charlotte insisted on not changing her clothes. He just shook his head as he tucked her in. He would change the sheets and pillowcases tomorrow.

He yawned, then lay down on the other side of the bed. He was slowly closing his eyes when he suddenly felt something pressing on his stomach. Irritated, he removed it and looked at Charlotte with annoyance. He wanted to wake her up, but he felt sorry for her, so he just placed a pillow between them when she couldn't move closer.

He yawned yet again, feeling very sleepy, so he closed his eyes and finally drifted off to sleep.

Elijah was awakened by a scream at four in the morning.

He stood up but clung to the bed due to the room's sudden spinning. After everything was back to normal, he gazed at Charlotte, who was still asleep.

Did Charlotte let out a scream? Was there someone else?

He headed toward Charlotte's side, but she was still asleep. He was about to leave, but she screamed again. He quickly looked at her face, but she was still sleeping with her eyes closed. Charlotte appeared to be having a frightening dream.

He went back to bed and tried to sleep again; he had two more hours to rest. His head would hurt if he didn't sleep again. But it seemed like he wouldn't be able to because Charlotte was now thrashing around on the bed.

"Char, wake up!" He shook her body, but she continued to thrash around as if possessed by some entity. "Wake up... hey... Charlotte!"

Her soul seemed to separate from her body when he shook it, but she did not wake up. She may be having a nightmare.

"Hey!!"

He noticed tears streaming down her cheeks, so he continued what he was doing, but he had no choice, he gave Charlotte a strong slap, which immediately woke her up, and looked at him as if frightened, moving away from him.

"I'm sorry. You wouldn't wake up." She breathed quickly, looking like she had a terrifying dream. "Are you okay now?"

"Why... am I here?" She looked around the room.

"I took you from inside the car."

He was about to approach Charlotte, but she raised a hand. "Don't come near me!"

He sighed and arose; he was unable to sleep anymore, so he wouldn't go back to bed.

"Just continue sleeping, sorry for what I did, I just woke you up, that's why I slapped you."

She took the blanket and wrapped it around herself, seeming to know what she had dreamed about.

"I'll go out now; you go back to sleep."

He turned away and left the room, not walking right away after closing the door. He also heard Charlotte crying inside the room. If she remembered what he did, what would be the consequence for them?

To make sure, he would just buy things for Charlotte's room. It seemed like they couldn't sleep side by side or together in one room because he didn't know what was going on in Charlotte's mind. She might even get sick every time they were together in one place that wasn't spacious. He left the front door and went downstairs for coffee, but his head was already hurting because of lack of sleep.