The Nightmares

Aslan’s POV

She was running and he was running after her but he couldn’t reach her. He tried to grab her but she was untouchable. Just within his reach and yet so far. He was about to cry. “Elena” he was screaming her name, but she was running away, smiling.

Then he was in the basement, where he had once buried someone. The grave was freshly dug and there lied Elena. He screamed and the machines beeped.

He felt extreme pain on his left and groaned. Someone came running in and Aslan felt a needle. His world was black again.

He woke again. This time, he was not running. He stood there and looked at her. They were standing in an abyss. Clouds were floating. She was dressed in a white chiffon dress, her hair loose and framing her face. She was looking like a goddess. She smiled at him the way she always did and his heart broke, burning with the question, “why”.

His hands itched to touch her but he felt them tied to nothing behind his back. He couldn’t move even when his legs were free. She laughed as he struggled. Someone engulfed her from behind. The man was in the dark. His arms snaked around her waist and Aslan’s mind went crazy. She is his, he screamed but no words came out. Elena took the gun from the man while he kissed Aslan’s bride on the neck, sucking on it, and Elena moaned while she sneered at Aslan. Neither of them blinked as she pulled the trigger that pierced Aslan’s heart.

The pain was real and he woke up with a start. He was sweating. The beep of the machine told him that he was alive and in the hospital. Why the fuck is he alive?

It took him several minutes to calm down. He looked at himself. He was naked except for the sheet up to his torso. His left arm was in a bandage and that’s where it hurt. A nurse came hurriedly in the room and was startled to see him awake. Aslan’s mind was fuzzy. He felt as if someone was pounding in his head and he held it, only to find it wrapped in a bandage.

The nurse pressed a button and the doctor came running. He was a man in his early forties with a salt and pepper stubble and specs. “Ah, thank God, you woke up.” The commotion woke up whoever was asleep on the couch. Aslan turned and saw Matthew getting up from the couch. He looked tired.

“Hey man, you are up.” He came quickly to Aslan. The doctor checked his vitals and declared him fine. Aslan wanted to run away from the hospital, but where would he go? There was no one to go home to.

“What day it is?” He asked Matthew. “It’s 28th April.”

So, he was asleep for 5 days.

“How are you feeling?” Matthew sat down on the chair beside the bed.

“Wounded. Hurt.” Aslan replied with a sneer.

“I…” Matthew regretted asking, Aslan could see but, in that moment, he didn’t care. He was nothing but a jilted groom.

“It’s alright. I am fine now. You can go home. You look like shit.” Aslan assured his friend.

“Ian will kill me. He has been crying like a widow by your bed all this time.”

A dry chuckle left Aslan. “Wish I had died.” He mumbled. And he lied back on his bed, his shoulder hurt.

Matthew didn’t say a word. What anyone could say to a man who had been shot by the love of his life.

Aslan convinced Matthew to leave him alone. When he found his solitude, the grief came and gripped him by the neck.

Aslan cried like a baby that night. Her memories were too much to handle. He considered himself at fault for not telling her that he loved her. May be then, she wouldn’t have left him. But did she not figure it out on her own that he loved her? How could she? He was always a brute around her, threatening her, hurting her. It made him cry even more. His heart was refusing to pump, and he wanted it to stop altogether. Maybe then he will find his relief.

It was dawn when his eyes were droopy, but her words rang in his ears. What did she mean by being betrayed? He didn’t betray her. Was she upset because of the incident at Lucci’s, but they had sorted it out. Then what happened? Was it Julia? But she was in Amsterdam and he had not contacted her after the day she had called. Elena’s phone records also said that she had not gone anywhere to bump into anyone. Then what happened? He was cursing everyone and everything and finally the sleep took over him as his tired body had exhausted itself too much.