It was pitch-black deep inside the cave and even a single ray of light could not be seen.
Rachel felt herself drenched with sweat and she was feeling so unwell that she could not breathe. The smell of must and blood lingered in the air and fear gnawed at her heart like snakes. She wanted to scream for help but she could not let out a voice. She ran in the dark with all her strength.
“Help me…” A phantom-like woman voice was heard and she jolted into a halt. She stood in a daze and puffed hard. “Help…help me…” The woman’s voice was sad and miserable, ethereal and lost. “Who are you? Where are you?” Rachel whirled herself around and tried to make out the direction which the voice came. “I’m really scared of the dark, could you save me?”
Rachel was anxious because she could not see anything in the dark. She wanted to know where the voice came from and who was she. “Right, I’ll save you. Where are you? Tell me your whereabouts.” It was at that instant, an eerie voice appeared beside her and crept into her ear like a gust of wind. “I’m right behind you.”
Rachel turned out of fear and let out a shrill. She immediately sprang up from her bed like a corpse being revived from its death. She opened her eyes and what she saw was just plain darkness. The moon was hanging high up in the sky outside the balcony. The bright moonlight shone into the room and she could finally see the layout of the room. She quickly pulled the string of the bedside lamp and the room went bright at once.
She puffed and was covered in sweats. Her heart was plunging hard. It was only a dream. She had had a nightmare. In her dream, she heard the woman’s voice but she could not see anything in the dark, and she awoke due to fright in the end.
She felt her body burning and the air in the room was very stuffy. She shoved the blanket to the side and got down her bed. She took her phone which was on the cabinet to see the time and it was already the next day at 2a. m. She had slept the whole day. After getting down her bed, she walked towards the closet to take some clean clothes. She then headed towards the bathroom after closing the closet door. She felt extremely exhausted from her messed up sleep schedule.
It was only 3a. m. after she took a one hour hot bath and blew her hair dry. Feeling slightly hungry, Rachel opened the room door and left her room, wanting to find something to eat downstairs. She could see the staircase clearly when the bright moonlight shone across the window and she slowly walked downstairs. She tiptoed because she was afraid to wake anyone up at 3a. m.
When she had reached the first floor, she suddenly heard the sound of something dropping onto the ground. She was startled and her body froze. The sound was light but since Rachel was afraid of her own shadow, she was sensitive to any sound and commotion at her surroundings. She stopped, hesitated for a while and finally decided to have a look.
Heading towards the source of the sound, she walked towards it cautiously. The sound seemed to come from the storage room at the first floor. Her body clung tightly towards the wall beside the door when she approached the room. She took a deep breath, looked to her left and right and took the vase from the cupboard as a weapon.
The sound seemed to have disappeared. Rachel waited for a long while yet she could not hear any commotion. She leaned forward and approached the door with her ear. She grasped the vase, waiting to launch an attack at anytime.
Rachel’s eyebrows wrinkled because she had vaguely heard the unusual grunting of a woman. It was a woman’s voice yet she could not know from which it was from because she was only moaning.
In a trance, she slowly relaxed herself. She was not a busybody yet it was already 3a. m. when the sound came from the storage room.
To choose the storage room when there were so many other rooms, something fishy must be going on and it was obviously not something ethical. The people inside must not be a married couple.
Her heart missed a beat. The only married couples in the house were her parents, her brother and sister-in-law, Ewan and her. Ewan and Sienna flashed across her mind and all of a sudden, her heart ached.
She turned at a loss and headed towards the kitchen after putting down the vase. She did not turn on the light but opened the door of the fridge directly. Her feelings jumbled and her mind was blank. She had forgotten her purpose. Staring at the great variety of food in the fridge, she had forgotten what she wanted to do.
She stared at the fridge blankly for a while until she let out a shudder due to the cold air from the fridge. She took a bottle of water randomly and closed the door. She walked towards the outside while twisting the cap open. She raised her chin and gulped down the iced water yet the flame of anger in her heart could not be put off.
She encountered a tall shadow upon leaving the kitchen. Both of them nearly bumped towards each other in the dark. Their footsteps halted at once and they stared at each other as if being cast by a stone spell. Although there was no light, they were able to vaguely see each other from the moonlight.
Rachel lifted her head and glanced at the man before her. The strong and lofty figure stood still before her was Ewan.
She used to think he was virtuous and holy in the past, yet she felt disgusted at the instant.
He had ordered her to abide to the rules a wife should obey and must not betray their marriage. He went outraged like a madman when she and Mason hugged and even accused her having sex with Mason.
But what now? Was this a punishment towards her that he had cheated on her with other woman in the storage room at 3a. m.?
Their eyes met yet they could not see each other’s expression, only the vague features. They stood silently for a good two minutes. Ewan made his move and approached her first and Rachel immediately backed up while grasping the bottle in her hand. She spoke with a sarcastic tone of voice blandly. “The storage room is not big and it’s easy to cause danger. Your room is actually good. I’ll not disturb you.”
Ewan wrinkled his eyebrows in confusion and fell into silence. Rachel passed by him after she finished and the moment she did that, Ewan grabbed her arm. She stopped and did not turn. Ewan rumbled with his attractive voice. “What do you mean?”
“Let go,” Rachel said with the aloofness she never had before. Ewan loosened his grip with contempt. Anger boiled inside him and he left before her. He stepped inside the kitchen and his attitude was equally indifferent. Rachel felt despondent once more. It was her who asked him to let her go, yet when he had done so and gave up on her, she felt dejected and was hurt.
His indifference made her distraught and she had almost gone insane when tortured by the mixed feeling of hate, rage and love. Telling lies that did not comply with her heart and being in a conflict troubled her. She then strode and ran upstairs to the second floor.
Ewan went into the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge. He gulped it down at once after twisting the cap open. He had almost gone mad from the thirst. The thirst for water and desire had been torturing him that he woke up due to anxiety during midnight. The woman that he always thought of was close within reach yet he felt that they were so far apart as if at both ends of the Pacific Ocean. The burning sensation at his lower abdomen was suppressed after drinking the iced water, yet the rage inside him could not be appeased.
He left the kitchen and headed towards the stairs. The moment he stepped onto the first staircase, he suddenly remembered Rachel’s words that she had said something about the storage room. What does that mean? He stopped for a while and immediately retrieved his foot from the staircase. He turned and headed straight towards the storage room.