Chapter 121.
When I opened my eyes, I realized it was all just another nightmare. I’d had so many nightmares recently that this became the norm for me. I couldn’t even find it in myself to be afraid after waking up anymore. I was covered in a cold sweat, but my heart wasn’t beating as madly as it had on previous occasions.
It didn’t take long before I registered the soft sensation pressed against my chest or the legs intertwined with mine. When I lowered my eyes a bit, I found a familiar head of black hair positioned in a straight line with my chin.
I recalled the events from before I went to bed and immediately understood the situation. I was definitely boned. In my muddle-headed state from a lack of sleep, I foolishly went with the flow last night. I ended up doing things I definitely wouldn’t do if I were in a sober state. Was everything calculated on her end? Who am I kidding? Of course it was, she was my second ex who was surely adept in such matters. The way she could read me like an open book would make it easy for her to know when her success rate would be highest.
“Morning, Dio. What time is it?”
She asked me in a sleepyheaded manner.
“Siri, what time is it?”
“8:45 AM.”
“Ugh. Hearing you call out another woman’s name in the morning isn’t very pleasant.”
“Since Siri isn’t alive you can’t really call her a woman, right? ”
“11:00 AM is our flight, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“Dio~, what do I do? I don’t want to get up~”
I turned my head to the side and glanced at the mirror and I instantly knew I definitely wanted to get up.
“Sorry, I really don’t feel the same way. I want to get up and leave as soon as possible.”
As for what I saw that made me feel that way, it was the two dainty hands wrapped around my neck in a position to choke me to death.
Yep, definitely not what I want to see first thing in the morning after waking up.
“You’re terrible. Having your way with me then heartlessly leaving in the morning.”
“Stop saying misleading things. Nothing happened! Nothing at all!”
Woman, are thou daft! Do you not realize the great implications of what such misleading statements could potentially result in? I scanned the room and confirmed that there weren’t any magical black flags that suddenly sprouted out of the ground. It’s hard enough to avoid death flags, please don’t attract them carelessly without reason. I’m already on the borderline between screwed and not screwed after last night. The nightmare I had was already more than enough evidence to suggest that.
“How would you know whether nothing happened? You were asleep the entire time, right?”
“What are you suggesting?”
“Look at all the sweat you worked up. Are you really certain nothing happened last night while you were asleep?”
“I’m certain nothing of that sort happened.”
“Tch. You’re no fun. You could have at least groped or felt me up a bit you wimp.”
“No thank you, I’d prefer to be alive when I wake up in the morning.”
When Val sat up, the blanket slumped downwards revealing the state of her clothes beneath. She fell asleep in the same clothes I’d loaned her. Her top was disorderly while her hair, wildly scattered about, in its natural let-down state. A large region of her midriff was visible and revealed her fair white skin beneath it.
When she noticed where I was looking she smirked and tilted her head to the side and asked, “you’re certain you don’t want to take advantage of the situation while you still have the chance?”
I got off the bed, walked over to the closet, and dug up some of her old clothes that were less provocative. I wasn’t the same old virgin from five years before who’d jump at her any time she used her wily fox-like tactics. I tossed her a selection of clothes without explanation and immediately headed into the bathroom.
“The old you who was honest with your desires and jumped at the opportunity was much cuter, but this version of you isn’t too bad either I guess. It makes it more fun for me in a way.”
“Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say, Val.”
I closed the door behind me then stepped into the shower after I stripped my clothes. When I finally turned on the faucet it ran for a minute before it turned warm. The warm water flowed down my body and washed away the sweat along with the drowsiness from having just woken up. All the muscles in my body completely relaxed, the comfortable sensation brought on by the warmth of the water that flowed over my skin was the best.
I lathered myself in soap, then used shampoo and conditioner on my hair. Everything was nice and peaceful until I lowered my arms and felt something beneath them.
I jumped forward, violently spun around, and discovered the culprit, but I slipped and fell backward in the process. The soap made the tub extra slippery, as a result, I landed heavily on the ground inside the tub with my back against the wall.
“Why’d you get so jumpy? It’s just me.”
Naturally, the person I discovered was none other than Val. Her long hair draped over her shoulder and covered the important areas, but there was still more than enough revealed to provoke any normal man’s desires. Despite the erotic nature of the situation, my reasoning was still damned well intact from the scare just now.
“What do you mean it’s just you! You scared the crap out of me. No, actually, what the hell are you doing in here anyway!”
“Well, we don’t have much time to waste. We’ve got to leave soon and I thought it would be quicker if we just showered together to save some time.”
“No no no! That’s not how this works, Val!”
“What’s there to be embarrassed about? You’ve already seen it all before, haven’t you?”
“It’s not about being embarrassed, it’s a complete invasion of privacy unless you ask if I’m okay with it first!”
“We’re also in a pretend relationship, so we also need to get used to this sort of skinship again, don’t we?”
“Don’t try that shit with me, that’s not an excuse at all. I don’t believe for one second there’s any problem in that area with how aggressive you are.”
Im at this point of the story where the intrigue of mystery is becoming so repetetive and so benign that its starting to become irritating and annoying rather than intriguing and mysterious. The novel came first as a mystery thriller of sorts that i didnt really understand as im not well endowed to such things. And as the plot progress it became a psychological mystery thriller, and then it became a mixture of metaphysical and psychological.
But as the story progress it seems to me that the main "mystery" or "anomaly" of the story is never really revealed nor do we get some concrete hints as to what is going on with him.
I dont whether those flashbacks are flashbacks at all and im becoming more confuse as to where he stands in the "timeline" of the story as it seems to me that he at important junctions his consciousness jumps back and forth from somewhat sanity, insanity, dreams, metaphysical realm and, perhaps just outright hallucination.
What irritates me is that i dont know and i dont have a concrete hint on whether or not its in one of the five states of his mind that im currently reading. its starting to annoy me that i am left ib the dark as to what it is that is happening and the frequency of his mind being altered occuring.
I think the last part is what irritates me the most simply because there is clues but not concrete clues where u could draw conclusion on his state on whether or not that his hallucinating, things he experience are real, its metaphysical, or just complete insanity on his part.
It lefts me utterly confused at this moment rather than be interested and intrigue in regards to his plight as i simply have no concrete conclusion or judgment that i could cling on where i could say that "its probably this".
So far, irritation and confusion is what this novel invokes on me since everything that occurs is simply too repetitive and too mysterious for a lack of a better word for me to understand.
Maybe this is a part of the genre to which this novel based upon that im not well aware off and im simply either missing the point entirely or misunderstanding it as a whole since this is my first time reading novels "complex" and mysterious such as this.
Redacted for not spoiling sake.
@KiraMinoru dude, k.
So what is his diagnosis then doc? Is he out of his mind or is he just losing it?
Look man, all i want to know is whether or not he's high on something or he is being grabbed by the balls tortured for existance. Thats all i want to know.
It would be nice if you give an actual answer and i would be thankful for that.
Look, i didn't read the story to get inconclusive answers since, not trying to be rude or anything but, its simply a waste of time.
It would have been nice if the story where lest mysterious and more conclusive to answer where you, the author, would sprinkle some hints and clues, as to what is actually going on.
If the reason as to why you didn't do that is because of the reasoning above, well thats fine. All i hope is to have an answer from the author himself since you did, wrote the story. And like i said before, i would be thankful for that.
Well, gotta delete what was in this comment now that you read it. Wouldn't want others to get super spoilered by this.
@KiraMinoru that explains alot thanks!
@KiraMinoru Can you tell me too? I'm actually having the same issues as Cyng Aetheling, the novel's pace is too ''slow'' and the frequency of his insanity is getting too high.
Removed spoiler again.