Chapter17
Keith
As I struggled
raken, the murmurs in the distance grew louder, an exchange whispers that seemed to seep from the shadows themselves.
I heard faint voices in the distance, but my eyes were stock shut. It felt like an invisible force was holding them closed. I was trapped in a dark vold, nunning from something, but I didn’t know what
I was breathless, terrified, and disoriented. Someone or something was right behind me, but I couldn’t see. I was consumed by a hidden fear, its source unknown. Yet, somehow, my mind sensed its presence. The fear crept through my body, growing stronger. I couldn’t identify it, but I felt its grip tightening
Then, as if in response to my desperate pleas, a distant scream pierced the air, echoing through the veld with a haunting cry: “KARRY!”
I jolted awake, my heart racing with cold unmeasured terror, as I frantically scanned my sumundings with a sense of utter disorientation. The familiar contours of my loved one’s face were nowhere to be found, replaced instead by the unsettling silhouette of a brunette stranger, her petite frame entwined in the sheets beside me.
I stumbled out of bed with a clumsy haste, landing with a jarring thud, the woman stirred up awake, her eyes fluttering open with a confusion that mirrored my own. Her gaze darted about the room with a desperate intensity, as if seeking answers to the same questions that were racing through my own mind.
My even widened in stumped recognition as the fog of confusion lifted, revealing the unmistakable features of Rose. And then, like a bolt of lightning on a stormy night, the memories of the previous evening came flooding back images and sensations that crashed over me with breathtaking force Moments that were all shady now flashed before my eyes, a recollection of frustration, anger, and conversations choked me
Denial was sighting tight in my defense, a fragile fortress I clung to with desperate fervor. “I would never do that,” I protested, my voice a weak whisper,
pathetic attempt to convince myself, to convince the world, of my innocence.
I would never do that to my doll,” I repeated, using the affectionate nickname I’d given her, as if the mere utterance could conjure up a reality where l was still a faithful, loving partner. But the words rang hollow, a cruel mockery of my own deceit, as the evidence of my infidelity screamed out against
chons of shame and guilt that I could no longer silence.
The passionate marks on her body, like a sinful map of our illicit encounter, etched a damning testimony to the reality of my worst fears.
The tender binases, the gentle bites, the soft whispers of fingerprints on her skin, all served as a brutual reminder of the night’s crime, a physical confirmation that the nightmare I’d hoped to confine to my subconscious had, in fact, played out in gruesome detail. The sight of those marks, like a cold wind on a winter’s night, extinguished the flickering flame of denial, leaving only the bleak, harsh truth in its wake.
The recollection of her touch, her lips, her whispered pleas, all came rushing back, a sensory onslaught that left me gasping for air, my mind struggling to keep pace with the sheer agonizing remembrance
I stumbled backward, gasping for air as if I’d been punched in the gut, my eyes fixed on Rose with a desperation. I crawled toward my clothes, my hands shaking like dry withering leaves in storms, my fingers trembling with a weakness that bordered on paralysis.
Iyanked on my clothes with a frantic urgency, the fabric tangling around my logs as I struggled to cover myself, to hide from the reality of what had
happened
Rose’s voice called out to me, a gentle whisper that seemed to mock me, but I couldn’t respond, couldn’t speak, couldn’t even breathe. The sensations, coursing through me were almost murderous, coated with shame,
No, No, No!
“No, no, nothing happened between us, right? NOTHING HAPPENED BETWEEN US, ROSE, RIGHT?!” I screamed, my voice hoarse and desperate, as I stumbled backward, my shaky legs threatening to buckle beneath me.
1 grasped the wall for support, my fingers digging into the paint like claws, as if trying to anchor myself to reality. My eyes pleaded with Rose, searching for reassurance, for a glimmer of hope that the nightmare was just that, a nightmare.
But her face, once a picture of confusion, now contorted in anguish, told a different story. Her eyes brimming with tears, seemed to boce into my soul, as
tuning of betrayal I never wanted to commit.
“God, of God, Karissa.. what have I done?” The weight of my soul–crushing remorse descended upon me like a massive weight, its oppressive might. compressing my chest, squeezing the air from my lungs.
My body athand, wracked with a pain that seemed to emanate from the very marrow of my bones, yet it was my heart that bled the most. The guillswirbed
shound me, that threatened to bury me alive, its power dragging my sanity and strength down into the dark grave.
The torment was crushing force, a living entity that wrapped itself around my soul, squeezing me cruelly, refusing to relent. I felt the fabric of my being unnwveling, thread by threat, as the realization of my actions settled upon me, suffocating me with its crushing weight.
“Karissa,” whispered of my pleas escaped my mouth, my voice trembling with anguish, as I scrambled to find my phone.
“Oh my god, Karissa,” I repeated, i
y words barely audible, as it speaking them louder would make the night more real. I sank to my knees, my body
shaking with sobs, as I desperately searched for my phone, my hands fluttering like wounded birds.
every
Every second felt like an eternity, every breath a reminder of my betrayal. The rope of my infidelity tightened around my neck, choking me with passing moment, its presence suffocating me like a dark cloud that refused to lift. I felt like I was drowning in a sea of regret, unable to escape the waves
of shame that crashed over me.
