Chapter 61: The Fifth
"Please, brother..." Elliot said, coming close, hand buried in his pocket as he studied the bloodied man calmly. "This is far too unsightly for Ana."
U-Unsightly?
This was nothing like that... this was full-on barbaric in all psychopathic levels. Oh God. I could barely look at the man without feeling the urge to vomit.
My chest tightened as he groaned, almost like he couldn’t breathe.
"Is he ready to talk?" Elliot asked.
"He’ll now... we’ve been doing a lot of bonding."
Zade’s eyes shifted toward me, a smirk crept on his lips, and goosebumps rippled across my skin like I had been splashed with cold water.
"If you’d excuse me, darling. I’ve got work to do. Except you wanna stick around and finish that conversation."
Hell no!
I backed away slowly, before I twirled in speed and dashed out as if lions chased me.
I don’t know how long I walked, but I sure hope it was far enough, because what the heck? That shit took a really dark turn. God knows I don’t wanna know what that was about.
In my days of living with my father, he never exposed me to any of his work. Which is why that took me by surprise.
I halted to catch my breath, hands on my chest still hammering like the gods were having a field trip with it.
You horny little shit!
I mentally scolded myself.
How dare you even think, or imagine kissing that nasty piece of—!
CREEEEK!
I froze instantly. It was that sound again. I clearly didn’t imagine hearing that.
This time it wasn’t further away. I heard it right behind me. However, instead of just turning to check, I stood where I was, mulling my choices.
I could either just walk away like nothing was there or face whatever that was. It was probably just a maid doing her rounds, and I’m just still freaked out by what happened in that gym.
But why doesn’t it feel that way?
I turned, and instantly flinched backward with a gasp.
A smile slowly spread across his lips. "Hello, Anastasia."
P-Please tell me I’m not hallucinating a man in a sleek black wheelchair right now.
Been doing a lot of hallucinating, and this could be one right now.
"Are you real?" I asked in a mere whisper and almost slapped myself when I voiced that out loud.
His smile grew wider, and it was eerily very similar to Zade’s; in fact, the resemblance was freaking me out. Except he had dark hair and green eyes.
"Yes, I am... Good to see you again."
Again?
"H-Have we met before?"
He narrowed his eyes slightly, studying me for a while. Briefly, he descended them to the ring on my finger and then back to my face.
"I’m Caleb. Caleb Salvero."
My eyes went wide. Salvero? Wait... of course... There are five brothers; I have only met four of them until now.
I have heard so many rumors about those four; I hadn’t realized there was a fifth brother to begin with.
Should I know him, though? Maybe the familiarity came because of the library. Maybe he was the one around there, with Dante that day.
"You were the one at the library..." I said just to be sure, and hopefully put a face to that shadow, so the idea of Dante having a field trip with some ghost will be cleared out of my head.
"Yes..."
His words brought me relief.
"Though I don’t get visitors. Your um... presence came to me as a surprise."
"I was trespassing?" I asked.
"No... no. Believe me, I could use the sudden company once in a while."
"You know you could’ve just shown yourself instead of trying to give me a heart attack."
"I’m sorry about that... I’m just not good with people."
"I thought you were a fucking ghost."
He chuckled. "That wasn’t the kind of impression I was going for." His voice went lower as he murmured. "I thought you were a ghost."
"I’m sorry?"
Caleb redirected his wheelchair. "I hope we’ll be seeing more of each other."
I watched him wheel away.
My breath came off soft as I’m still caught under. That was... unexpected.
~☆~
My thoughts kept returning to that encounter with Caleb. I know I shouldn’t think too much about it, but something about it bothers me.
I pondered why he didn’t attend the wedding or the wedding dinner. Even when I had breakfast with the brothers, he wasn’t there. It was almost like he was meant to be hidden.
Or he’s just not a people person, as he said.
I winced when I felt a headache. I’ve been having those lately to the point I didn’t attend the academy for a few days.
I wasn’t missing out much. I kept in contact with Mrs. Valmont, and did a lot of online classes with her.
I had more official classes to attend to get my flow right, after all, it wasn’t gonna be all solo, which meant I had to suck up and attend very soon.
Ruling the vigorous training, I got a hint that a performance was coming soon. My procrastination was really becoming annoying, dammit.
I drank the glass of water, gulping down everything and releasing a satisfied sigh. That’s better, water always helped.
I must be so tired from all the work.
I rubbed my temples just in time to hear a knock. That must be Cynthia, she told me she was gonna come see me after her work.
She had grown so fond of Coco and Boba and tried to see them every chance she got.
I walked toward the door and opened it, pausing.
"Oh, great, it’s you."
Way to ruin my already ruined day. It’s Ms. Plastic.
"To what do I owe this unwelcome honor?"
"Follow me," Lisa said, already moving as if she had some umbilical cord attached to me and I’m meant to follow her no matter what.
Fucking delusional.
She halted, turning to me, suddenly looking furious. "I said... follow me."
Oh, this bitch.
She walked right back to me in haste, so much that her fake boobs bounced beneath that not-so-professional blouse of hers.
Has she ever thought of starring in a porn show? She’s gonna make it BIG.
