Page 2 of Love Sick
“Alanna!” I cry, angered and confused she’s still convinced this will work. “This willnotbe a success. I can guarantee it. All that you’ll be creating is a huge fucking mess for yourself because you’ll have two corpses to deal with.”
“Why do you speak to me with such cruelty?”
I blink once, my mouth agape. “Are you serious? I’m your prisoner. I’m tied to a fucking bed in God knows where and the only person I ever gave a fuck about thinks I’m dead! How do you expect me to behave?”
The mere mention of Luna has my heart skipping a beat. I wonder why Misha has been so quiet. Once upon a time, the asshole couldn’t shut up. Now it feels like he’s taken a vow of silence. I know the reason is because he misses her as much as I do.
Luna was the tie that connected us, and now that she’s gone, so is he. I’ve never felt more alone than I do right now.
To hear Misha, his heart had to be in danger, but something suddenly occurs to me. I thought it was his heart he cared about, but I’m beginning to suspect it was whenmysafety was in jeopardy that he spoke to me because he could see what Luna and I shared.
He loved Luna so much—I can feel how much with every beat of this heart. So it’s no surprise he isn’t speaking. He lost her too.
We’ll find her. I promise.
This is what I think, hoping Misha can hear me. I got used to the annoying asshole.
“You will see reason soon enough,” Alanna says like it’s a premonition. I don’t like it.
She exits the room, leaving me alone with Jonathan—the corpse.
His bandages are off. The macabre scene is too horrible to believe, but here I am, staring into the yellowed, decayed face of Alanna’s true love. He’s the key to all this. If his well-being was in danger, then I’m certain I could get Alanna to do anything.
I need to be creative, however, because I’ll only have one shot at it.
Alanna may be crazy, but she isn’t stupid. I have to be smart. But how, when I’m tied to this bed?
“Stay away from me! I don’t know who you are! Your name is Jonathan?”
Luna’s voice crashes into me, and it’s a flood of emotion. Happiness. Sadness. But at the forefront is love. I miss her so much every part of me aches. I need to get out of here and find her.
I quash down the nostalgia and focus instead on why that particular sentence played over in my mind. Instead of Misha, do I now hear Luna? Doesn’t seem so peculiar considering the shitshow I find myself in.
Luna asked if that was my name, meaning she must have heard Alanna call me that. So…
Alanna must have thought I was Jonathan at one time or another, which means the line between reality and fiction blurs. I need to catch her when it does and hopefully trick her somehow long enough to free myself.
My stomach drops at the thought, but I’m prepared to do anything.
Alanna returns with a large white ceramic bowl. The steam rising from it reveals it’s time for a sponge bath. The pungent stench of lavender fills the room, a smell which I will forever associate with death.
“It’s time for your bath,” Alanna says to me, but her pursed lips give away the fact that she’d rather me smell as bad as Jonathan. “Not that you deserve any kindness.”
It’s on the tip of my tongue to tell her to go fuck herself, but I remember Luna’s words.
“You’re right. Sorry. I was out of line.”
Her surprise is clear, but I don’t overdo it. I don’t want her to grow suspicious.
She clears her throat and places the bowl on the bedside table. “Apology accepted.”
She doesn’t meet my eyes as she reaches behind my neck and unties the string of my hospital gown. My long hair is tied back, but Alanna brushes a stray strand behind my ear. There’s tenderness to her touch.
“I’m going to unfasten one hand so I can get your gown off,” she says. “Please don’t make me regret that decision.”
This is the first step toward gaining her trust, so I nod.
She unfastens the leather strap around my wrist with a small key, prepared for me to fight. But I simply stretch out my fingers. Truth be told, it does feel good to be freed.