There are so many things I want to say about this chapter, but I'll keep my mouth shut for now and let you enjoy it :).
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The house was dead-silent, not a single sound disturbing the quietness, other than the one of my own thoughts. I had been standing in the same spot for three hours, trying not to talk myself out of my decision again. The darkness that had taken over the house wasn't disturbing, just a little unnerving. I felt as if the gentle shadows moving on the walls were begging me to stay. At least until they returned. At least one more day. At least one more month.
Maybe forever.
But I didn't want to listen to the shadows - not tonight. The burning in my throat was so piercingly painful, so awfully intense, and I was aware of the fact that it was my own doing. By refusing to hunt for two weeks in a row, I had brought myself to the point of ravenous lunacy. Anything would have worked at this point to soothe me, but I didn't want just anything. I wanted something in particular: human blood.
The forbidden fruit. The unlockable Pandora's box. The one thing I craved to taste the most.
It would only take me minutes to reach the nearest city if I left now. Another hour and I would be out of the state if I was fast enough and didn't make any pit stops to feed myself before the right time came. By the time they returned, I would have easily reached the Western coast and become untraceable by jumping into the ocean and swimming as far as possible. Even if they tried to find me, I would be too far gone for them to reach me.
By my side, my baggage awaited - my books, suits, shirts and journals, all stacked together in a leather suitcase. I had left nothing significant behind. After all, leaving any kind of reminders of my existence in this house would have only caused them additional, unnecessary pain. Erasing all evidence that I had ever existed was the least I could do.
Like I had done countless times before, I moved from my safe place, grabbing my suitcase in one hand and murmuring the same mantra to myself: 'They'll get over it... they'll get over it... they'll get over it...'. It always made the first step out of the house easier. I closed my eyes as I stepped through the living room, in a cowardly bid to avoid seeing all the little things that might have convinced me to linger. But even with my vision obstructed by my own will, I knew that Esme's rings were still on the book shelf, where she left them when she asked me to teach her how to play piano that afternoon. I knew that the 'thank you' letters Carlisle received from former patients were arranged in a stack on the wooden table. I knew that the one black and white photo we had together was hanging on the wall, protected by a thick ebony frame.
I only allowed myself to open my eyes again once I was outside. The first night of July was warm and humid, the air saturated with the bitter scent of lush greenery around the house. I looked the other way when I passed by Esme's rose bushes, ignoring the way they reminded me of my biological mother's garden. I closed my eyes once more when I passed by Carlisle's green Elcar Roadster, only to open them again once I moved past it. These were all things I had done before, each time I thought I was strong enough to leave for good.
I started running - mindlessly, robotically, as if my feet weren't really my own. I drifted further and further apart from the familiar smells of the house: the soft chamomile of Esme's scent, the warm sandalwood of Carlisle's, the indistinct paper smell coming from the library. Soon enough, the only things I could smell when I was inhaling deeply were a faint trace of petrichor from far, far away, and the fast-pulsing blood of the forest creatures - something I would never taste again.
This was usually the time when Carlisle's eyes came to mind, wordlessly convincing me to return. The light amber of his irises held all the love in the world, and no sign of resentment. These were not eyes that I wanted to disappoint. But despite my better instincts, I didn't slow down, forcing myself to push through the weakness that my emotions were bringing. I had had too much. I wasn't anyone's property. I owed nothing to no one. If I was damned, I might as well start living properly - there was no point in acting like a saint when the final destination was Hell anyway.
Carlisle and Esme had each other, they were not alone.
Their lives didn't begin and didn't end with me.
They were better off without the burden of a son who was a lost cause.
And time could heal all wounds.
This was also the time when my eyes started stinging, hurt by the strain of my unshedable tears. But I could not force myself through one more day in that house. Hearing Carlisle's thoughts regarding me - how I was 'so good' and 'so in control' of myself and 'so much better than the rest', when all I had been thinking about in the last six months was how to give the monster inside me what it wanted - was torturous. Seeing Esme's plans of sending me to high school one day was even worse. She had dreams of the three of us spending the holidays together somewhere sunny and isolated, dreams of building a house for me and the mate I didn't have.
They would never come true, because at my core, I wasn't perfect by any means. I found no reason to pretend I was for the sake of keeping up a charade I no longer believed in.
But time could heal all wounds - this was the thought that kept me going as I ran and sobbed and ran and sobbed and ran and sobbed. Never to return again. I didn't need whatever it was that Carlisle and Esme thought I needed. After all, there was no use for a home when I couldn't stay anywhere longer than a few years at a time, nor for any kind of love when the idea held no interest to me - besides, there was no one on Earth that could intrigue me in the slightest, since everyone's thoughts were already served to me on a silver platter. Love sounded like a tiresome burden and nothing more. An existence without strings - other than the string of bloodlust - was much more inviting.
And luckily, I knew what I had to do to even the odds.
My steps didn't lead me to the ocean, as I had planned, but close to the Eastern coast. The strawberry farms of Columbus, Ohio, were nothing new to me when I passed by them. Esme liked to visit them every year, some distant memory from her childhood calling to her every summer. Something about the saccharine smell of the fruits and the joyous people harvesting them calmed her. But her happiness paled in comparison to Carlisle's chagrin whenever we ventured around these places.
Because unlike her, he could remember the details she couldn't - all things he had heard from the people who had brought her almost lifeless body to the morgue after her suicide attempt. And one thing in particular tormented him: the knowledge that her abuser, Charles, a man with hair of gold, azure eyes and a wicked heart, was still thriving somewhere at the outskirts of Columbus.
It wasn't much, but avenging Esme felt like a proper tribute and quite an appropriate baptism into the new life I wanted for myself. Because I would never kill an innocent - but by God, I would rip and drain a criminal without the slightest hint of remorse. Being a judge and an executioner of evil was a fair trade-off. The world didn't need abusers and rapists and murderers and pedophiles - getting rid of them was only right. Sating my hunger with their blood was also right.
I discovered Charles' whereabouts after hours and hours of spying from the shadows. Inebriated and full of violent thoughts, I found him in a brothel, in a room situated at ground level. He was caught in the throes of passion with a girl who couldn't have been much older than me - so much so that he had not even noticed the window breaking. The girl was crying and begging him to stop, because his roughness had caused her to bleed. As a response, he spat in her face and went rougher.
Then things happened too fast or either of them to process properly what was happening.
I grabbed Charles by the nape of his neck, getting him off the girl instantly and throwing him on the floor, momentarily knocking him out. I took off my coat and handed it to her, looking away while she got herself dressed. I helped her out the window and simply told her to run as fast as she could, as far as she could - and despite her better instincts being wary of the unlikely chain of events, she listened, leaving the brothel behind.
By the time Charles woke up, we were no longer inside the brothel. I had brought him in the middle of the woods, barely resisting the temptation to drain him while he was unconscious. His eyes fluttered slightly, taking in his surroundings, opening wide once he realized he was not alone.
I took my time with him, making sure to let him know that every limb of his I was breaking would have remained intact had he not hurt Esme. When I finally got to his blood, the rage boiling inside me was so acute, so fervid, that I barely got to enjoy the act itself. I tore through his veins mindlessly, swallowing the alcohol-tinged blood, trying to give in to the pleasure, but only seeing Carlisle's downhearted mien in the deep recesses of my mind.
Minutes later, I was sitting on the ground, with a maimed, drained corpse by my side. I didn't need a mirror to know that my eyes were now red. I had expected to feel fulfilled, satisfied - and to an extent, my thirst had been quenched. But I was by no means joyous. Whatever deep elation I thought I was supposed to feel wasn't there. I felt oddly numb, as if all my emotions had been muted, never to come back.
I cleaned up my mess mechanically, through a trance, burying the remains of Charles deep into the forest's womb and passingly thinking about the bath I had to take, in order to wash off the blood that had splattered into my hair. It wasn't until I was up and running again that I realized that there would be no bath waiting for me. In fact, I had no destination. No more strings to hold me back from being myself, just as I had hoped.
Yet I had never felt further away from myself as I had that night.
It had been seventy-eight years since that fateful night. The world changed - sometimes for the worse, sometimes for the better. When I finally caught a glimpse of my red eyes after my first kill, I knew that I would never be able to return to what once used to be my home. As the decades passed me by, my sense of shame over my own actions started hiding in the background more and more, until I almost forgot that it even existed.
It was Bella that had brought it to the forefront, without even meaning to.
And today was the day that my shame had taken a life of its own, almost occupying another seat in Alice's red Pontiac. It had taken over my every rational thought, rendering me unable to function properly. First, there was the knowledge that I was minutes away from seeing the parents I had abandoned. Minutes away from seeing their chagrin and facing the fact that I was, in fact, their greatest disappointment.
Then there was the silent chaos wreaking havoc between me and Bella. Things hadn't changed much, if at all, since we left Vancouver behind us. She kept her hands to herself, barely saying any words to me. She was a little more communicative with Alice, who was bending over backwards to get us to talk to each other. Alice was rummaging through her visions with unequivocal speed, trying to find a scenario - any scenario - that could lessen the tension in the car.
Alas, her forecast was grim.
This only served to stir my anxiety further. Not only was I about to see Carlisle and Esme again for the first time in eight decades, with no reasonable explanation for the cruel way I left, but I was also about to show them firsthand just how deep my crooked ways ran. Because introducing Bella to them - and trying to explain how she came to be - would only be additional proof of how rotten I was to the core.
Besides, I had no plan for what was supposed to happen once I saw them again. Alice kept pestering me with visions of me and Bella staying, but they felt impossibly surreal. I had no plan of overstaying my welcome - unless Bella decided otherwise. All I really wanted right now was the comfort of my childhood home in Chicago, of the two of us making love for hours on the couch.
Things had been so peaceful in Chicago: just one long, constant stream of talking, laughing, fucking and feeding when needed. The memories were still so very fresh in my mind, which meant that I could feel them in all their profuse, shattering intensity: her warm tongue on my chest, the peaceful vibrations of her giggling, our bodies moving together in our pond, the late night talks about our favourite books, the unmissable taste of her orgasms exploding on my tongue, our races through the woods, her mouth swallowing my cock inch by inch while I played the piano for her...
I wanted it all back.
When I saw the 'Welcome to Granite Falls' placard, I shut my eyes tightly and remained unmoved, trying to bring myself to a calmer state of mind - which didn't work when I felt Bella's hand, light as a feather, brushing against my shoulder, to get my attention. I immediately turned to see her, only to be met with the reflection of my own despair when our eyes met.
"It will be all right," she murmured.
"Better than he imagines," Alice completed in her head.
I sighed, burning for her to touch me again immediately after her hand retreated.
"Nothing feels right, Bella."
And just like that, whatever drop of relief our little interaction might have brought disappeared. Something about my response got her to frown and turn away.
"Tell me about it," she grumbled.
I pondered whether I should have reached for her hand, but Alice's quick prognosis assured me it was better not to, unless I wanted to feel the pang of rejection twice in a row - not that I didn't deserve it.
Instead of making yet another mistake, I looked out the window, in a bid to distract myself. The weather was even gloomier here, in this little corner of the world, than it was in Vancouver. The windscreen wipers worked at full power to fight back the torrents of water pouring down from above. The forest guarding the road from either side was soaking and still lush and green, despite the season. I could see why this could be a good place to live in for our kind. I could almost picture how simple it must have been for Carlisle and Esme to settle here: she loved rain and he loved whatever made her happy.
Fear crept into my bones again, when Alice stopped trying to silently calm me with her visions and decided to speak out loud, announcing that we were close.
"Try not to freak out too much," she added. "Both of you."
"I'm doing fine," Bella protested.
"You're one decision away from having a breakdown, if I am correct. Edward can handle this, he's a grown man."
Alice was certainly way more confident than I was. At least someone was giving me credit, since I was unable to do it myself.
"Although you should probably know that they feel a little guilty too," she added, her voice a little displeased.
"Guilty?" I repeated, dumbfounded.
"I can't understand them, truly. It's probably for the best that they explain it to you."
I nodded, still a little confused, hoping to get a little clue from her mind. But she quickly moved her attention to something else, in an unexpectedly successful attempt to hide her thoughts. She noticed my frown in the rearview mirror and winked.
"I've been practicing this thing for a week now. I'm getting good at it."
"Anyway," she continued out loud. "Since I see you two sticking around for a while, Bella should probably find something to say to her parents."
Were we sticking around? Right now, it felt as if Bella was uncomfortable even sharing the same car with me. I couldn't see things getting better anytime soon, but I also couldn't imagine being anywhere without her. It was excruciating to the extreme to feel the extreme, because this only proved that all of my worst fears had been right - she did despise me with a passion for everything I had done to her, for all the ways I had hurt her.
And no words could save me now, since she had made up her mind about me.
But I could try.
Hell, I would try.
"I could just tell them I'm still in Chicago, right?" Bella offered.
"As long as they don't plan on visiting anytime soon, I suppose. I'll have to keep an eye out, just in case."
"Thank you."
"And… maybe don't mention that you guys fought," Alice added. "Her father would not take that well at all."
"I wasn't planning on it," she replied.
"You weren't?" I murmured, turning to see her face. She kept her gaze on the road in front of us.
"I can't see how it's in their best interest to let them know that the man I was supposedly dating had lied to me for months."
"Ouch. But at the same time, I get her. Boy, my brother is an idiot. Future brother. Whatever, same thing."
I noticed Bella's jaw tightening a little - she was fighting back her own emotions, if I had to guess. This simple sight made my insides hurt, but I did not look away. The least I could do was face the damage I had caused.
"Listen, I am deeply aware I've let you down," I began, not really sure where I was going. It felt as if I was walking on the thinnest rope, with a blindfold around my eyes - one wrong step, a tiny miscalculation and I was dead.
"Well, good."
"Quite frankly, I don't know what I can do to make it up to you, Bella. I wish I did. But if we can just go somewhere so that we can talk about it properly, maybe-"
"I don't want to talk about anything."
"Just give me one hour, angel, please…"
"Oh, boy, this may not be the best time for this," I heard Alice in passing, but I shoved the sound in the back of my mind.
"No."
"Half an hour," I pushed.
"Drop it, please."
"Ten minutes, I'm begging you!"
"Uhm, I hate to interrupt you," Alice chimed in, "but we are really close. Maybe postpone whatever it is that you are doing now for later?"
"Glad to," Bella growled.
I sighed, ready to explode. Half of my mind was still preoccupied with finding a way to have a conversation with Bella without her shutting the door in my face everytime. The other half was slowly becoming aware of the new voices making their presence known beyond the constant drumming of the rain. New voices, with two distinct exceptions.
Had my heart still functioned, it would have stopped beating right this moment.
I automatically became more aware of my surroundings, the weight of the following events slowly sinking in. Past memories started weaving their way into the present, awakening feelings I thought I had lost, as soon as the trail of chamomile and sandalwood filled my nostrils.
"God, it's really him. God, thank you!"
"I know we can't cry, but I really just might. He's really here."
The familiar mental voices effortlessly became the sole focus of my attention. Nothing had changed, as if not a single day had passed since I last heard them. I found myself wishing to rip the door of the car open, so that I could escape the slowness of the vehicle. I barely realized we were no longer on the main road and that we were surrounded by trees from every angle, the sleek car squeezing between them smoothly.
"Alice, can I get out?" I muttered.
"We're literally one minute away from the house."
"I don't fucking care about us being one minute away," I replied, before she could say anything out loud. "I need to get out now."
"He needs this, Alice," Bella intervened, much to my surprise; and just like that, the car stopped in the tracks.
I threw one last look towards Bella before jumping out. She watched me with wide eyes and I could swear that for the faintest moment, a smile made the corners of her lips lift up. It disappeared before I could see more, but it was enough to keep me going. I closed the door behind me and, without pondering one second longer, I started running in the direction of the familiar scents and sounds, unbothered by the torrential rain cascading from above.
In the few seconds it had taken me to reach my destination, a deluge of powerful sentiments washed over me, making me question why I had not done this sooner. Had I not met Bella, I would have probably still been wasting myself away in some attic, with nothing to highlight the passing of time other than the occasional meals. For a brief second, everything made sense: our meeting, my love for her, the way I always called her 'angel'.
Bella truly was my angel, even if she didn't quite realize it - guarding me from the shadows, bringing me to the light, not letting my conscience rot. Pulling me back from Limbo and showing me there was another way. A better way.
Shocked, relieved, amazed, thankful, I breathed in and faced the truth head-on.
Carlisle and Esme were both in front of me - flesh and bones, not a feeble figment of my imagination. Their eyes were honey-gold, the exact hue they always had in my memories. Soaked by the rain, their clothes clung tightly to their skin, but neither of them seemed to mind. They studied me in return, taking in everything they saw with their mouths wide open. The sight of my still-red eyes didn't even make them flinch.
But it did prompt their arms to open wide, in sync with their elated thoughts.
"Come here, son," Carlisle said, his once perfectly-composed voice shaking.
Had my heart still functioned, it would have started beating again right this second.
I didn't think twice about it, I simply erased the few feet separating us with two steps. The next moment, Carlisle's and Esme's arms were around me, my arms around them, and time itself lost all logic and stopped in place for us.
I was home at last.
All of a sudden, nothing seemed to matter anymore. I didn't feel as if I had ever left them, as if I had ever been anything but the man they thought I was. The memories of the decades spent on my own, fighting a hopeless battle against the evil of the world, while only growing more evil myself, crashed violently, almost bringing me to my knees. My sense of self morphed and trembled, suddenly unsure of who I was anymore.
"He's here, he's safe, he's here," Esme's thoughts resonated in my head on repeat, a sweet chorus of motherly love. In response, I gripped her tighter in my embrace.
"We'd thought you'd never come back, sweetie," she whispered, half-laughing, half-sobbing.
"I missed you," was all I managed to say, realizing that I wasn't any better at keeping my voice collected than either of them.
"We missed you more," Carlisle assured me, both out loud and with his mind.
Sharing this embrace under the thick veil of rain, everything felt right, peaceful, as if a piece of me had been missing all along and only now had I found it. I thought about how fickle everything was in the world - humans, seasons, society, hopes - only to realize that this, right here, was anything but that.
Forgiveness was not something I thought I would ever receive from them, yet I felt it enveloping me from every angle, without even asking for it. I silently roistered in it, until I realized that my shoulders were shaking severely, eliciting Esme to worry out loud. She pulled back slightly, not letting go of me - and when I looked at her, I understood the reason behind my shaking.
I might have been unable to shed tears, but I was crying, the action stirring me to my very core and causing my throat to erupt in a string of sobs. I thought I would be strong enough to stop them before they got to be too much, but I wasn't. Not after unknowingly holding them back for so long.
And I didn't care.
"Shhh, baby, you're fine," Esme cooed, her hand gently grazing my cheek. But I couldn't stop, not even with the help of her calming hand, and that was when she started doing the same.
Carlisle brought both of us closer to him.
"I'm sorry," I blubbered. "I'm so, so sorry… I just… I'm sorry…"
"No, no, it's all right," Carlisle muttered. "This is a happy day."
"The happiest. I feel speechless. I could hold him forever."
For a long while, we remained like this: wrapped together in a never ending hug, crying, rejoicing in the unspeakable sentiments of this reunion.
It was Alice's voice that brought me back to Earth, when she called us from afar.
"Let's get inside! Unless you want to get marinated in the rain!"
I heard the car doors opening and closing, along with several new laughs coming from not so far away. I pulled back, but neither Carlisle, nor Esme moved their arms away from me.
"Let's get going, we'll catch up inside," he smiled, gently guiding me out of the clump of trees and into a man-made glade.
In front of me, a three-story house stood tall and proud. The white facade managed to look both modern and vintage - a mix that wasn't supposed to work, but somehow it did. The materials and the fine cuts were clearly from this decade, forming a picture of sublime architectural beauty, but the fine little details were reminiscent of older times. The generous wrap-around porch, the decorative iron railings, the steeply pitched planes of the roof - they all worked together to form a picture of timelessness.
I allowed Carlisle and Esme to guide me to the covered porch, where Bella and Alice awaited.
"I told you it'd be fine! I knew it! You'll have to learn to listen to me," Alice was beaming as she watched the three of us climbing up the stairs.
Bella seemed almost bashful when we finally got face to face again. She was fiddling with the wet strands of her hair, her eyes moving quickly between me, Calisle and Esme. I found myself suddenly fighting the urge to kiss her. She was the sole reason I was here, how could I even thank her properly?
"Bella, these are Carlisle and Esme," I said.
"It's a pleasure to meet you," she replied, still nervously tugging at her own hair.
"Oh, sweetie, the pleasure is ours," Esme responded, letting go of me, only to wrap Bella in a hug.
She seemed surprised, but quickly returned the gesture. I watched in awe as she exchanged pleasantries with Carlisle and Esme, not fully processing that this was all real. My love, my Bella, meeting the people that - by some miracle - still considered me their son. They never asked what was the relationship between us; both of them correctly assumed that it was better to not push us, unless we wanted to share.
When all the introductions were done, Alice opened the wide poplar door of the entrance, welcoming us inside. New smells caught my attention: cashmere, tuberose and bourbon. I looked around the wide space, taking in the warm colours dominating the interior, surprised by how many walls that faced the outside world were made entirely out of glass. My glance finally stopped on the three strangers in front of me: two men and a woman.
I instantly recognized them from Alice's extremely-vivid mental images: three pairs of amber-coloured eyes, analyzing us. The massive one with dark, curly hair had to be Emmett. His palm was resting on the woman's shoulder - Rosalie, of course. Tall and with her hair spectacularly golden, she instantly narrowed her eyes upon seeing me and Bella stepping inside. The other man - Jasper, Alice's mate - was taller than Emmett, but lankier, watching us carefully, as if he was trying to guess our intentions; and for all I knew, that was exactly what he was trying to do, since Alice had already mentioned his peculiar gift of feeling the emotions of those around him and manipulating them when needed.
"Hell's bells, their anxiety is unbelievable. They could use some help. But I'll wait for now. Alice said not to intervene."
"If this disrupts what we have in any way, I swear to God…" Rosalie's thoughts weren't as friendly, but I couldn't blame her. We were, after all, strangers.
Emmett's thoughts caught me by surprise - even more so when he decided that it was a good idea to voice them the second they crossed his mind.
"Welcome, lovebirds," he grinned. "Alice couldn't stop talking about the lovely couple, it feels as if we already know you."
"Em, you idiot!" Alice complained, her jingly voice unbelievably fierce. "God, I told him not to say anything, I feel awful!"
I stood frozen, not knowing how to react.
"Uhm, we're not…" Bella began, a little unsure. "I mean we're mates, but… we're not… together."
She looked at me and it crushed me when I had to confirm her words with a disappointed nod. I wanted nothing more than to contradict her - to grab her waist, kiss the top of her head and proudly say that yes, we were together. But that was not a decision I could make on my own.
"Poor babies, they seem to be so confused," Esme pondered to herself. "How did they even get here?"
"That doesn't make an awful lot of sense," Jasper's musings hit me, overlapping with Esme's worries. "Their feelings for each other are too intense."
"Let's not overwhelm Edward and Bella," Carlisle suggested with a warm, but firm voice. "They've only just arrived, we've got plenty of time to discuss everything later."
"Yes - in fact, we would like to have a chat with Edward, if he'd like to join us upstairs," Esme added.
It was impossible to refuse such a request.
"It would be my honour."
"Let's go then," Carlisle said. "Bella, would you like to join us?"
Please say yes.
"Oh, no, I think Edward has a lot to tell you. I can wait."
"I'd love for you to join," I tried.
"Later."
Carlisle and Esme shared a concerned look - and without saying anything, their minds were completely in sync. They motioned me to follow them upstairs and I listened, walking behind them and not knowing what to expect.
"He doesn't have to take off his muddy shoes?" Emmett protested. "I told you guys you had a favourite kid, but you wouldn't listen!"
"Edward has come a long way to get here," Esme replied, not looking back. "But you can mop the stains before they get crusty, honey."
His response was a booming fit of laughter that got her to chuckle too.
"Emmett is full of jokes. Sometimes inappropriate, sometimes not."
We stopped when we reached an arched closed door. Carlisle opened it, inviting me to step inside.
If this was Judgement Day, I should have felt some type of fear creeping in my bones. But as I stepped further, it wasn't fear that had taken over me.
It was peace.
So this may sound silly, but... I actually cried when writing the reunion scene. I thought I was prepared for it, since it had been sitting at the back of my mind for months, but nope. My emotions got the best of me. And I almost never cry when writing something!
Also: I love how so many of you feel some type of 'I want to slap, but also hug Edward'. It's kind of what I was aiming for ;).
So how did the reunion make you feel?
What about Edward and Bella meeting the rest of the Cullens (albeit fleetingly)?
Are you excited for the talk Edward is about to have with Carlisle and Esme?
I'd LOVE to know your thoughts :).
Also, if you need a naughty story to wash away the emotions of this chapter, you can check out my recent work, "The Devil Next Door". It's three chapters long and it will remain like this until I finish "Stuck in Limbo". It got me the "Best Dirty Talk" and "Cliffhanger Queen" awards in the Bodice Ripper's Contest!
Until next time, stay safe and happy!