ROSES FOR RACHEL: EPISODES 41-50
Episode 49
“Calvin, I love you too, but please stop.” I begged. “You’ve got to stop this, you’re going to get yourself klled, and I need you, Calvin! Please!” I cried into the phone. “Don’t go anywhere, just come back to me! Please!”
“I love you.” He said in a breathy whisper and then there was some kind of explosion and I heard the breath get knocked out of him. “Rachel, tell Pedro our plan is a go.” He gasped. “One month.” I looked up to Pedro with tear stained eyes. “Rachel, I love you, and I promise I will do everything I can to get back to you. When this is over….I’ll come…home to you.” The line went dead and I threw the phone across the room, screaming, then brought my fists down on the ground in front of me.
“Rachel.” Pedro said as he wrapped me in his arms. “Don’t think the worst.” He said with a quiver in his own voice.
I shook away from him. “What plan?” I demanded, but Pedro avoided my eyes. “What plan?” I shouted at him.
He leaned back and sighed. “Before he left, he told me that should anything happen to him or if things were turning bad, that if there was no word from him in over a month, or if I were to get word that he had been killed, I have to get you out of here.”
I brought my knees up to my chest, wrapping my arms around my legs and sobbing. He was looking out for me even before this happened. Of course he was. He was always so well planned out.
I cried for a long time, replaying Calvin’s strained voice and the shouts and explosions going off in the background, while Pedro rubbed my back reassuringly. “Pedro?” I cried.
“Yes, dear?” He asked.
I sniffled, the tears finally slowing as my body became exhausted. “What did he mean…when he said no matter what I find out?” I asked.
Pedro looked me in the eyes. “I don’t know what he meant.” He said shaking his head. “He was talking so fast and all of the…well, I’m just not really sure what was going on, or what he meant.” He admitted. “I do know that he wouldn’t want you sitting here fretting over him.” Pedro said, lifting my chin. “You’ve never seen Calvin in a fight, but I have, and I don’t think we need to worry. He is a warrior at heart, Rachel, and if it means coming home to be with you, I know he can conquer anything.” He tried to make me feel better. “I’ve never seen that man more dedicated to anything else the way he is to you. Just have a little faith in him, ok?”
That was all easier said than done. In my moment of weakness, curled up on my floor I wondered if I’d made a huge mistake. Maybe I shouldn’t have opened up to him.
Maybe I shouldn’t have let myself fall for a man like him, one who comes from a world like this where only pain and heartache can be the outcome of any decisions.
I asked myself if I regretted agreeing to be with him, or even marrying him, but my heart told me that I would choose this fate a thousand times over not knowing what it was like to love Calvin at all.
I stood up from the floor, feeling ashamed of where my thoughts had gone.
Calvin would never turn his back on me, so I’m not turning mine on him. If he says he is going to do everything in his power to come back to me, then I have to believe that.
I walked stoically to my mirror, wiping the stains from my face, and pulling my loose curls up into a ponytail. I have to be strong, for me, for Calvin, and for our people.
The knock on the door pulls me from my staring contest with my reflection. Pedro walked over to the door, then looked to me and I nodded my head, taking a seat at my vanity. Pedro opened the door, and Tessa, Greer, Lexton, and 5 handmaidens walked in, carrying their things.
“Crap.” I said with a smile, faking that I was ok. “I didn’t know they’d get this together so fast.” I explained to them as I walked over and helped them carry their things in. I should have known in the land of the vampire’s that everything happens fast.
Pedro smiled at me lightly. “Do you want the designer to come up so you can tell him how you want to do this?” He asked. “We can have some beds and things added in here to make you all more comfortable.” He explained and I nodded to him.
I smiled at the girls, even though Lexton kept her eyes down. “This will be fun.” I said happily. “Like a slumber party.”
Tessa flipped her hair and giggled. “I remember slumber parties.” She grinned and Greer laughed.
The handmaidens took the few bags that the girls were holding and placed them on one side of the room for now until we can get the room set up correctly.
Once Lexton didn’t have her two bags to stare down at, she was forced to make eye contact with me.
I tried to still smile kindly to her, even though I could see how uncomfortable she was with me. “What about you?” I asked her. “Do you remember having slumber parties?”
She brushed her silky hair behind her ear and shifted her weight.
“Look,” She said softly. “I really, truly, appreciate you inviting me to stay here with you, but I think I’d rather just go to level 4 with the others.” She said.
I stared at her in disbelief as she walked to the other side of the room, grabbing her bags and walking back towards us.
I didn’t know whether to be really offended or a little relieved that she wasn’t staying.
Knowing that she has real feelings for Calvin would have made us being roomies a little weird.
She was in such a hurry to get out of here that when she passed the foot of my bed she caught one of her bags on the post and dropped it, the contents spilling out of the open zipper.
I started to go to help her gather her things, but Greer beat me to it, so I took a step back, watching as she picked up all of her stuff from the floor at the foot of my bed and then practically ran out of the room.
“Again.” I said as she shut the door behind her. “That was super weird.”
Greer shrugged. “Yeah, she’s just-.”
“In love with my husband,” I filled in for her. “I know.”
It didn’t take the designers long to transform Gordo’s suite for us.
I had decided when they started to bring things into mine and Calvin’s room that I didn’t want them to rearrange anything in there.
I was holding tightly to the memories of he and I that had happened in that room, and I didn’t want to lose them.
Instead, we cleared out the living area in the suite and added three beds, a table, and some other things for us to keep busy with.
Pedro had insisted that the lockdown be taken very seriously.
So seriously that he didn’t want me or the other girls leaving the room at all. There hadn’t been any incidents here, but we took all the precautions that were necessary to keep one from happening.
Despite Calvin’s request, we did still send a handful of men to Calvin’s last known location in Germany, but they were nowhere to be found.
Only signs of a heavy battle and dozens of left over pyres were there. All broadcasts had been suspended until we had further news.
For now, all the people know is that the conflict is still ongoing, but they don’t know that the King and his men are missing.
I sat up in my little bed, slowly stretching my hands up over my head. I remember at first when Calvin left, the days seemed to drag and drag, but now, with a deadline of one month looming, each day seemed to just quickly fold right into the next.
I sighed, lowering my arms and looking around to see Tessa and Greer still sound asleep in their beds. I’m always the first one up, and the last one to go to bed. I’m too afraid to sleep too long and get even closer to the last day.
I quietly tiptoe across the room and into the study, only glancing for a moment at the calendar hanging on the back of the door. Four more days until the end of August and the end of my time here.
I never would have thought I’d want to stay, but somehow or another this place became home. I never felt that way about Drighten. It was always just a place to me. I know that it’s Calvin that makes this place feel like home, but even if something happened to him, I can’t imagine just leaving now.
“Hey.” A quiet voice whispered, but I jumped anyway, bringing my hand to my chest.
“God, you scared me.” I told Tessa while she strutted over to the chair in front of the desk and sat down, draping her legs over the arm.
I walked over to sit in the chair beside her the same way. She turned her head to the calendar and frowned her pouty lips. “You good?” She asked.
I nodded, trying to appear unaffected. “He’s coming back.” I said confidently.
She shook her feet. “I’m sure he will…but,” She paused, narrowing her eyes. “Can I go with you?”
I sighed, brushing my hair behind my ear. “You don’t even know where I’ll be going.” I pointed out.
“I know.” She said rolling her eyes. “But if it won’t be safe here for you anymore, then I highly doubt it would be safe for me or Greer either.” She whispered, her eyes begging me.
“She’s right.”
ROSES FOR RACHEL: EPISODES 41-50
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