Chapter 104
Chapter 104
Astrid’s POV
Three days.
For three days, the whispers had been my unwanted companions. They were a constant, insidious presence, a faint static at the edge of my hearing. They were clever. They only came when I was alone, when the house was quiet and my mind was at rest. They were always the same, a chorus of faint, airy voices sighing my name and begging me to come with them.
But the annoying thing was, I didn’t know who they were and I didn’t want to know either.
My name from their lips was like the sound of wind rustling through dead leaves. At first, I thought I was imagining it. But it grew more persistent. It was there when I was sketching in the living room, when I was reading in my office, when I was trying to fall asleep. It was a maddening, invisible torment.
The only time they stopped, the only time I had any peace, was when Kaeleen was near. The moment he walked into a room, the whispers would vanish as if they had never been there. His presence was a shield, a warm, solid wall of power and safety that the strange voices could not seem to pass.
This created a new kind of anxiety. I found myself becoming clingy, desperate for his touch, not just out of love, but out of a need for silence in my own head. The nights were the worst. I would lie awake for hours, staring at the ceiling, listening to the faint, ghostly calls, and willing them to stop until Kaeleen would stir in his sleep and pull me closer. The moment his arm wrapped around me, the whispers would cease, and I could finally fall into a restless sleep.
He noticed, of course. He was too observant not to. Especially given the fact that I had bags under my eyes.
"Baby, is there something going on?" he said this morning, his thumb gently stroking the dark circles under my eyes. We were in the kitchen, the morning sun streaming in. "You are not sleeping well."