Chapter 162- Go away
By the time Janet was six months pregnant, her belly had grown large, but her frail body had grown weaker still. Sometimes, even standing was a struggle after lying down for so long. Yet ever since that fateful night she woke up, her world had turned utterly black — and utterly unfamiliar.
"Why can’t I see anything? Where am I? Who are you?" Even in her dreams, fear gripped her, jolting her awake. Charles stayed by her side day and night, but when she asked those words, the fragile fortress he had built in his heart collapsed with a deafening crash.
Clinging only to the sound of his voice, he whispered ceaselessly into her ear, "Janet, it’s okay if you forget me... just please hold on a few more months, alright?"
Just a little longer, he vowed silently. He would be with her, and once those few months passed, he would wrest her back from Death’s grasp.
But fate had other plans.
The weight of her blindness, and the unfamiliarity of everything around her, finally broke through Janet’s fragile restraint. Lost and confused, she screamed out in terror. At times, she resented the child growing inside her, no longer tenderly caring for the baby but desperate to rid herself of this unbearable burden.
Charles even entertained the dark thought of ending the pregnancy while she was in such delirium — yet he dared not risk it. If he lost this gamble, and she woke to find what he’d done, he would have no face left to meet her.
Because then, he wouldn’t lose only the child — he would lose her.
"Go away! Why is it all so black? Black! I can’t see anything! Ahhh!!!"
Her screams pierced his heart like a knife, wrenching it into a painful knot that refused to ease. She bit and clawed at him, frantic and wild — hands raking from his arms to his shoulders, to his chest. His strong skin was soon covered in scratches, each wound a faint shadow of the torment she endured inside.