Chapter 4 - Aria

I think I am awake. But my eyes are closed. That state between awake and asleep, maybe? But, I am aware of the fact I am lying in the bed again. Could I go anywhere else? The pains in my body are beyond uncomfortable… and my eyelids feel heavy again… had they drugged me? No… I just feel tired. So, so, tired. Wait… I was sure somebody was talking…

A deep voice was talking, but to who I did not know. Was it someone in my room? On the TV? Whoever, or whatever it was, seemed to be well into their conversation. “The doctor said to give you time, Bella, but it becomes hard when time seems to be all you have had. So much time seems to be drifting by and nothing seems to change. And I swear that the time is slowly killing me. And I fear it is killing you. They say time is a healer, but are you healing? Nobody seems to be able to answer that...”

Who was that? And who was he calling Bella? I knew the nickname was one of affection… one my father so often used for my mother. I wanted to open my eyes. But my eyelids felt like ten tonne weights right now… so all I could do was listen… the lilt of this man’s voice so deep… smooth… almost charming… a voice you could listen to for a lifetime... almost soothing.

“But, I will wait. Of course, I will. I would wait a lifetime for you, Tesoro. I had already waited what felt like a lifetime just for you to come into my life. And of course, I would wait that all over again to ensure you are safe and back in my life. I have sat here so many days already. Not just because the thought of you alone fills me with an ache I cannot describe, but because the house does not feel the same without you there. I could not simply leave you here alone.”

This man... this voice... sounded like he truly missed whoever he was talking to. Was the TV on? Perhaps some sort of soap opera was playing? Because it certainly seemed this man was experiencing some sort of trauma… my sleepy mind was making little sense of the things the deep voice was saying. The affectionate nicknames told me the person he spoke to was one he loved, and likely very much too. He seemed like he was in pain.

“I think I have come to enjoy these quieter times of the day the most though. When people stop calling in. When time allows for it to just be you and I. When I get to sit and talk. Talk about anything and everything. The way we used to at home at the end of the day. Oh, how I used to look forward to that each day... yet now I have to share that here... it isn't the same, I have to admit as snuggled up on the sofa, but we still have our time to talk. Well, my thoughts… you listen … Oh, my sweet angel, how I wish you could answer me the way you would back then. Instead, you just look like you are sleeping. Do you know that? Like you do when you are snuggled up alongside me in bed at home. All perfect and peaceful. What I would not give to be back there right now. Having you complain about my dirty socks on the bedroom floor… or me leaving a glass in the sink. Silly little things. But, I miss them.”

I was sure I heard a sobbing sound, but I felt so drowsy. My mind not wanting to fully take in what was happening around me, or simply not able to, I was not sure, and my eyes felt like they did not want to work. But I desperately wanted to know who was speaking. Was it a soap opera playing out? Who was in pain? Somebody was struggling, that I could tell from the tone of their voice...

I tried hard to open my weighted eyelids. And after quite a struggle, I managed to pry one open a little. Met once again with that unnecessary and unnatural brightness of the hospital lights within my room as my half-open eye tried to adjust to the sudden light as it flitted around the room... only as it did this did it find the man with the piercing blue eyes sitting at the side of my bed, wiping his eyes…

He was still here. Within my room. Had he been the one talking? Had it been him opening up? Who was he talking of? Because I did not know this man. Was he employed to guard me perhaps? Or simply a doctor as I first thought? My mind spun with possibilities. Yet none made sense. Was he telling me stories to pass away the time as he did his shift of watching over me? That would make sense, I suppose...

“Oh, Aria!” he gasped, suddenly, as his icy blue eyes met my half-open eye. “You are awake? Do you need anything?”

I felt a frown forming on my face. Back to the same question in my mind, just why was he here with me? Not just that, but why was he acting like he knew me? He knew my name. Yet I do not know him. I would remember that face... that voice, I was sure of that. Which brought me back to the possibility I had been kidnapped. This thought had entered my mind a number of times since I had come around and found myself inside this room with no explanation... was that why my parents were not here?

I slowly shook my head. Why would I want anything from a man I did not know? A man I likely could not trust... I tightly closed my eyes shut, terrified of whom this man was, and what he might be capable of if he had kidnapped me and brought me here. Was he the reason my whole body was in pain? The reason I was in hospital? I trembled as fear took over me…