Chapter 4

Seraphine

***

I felt it before I could see it for myself. My entire body was hurting. The pain was too much for me to bear without moaning out my complaints. I forced my eyes open despite their protest in unison with the throbbing headache. The move along was enough to split my brain into two halves, literally. I struggled to keep my eyes open for long and had to squeeze them tight as soon as they made contact with the bright ceiling of my room. 

'Hold on! My room does not have a white ceiling.' 

With that thought in mind, I willed my eyes open, this time making sure that they didn't go back to clamping close. 

"Looks like our sleeping princess is finally up." 

With the speed I turned my head towards the source of the voice, I was scared of getting a whiplash.

"Ugh!" 

And there it was, the pain—the head splitting kind of pain.  

"Take it easy, princess." The man spoke up again as I heard him making his way to me.

"Who are you?" I frowned as I rubbed the sides of my forehead. 

"I am the man who kidnapped you." He bemused only to earn himself a glare from me. 

"That explains why I am in a hospital room." I fought the urge to roll my eyes, not wanting to come off rude to the man. Who knew if he was the one who brought me here after I fainted. But exactly when did I faint? I tried to jog my memory a little only to come up blank. All I could remember was getting to my favorite spot and trying to sketch. And then… I opened my eyes in this room. Weird. 

"Don't think too much about it. Your headache will only get worse." The man interrupted my thought process. 

"H-how?" 

"How did I know that you were trying to remember how you ended up here?" He raised an eyebrow as he pointed a finger towards my face. "You were frowning too much, little one." 

"Oh…" That made sense. He was a smart one. It was only now that I paid attention to his appearance. He was dressed rather casually in an oversized hoodie and track shorts. His outfit was nothing worth noticing but damn the color scheme. The neon green of his top was screamingly flashy against the plain, black shorts. It was a good thing that he opted for white joggers rather than to match them with that atrocious hoodie of his. 

"I know I am handsome." He spoke up again, breaking my train of thoughts. "You don't have to stare holes into my face."

"I was more focused on your…" I trailed off while pointing in his direction. 

"Ugh! Please." He groaned out in frustration. "Not you too." 

"What?" 

"It's not mine. I had to borrow it from a friend since I shift-," he seemed to have caught himself about whatever it was he was going at and hurriedly corrected himself. "I mean I ruined the one I was wearing and this was all I could manage to get in time." 

"Poor you." I shook my head in sympathy before coming back to address the elephant in the room. "Can you, you know, go and tell my father that I have woken up?" Dad must have been worried sick after seeing me in this condition. "Please." I added as an afterthought, but the man refused to budge from his spot. 

"Fine, don't. I will just get the nurse to do it for me." I turned to my side to look for the call button but before I could locate it, the man interrupted me. His words were enough to have me frowning again. 

"You aren't at the town's hospital, little one. This is a private infirmary." 

"What do you mean by that? We don't have a private infirmary in our town." I was left utterly confused.

"That's the thing." He scratched the back of his head as his eyes moved to the tiled floor as if he was avoiding looking at me in particular. Clearing the scratch in his throat, he continued. "You are on private property. This is like a mini hospital for our people, just in case there's an emergency." 

Private property? What private property was he talking about? I had spent my entire life in this town; there was nothing of such sort. He had to be joking with me. Before I could voice out my doubts, the door to the room was pushed open from the outside. 

A man walked inside, his face shrouded in a grim expression. If I found the man from before slightly intimidating given his stature, then this one was far from that. He was downright frightening, and I was not talking just about how beefed up his body was. There was something else about him which screamed danger. It was powerful enough to have others running away from him for the sake of their lives. He was intimidating to say the least. 

"Why didn't you tell me that she was up, Alex?" 

I was pulled out of my thoughts as the new man spoke up. The way the booming words were forced out of his mouth, had the other man, Alex, bowing his head down in response. 

"Sorry, Alph-"

Alex had only begun to reply when he was cut off by him with a frustrated groan. 

"I mean, sorry, Alaris. It hasn't been long and let's just say that she can be a bit handful."

His remark didn't settle well with me and before I knew it, I was interrupting their conversation.

"Ummm… hello." I waved awkwardly in their direction before continuing. "I am still here if neither of you can see that." My little stunt was enough to get the men's attention. 

"Morning, sunshine." 

"Seraphine." I corrected him while keeping my eyes focused on his towering figure as he moved closer to the bed. Each of his steps was steady as he carried himself with utmost grace. I couldn't help but wonder. 

Was it possible for a man to be this charming yet so poised at the same time? 

Did I mention how frighteningly huge he was? The heck he ate for his daily meals! Whole goats? 

"Sera…?" 

"Seraphine." I repeated my name again. "You can call me Sera though." For some weird reason, the people around me almost always preferred using Sera instead of my full name. Maybe it saved them some time. Whatever the reason behind it was, I had grown accustomed to it. 

"How are you feeling, Sera? Does it hurt anywhere?" The gigantic man, Alaris I think, questioned me as he settled down on a chair next to my hospital bed. 

I shifted in my spot, pushing the upper half of my body up to rest it against the pillows. I had to give it to the man whoever the place belonged to. The single bed meant for a patient was more comfortable than my bed back at home. 

"My body feels kind of sore but it's bearable. I can't say the same about my head though. It's throbbing with every little movement. And I can't recall how I ended here." I didn't withhold anything from the man. There was no point in keeping anything from him if he was to help me out. "By the way, are you my doctor?" He didn't look like the part with his bulging muscles, but one should never judge a book by its cover. 

"Not really. I own the place though. Since I was the one who brought you here, it was only natural for me to be checking on you." He smiled a little and I could see two small dents appearing on either side of his face; the man had dimples for crying out loud. I was utterly envious of him at that moment. "The name's Alaris, by the way." He leaned forward and reached out to me with his right hand. I did the only polite thing to do. I accepted it and gave his hand a firm shake.

"Thank you for doing that, Alaris. May I know when I will be discharged?" 

"About that…," he trailed off, turning his attention to the other man. He held his gaze as if they were silently communicating with one another. It wasn't long before the man gave him the slightest of the nods before turning his attention back to me. 

"I guess I will see you around." With the politest of smiles, he bid me farewell and left the room, leaving me to deal with the mountain of a man all by myself. 

"What do you know of your past, Seraphine?" Alaris inquired, making me frown. 

"What are you implying here?" 

"Nothing much. I am only trying to understand you here." He shrugged as he leaned back into the chair, making himself comfortable. He didn't need to given the fact that he literally owned the place. Or so he told me. 

"There's not much." I shrugged with a shake of my head. "If you are hinting at the possibility of me being an adopted child, then let me break it to you, I know that already." 

I was half expecting him to be shocked by this revelation, but he just continued to sit there with the same ease—hands crossed before his chest and a lazy smile gracing that sculpted face of his.  

"I wish that was all there was to you." His eyes glinted with a hint of silver but I only chalked it up to my imagination. It had to be the medicines making my mind go all wonky. 

"What are you trying to say here?" Instinctively, I sat up straighter. I was ready to snap at him if that's what the situation asked of me. He only followed my lead and leaned forward in his seat. 

"We need to talk, Seraphine."