I drift back off to sleep once the nurse fills up my drip with the excellent pain killers once more.
This time, when I wake, it's to an extremely familiar voice.
My eyelids flicker open, and I stare up at...King.
Looking down at me is the man I considered a father for so many years.
His eyes are the same soft, yet hard, and his face slightly more aged, but equally as beautiful as the last time I saw him.
I must be dreaming.
The drugs are making me hallucinate.
"King?" I croak.
"How are you, sweetheart?"
His voice is soft and oh so familiar. My heart aches, because I've needed a parent, I've needed comfort, I've needed him. Our parting wasn't kind, but I can't deny that when I heard he had died, it broke my heart. It just broke me.
Wait.
He's dead.
This isn't real.
Damn you brain, for making me dream something I need so badly.
"You're dead," I whisper, and a tear rolls down my cheek.
"No," he says, his voice a low whisper. "No, I'm not. It's a long story, but I need you to know that you're going to be okay. Everything is going to be okay."
"I'm dreaming," I croak.
He shakes his head, reaching down and placing something into my hand. I hold it up to see a necklace, one he gave me when I was younger, one I left behind when I ran away. One that meant so much to me. I curl my fingers around it.
"You're not dreaming. I'm here."
"H-h-h-how, I don't understand?"
"I can't tell you everything right now, but you gotta know that I have information about your momma. When I heard about Magnolia, I knew I needed to come back."
"You're...I don't understand."
"I'll tell you when the time is right. I just needed to see how you were. See you were okay. Don't tell Alarick I was here, you gotta promise me?"
"I don't understand," I say again, shaking my head slightly.
He cups my face; the same was Flick does. "You will, I promise you. For now, you have to pretend you never saw me. Okay? Can you do that for me?"
I nod, confused.
He leans down and presses a kiss to my forehead. "You're going to be okay."
I close my eyes, and the drugs take over again.
I drift off into a fitful sleep.
"HEY."
I open my eyes and see Alarick leaning over me, gently running his fingers down my face.
"It’s me, baby. How are you?"
"I..."
King.
I open my eyes wider and glance around the room, but nobody is here.
Just Alarick and I.
"Was...was someone here?"
"Nobody, just me. You feelin’ okay?"
"Have you been here all night?"
He nods, but looks concerned. "What’s goin’ on?”
I look around again.
I must have been dreaming.
I must have been imagining it.
My heart hurts, just a little because part of me wishes it was real.
Part of me wishes he was here.
I have so much to be sorry for.
So much.
"I must have been dreaming," I whisper. “It’s nothing, just these good drugs.”
"Pretty normal, but if you start feelin’ weird you let the doctor know, yeah?"
I nod. “Yeah.”
Then he leans down and kisses my lips, his stubble scratching my cheeks in that way I love. "I'm goin' to get you something to eat, and some books to read, yeah? Anything else you want?"
"I...no. That's fine. Please, come back soon."
"Not leavin' you, baby. Promise."
I nod, and he turns and walks out, going to the cafeteria and bookstore to get some supplies.
I stare around the room again, and as I do, my hand brushes over something in my bed.
Narrowing my eyes, I slowly sit up and carefully pull back my sheets to see a necklace tangled up in them.
Shock rolls through my system as I lift the necklace and hold it in front of me.
It's my necklace.
The one King gave me in my dream.
The...
Oh god.
It...was real.
He was here.
He had to be.
He is the only one who would have this necklace.
But how?
I don't understand.
So many questions swirl around in my brain, and I can't make sense of a single one of them. Everything I thought I knew, just proved to be completely wrong. The secrets, the lies, the mysteries of my life are all suddenly being questioned again.
King knows something.
King has been hiding.
King isn't dead.
King...is alive.
TO BE CONTINUED....
Don’t worry, Alarick and Briella’s story will continue very soon in the next book in the series, FLICK, being released in April 2020!!!
Also by Bella Jewel
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Darkest Hour
Sassy Little Thing
Our Final Tale
Whiskey Burning
Hushed Torment
Me, please.
Jokers' Wrath MC
Melancholy
Anguish
Desolation
Precarious
Jokers' Wrath Boxed Set
Bestie
Valiant
MC Sinners
MC Sinners Next Generation
Manacle
Drifter
Rumblin' Knights
Knights Rising
Knights Fury
Knights Burden
The MC Sinners Series
Knights' Sinner
Heaven's Sinners
Volume One
We Are One
Standalone
Number Thirteen
Wingman (Woman)
'Til Death
'Til Death Pt 2
'Til Death Boxed Set
Flawed Heart
Flawed Love
How To Fall In Love
Pandemonium
Fleeting Moments
Amore - Boxed Set
Wild Child
Alarick