Reviving Heaven

by D H Sidebottom

  Tammy attempted to hide the amusement from her face and rolled her eyes at me, apparently well versed with Harrison’s barked commands.

  “We have ruled out meningitis,” the doctor announced.

  The relief that spilt from not only Harrison and Tammy’s long exhalations but also their postures physically lightened the stifling air in the room.

  “So, what’s wrong with her?” Harrison barked.

  The doctor, seemingly ignorant to Harrison’s lack of tact, shook his head slowly. “All indications are leading to a virus.”

  “Isn’t that what you doctors always say for ‘We have no bloody idea’?”

  “Harry!” Tammy chastised with a scowl before she turned back to the doctor and sighed. “So, she’s going to be okay?”

  “Even if it doesn’t look like it right now, Phillipa is responding well to treatment. Her temperature is now at a good steady level. Learning from the regular observations, her body appears to be handling the infection much better than when she was brought in.”

  “Thank fuck!” Tammy said, blowing out a long breath when the doctor vacated the room.

  “Go freshen up and get some food in you,” Harrison told her. “We’ll stay for a while.”

  “That’s okay, you’re working, Harry.”

  “Tammy, just for once, do as you’re told.”

  She sighed and shook her head at me. “You wouldn’t think we’ve been divorced for five years.”

  She scurried away when Harrison bit his lip and scowled.

  “I just thought it was me that made you such a grumpy bugger. Now I know it’s just the way you are!” I snorted.

  Turning the scowl on me, he cocked his head. “I just thought it was me that made you so damn irritating. But, alas, I fear you’re the same with everyone,” he countered with that bloody annoying smirk of his.

  “Fuck you,” I mumbled light-heartedly as I slid onto the bottom of Philly’s bed. “How old is she?”

  “Eight.”

  He planted himself back in the chair beside her, and the soft smile that lifted his lips when he looked at his daughter brought a smile of my own.

  “She’s very pretty. Clearly, she takes after her mum.”

  He scoffed.

  “But, I take it she has your strength, so she’ll be just fine.”

  He shook his head but didn’t turn his gaze from Philly. “Nah. I’m not strong. She gets that from her mother too.”

  “How long were you married for?” I felt intrusive, but I genuinely wanted to know this side of Harrison, a part I would never have imagined could exist.

  “Three years. Philly was the creation of a drunken night. I’ve known Tammy all my life. We were childhood friends. One night she came to mine with a bottle of whisky, upset over the dickhead boyfriend of hers that had taken off for the millionth time. God only knows what happened that night, but we woke up the next morning on the floor, naked. Next thing, Tammy was pregnant.”

  His openness stunned me for a moment and I sat staring at him.

  Evidently, he took my silence as scepticism because he added. “And yes, she’s mine. We had a DNA test done to make sure Philly wasn’t the dickhead’s.”

  I shook my head quickly. “No, I wasn’t thinking that. I’m just a little shocked how you stepped up and married her.”

  The way his eyebrows lifted told me my runaway mouth had once again spat word vomit everywhere, and I cringed. “I didn’t mean that like it sounded either. Just that, umm…”

  I shrugged and shut up.

  “You know nothing about me, Lily. Just because we spend every damn minute of the day together doesn’t mean I should allow you in my fucking life!”

  I reared back, wounded by his spitefulness. I had no idea where it had come from, but the way Harrison also glared at me told me he had meant every word.

  His meanness shouldn’t have upset me. I shouldn’t have cared what he thought of me, but I couldn’t help it.

  Nodding sadly, I bit my lip to stop myself from crying. “I’m sorry I’m taking up so much of your time. I’ll forward the remainder of your pay. You know, the extortionate amount of money you get for ‘spending every damn minute of the day’ with me!”

  “Lily!” he warned when I opened the door. “You know I can’t leave Philly! Don’t you fucking dare!”

  I slipped out of the room and into the hustle of the busy hospital.

  And I went home.

  Eleven

  Lily

  I curled a lip at the ridiculous, ever-increasing fare displayed on the cab’s dashboard. Bloody hell, evidently, we really had been in the middle of nowhere. Even the taxi driver had to phone me three times because he couldn’t find the cottage, and then the stupid security gates wouldn’t allow him through. At one point, as I ambled down the mile-long driveway, I had expected a tranquilliser dart to shoot at me from the mass of bushes and growth lining the path.

  Handing over the cash and wondering if I could claim it back on expenses, the driver tipped me a wink. “You’re that rock bird.”

  Rock bird?

  I wasn’t sure if I was offended due to the fact he’d been giving me the eye through his mirror for the last two and a half hours and only just realised who I was, or mortified that I couldn’t have a private life anymore. I prayed my journey wasn’t front page news, the horror that I’d thrown up into a carrier bag in the poor man’s back seat now becoming even more sickening. I hated travel sickness… Well, it may have been the bottle of cheap vodka that I’d swiped from the cottage sideboard and drown my sorrows in as I’d limped down the gargantuan driveway. Hopefully, the cab driver didn’t have a camera phone. Tomorrow’s newspaper, brandishing a photo of me hobbling down the drive with a bottle of vodka stuck in my gob and my eyes darting from left to right as I’d waited to be pierced by a bloody poison arrow would please Frank, my agent, no end!

  “You take care, luv,” he declared loudly, making me jump as he snapped me out of my thoughts. “I read the news, lass, I know some sick fucker is after you. I’ll wait until you’re in the house and have turned the lights on before I pull away.”

  The man earnt himself a tenner tip and a kiss on the cheek.

  I shivered when I stepped into the hallway, the chill the house had developed from being empty quickly seeping deep into my bones. Flicking on the light to notify the driver I was okay, and turning the thermostat up high, I picked up the mass of post from the mat and walked into the kitchen.

  The mail fell from my fingers and my scream rebounded off the walls when I found a glowering Harrison sat at the table. “What the hell, Harrison!” How the hell had he got back so quick? And, Jesus, he could have saved me a bloody shit ton on taxi fare!

  He remained tight-lipped as he slowly pushed his chair back and stood up.

  I took a step back.

  He took a step towards me.

  The door handle dug into my sore back when I cowered back onto it.

  “I told you not to leave!”

  The saliva in my mouth evaporated when he pressed his massive, anger-filled body against mine and loomed over me.

  “Did I, or did I not, tell you not – to – leave, Lily?”

  “Mm-hmm,” I answered with a single slow nod. “I seem to recall something like that.”

  He also nodded. “Mm-hmm. So, would you like to tell me why you took your little, irritating self back to the cottage, packed up your shit, and then came back here?”

  “Umm.”

  “There is a crazy, sick, ruthless bastard trying to kill you, Lily. Does that not penetrate your thick skull? Let’s get one thing straight,” he growled. “If you want to die, that’s fine. Nothing would give me greater pleasure. We can skip all this protection bullshit and I’ll murder you myself!”

  He seemed angry. I could have been mistaken of course.

  “You hurt me.” My eyes widened at my own words. I hadn’t meant to say it; I didn’t want him to know just how much he affected me. I didn’t care what he th
ought of me. I didn’t.

  “Why?” He didn’t appear stunned by my revelation, just curious, maybe.

  I gulped and shook my head. “It doesn’t matter.”

  Narrowing his eyes, he pressed further into me. I swear I could feel the outline of his cock against my belly – and it wasn’t small.

  “Why?” he repeated harshly. “Tell me why!”

  My eyes stung and a sharp pain burnt my throat. The blood in my veins twitched and my heartbeat stuttered.

  “Not now!” I pleaded under my breath as I closed my eyes and tried to sort myself out. “No.”

  “Lily?”

  My mind became hazy as fantasy spiders wove a suffocating web around my brain, trapping my thoughts in their sticky trap. Each breath became shallow pools of torment, tightening my chest. Struggling for air, I thumped at my breastbone, labouring with my lungs to release the air stuck in them. A hot fever erupted as my pores fought to liberate the swell of heat under my skin, and I flattened my sweaty palms on the door behind me.

  Harrison caught me when I slowly slid down and fainted.

  Twelve

  Harrison

  She refused to look at me when I handed her the glass of water. Her hands shook almost as much as her legs, and the goose pimples that burst across her skin secured the focus of my gaze.

  “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  She nodded at the floor and took a sip of water.

  “Lily?” I crouched before her and took her chin in my fingers to direct her face upwards. The distress in her eyes made my gut twist. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  “Honestly, I’m fine. Just hungry.”

  “Hmm.”

  Although I wanted to believe her, I didn’t. I was sure I’d put the fear of God into her. I had always struggled to contain my temper, but with Lily it was different. I didn’t know why, or precisely how she evoked so many damn emotions in me, but I couldn’t seem to control them around her. My thoughts and feelings were savage when it came to her; every single sensation and reaction seemed intensified where Lily fucking Cooper was concerned. I struggled with how to handle them. So, I took my frustration out on her.

  She was undeniably embarrassed, or uneasy around me, so I went in search of food. Her fridge, understandably, was empty, but finding pasta and various ingredients for a sauce in her cupboard I spent the next half an hour rustling up some food for us both.

  An incoming call cut into the music blasting from my phone and, turning the sauce down to a simmer, I begrudgingly answered when I saw the name displayed. “Ann.”

  My teeth vibrated with the grating sound of her voice. As much as I didn’t want to speak to her, I knew I had to. Glancing into Lily’s front room, I was relieved to see she had disappeared, presumably to the bathroom. Even so, I still closed the door for more privacy.

  “I told you I was right, Harrison. I can’t believe you didn’t trust me. That hurt me more than anything else you’ve ever done.”

  Rubbing my tired eyes, I sighed. “Yeah. But then you’ve never actually given me any good reason to trust you, have you?”

  “You can be a complete pig at times; you know that?”

  “Yeah, you keep telling me, so I’m more than aware of that fact now.”

  Not even a minute into the call and she was already pissing me the hell off. Trying to zone out as she went into another one of her usual tirades, my gaze fell to the pile of mail on Lily’s table. I’d been monitoring it for so long it was now second nature for her to put it to one side for me.

  “Are you even fucking listening to me, Harrison?” Ann bellowed. I should have just ended the call and blocked her from everything where my life was concerned. But I wasn’t that much of an arsehole, despite what Ann reckoned.

  “Yeah.”

  Sifting through the various letters, a small padded envelope acquired my attention. Tucking the phone between my ear and shoulder, I slid my finger under the lip and opened it. Surprised to find it contained a USB, I grabbed my laptop and inserted it into the port as I read the small note that accompanied it.

  ‘Tomorrow, I will forward instruction. If you don’t follow my command, I will upload this to YouTube. In seventy-two hours the world will see what a whore you really are.

  Sinners are an infection that must be purged from this earth.’

  “Holy - Fuck!”

  “What?” Ann finally shut up griping when she heard the shock in my voice. “Harrison?”

  “Gotta go.”

  She stuttered something I couldn’t hear as I ended the call.

  I couldn’t remove my eyes from the screen. I wasn’t sure who I was more furious at, the motherfucking cunt who had done this, or myself. I clenched my jaw when my cock strained at the sight of a naked Lily masturbating in the bath. It was on a loop. I watched her come repeatedly. Her creamy thighs were parted and her hand disappeared under the water. The pleasure on her face had my breathing coming in short, sharp bursts, the erotic sight making my balls ache. Her back arched, pushing her soft tits upwards as her head fell back and her mouth formed a perfect ‘O’.

  “Motherfucker!” I finally hissed as I forced myself to slam the laptop shut.

  It only then occurred to me that Lily wasn’t in the room where I left her. She was in the bathroom – where some fucker had set up a hidden camera.

  Taking the stairs two at a time, I burst through the bathroom door. But all thoughts of hidden cameras flew from my mind when the scene that greeted me made my heart falter.

  Lily scrambled up from where she sat on the floor. The horror on her face as she attempted to cover herself and the various things around her only heightened the shock that numbed every part of me.

  “GET OUT!” she screamed as she rushed to shove everything into a bin liner.

  For a long moment, I couldn’t move, even the blood in my veins froze in shock. But then rage shoved aside the disbelief.

  She screwed her face up, forcing her eyes closed so she wouldn’t have to look at me when I grabbed hold of the tops of her arms and shook her. “What the hell, Lily? What the fuck! Why?”

  Her eyes snapped open and the vehemence in her glare only angered me further. “This has nothing to do with you, Harrison.”

  “I don’t fucking care if it has anything to do with me or not! What the hell is wrong with you?”

  Her jaw trembled with fury, but the puddles of tears in her eyes exhibited so much despair that my rage instantly evaporated.

  “It was just a couple of lines.”

  Jesus Christ. “Just a couple of lines?”

  Loosening my grip on her, I flung my arms around her and pulled her into my body. She fought with me to begin with, her tiny fists beating at my chest until all the resentment dissolved and nothing but misery streamed from her in thick, raw sobs.

  “I can’t stop,” she wept. “I’ve tried so hard. But I can’t!”

  “It’s okay. Shh,” I soothed as I stroked my hand over her hair. It was far from okay, but for once Lily didn’t need my tyranny to sort out her shit.

  My mind raced with the images of what I had burst into, repulsion making my stomach cramp. To me, it didn’t make sense. Except, to Lily, it wasn’t just habit; it was an addiction. What is more, unless you were equally dependent on something then you couldn’t ever experience or understand the absolute need it brought.

  “I’m sorry,” she cried into me as though she begged for my forgiveness. But it wasn’t mine to give.

  She clung to me harder, using me as an antidote to the poisoned thoughts inside her head. But no one could heal those wounds for her. That was up to Lily. Although, I had a feeling that she wasn’t ready to give up her sick need. Not yet anyway.

  Thirteen

  Lily

  I didn’t know where to look. My eyes shifted from the wall to the mirror, to the bathtub, and then back to where Harrison perched between my open thighs.

  The concentration on his face as he tenderly worked made this all the harder. Gently
, he wiped the cotton ball across each freshly scoured line in my skin, wiping delicately at the blood as it bubbled to the surface behind each of his swabs. I knew he wouldn’t understand, no one could. But the way he had handled me had been a surprise. I hadn’t expected empathy, especially not from him, but, yet again another new side to him stunned me.

  I hissed when the antiseptic stung the deep gauge in my flesh. Harrison’s eyes darted to my face. He was silent for a long time, just quietly staring at me with a creased brow. He looked like he had the worries of the world on his shoulders and, unconsciously, I reached out and stroked the edge of my thumb over his cheekbone.

  The torment in his gaze softened and he exhaled slowly when I brought my thumb to his lips and stroked the soft flesh. “I’m sorry.” I had no idea why I was apologising but, oddly, the thought of disappointing him saddened me.

  “All clear, Lily Cooper?” he whispered around my fingers.

  The smoothness of his voice made me smile softly. “Aye, aye, Cap’n.”

  Shaking himself, he moved back and stood up, dropping the few soiled cotton balls into the bin bag. Perching himself on the edge of the bath next to me, he sighed. “You need help.”

  Looking away from him, I shook my head. “I have it under control.”

  He didn’t believe me. Hell, I didn’t believe me.

  “Lily, there must be at least thirty scars on your inner thighs. I know I don’t understand, no one can, except you. But…” He directed my face back to his with a delicate touch of his fingers under my chin. “I want to understand. I want to help.”

  “Why?” I was growing more and more humiliated, his tenderness just making it worse. I wanted him to be angry with me, to shout and scream. Anything would have been better than the total feeling of worthlessness sucking at my soul.

  He drew in a long breath and shook his head sadly. “Because I care.”

  My eyes widened, and I reared back slightly, stunned by his revelation. “You care? How can you care?”