Barbaric Spouse, Descry the Night's Lure-Chapter 207: Scene CCVII

No answer was he able to say to the harsh woman whose gaze’s avoidance had frozen his mind roughly, mercilessly, with apparent despise as her voice that even if tremblingly weak... exhumed disdain from the depths and roots of her aching being to demand one last time... the answer he should give.

“What will it be. Archduke.”

Aslak’s silence... resounded throughout their chamber. Loudly while numbing his senses.

“...”

With an injured pride, the archduke who had kneeled before the sole one he deemed precious enough to forget his savage honour lowered his head with buzzing heaviness, and although he had begged with heartbroken tears, the love rooted to his very lung was now depriving him of the very little air her scent had briefly granted. Poisoning him... for the sweetness in its warmth was gone... for the woman could not offer such anymore.

Defeated by the palpable sorrow inundating his fated lung’s being, Aslak’s amber hues lost all colour the more he understood the depth of the harm his decisions had done to his loved Ewelina. Consequently hurting him... for never he had thought... hatred would be born in the wife.

...The small figure of his wife, kneeling helplessly on the same cold ground, could now only be observed while experiencing more pain... For in her rough repulsion, Ewelina’s body shivered from the suffering darkening her heart, while the man she so deeply felt for... was felt so near... that the warmth she had lost herself in once, burned her cruelly.

“... I...” — Finally out of breath Aslak commenced, folding the hand that scorched intensely with the desire to caress his love so her shivers could subside. Hurting maddeningly, for the spouse now knew such touch would be despised by the one his life was allowed to breathe for... telling with the last of air within his void lungs what the woman demanded as an answer. — “I... I will... leave...”

“....”

“You should.... remain here and rest... I’m who’s to leave...”

“. .. ..”

The scorch in their eyes fell like cold tears from their eyes, senseless... like this hurtful present.

Ewelina’s stillness continued to avoid looking at the helpless Aslak, drifting away... Tightening her lids together the more her shivering skin felt the impact of this broken closeness.

The softness of his move was a stab for each of their hearts, and with every step, Aslak gave to leave the frozen room...

‘Leave... quickly leave...’ — Breathless, feeling the heartbroken trembling of a torn and bleeding heart, Ewelina refused to witness his departure. Begging for it to end... for the door to quickly close and leave her in the deafening silence of a lonely chamber... while the man fought his wish to stay until the end... looking back one last time at the small figure of the woman, looking away while still on the floor. Gripping strongly the sheets of the mattress she now lonesomely leaned herself on.

The last of his air was stolen by her sad disregard, and escaping from the pain, Aslak crossed the door letting its closure resound in the emptiness of the chamber. Invading her everything as if a wave of emptiness washed away the grip she possessed of her composure.

“... m... ngh.... sniff...” 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Reluctant sobbing tried to come out from the lonely wife as the shivers the door’s closure ignited an unstoppable ache in her everything.

Restrained sobs, scorching eyes and tremorous chin... the woman clenched her everything trying to endure the anguish her sincere love was experiencing... and so... an endless night of tears could not be stopped for the sorrow in the woman conquered more in the darkness.

Unable to lay on the mattress they once shared, Ewelina’s night was still spent in a corner... one close to the window where the cold could crave into her bones to feel even if a little stronger, how this was truly the life she was lamentably living.

The younger days of her current life were once more recalled as she shrank on the floor. Keeping her knees close to an empty chest as now tears flowed down her cheeks... because... for Ewelina clarity was found in the dim abism of this life...

“Nothing... nothing ever changes...”

And in her head, once again... life had closed its arms to her soul... keeping her away from happiness and instead...

“Pain... it was all I deserved from the beginning again...”

*******

There was no force within himself anymore.

The harsh emptiness possessing his chest and heart was clouding every sense and instinct the man could follow once outside the room that they were to not share anymore.

A scared peek from those simply guarding the chamber enhanced the silence felt in their skin as the Archduke stood before the door he had closed... blankly staring somewhere even Aslak himself would not recall seconds later.

His stillness was respected, however, by the men. The hush in the corridor was preserved by themselves so the guards’ presence would appear amiss while a visibly affected Archduke did not move because the pain his soul experienced numbed any kind of decision he could take at the time.

‘..... dirt infested by rats...’ — He thought repeating the words she had told... reviving the painful throb in his heart as he recalled how Ewelina had said those were the creatures she despised the most.

“.....”

Like never before, there was nausea rumbling his senses. Aslak’s head felt as if swirling in an uncontrolled cold river and a sensation of fainting... as if the deathliest injury had been dealt and was extracting every bit of his blood out to be absorbed by the cruel ground, commenced to swallow his body up in sickness.

‘... I’m dying... her roots in my lungs... feels like they’re being pulled out mercilessly...!’ — The intense pain became unbearable the more his sorrow deepened. A breathtaking throb made him shrink slightly in his shoulders... placing his hand where it hurt... scowling as the air was deprived of him dreadfully.

“... kh.... Fatædi...!”

Tears were taking shape again in his inexperienced amber, as the hole digging itself into his soul became an abyss as the Archduke tortured himself with her words.