Lusting For Ralph
Chapter 16

"Don't ever scare me like that again." He holds her hand and kissed her knuckles.

Madison didn't realize that she has been in and out of consciousness for the last three days. She has been sleeping a lot as her doctor gave her medications and IVs to help her with the viral infection and reduces her swelling of the brain. And she couldn't be happier when she was released from the hospital on day five. Madison was bored out of her mind and she wanted nothing more but to get back to her apartment.

Though Ralph didn't let her out of his sight and told her that he would care for her at his apartment.

"Ralph, I'm living across your apart..."

He didn't let her finish her sentences when he ushered her to his place.

"Put yourself in my shoes, Maddie, would you let me stay alone just hours after I'm back from the hospital?"

Ralph looked upset when Madison was even considering that he would let her stay alone in her apartment. She still looked tired and he doubted that she could even cook for herself.

He didn't want her to fall on her way to the bathroom then was too tired to pick up her phone and call him. Various scenarios have been going through his mind, and he would lock her up in his apartment if he has to.

Madison looked at him then nodded, and she was actually relieved when he wouldn't let her go back to her apartment alone. Cause she seriously wouldn't know how she was going to take care of herself while still feeling lethargic. "Come on, why don't you sit while I plated our lunch?"

Ralph had ordered takeaway from Silvio's, but even thinking about prepping the takeout lunch was still too much for her aching body and she was thankful that he would do it for her.

Her handsome lover spooned her the mashed potatoes mixed with her favorite cream soup. Ralph knew she would still have difficulties swallowing her solid food since he was there all through her stay at the hospital.

She shed her tears when she abruptly reminded of him taking care of her at the hospital, and there he was again at the apartment doing the same thing.

Her parents didn't even show up, they just called her and thanked Ralph for taking care of their only daughter. Apparently, work was more important for them, but Ralph's brother Dale and his wife Amanda did come for a visit while little Mable sent her self-made get well soon card for her since she was not allowed to visit Madison.

"Hey, what's the matter? do you need your medication?" Ralph wiped her tears worriedly, thinking her headache had come back.

"No, I'm good. It's just that you...this, me...I'm such a burden..."

"Sshh..." he kissed her temple and pulled her in for his signature warm hug.

"Let's finish a couple of more spoons okay? then I'll hold you to sleep."

She sheds another tear and he cupped her face and kissed the tip of her nose.

"I love you Madison, do this for me?"

She knows exactly what he meant by that and she nodded and opened her mouth when he spoons her another bite.

For the next couple of days, he stayed with her and had asked Amanda to come and stay with his Madison whenever he needed to go to campus.

The first two weeks were a struggle, but she was fast to recovery by week three and Ralph couldn't be any happier.

And by week four she was being her cheerful self again until she was having the nightmares.

"I'm telling you, Ralph, it was so vivid. I could feel that it was reaching out for me..."

He cursed on the inside the first day he heard about her nightmares. He didn't want the same thing that happened to him also happening to her. It took years for him to come to terms and finally let himself accept his consequences. But she didn't deserve this.

He holds her close in his arms thinking he needs to talk to Walter maybe even Shani. He thought there might be something that Shani could do to help his Madison, maybe a potion, concoction, anything that she could do to make her free from her unwanted third eye.

And he did just that leaving Walter out of his choice since he would just tell him to take her to one of their meetings and talk about it.

While Ralph didn't want her to talk about it, he didn't want her to relive it. He wanted her ability gone.

He wanted his careless Madison back.

"Look Ralph, you know about this...all people have the third eye. They're just not sensitive about it, I will see her and see if I could close it but there's no guarantee. You know this right?" Shani said to him over the phone while Madison was resting quietly in the bedroom. It was well after midnight and he couldn't hold his feelings anymore that he had to call Shani at that exact time.

But back in his room, Madison wasn't sleeping, she was wide awake, unable to scream as her body was frozen sleeping sideways. Her eyes kept on looking to the empty space beside her. The space where Ralph was supposed to sleep, but he wasn't there. Instead, a rotten corpse which was also sleeping sideways was looking straight at her. It had a peeled, cracked face with one eye bulging out and veins popping with traces of dried blood. It was looking at her, it kept on looking at her while she was smelling its rotten decaying body and forced to look at it as she failed to turn away from it.

She was crying silently, terrified beyond her belief. Until she could finally scream her lungs out and called for Ralph.

He cursed when he looked at the entity, he knows that there was nothing he could do to shoo it away and he did the one thing he knows best, which was to grab her and move her away from the spot. Quickly.

She was crying in his arms, she was sobbing and trembling so hard while he kept on saying that he would fix everything. That he loves her and would never leave her alone anymore.

He cuddled her until she falls back to sleep in his arms and he didn't let go of her. That night he kept her in his arms and holds her in his loving embrace.

While Madison didn't say anything back, she just snuggled in closer to his warmth, his scent, and his deep familiar voice.

"I love you Madison...I love you, baby..."

He kept on whispering his words, making sure that she heard him as she drifted back to sleep.

Ralph has always loved her, but that night he knows. He knows without a single doubt that she would be his forever, that he would do anything for her.