Sleeping With The Enemy by M.N Providence Page A

mind. A
deep pain churned in his heart and he found tears wetting his face.
    If she has died at
least you know that she is never coming back. But she’s here, alive, breathing,
and you know you can have her…but she doesn’t want you. Nothing can be more painful
than that.
    He walked around
for a long time, and still couldn’t find a reason why things had to suddenly go
off track when he had reached the finest moment of his life.

Seventeen
     
    She was trapped
inside a big water tank made of glass. The top was shut tight with a lid. She
pushed hard against the lid but it didn’t move. She was holding her breath in
her lungs, and she felt them burn under the increased pressure of being denied
oxygen. She pushed with all the energy left in her against the lid, but the lid
refused to budge. She felt her lungs give up and her mouth begin to open
voluntarily. Water rushed into her and she choked…
    She awakened
with an agonized scream.
    Moments later
the door burst open and Paulina flung herself into the room with a deeply
concerned look on her face. She went to Rosina and sat next to her on the bed.
‘Rosie, what’s wrong?’
    Rosin choked. ‘I
can’t breathe…can’t breathe!’ she gasped painfully and fell off the bed.
    ‘Oh my God!’
Paulina panicked. ‘I’m calling an ambulance.’
    ‘No,’ Rosina
tried to get out of the bed. ‘I’m…fine…I’m fine.’ Her feet were on the floor
now. She rose up. A dizzy spell caused her head to spin. The room revolved
around her in circles. She closed her eyes and tried to fight it, but the
dizziness refused to break free.
    Then blackness.
     
    * *
* * *

In her room at
the private hospital, Rosina lay awake, staring with unseeing eyes at the
ceiling. She was heavily sedated, but she could see her beloved sister,
Paulina, sitting there next to her on the bed.
    ‘Paulina,’ she
said in a dry, parched voice. ‘I was dizzy…I fell…’ her voice trailed off.
    ‘Ssh,’ Paulina
hushed. ‘Don’t talk. You’ll be fine.’
    A moment of
silence passed.
    Rosina spoke
again. Paulie?’
    ‘Huh,
sweetheart?’
    ‘Don’t tell
Ferdinand…please don’t tell him about me…’
    ‘Okay.’
    ‘Promise?’
    Paulina searched
Rosina’s face until their eyes locked. She raised her sister’s left hand to her
lips and kissed it affectionately. ‘I promise.’
     
    * *
* * *

The doorbell
rang.
    He went quickly
to it, praying and hoping against all hope that when he opened it he would find
her standing there outside.
    It was not her
though. It was her sister. Standing there with a very distraught face. He
recognized her from the portrait of her he had seen at Rosina’s apartment. ‘Mr.
Imposimato?’ she enquired when he opened the door.
    ‘Yes?’ he answered
concernedly, for some reason his heart beating wildly in his chest.
    ‘My
sister…Rosie…is very ill—.’
    ‘What happened?’
    ‘I don’t know,’
she said.
    ‘Where is she?’
he asked with growing concern, and then remembered his manners and invited her
inside the apartment. ‘Sorry, please come in—.’
    ‘No,’ she
quickly declined. ‘I can’t stay. Rosina needs me.’
    ‘Where’s—.’
    ‘She’s in
hospital. She begged me not to say anything to you, but I thought it was in
your best interests to know.’
    ‘I thank you,’
he said meaningfully.
    ‘Bye,’ she said,
turning to leave.
    ‘Wait,’ he said,
stopping her with a hand on her arm. ‘I’m coming with you.’
     
    * *
* * *

She opened her
eyes from deep sleep and saw him sitting there on the bed next to her. Her face
transformed into an expression of rage, which swiftly transmuted itself into
murderous rage.
    ‘No,’ she
yelled. ‘Go away!’
    She attacked
him, pummeling at him with her feeble fists angrily. He grabbed her wrists and
tried to calm her, but she fought him wildly, and her manic strength surprised
him. She broke free of his hold and clawed at his face with her fingers.
    ‘No!’ she screamed.
‘Paulina, get