James Parker

I stared at my arm in the mirror. The inked skin was puffy from being penetrated, and the chemical serum wore off a while ago. It was about 4 o'clock in the morning, but I didn't dare sleep. I couldn't. My eyes wore dark bags under them from holding in tears while I obtained my tattoo along with lack of sleep. 

I turned to get a better look at my arm. My tattoo represented the Blood Oracle, the inked wisps forming a dragon-like creature on my back and bicep.  It was a reminder of my failure. A reminder of how I killed Beth. 

I closed my eyes and clenched my fists. 

She had to be dead by now. There was no possible way that her body had survived after how I had treated her. God, it had only been a few hours since she had escaped and I was already thinking about how I had killed her. I opened the bathroom door attached to my bedroom chambers. 

My eyes immediately flicked over to the chain protruding from the wall. I walked over, wincing as I naturally moved my arm while walking. It was as if she was still here. I felt. . .different. Light? Heady? Something. 

I bent down and lifted my pillow from the ground. As I brought it up to my nose I caught the scent of lilacs and instantly breathed a sigh of relief. I threw it onto my bed and walked over to my dresser, looking for some wrap or a loose shirt to wear. 

My brain rippled and felt tingly as I continued to search through my drawers. 

Elizabeth's P.O.V. 

The scars on my back ceased to exist as they looked like birthmarks, as Liam had said. I braided my hair into a french braid and tied the end of my braid off with a ribbon. I had replaced my black bra and panties from earlier with some of my own, some more comfortable ones if I do say so myself. 

My head felt fuzzy and tingly as I stared at my pale complexion. I opened the bathroom door and walked into my bedroom. I spotted my bed and sighed a deep breath. My silky nightgown felt soft on my skin as I walked to my vanity and opened a specially hidden drawer. I pulled out a jewelry box and opened it, taking out my family crest necklace. A blue gem was embedded in the middle of the delicate silver carvings. 

I clipped the necklace around my neck, relieved to have it on again. My bed called me as my legs carried me towards it. I lifted the nicely-made covers and slipped under them, engulfing myself in its foreign warmth. My head rested itself on one of my many white, fluffy pillows as I settled into the mattress for sleep. I always slept more on one side of the bed than the other, I usually had an arm draped over the side once in awhile while I slept. 

The right side of the bed was usually my friend as I liked to drape my left arm off the bed while lying on my stomach and placing my other arm under my pillow. My eyes drooped closed and I took a deep breath, glad to be home. Glad to be in my personal bed. 

But something didn't feel right. 

The weight shifted on the other side of my bed. My eyes sprung open within milliseconds and I whipped my head around. A well-built man sat on the other side of my bed. He cradled his head in his hands as he rubbed his eyes fulfilled with sleep. The right side of his back was stained with carefully-placed ink. 

I shifted on the bed and sat up, covering myself with my bed sheets. The man stopped moving and lifted his head but he didn't look back at me. He stared straight forward. His body stiffened as if he was afraid to look back. He slowly stood up and turned around to look at me. 

No fucking way. 

James' brown eyes stared at me as I sat in my bed. My body began to shake and I tried to ignore the sudden yearning in between my legs. We just stared at each other. No talking, no moving, just staring. 

"You're in my fucking room!" James finally broke the silence with an annoyed yell. I flinched but looked around. 

"What the hell are you doing here?" I asked clenching my sheets tighter in my hands. James needed to put a fricken shirt on, he was driving me crazy. He crossed his arms. 

"I'm in my room." I gave him the crazy expression. Has he seriously lost it this time? 

"This is my room." I rubbed my thighs together and blushed as he continued to stare at me. 

"You're in my bed, Beth." I gave him a glare. 

"Do you need glasses or something? I'm in my own bed, in the United Kingdom palace. I'm in my room, in my bed," I growled. James laughed non-humorlessly and placed his hands on his hips. 

"You're unbelievable," I scoffed and rolled my eyes. James made eye contact with me, a glint in his eyes showed his mischievous side. I gave him a questionable look. 

Before I knew it he was pouncing on the bed towards me. I squealed and shuffled back as an attempt to get away from him. I fell off the bed and landed with an 'oomph' on my back. My legs were still somewhat propped up on the side of the bed. James peered over the side of the bed. 

His eyes held an unknown hunger, and they widened as they traveled down my body and saw my underwear as my nightgown slid up. I blushed a bright crimson and scrambled myself up. 

"Get out," I demanded. He chuckled and sat down on the edge of my bed. 

"I'm guessing we're both insane, then? Because I'm sitting on my bed." He motioned to my bed as he talked. I walked over to my bathroom and grabbed a bathrobe. I need to feel some sort of security, I felt too exposed right now. I slipped my arms into the sleeves and pulled the soft cloth over my shoulders, tying it off at the waist. 

I walked back out with crossed arms. I pinched the bridge of my nose as I tried to picture what could be causing James and I to be seeing each other like this. It didn't make any sense. 

"So let me get this straight-" I stopped mid-sentence when I saw James going through my lingerie drawer. 

"Oh. My. God!" I ran over to James and ripped his hands off of my dresser. 

"Are you fucking insane?" He yelled at me. 

"Stop going through my stuff!" James gave me angry, wild eyes as he held up black cloth in front of my face. He held it out to me and I took it from him, holding it up in front of me. 

It was a black shirt. 

"What, you don't want me to put a shirt on or something?" I looked up at him with embarrassment written all over my face. 

"But, you pulled this out of my drawer," I whispered. He shook his head in confusion and grabbed his shirt out of my hands. As James' fingers barely brushed my own, his room flashed before my eyes but was gone in a second. I shook my head and opened my eyes. 

"Did you see that?" I asked James. 

"See what?" What if I was in his room? And what if he was in mine? My breathing picked up and I ran my hands over my hair. 

I tapped my dresser, "You said this was your dresser?" James looked at me. 

"Yeah?" I looked over at my bed and pointed to it. 

"And that's your bed?"

"Yes, Beth." I began to hyperventilate as a weird reality hit me. 

"Has the thought that our rooms are exactly the same, ever crossed your mind, James?" James gave me an 'are you stupid' expression. 

"I've never seen your room, princess." I glared at him and grabbed his wrist, dragging him over to my bed. I pushed him down onto my mattress and glared at him. 

"Don't call me that." I was acting so stupid, dumb, and needy right now. I didn't even know what I was doing anymore. The guy that held me captive in his own room is now in mine, on my bed, right in front of me. I groaned at myself and looked back at him. 

He began to lift himself off the bed. Before he could fully remove himself I placed my hand on his chest and pushed him back down slowly, bringing myself with him. I placed each of my legs on either side of his torso and kept my hand on his chest, placing my other hand next to his shoulder.

His eyes were wide as if he were a deer in headlights. 

"Holy shit," He whispered. I didn't smile, nor did I grimace at his comment. I removed my hand from his chest and placed it on the bed. 

"Touch me," His eyes grew even wider - if that was even possible at this point. 

"Touch you how? I don't think you understand what I want to do to you right now." Well, I don't think you understand how much my body wants you right now. So, I guess we're even. 

"You're a pervert," I said, rolling my eyes, my attitude driving me on. 

"You're the one who wants me to touch you. What? Couldn't get enough from before or something?" When I touched James unintentionally I saw a flash of his bedroom. Maybe if he touches me, then he might be able to see mine. 

"Just touch me, James, goddamnit."  His already-dark eyes grew a shade darker as his hands lightly caressed my thighs, making me ache for him even more. 

"Just for future references, I would be the one on top." He said. His hands stopped caressing my bare skin as he stared deep into my eyes. He broke our gaze and looked around. His lips pulled into a small smile as he moved his hands up to my waist and circled his thumbs on my hipbones. 

"So this is your room then?" I gave him a puzzled look. 

"You can see my room?" He nodded and I closed my eyes. What and the hell was going on? I leaned to the side and rolled over so that I was lying on my back next to James. I stared at the ceiling and shook my head. This didn't make any sense. 

"Our rooms do look somewhat alike," James said, breaking the silence. 

"Almost all of the things in our bedroom are in the same place. Our beds are in the same place, our dressers are too. I don't have a window in my room though, and our bathrooms are on opposite sides." I sighed and brought my hand up to my face, rubbing my eyes that would soon be taken over with sleep. 

"Why are your sheets damp?" I turned my head to look at James as his hand grazed over a certain spot on my bed sheets. I huffed and lifted myself from the bed, pulling the ribbon from my hair and shaking out my braid. 

"I was crying earlier," His eyes followed me as I walked towards my bathroom. 

"Why?" I set the ribbon down on my sink counter and ran my fingers through my somewhat crimped hair as I made my way back to James. 

"My back started to hurt, like, it felt like someone was stinging me a thousand times or something." James gave me a puzzled look as he listened to me speak. I shrugged my shoulders. “What?” 

He shook his head and sat up. His breathing became shallow and he pointed to his newly inked skin.

”You just described the pain I felt while getting my tattoo.” I sucked in a sharp breath and hugged myself. This isn’t possible, I thought to myself. I was going insane. Being in that Kingdom of Hell made me go utterly insane.

"So what," I said throwing my arms in the air. "I'm, like, feeling your feelings or something?" He shook his head and inhaled a deep breath. I ran my hands over my face and plopped down on my bed next to James. 

"What. Is. Happening?" James stayed quiet as I lied there and thought. He quickly twisted his body and straddled my hips. My eyes went wide as his body loomed over mine. 

"For future references," He leaned down with a masked expression. No smirk. No smile. "I'll be the one on top." My breathing came out rapidly in shallow intakes and outtakes. His brown eyes stared into my own. My eyes flickered down to his lips, traveling back up to his eyes. A small smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth as I glared at him. 

A small click sounded on the other side of my room and the door opened the slightest bit, a small portion of the light in the hallway pouring into my dark room. I turned my head towards my door and spotted Liam rubbing his eyes full of sleep as he closed my bedroom door behind him. I lifted myself up off the bed with my elbows and pushed James off of me. 

"Babe," I looked from Liam to James.

Oh, shit. 

Liam's shirtless figure trudged towards me as he blinked to try and focus his vision. A small frown covered his mouth as he walked over to me. He wasn't frowning because of seeing James in my room, though. He was frowning about something else. "Something wrong?"

Liam let out an irritated breath. I crawled over to the end of my bed as he reached my bed. 

"I can't sleep." James walked over to Liam and stood right next to him. My eyes widened a bit as my eyes flickered between the two men standing in front of me. Liam gave me a puzzled look. 

"Why are you wearing your bathrobe?" I opened my mouth to speak but no words came out. I look down and saw that I was still wearing my bathrobe from earlier. 

"Because-" I stated, looking back up at him with a warm, yet unsure, smile. "-Because, I was getting a little cold." James waved his hand in front of Liam's face, but it didn't seem to faze him. I tilted my head in confusion. Liam gave me a worried glance. 

"Are you okay, Ellie?" He asked. My attention returns back to him and I falter my gaze. 

"Yeah," I stutter. "I'm just trying to forget the trauma I went through," James walked past Liam and sat down next to me on the bed, his gaze staying on my future fiance. His hand went to my thigh. I sucked in a breath and stood up abruptly. 

"If you can't sleep, honey," I said to Liam. "Then why don't you just sleep with me?" James stood up right away and stood behind me. A soft touch covered my back and I internally flinched in pleasure. The soft sensation traveled down to my lower back and traced over my panty line right over my hip bones. 

Liam scratched his neck and gazed down into my eyes. "I was actually going to ask that anyway," I nodded and put my hands behind my back, attempting to swat James' own hands away without too much obvious motion. Liam shook his head and rubbed his eyes again. 

"I couldn't sleep because I kept on having continuous nightmares of you being. . . taken away." My eyes softened with sorrow at his words. I grabbed his hands and pulled him onto the bed, moving James aside with my leg. 

"Come on, Liam," I smiled as I crawled over the bed and lifted the covers. He slipped his body under my sheets and rested his head on one of my many pillows. James didn't seem to like the idea of me sleeping with another man and walked over to my side of the bed. Before I was able to slip under the covers of my bed James had grabbed the tie of my bathrobe and pulled. My robe came undone and I quickly acted like I had undone my robe myself. 

"You know what," I said, completely slipping off my robe. "I think you'll warm me up. I don't need to wear my robe anymore." James frowned while Liam smiled and opened up his arms to me. I picked up the covers and slid under them, engulfing myself in Liam's arms as he kissed my hair and cuddled me tight. 

A slight ease came over me as I lifted myself slightly and looked over the side of my shoulder. 

James was gone.