Chapter 213 Childlike Manners

Bella did not dare to shut her eyes. She feared that if she fell asleep she would sleepwalk once more to Charles’s room. She laid back on the pillow and pulled her head out from under the covers. She stared at the ceiling and tried to concentrate her thought.

After a while, her eyelids began to close. Keeping them open requires considerable effort. It was a matter of time before she fell asleep again.

Just a moment before she dozed off, an ethereal voice reached her ears. Someone had called her name. It sounded like Charles but she wasn’t one hundred percent sure. She looked around the room to make sure nobody was lurking in the shadows. What would she do if he had followed her here?

“Bell!”

There it was again and this time she was certain that it was Charles. She jumped up from the bed and put on her robe. Better stay awake than surrender to forces beyond her control.

In his room, Charles was also lying on the bed looking upwards with the difference he wasn’t staring at the ceiling. He was watching Bella with his sixth sense. She was now in a state of panic because he had whispered her name. This unique sense of empowerment made him giggle. She looked so cute when she was frightened. Bella was so stupid! She even believed that she had sleepwalked to Charles’s room.

He called her name out once more and watched her as she almost jumped to the ceiling. She put her hands over her ears and did a full circle around herself in a fruitless attempt to find the source of the mysterious voice.

“I must be hallucinating,” she said to herself. She stood still and listened carefully to the sound of her breath. There was no other sound in the room. This made her hypothesize. Was her love for Charles so strong, it made her sleepwalk and gave her auditory hallucinations?

She took what was happening to her as a sign of madness. The only way out was to heal herself from the disease names Charles and the best way to do that was to find someone else to fall in love with.

Nowadays most people use their mobile phones to search for love. The virtual world has become a replacement for real human relations. Maybe Bella could search there for Charles’s replacement.

She took out her phone and browsed through different social media for the perfect man to fall in love with. He turned out to be a social media presence named Ramon. He was a popular YouTuber famous for performing dangerous stunts. Moreover, he had the appearance of the perfect Latin lover. Dark skin, a small beard, a sharp Roman nose, and deep dark eyes. The perfect antidote to Charles Williams, the Prince of Sardines!

She added Ramon’s Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts and started to download his photos and mini-videos. Ramon in a swimsuit! Ramon in a sauna! Ramon swimming with sharks! Ramon surfing and diving!

She shut her eyes and tried to imagine his masculine, musky scent, and his strong muscles. A few seconds later, she began to feel dizzy. She would give anything to have Ramon in her bedroom lying right next to her. She lied on the bed and led her hand slide between her legs.

Charles gulped down as he saw what Bella was doing. She didn’t want to do it with him but she was ready to do it with an imaginary lover? He felt a surge of jealousy as he watched her rub her cell phone between her legs. The woman was insane!

He whispered her name once more and she stopped what she was doing. Her eyes were wide open in shock. The prospect of not being able to find a moment of peace seemed to terrify her. He seemed satisfied with this reaction and called out her name several more times. Bella was now in a state of panic. She was staring at the walls around her in the same way a mental patient locked in the isolation ward would do.

Charles observed her extreme reaction with large interest. Was all this proof they were soulmates? If this was true, how long would it take Bella to realize this? That the solutions to her problems were not an internet boyfriend but Charles.

She was now behaving as if she was totally bonkers. She would try to sleep then get up after a few minutes and gaze at the screen of her phone. She would start playing with herself but would stop right away the moment Charles would call out her name.

It went on like this until the early hours of dawn arrived.

After washing her face, she put on her running outfit and went outside for jogging. She wore headphones and her phone was strapped to her arm. This way she could listen to Ramon’s songs while jogging. Yes! Ramon was a singer, an actor, and a model too. He was the perfect man. Far more perfect than Charles.

Charles kept on repeating her name continuously. To stop hearing it, Bella had to increase the volume on her mobile phone. This way the sound of Ramon’s voice muffled out the distant echo of the psychopath in the castle.

Bella had managed to seal off herself from Charles’s psychic attacks and now felt freer than ever. She was running on the sand with the sea breeze gently brushing against her hair.

Charles gave up on contacting her. He needed to drink from the Tree of Life so that his influence would increase. Once he had restored his power, no matter how far Bella was, he would be able to reach her. For the moment, he was done playing these childish games with her.

After running for over an hour, Bella returned to the mansion. She headed straight to the dining hall for breakfast. Roy was there and ready to serve her.

“What’s for today?” she asked.

“We have croissants with three different fillings, toast, and oatmeal.”

“I’ll have a croissant and a bowl of oatmeal. Some coffee too.”

“Right away, my Lady.”

“I would also have a suggestion for the Lady if she wants to hear it.”

“Sure it does,” she said. “Spit it out.” “There is a gym on the third floor with four different treadmills. You don’t need to go to the beach if you want to run.”

“Does the gym have fresh sea air blowing directly in your face?”

“…”

Roy went away to bring her breakfast. She knew that his intentions were good but it was too complicated to explain to him how much she was suffering in this place. Maybe he could not understand this because he too was caged here for most of the time.

Her muscles were aching after jogging for so long. She stretched out her arms and legs, while her imagination filled with the image of Ramon.

Suddenly Charles walked into the hall.

“Bell, what’s wrong with you?” he asked.