Norman looked up from his laptop to his clock. 3:02am. He couldn't sleep and wasn't even trying. He was an anonymous website developer and helped people for free. One would think it was the other way round, but they were doing him a favour and when he wasn't in the mood for that, he did other things.

Mostly bad things.

Some of them included but were not limited to; hacking people's social media pages for fun, texting different men with fake pages and beautiful women's pictures, extorting money from the gullible ones. It was all fun and games. Obviously, he didn't need their money.

These were the things that kept him up at night and away from his lucid, scary dreams.

As his life, his room was a total mess! That was one reason he never let anyone in here because they'd consider him lazy and dirty. The other being that he hated people being in his personal space.

Norman closed up his laptop. Done with work for the day. He was quite tired after spending the whole night with Leonard who just couldn't get his life together.

He'd gotten home barely two hours ago. He closed his eyes in attempt to sleep which only lasted a few seconds before they flickered open again. "Not tonight." He cursed under his breath.

Accidentally or not, Norman's eyes travelled to the intercom on his bed. In one way or another, his bed was big enough to house his electronic devices as well as his clothes, some chocolate wrappers, some biscuits, sweets and a host of other things that shouldn't be found on a bed. Maybe he was actually dirty and lazy.

"Could she be asleep?" He asked picking it up and calling her. He was definitely not expecting her to pick up and when she did, he was both stunned and thrilled

"Hi, Mr Patterson." Her voice seemed unusually very quiet. He loved the way she pronounced his name. He could imagine her full pink lips and beautiful smile that left him speechless the few times he'd been lucky to experience it. He thought everything about Beatris was perfect.

"You're not asleep." It was obvious enough he didn't know why he pointed it out.

Beatris hesitated and he listened to her soft breathing over the phone. "I know," she replied.

"I want to see you." The words had left his mouth before he could think. He regretted it. Why the hell had he said that? It was rather late. It'd be very awkward to be alone with her in a room at this time. He prayed she'd say no, he hoped she'd say yes.

He waited for her reply but it seemed like he was going to wait an eternity. How much he hated being kept hanging.

"It's your house. You can," she finally said quietly

Norman smiled before jumping out of his bed. He passed by his mirror and in what felt like ages, he thought to take a look.

He was wearing a comfortable sleeping PJ and his hair was a bit disheveled. He tried to smoothen it hastily before tearing his eyes away immediately. Why did he think anything would change?

Norman hurried downstairs, ran towards Beatris room and froze in front of her door.

*This is your fucking house, Norman. Say it!* "This is my fucking house," he whispered in sheer attempt to muster courage. It seemed to work as he'd twisted the door knob and appeared in Beatris' room.

Beatris sat up her legs folded. She was wearing her very short night dress and all her legs were exposed to him.

They looked so beautiful, so soft. He wanted to touch them. He hoped she hadn't caught him staring. The last thing he wanted was to come across as a pervert.

"Hi." He smiled at her. She didn't look happy at all and he wondered why. Had she eaten? Was someone rude to her? Did she lack anything?

Norman was a bit confused. She'd asked him to sit on her bed this morning. But right now, she was upset and he didn't know if she would be okay with it.

He walked to her bed anyway and sat there. "I didn't know you'd be up," he said.

"I couldn't sleep," she replied.

"How was the party?" He asked.

Beatris rolled her eyes at his question. "It was... lonely."

"You know something just came up. I really had no intention of leaving you all alone," he said.

She only kept staring at him and he could tell she was really angry. Well, this wasn't his fault in any way.

"Were you all alone? You didn't talk to anyone?" He asked.

Beatris finally looked away. Was she hiding something?

She placed her hands on her exposed lap before looking back at him. "No. You left me all alone and warned me specifically not to speak to anyone. The only thing you didn't do was tie a belt around my neck with the name Patterson boldly written on it."

"Tris, I didn't think it was a big deal. Is that why you're upset?" He asked bewildered by her over exaggerated reply.

She sighed. "Leaving me all alone for one month was not a big deal, being completely mean to me in the car without an explanation wasn't, leaving me at a party with strangers was also little. I'd love to see what could be a big deal to you, Norman!"

"Apparently, you weren't all alone at the party. I have some report that you were talking to... No, better still, flirting with everyone you saw at the party." Norman recalled the phone conversation Leonard had with his wife which she'd said, "Beatris is having fun, she's mingling and making friends."

He didn't like the sound of that. She was his wife and he didn't get married to her so she could 'make friends'. 

Beatris  scoffed not bothering to mask her irritation. "You just managed to find a way to make me the bad person. Congratulations, Mr Patterson."

He got up defeated and walked towards the door.

"Where are you going, Norman?" She asked. It was getting painfully obvious that he hated to tell her anything about himself and the more she tried to get close to him, the more he pushed her away. 

He turned to face Beatris who'd chased after him. What exactly did this woman want?

"You want to leave again? Like you always do." She stifled a laughter. "Why the hell did you get married to me in the first place if you won't even talk to me? I demand to know!" She was by every sense of the word, frustrated.

He clenched his fist. He was getting really pissed and he knew that if he didn't leave immediately, he'd do something he'd regret.

Norman attempted to walk out again before feeling her hands on his shoulder.

"Why do you keep running?" She yelled.

"Let go!" He turned and forcefully pushed her and she fell to the floor, making a hard impact.

He felt so full of energy and yet so empty. This was a feeling like one he hadn't experienced before. He stood fixed to the ground as he watched Beatris gradually look up till her eyes met his. They were almost blood red and filled with so much pain and terror.

This was supposed to make him feel bad and yet it didn't. It made him feel strong. For the first time, he didn't see himself as the representation of a nobody. He felt alive.

Finally, he broke the eye contact and reached for the door which was only a footstep away.

When he got out, he leaned against it and listened to her as she let out quiet sobs.

*You're a monster! How could you hurt her like that?*

*I didn't mean for it to happen. It was an accident!*

He gently slid down till he sat on the floor and placed his head in his hands. It wasn't just that he'd hurt his wife, but also, he couldn't deny the fact that he felt good after doing it.

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Beatris woke up to her phone that was incessantly ringing. She had an instant headache owing to the fact that she'd cried herself to sleep.

She was about to close her eyes and drift back to sleep, when she saw the caller ID. Bibi

She picked up her phone immediately and then regretted it because she didn't know how she'd sound. Brianna couldn't know she was unhappy here. She shouldn't.

"Sissy!" Her little sister's ever enthusiastic voice cried out. "Where the hell did you keep your phone? I've been calling and calling and calling you!"

"I...I was sleeping," she said.

"Sleeping? By this time? Oh my goodness!" Brianna exclaimed with a loud voice Beatris had to hold the phone away from her ear for a second. She thought this person was unarguably the loudest girl in the world.

Beatris looked up to the hanging wall clock. It was 11:00 am already.

"How are you?" She asked.

Brianna exhaled. "I'm doing very fine. Everyone here is so cute and so nice to me. You know what, your little sister is about to get herself a boyfriend!" She squealed.

Beatris couldn't help but laugh. God only knew how much she missed this girl. Her heart ached.

"I'm thankful to Norman. He made all of this happen. I still can't believe how lucky we got," Brianna said and she would never know the impact her words had on her sister.

Beatris frowned at the mention of his name. Brianna had no idea who that man really was.

"I expect you're very happy there. That man is so nice." Brianna insisted on talking about Norman and how 'lucky' they got throughout the call and somewhere in the middle of it, she zoned out.

Beatris got out of bed. A part of her was tired of being confined to her bedroom, a part of her wanted to lock herself in to feel the least bit safe.

She stepped out anyway, with hope she wouldn't run into the big bad wolf waiting to devour her.

Standing in front of her door was a covered plate with the breakfast tag on it. Beside it were two shopping bags

Was he trying to apologize to her? Well sorry meant so much more than stupid gifts that didn't even cost him anything. Moreover, right now, there was very little he could do to earn her forgiveness.

She tore the first bag open angrily and took out a jewelry box. The diamond bracelet that lay in it was a beauty to behold. She stared at it in awe.

Proceeding to the next bag, she was more than surprised to see a pair of red lingerie.

"What the hell!" She exclaimed. She tried so hard to not laugh but all her effort was futile. Was he crazy or something? He didn't even know her size.

After eating her breakfast and taking in her gift bag, she suddenly didn't feel so angry at Norman anymore. Maybe he just lost his temper, she shouldn't have pushed him so hard. After all, no one was perfect. He made a mistake and he apologized for it.

A thought suddenly came to her mind and she got out of her room.

Walking up the stairs, she stood in front of what was supposed to be his bedroom. There must be something about him in there. Something that could answer all the questions that lingered on her mind.

She turned the knob fearlessly. It was locked. Sighing, she took off her slippers and stepped all over his door mat. It was there. The key!

She picked it up immediately, opened the door walked into the mess that no one deserved to live in.

Clothes were scattered everywhere, chocolate wrappers were all over the chair and the table and the floor. Was he a junk addict or something?

"Oh my God!" She exclaimed with her hand over her mouth. This was a pretty big mess.

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