Ghost City

11

My eyelids slowly opened as I felt a tapping on my cheeks. I stared at Aurora with drooping eyes until I noticed the tears in her cheeks. I sat up and frowned, "What's wrong, Rory?"

She sniffled, "I had a nightmare."

"Aw, come here," I said while wrapping her in a hug.

"C-can I sleep with you and daddy?" she asked as more tears soaked her cheeks.

I nodded, "Of course you can, Sweets." I pried Damien's arm from my waist all while ignoring his grunting in his sleep. He scooted closer to my and wrapped his arm around my waist once more before pulling my body into his. "Dame!" I complained. I didn't want to put Aurora at the end of the bed.

"Hm?!" he replied in his sleep, annoyed that I was waking him.

"Make room for Aurora," I said, and at that his eyes fluttered open. He sat up and wiped his face before looking at Aurora and frowning.

"Why are you crying, Pumpkin?" Damien frowned while brushing her hair backwards.

Aurora cried, "I had a nightmare that...that y-you were gone again a-and that you were bleeding again."

"I'm fine, Princess, and I'm not going anywhere, okay?" Damien asked while scooting over, and I put Aurora to lay between the two of us. She sniffled while nodding her head, and I threw the covers over her before smooching her forehead. I then wrapped one of my arms around her, and Damien did the same.

I hadn't even thought of how Aurora had been affected by seeing her father wounded. I thought she had been managing well, but I should've known that her seeing so much blood scared her. I at least wouldn't have been letting her sleep alone if I had known.

"Are you and Mommy okay now?" Aurora asked Damien, who nodded with a light smile. "Good. I don't like when you two argue."

Damien frowned, "How do you know we argue?"

"I hear you sometimes," she answered while exchanging looks between me and her father. "Like last night."

I frowned, "Your father and I didn't argue last night."

"Yes you did," Aurora disagreed. "I woke up at one point and I heard you two yelling each others names."

My eyebrows raised immediately as my eyes widened, and I look over at Damien who held a goofy look on his face. I couldn't believe Aurora overheard Damien and me having sex last night. I didn't even think we were that loud.

"Well, we won't argue anymore," I said while hiding the blush on my cheeks by burring half of my face under the covers.

Damien chuckled, "Yeah...no more arguing."

I reached for my phone while still blushing and checked the time. "Okay, it's three in the morning. Let's get some more sleep before it's time for school, Aurora."

"Okay," she nodded. She then snuggled between Damien and me and smiled before closing her eyes.

Later that day
I grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge and then began walking to my gym room. I wanted to workout for an hour and then shower before picking Aurora up from school.

I entered the gym room and was surprised to see Damien already in there and working out. I hadn't seen him when I had woken today and began freaking out. I had sent him 13 texts asking if he was okay, and it almost took a 14th before he could respond with a simple: Doing something rn.

I didn't say anything to him as I walked over to the section I wanted to workout at. I set my bottle of water down and unrolled the yoga mat that I kept in the corner. I then grabbed some weights and stuck my AirPods into my ears.

"Hi to you too," Damien said as he took his AirPods out.

I looked over at him in silence before turning my head and playing my music. I then positioned my body in a 45 degree angle and raised my legs off the ground before starting my weighted Russian twists.

Damien walked over to me and took one of my AirPods out before asking, "You didn't hear me talking to you?"

I placed the weights down and stood before reaching for my AirPod, but he moved his hand and grabbed my wrist with his free arm.

"Damien, I'm not in the mood for this shit right now," I said with frustration at the tip of my tongue.

"Why you have an attitude with me?" he asked, and I rolled my eyes while sighing. "Don't roll your eyes at me either."

While frowning, I replied, "That's a dumb question, and don't tell me what to do. Gimme my shit and don't start with me."

"Don't talk to me like that," he said, and I could tell that he was getting angry, but I didn't care.

"Like I said, don't tell me what to do," I rolled my eyes. "Let go of my wrist and give me my stuff."

"If you're still mad about me not replying to you until after a while, I told you I was doing something," he said while still holding onto my wrist. "I don't understand why you're upset at that."

"You could've let me know beforehand that you'd be leaving the house and unavailable to talk for a while," I replied.

"I gotta tell you when I'm leaving the house now? I didn't know you had a son too," he frowned.

I rolled my eyes before saying, "It's not even about me babying you. I was genuinely worried that something happened. You literally ignored my texts and then when you replied 13 messages later, all you had to say was that you were doing something."

"What else was I supposed to say?" He asked, and I rolled my eyes. "Roll ya eyes one more time."

"Or what?" I asked. "You swear you're the boss of me."

"I never said I'm the boss of you. I'm just not gonna take any disrespect from you," he said.

I shrugged, "Well too fucking bad cause I don't have anything respectful to say to you right now. Let go of my wrist and give me my fucking AirPod back."

He tightened his hold on my wrist while saying in a threatening tone, "I said to watch ya mouth." I tried prying my wrist out of his hold, but he tightened his grip even more. At that point, I pushed him because he wouldn't let go of me, and he pushed me back while still holding onto my wrist.

"Do not let me have to fight you, Damien. I swear if you don't let go, imma fuck you up!" I warned while trying to pry my wrist away, but he only tightened his grip even more, actually hurting me now. "Let go of my fucking wrist!" I yelled, and he tightened his hold on my wrist even more.

Angry, I brought my free hand back before quickly bringing it forward towards his face. For the first three seconds of hearing the sound of my hand slapping his cheek, I was happy, but when he looked at me with a level of anger I had never seen before, I instantly regretted slapping him. My lips parted to apologize, but before I could, I felt a sting and ache across my cheek.

This nigga just slapped me!