“What happened here?” asked Miranda, pointing at a series of four bruises on my arms that looked like marks from fingers holding me.

I looked at them curiously. “I have no idea,” I admitted.

Xander came to check as Eloim ran into his grandmother. He furrowed his brows uncomfortably.

“Maybe we went at it a little too rough last night?” I suggested sotto voice.

It put a smile on Xander’s face but it didn’t last long and he returned to looking at the bruises, contemplating.

So I gave him a peck on the nose and moved along.

He caught up to me and grabbed me by the waist.

“I know what you’re trying to do,” he muttered in my ear.

“And what is that?”

He gave me a knowing stare.

“Thanks,” he said. “But I don’t think that is from me and you know it. You don’t have to cheer everyone out. You can be worried too sometimes.”

I felt my smile melt away.

“I talked to the priest again. He said he could come next week. Maybe it’ll be all over after that.”

I looked up at him wiggling around in his arms. “That would be nice.”

I was surprised by how mild the temperature was at this time of the year. I was sure that by this time, there would be a good layer of snow already back home, but it wasn’t too terrible here.

Not everyone seemed to think so, and I heard of few complaints about the weather, but quite frankly, other than the grey sky, it was pretty lovely. I thought it was a nice improvement.

“Aren’t you cold dear?” Miranda asked me as I returned from a short walk with Miki, so that he would do his business.

“It’s a little brisk, but quite comfortable actually,” I admitted.

Everyone looked at me like I was partially insane. It was maybe ten degrees outside, so I didn’t need to layer up so much, I didn’t even get my scarfs out yet.

“Is it warm outside?” asked Eloim.

“No, it’s just Mommy who has super powers against the cold,” said Xander.

The words ‘super powers’ sank into Eloim psyche and I watch as his face melt to absolute wonder. I couldn’t help it and I burst out laughing.

“Could I have super powers too?” he asked me.

“That’s a very good question,” I mused. “It’s possible to acquire super powers, you know, but they require a lot of work. They make it look easy in comics and movies, but in reality you need to really put your mind to it, but if you’re ready to work really hard, I could maybe show you a trick or too.”

It had an instant effect, and he spent the day pestering me about it.

“I think you might have dug your own grave here,” Xander said a little later.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” I said clicking my tongue at him. “Ye of little faith, give me time and I do miracles.”

That got him smiling. “Oh, I believe you.”

I beamed.

I spend a few hours giving Eloim a few tasks and preparing for the days to come. I didn’t know how effective this would be, but if it had even half the effectiveness than pets have on him, then it will be great.

Xander had had the presence of mind to bring his laptop, despite everything that happened, so he spent a few hours catching up on work. He had been reluctant on taking up a big new contract, giving the situation, and I was frankly unsure too if it was a good idea.

I didn’t want this to cause a dent in his career, but realistically speaking, I wasn’t sure how well things would go if we didn’t deal with this together.

It couldn’t continue this way for too long without this becoming a serious issue in his career, and the fact that I was not getting any income, or even a working visa at the moment, meant that we were both, Eloim and I, dependent on his income.

If this went really bad, I could always get a job, but I was still on a visiting visa. It would get easier after the wedding to change that, but it didn’t change the fact that if I wanted to work legally, it might take me some time.

I knew he had set some money aside, but we were also renovating a massive house, and that expense had been undertaken while considering he would keep bringing in money regularly, but having his own business, meant that if he didn’t do the work, we weren’t getting the income that went with it.

“Is there some things that could be adjusted?” I asked. “Like, I don’t know, having some of your guys taking in more of the workload, and limiting your travelling some more?”

“I thought about it,” he admitted.

He had set up shop on the little desk in the bedroom. I sat on the bed, trying to find possible solutions.

“I don’t know how viable it can be, I’m the one with the most expertise in the company, the whole business model his based on me doing the work.”

“What if you do more training,” I suggested. “Use the off time to solidify the team. I mean even if it wasn’t a ghost causing havoc. What if you get sick five years from now and you can’t work? You have all your eggs in the same basket, what if that basket fall and all the eggs crack, there will be nothing left for omelettes.”

He smiled at my attempt at comedy, but I could see the wheels turning.

“That or you hire someone around your skill level. It might not bring in as much money as you doing the work, but at least the business continues to take in contracts. Maybe you could set up multiple teams, get multiple jobs, and manage them from afar in the future.”

“Are you suggesting I expend?”

I shrugged. “You don’t have to it if you don’t want to, but this is a niche area of expertise, you could probably exploit this more. You told me you had to refuse contracts sometimes. What if you didn’t have to?”

He smiled incredulously at me. “My last serious relationship had for conclusion that I was working too much and you suggest the opposite.” He shook his head.

“Not necessarily. I’m not saying work more, as much as work smarter. If you have just one pivotal piece, anything happens to it and it all crumbles. That is a little scary to me.”

“I’ve invested some money, I get dividends and interest, even if everything went to shit, we could survive.”

I nodded. “Would it be enough for Eloim’s schooling?”

“I’ve put some money aside when he was born, it’s not massive, but it’s pilling interests at the moment, so it’s not terrible. It’s enough to cover a little over inflation rates.”

I nodded.

“But I’ll consider your suggestion. It’s not a bad one, and you’re right, it’s a weakness in my business model.” He rubbed at his shin pensively. “If I set things correctly, I could even have things set up for the business to be able to function under different management even, so that it could continue working after my retirement, or if I die, you still get income from it without having to manage it yourself. It would mean a dip in revenues for a while though, as I’d be reinvesting a lot of income.”

I nodded. “We just have to make sure we won’t run out of funds for the house and its maintenance, and make sure we have all the basics covered. For the rest I’m okay with being more frugal.”

“Come here.” He said, opening his arms.

I complied and went to sit on his lap, letting him give me one of his bear hug.

“We’ll be okay in the meantime?” I asked. “I’m sure that would be hard to do now, even more so if you’re already taking fewer contracts because of everything that is happening.”

“I don’t know,” he admitted.

“We could apply for my working visa, or we could accelerate the wedding, it could help with the visa process, then I could get a job on the side. Maybe I could even find something that I could do from home.”

“I thought you wanted to be a painter.”

“I do, but I’m aware that we can’t always get what we want, and maybe when things settle down, I could go back to painting, who knows, maybe I’ll even be able to bring in money once in a while.”

He gave me a smile that hid a bit of sadness in it.

“How about we try to keep the plan as is for now, we finish the house, I see what I can setup for my business from home, for now, and we deal with things one step at a time?” Xander said. “I have nothing against advancing the wedding date though, if we want to be able to use this as a backup plan, just in case.”

I nodded and gave him a light slap on the chest.

“How about I stop distracting you from work and I go take a shower as Eloim is still busy with his grandparents.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

I spent a few minutes in the shower with my eyes closed just enjoying the hot water massaging my stiff muscles.

When I looked at myself, I found a few new bruises too, and scratches that I had no recollection of. I was starting to look pretty banged up again. I’d have to cover those properly when we go in public next, or people will start to think that Xander is beating the crap out of me. Nothing was really terrible, and it was mostly little aches here and there, but it piled up and I really wanted to give my body time to get back to its normal self.

I took my times with shampoo and conditioner, massaging my head. I really needed to relax, we all needed it. Maybe Xander and I could indulge in a little mutual massage session. It sounded like a great idea actually. We’d have to check if we could find some massaging oil, or maybe argan oil, or something.

The air around me hit me in a cold wave and before I even realised what was going on, the shower curtain stuck to me, wrapping me tight, particularly around the throat, and I started choking instantly. I trashed as hard as I could, ripping the curtain from its hook most of the way, trying to free my hands.

Footing inside a wet tub was precarious at the best of moments, so it was unsurprising that I went down the clawfoot tub in a heap, clawing at the curtain still wrapped around me, strangulation me. My neck was painful, and I decided to push on this instead of trying and failing with my wet feet to get my footing back under me. So after a few attempts, I managed to grab at the part that was tight around my neck, and pulled down instead of up. It would have choked me for good if I hadn’t used my hands as leverage, but I gave a few sharp tugs and the curtains ripped all the way through, and I toppled out of the tub completely, tea over kettle.

I heard things slam around be and the mirror shattered somewhere above my head, but I just crawled to the closest corner in pure panic then I heard a word that chilled me to the bones and I clawed my way out of the curtains grip.

I was naked, half-covered in a sheer damaged curtain that had little bits of blood on it that came from I don’t know where and there was mirror shard everywhere.

My mind entertained me to images of them flying in my direction, stabbing me from all angles, and I just bent over myself, shaking and wheezing as I could still hardly breath. The massive intakes of air, burning in my lungs after I had been deprived for so long. I had felt my vision darken, and the sheer realisation that I had nearly died hit me in the face harder than everything else so far.

The door burst open and I jumped in pure terror at what came next.

When Xander’s face peeked around, I burst into uncontrollable waterworks.

A distant part of myself was aware of the child cries in the background, but there was no strength left in me and I crumble completely.