Her Substitute Groom

‘I’m Janice’s fiancee’ I could’ve sworn that the voice was Carl’s if at all he was still alive. I held the phone tightly in my hand and stared at the house. I couldn’t get through to Janice on the phone, and since it was late, maybe coming back tomorrow morning wouldn’t be a bad idea after all.

Just when I was about to leave, my phone started to ring and I picked up on the first ring when I found that it was Chase on the phone.

“Where the hell did you rush off to? Mom just called me now. Don’t tell me you went to see Janice this night,” Chase’s voice resonated from the other end, but I disconnected the call wordlessly. I wasn’t in the mood to say anything to him. Not now.

I was going to leave, but I quickly changed my mind. Maybe seeing her this night was really the best thing to do. I didn’t have enough patience to last me for the night.

I walked over to the telecom and pressed it. Who knows, maybe they’ll allow me inside if I use it.

“Hi! I’m here to see the owner of the house,” I spoke in the telecom, hoping it’d work. I waited for another three minutes, and just when I was about to give up, the door opened and a huge bouncer cladded in black clothes came walking toward the gate.

“Why do you want to see Mr. Jason?” He didn’t say a word of greetings to me but just asked coldly.

“Uhm… Can you let me in, please? It’s personal,” I said to the bouncer confidently, and he glared hard at me from my head to my toe with an unreadable expression on his face as if he was trying to decide whether to let me in or not.

“What is your name? I need to confirm with Mr. Jason first,” He asked me, and I raised my eyebrows.

“Huh?” No way I was going to give him my name. I didn’t even know who the owner was. I just wanted to see Janice. The only reason I came here.

I was still thinking of what to say to him when his phone beeped, and he checked it.

“Boss asked to let you in,” My eyes almost narrowed in shock when he said that to me. Why would his boss ask him to let me in just like that?

“Are you coming in or not?” He asked coldly, demanding my attention and I realized he was holding the gate open for me.

“Oh, thank you,” I quickly walked inside and waited for him to close the gate before he led me to the house.

The living room was beautiful and large enough, but couldn’t come anywhere close to Dad’s own.

My phone beeped, and I checked to see a text from Janice. I quickly opened it.

‘She will join you shortly. I guess you want to talk with her. Don’t forget that you are her past now, and I’m her present and her future’ I read the message, and I was at least relieved that I could get to see Janice even though I had no idea why her newly acclaimed boyfriend was doing this.

The dude from earlier checked his phone after it beeped, then glanced at me and finally left the living room. Shortly after he left, I heard light footsteps descending the staircase and a familiar scent I could never fail to recognize even amid a million scents. It was Janice’s. I quickly looked in that direction and found her standing along the staircase, her mouth hanging open with a shocked expression on her face.

“Babe…” I whispered as I rose to my feet, and she finally walked over to me.

“What the hell are you doing here?” She shrieked as she came to stand in front of me. She had this fear in her eyes which I couldn’t comprehend where it was coming from, but I concluded that it could be because of that dude.

“Babe… I’ve missed you so much,” I couldn’t hold myself back anymore, so I pulled her into my arms and hugged her tightly. I felt like holding her in my arms forever and never letting go, but that thought soon faded when she pushed me off roughly and I almost fell to the ground if not that I was fast enough to maintain my balance.

“What the hell do you think you are doing? Why are you here?” She yelled at me like she was disgusted by my presence.

“I told you to never show your face in front of me, so what the fuck are you doing here?” She snarled at me, her eyes glistening with tears, and I swallowed nothing. For goodness sake! What the heck is going on?

“Janice?” I called surprisingly, but she scoffed and turned her face away.Còntens bel0ngs to Nô(v)elDr/a/ma.Org

“Have you been stalking me? How did you know where I live? I told you it was over between us… I told you that I already moved on, so why are you still lurking around me?” She yelled at me again, and I bit my lip.

“We need to talk, babe…”

“Stop calling me babe, Connor. We broke up! We fucking broke up! I am no longer your girlfriend, so stop bothering me! Is that so difficult to get?” She yelled at me as tears finally streamed down her cheeks, but I just stared back at her wordlessly. I opened my mouth to say something, but my heart only ached as words failed me. It felt like a dagger was pierced into my heart.

“Babe… You know I love you, right? I know you love me too… It’s written all over you. This is not you talking. What did that guy do to you? What did he do to you, babe?” I tried to touch her, but she stepped away from me and shook her head.

“I should be asking you that, Connor… What did you do to me? How did a murderer like you keep me by your side for so long? Why was I with a pathetic loser like yourself all this while?” She looked me in the eyes and spelled those words to me like they meant nothing. My jaw dropped to the ground, my heart wrenched painfully, and my lips quivered. I felt my eyes glistening with tears which I tried to hold back, but in the end, they ended up dropping down my cheeks.

“Ja… nice? Me? Murder… er?” I could barely put my words together. I was too hot to do that.

“Get out of my sight now and never show your face to me, ever again!” She pointed her index finger at me and stated bluntly, that her voice and eyes were void of emotion.

“Janice…” She didn’t spare me another glance before she turned and walked away, leaving me to my fate. My chest tightened and my breath hitched momentarily. Who was this new boyfriend of hers? What did he do to her? No way she could’ve been under a spell, right? I asked myself, but the last thing I would ever believe in was black magic and spell. I didn’t think that shit really exists, so what the fuck was going on?