Sleeping With The CEO
Chapter 75: The Tower

Chapter 75: The Tower

Emily looked, up, up, up at the tower before her. She had tilted her head as far back as it would go, but she still could not see the top of it. It disappeared somewhere beyond the clouds and still kept going.

Good, she thought, looking down at her bare feet. If I go up there, the water definitely will not be able to follow. Emily had been on the beach when the water had started to rise. At first, she had moved further inland, hoping that it would not touch her there. But it had flowed in steadily, covering the sand and grass, and slowly making its way up the palm trees.

When it had still been at grass-covering level, Emily had rolled up her jeans in an effort to keep them dry, but clearly, that had been an exercise in futility. The water was now up to her waist and she was soaked.

But she had the tower now, a way out, a chance for her to get somewhere dry, and so she took it. The tower had no door, just an opening carved from the stone, and through it, Emily could see a set of stairs. They led up, that was all she knew, and that was enough, so she walked in and took the first step.

Higher and higher she moved, not feeling the strain at all, her focus on her goal of getting away from the water. So long as she kept moving, she was safe.

That was what she told herself, and she clung to that belief. Even when she could still feel the wetness lapping at her feet, she clung to it. Even when she looked back and saw that all the stairs that she had taken before had been swallowed up by the water, Emily kept moving.

So what if she could not go down anymore, she was going up, and that was all that counted.

She kept walking, at some point, she must have made it high above the clouds, just as the tower extended above the clouds, but the water still kept coming.

The end of the line came in the form of an opening, another stone-carved door. Emily walked right through it, and out into the light.

Standing at the top of a tower that would soon be no more, one that the water would take for itself, Emily should have been scared, been scared, but she was not.

Instead, she was calm. She stared up at the bottle blue sky and felt at peace once again, the water went past her waist, but she was not scared, not even a little.

Why would she be?

Up ahead, a giant owl flew, and when it swooped in low, it was the most natural thing in the world for Emily to let it pick her up.

It carried her as though she weighed nothing, and when it flew low enough, Emily, no longer having to worry about drowning, extended a hand. Her fingers touched the surface of the water, and a giant wave rose up, trying to pull her in.

But the owl was there, it out flew the raging waters, twisting this way and that, its wings extended fully. In the end, the water was left behind, its surface calm, but its depths reeking of darkness as it watched Emily get flown to safety.

She woke up after only two hours of sleep, as was her norm. But just like all the other nights since Emily had begun drinking Ayo’s special brew, she did not wake up fearful. Instead, she woke with a feeling that all would be well. She was certain that she had been dreaming, that it should have been a nightmare, but she was not scared at all.

That was the beauty of Ayo’s fear, it took away her dread, and in doing so it made the long night easier to bear. But it was finishing fast, Emily would be done with it within a week.

That weighed on her as she took out her embroidery and got to work. She wanted to go get more, but Ayo’s instructions had been clear. The mixture was only to be taken once and no more after that.

Given that she had not really thought that it would do her any good in the first place, Emily had not thought too much about that. But now she had tasted the brew and knew how much of a game-changer it was.

Thanks to the brew, she had been able to keep her energy up, to function normal at work. She had been assisting Derek to the best of her ability thanks to it. And now in just a few days, it would be gone, that terrified Emily.

In a desperate bid, she had gone back to the store and tried to plead with Ayo, to get her to make another mixture. But the old woman, sadness as clear as day across her face, had refused.

"What I gave you is very useful. But there is a reason you can only have it once. Take one more sip over recommended limit and you might not be able to have children anymore. Just one more tiny sip and you might lose the ability to sleep without nightmares invading instantly. The little sleep that you are getting now could vanish altogether," Ayo had taken her hand then, guiding her towards the exit.

"Even if you were willing to never have children, I am not sure you would be able to take it if the little sleep that you were getting right now went away altogether," And Emily had walked out on her own at those words. She wanted sleep, more than anything, but there were some things that she was just not willing to risk.

Which was why she was now almost at the end of her brew and growing desperate by the day.

So what if having more meant infertility? So what if there was a chance that it might amp up her nightmares? So what if drinking it’d had people commenting on the smell of lemon detergent in her office. It was not all bad, besides, those very same people had also said that they smelled smoke. Which, given that Emily could only smell her own citrus, meant that their noses had to be wonky. Smoke? What smoke?

Even though she could ignore smelling like and orchard...and smoke too apparently. The first too were more serious, and Emily could not disregard them. So as her tea was slowly finishing up, she knew it would be the end of her peace.

Unless of course she worked up the nerve to ask her boss to sleep with her...