The Baroness Misbehaves
Chapter 63: Waking Up Blind (2)

Chapter 63: Waking Up Blind (2)

Cassian groaned softly in his sleep as he slowly regained consciousness.

The familiar voices that traveled across the room awoke him from his deep slumbers, and what felt good was the fact that he was able to take in as many deep breaths as he could into his lungs without feeling his chest grow painfully tight, but the wounds on his abdomen restricted him to some extent.

Exhaling through his parted lips, his eyes fluttered open and he blinked a few times to try and clear his hazy vision, but to no avail. Everything was a blur, and he couldn’t make out any shapes or forms, nor could he see the owner of those familiar voices he kept hearing.

His mind was disoriented and he felt a dull ache around his body, as though he had been beaten in his sleep, and he realized he was lying on something more comfortable than the earthly ground he was in before.

Trying to remember what happened to him in detail, he felt a dull throbbing ache in the back of his head, the pain radiating through his skull and the familiar voices that kept murmuring around him only seemed to intensify the pain, and he squeezed his eyelids shut.

"Urgh! Shut up Orson, you’re going to kill me first before the headache even does the job" Despite not being able to see who the owner of the voice belonged to, he couldn’t mistake Orson’s deep tenor voice for another, and the whole place strangely quieted down after he had intruded on the conversation going on.

Silence reigned for a few uncomfortable minutes making him wonder if they left. Wouldn’t he hear a door open if they did?

"Brother!" Inna’s exclaimed voice rang in his ear, vibrating his eardrums, and he heard hurried footsteps approaching the bed he was currently resting upon.

He opened his eyes and settled it on the figure that had made his bed sink a bit, but no matter how many times he blinked, he just couldn’t see their faces, or anyone’s faces for that matter.

What about Madeline?? How is he still alive??

"Cassian, you really gave everyone a heart attack. I told you not to leave last night and you didn’t listen to me...." He could hear his sister’s worried voice trembling as she scolded him for leaving the house when she told him not to do it, but with his current confusion and blank gaze, he wasn’t ready to listen to his sister’s rant and he immediately silenced her.

"I’m happy to hear your voice Inna but now’s not the time to bite at me."

Propping his hands against the bed, he pushed himself up into a sitting position. The darkness that enshrouded his vision made him feel he got stuck in an inescapable abyss, and the mixed voices in his surroundings only messed with his emotions.

But how is he alive? He could tell he stopped breathing before they even found him.

’Why can’t I see?’ he inwardly questioned himself before lifting his hands to feel his face in case he was still blindfolded. To his dismay, he didn’t feel the cloth those parasitic organisms had used to blind his eyes, which could only mean that whatever that human parasite had rubbed into his eyes had made him blind.

He actually thought the man named Elijah was only bluffing.

"I’m blind." He released a sigh when the realization struck him harder than he expected. He could hear shocking gasps from different angles, and that’s when he heard the voice his heart had been straining to hear since the conversation began.

"How are you blind??" When he felt Madeline’s hand on his shoulder, a sense of warmth and comfort instantly wrapped him and stopped him from panicking over the fact that he really couldn’t see a thing.

He reached to hold her hand that rested on his shoulder while staring into space.

"Maddie."

"Cassian, it’s me." He could feel the bed sink down when she sat beside him, and his hold on her hand tightened after intertwining their fingers together. That could only mean Lily had done the job he assigned her and found Madeline.

Just holding her hand, he could hear her pulse racing in anxiety, and he hummed.

"Did I scare you??"

"You scared all of us, you psycho!" He heard Orson say. The anger in Orson’s voice was understandable, yet Cassian chose to ignore whatever he must have them pass through.

"Shhh I’m talking to my wife," he asserted as a matter-of-fact. "Excuse us, will you? Both of you."

Inna and Orson’s mouth dropped open the minute Cassian chased them away. Here they were already shocked by the fact Cassian couldn’t even see them, but the young lad still has the strength to behave so arrogantly towards the both of them, and he’s telling them to leave??

Madeline’s face instantly tinted red seeing him act so loving towards her. He had refused to let go of her hand, and when she tried to caution him not to act this way when he wasn’t feeling alright, Inna had ruined her chance of reprimanding Cassian when she said,

"I didn’t spend my whole morning trying to find you only to be chased away!"

"Get the physician here, go now." He chased them, ignoring what his sister just said to him, and as much as Inna wanted to end his life herself right now for acting arrogantly towards her and Orson, she’ll wait for his eyes to heal first before getting her revenge.

Against her own will, she stepped out with Orson to go get the physician.

Hearing the door slam as proof of their exit, Cassian’s hold on Madeline released, and it finally dawned on the worried woman that he was acting it out as usual.

For a second, she really thought he missed her from how he spoke, and she felt silly for thinking that far.

"You hurt yourself." He commented, his fingertip lingering on the bandaged finger in her hand. Madeline tried to free her hand from his hold, but he grabbed her wrist before she escaped from his closeness.

"I can’t see, you need to stay put." He reminded her without looking in her direction, and Madeline still found it difficult to believe Cassian couldn’t see... how can he not see???

"What....what did they do to you?"

"First tell me how you got hurt." He demanded without letting go of her wrist, and Madeline was startled by how strong his grip was despite just waking up from his oblivion.

"Cas!"

"Did someone hurt you??"

"No."

"Then tell me what happened?"

"I got bruised trying to get you out of that underground prison." Madeline finally yanked her hand from his grip. "It’s just a small cut that barely hurts, you’re making a big deal out of something so miniscule."

Hearing she got hurt all because of him, made a sense of guilt invade his mind, and he said nothing more. He really wished he could see the size of her injury to know how minor it was, but that was impossible since everything before him was a total blur.

All of a sudden, he could feel someone’s warm hands on both sides of his cheeks as Maddie turned his face to meet hers. His Amber-brown eyes were still the were they were, alluring but distant. Too many mysteries evolved around them and she just wanted to sink in it.

"Can you really not see me?" Her euphonious voice came out in a concerned whisper, and a weird unknown feeling crawled into Cassian’s chest after detecting how worried she was for him.

"If I did, I wouldn’t give you the chance to speak." He was fighting it, but Madeline could sense his weakness in his voice, and it made her wonder why he’s refusing to show his pain. It must be terrifying for him to suddenly lose his vision and she didn’t want him to keep it to himself.

"What happened over there?"

Cassian’s hands reached for the smaller ones that rested on his cheek as he brought them down. He palmed both her hands together before dropping a tender kiss on them, one that Madeline never saw coming as her eyes widened, and she could feel butterflies swirl in the pit of her stomach at his gesture.

"If I tell you, how am I sure you won’t run and abandon me?"

"W..what??" Madeline was lost.

"What if you leave me, for the second time? What if you break your promise to me for the second time? Hmn??" He suddenly hissed out painfully when his wounded abdomen stung him, and he impulsively clutched his stomach.

"Argh!"

"Cas!"

To no one’s notice, the bite mark on his neck faded till it was out of sight.