Burning Desires by Adlin Lawrence (short books to read .TXT) 📕

The rain was beating wildly against the window panes. The thunder roared madly. It was a November eve. The pale blue Volkswagen was driving on the wet silted road. No other car seemed to be in the line of sight.

There was utter darkness around.

Annie Campbell was sitting in the back of the car, sobbing quietly to herself. Just next to her, her sister Beth was sitting. Beth was silent and seemed to be in deep thought.
She felt Annie moving slightly beside her. She saw her sister crying. She placed her hand soothingly around her shoulder, and stroked her hair.

Annie continued weeping. Beth herself wasn’t feeling her best that night. She felt light-headed, and her pupils could not focus correctly. She had had too much to drink that night.

Louis Campbell, Annie and Beth’s father was driving and his wife, Grace was sitting quietly beside him.

A lot was going on in Grace’s mind. She looked in the rear view mirror to look at her daughters. The daughters for whom, she had done so much. The daughters whom she loved so much…..

“It’s all my fault”, Beth was thinking to herself.”I’m the one who got poor Annie into this mess. God, what have I done?”

On the other hand Annie’s mind was racing in some completely different direction. Several things were going on in her head at the same time. She tried to focus her mind but she couldn’t, it was just buzzing very badly. She tried to recall the day’s events: Beth getting ready for the party, mum and dad leaving the house, Beth’s friends arriving to pick her up. Again she remembered herself dancing to her heart’s content that night. She knew she had had some soda, but she wasn’t feeling drunk, it was all just so beautiful to her. Yet, she didn’t know why she was crying. She had no regrets that night.
She just felt beautiful that night, but yet the salt-water continued to trickle.

The car kept going on, across the winding roads in the dead of the night.

No one spoke a word.

Suddenly, a hooded figure appeared just in front of their car, right in the middle of the abandoned road. Overwhelmed, Louis suddenly applied the car breaks, but in the back of his mind he knew that he won’t be able to save that person, the road being very narrow.

The brakes screeched, but he skewered the wheel to avoid the person, and the car went off the road………………..

Anna woke up with a start. Her shirt clung to her wet back. Her forehead was beaded with sweat.

“Stop, it,” she ordered herself.” Just stop”

Outside the rain was pouring hard and was beating against the window panes. The waves leapt at the rocks growling, shrieking. The tempests seemed to be at its might in the dark of the night.

Anna Carter lay in bed. She couldn’t feel anything beyond her waist. She felt cold.
Suddenly, she started crying. All the memories of that horrific night were returning to her. Her temples were flaring up and she was writhing in agony to just somehow stop, stop those thoughts and dreams. She was frantically trying to close her mind to all those memories with all her might.

She wanted to call out, but she did not have any strength to.

Suddenly, a caring hand brushed her hair aside from her face, and a pair of warm feet slid over hers.

”I’m here”, hot air whispered into her ears and on to her neck.

“Beth”, she whispered.

“Yes, my dear I’m here” the calm mother-like voice answered to her.

”Try and go to sleep”, she said.

Anna turned to look into the angel like face, and was suddenly relived by an overwhelming sense of peace and calm. She allowed her to caress her cheek, and took within the warmth of her body.

Slowly, she drifted into an empty black dream.

Trrrriinggggg………

Anna shaded her eyes with the back of her palm. The sun was gleaming brightly through the curtained windows.

It showed 8.00am in her bedside clock. She decided to brush away all the events of the previous night and got out of bed to start her day anew.
She had a busy day ahead.

She poured herself some milk and water in the kettle and got in the shower. Her head still continued to hurt, but she chose to ignore it and allowed the cold showers to drape her. She got so lost in thought, until she heard the front door slam shut.

Her aunt was back from her walk. It was 9.30 by then.

“Oh, crap, late again. “, she thought to herself. She had to get to work.

It was a Saturday, so there was no school that day.

Quickly, she got out of the shower, put on a green coral printed tunic, and studied herself in the mirror.

Anna was never the attractive kind. All through high school, she was part of the nerdy gang and had huge brown colored eyes and petite features. But still, even at that time, there was something about her that made people turn around to look at her a second time.

Beth was the attractive one.

She ran her fingers through her honey-colored hair. She had her hair. The only thing she shared with her angel-like sister.

Before, she could stop, tears flooded her eyes. Salty-water trickled down her cheek, into her lips, and onto her pale, fragile body.

She was choking hard, trying to contain those sobs.

But the tears just kept coming.

Suddenly, the door to her room opened and her aunt walked in.
“Lovely morning, eh sunshine?” her aunt McLane said cheerfully. ”I see you made me some coffee, huh?”
“Yes, a very lovely morning, aunty” said Anna, hastily wiping off her tears and composing herself.

“Did you enjoy your walk”? She asked, moving quickly about the room collecting her stuff.

“The old Mrs. Cannery decided to accompany me today, puff!!!What a cramming old lady she is.” “But however, the breeze felt lovely, and the waters look heavenly.” she said with her eyes half-close. “You should also head out to someplace with your friends today. The day is just too beautiful to let go!!!”

“Thank you, but I’d rather get to work on time.” she said coldly, without looking at her aunt.

She was just getting out of her room, when Julianne caught hold of her.

Wiping off a drop of tear from the corner off her eye, she forced her chin up and said to her,” Annie, what happened to your parents was not