Fiendish: A Twisted Fairytale (32 page)

With her eyes still shut tightly, she did as instructed.
 The springs of the rusted bed creaked under her weight. She began to sniffle as her crying became more intense when I tied her hands securely to the bed. Her sobbing was causing her body to shake, but she kept her eyes closed. I watched her for a while. Her breasts jiggled from her trembling; her nipples had hardened from the exposed air. They were stiff pink nubs ready to be sucked. I watched and waited for the excitement to creep into me. It didn’t.

“Would you consider yourself a beautiful person?”

“I…I…”

“It
’s a simple question. Are you beautiful or not?”  I snapped.

I was becoming consumed with annoyance.
It’s her fault, she’s the reason you can’t enjoy this
. 
She’s ruined you.  

“She
’s ruined nothing!”

“What…who, I didn
’t…”

“Quit babbling, and answer the damn question.”

“Yes!” she screamed.

“And you use that beauty to get what you want?
 Charging that ridiculous amount of money because you somehow think you’re worth that.” I picked up the knife and studied my distorted reflection in the gleaming blade. “What could you charge if you weren’t beautiful?” As I asked the question, I pressed the tip of the knife to her cheek.

“Oh god!
Please, please don’t.” She let out a strangled cry when I pressed the blade deeper drawing blood. “Please don’t,” she begged. 

Her sobbing got louder and more hysterical.
 I watched the blood run down her face, waiting for the calm to overtake me. Still, it didn’t. 
She’s taking your peace away.

“No she
’s not,” I hissed under my breath. 

Yes she is.
 You have the perfect specimen before you, and you can’t enjoy it because of her! You’re thinking of her. You need her.

“No!”
 I don’t need her. I don’t need anyone. 

I let the blade make its way down Pet
’s cheek, cutting a deep, jagged line to the tip of her chin. She screamed out from the pain, begging me not to kill her. The tears flowed freely through her still tightly shut eyes. I steadied my breathing, closed my eyes, and focused only on her pain. Her cries rang out in my ears, my shoulders began to relax, but as my mind cleared, I thought of Calida. 
I told you so.

Chapter 28

The house was still quiet as I padded across the living room to put on a pot of coffee for Macy and to make myself a cup of Chai tea. She and Mitch were up late, so I fell asleep to the tunes of Bruno Mars on my iPod. While I waited on the water to boil, I thought back over my evening. It had gone relatively well. Patrick was too busy schmoozing up potential clients to be bothered with me. I handed out business cards and set a few appointments. All and all, it was exactly what it should have been, and for that I was grateful. 

“
Mornin’,” Macy said, yawning as she entered the kitchen.

“
Mornin’. Coffee should be ready soon.”

“Oh bless you!” sh
e rejoiced with a big grin. 

A few moments later, Mitch came wandering in.
 Macy poured a cup of coffee then handed it to him before making her own.

“Sugar?”

“Don’t mind if I do,” he replied before giving her a quick kiss. 

Watching their playful easy exchange was warming, but it left me feeling a little jealous.
 I wished things could be that carefree with Seth, but instead I had complicated. I sipped on my tea, pushing those thoughts aside.

“So, ladies, what
’s the plan for the day?” 

I explained that we would be stripping the old wallpaper then prepping the walls for the new wallpaper.
 I hoped to get it off and prepped today so that tomorrow we could apply the new stuff. The person who I’d given our furniture to was supposed to come pick it up tomorrow, so for now we just moved it to the center of the room. Once we got the furniture out of the way, I set up the rented steamer. After I told Mitch how to work it, I brought my docking station from my room and put Train full blast on my iPod. The music filled my small house quickly.

As he steamed, Macy and I danced around to “Drive-by” until the paper started falling off.
 We took the scraper and gently coaxed it off the walls. I was excited at how easily it was coming off. At this rate, we would be done in no time. We had been working about thirty minutes when Seth showed up. 

“Looks like I
’m late to the party,” he said when I opened the door.

Seeing him made me giddy like a school girl.
 I hadn’t really expected him to show up today; in fact, I’d thought he had forgotten about my project. We hadn’t discussed it since Monday, and he didn’t seem to want to talk to me yesterday.

“I didn
’t think you were really coming,” I said, closing the door behind him.

“I offered to help, and I meant it.”
 He leaned in and gave me a soft kiss on the cheek.

 
I don’t know why I was embarrassed by that gesture, but I felt myself blushing. Macy was watching me closely. I gave her a pleading look to not start; she in turn gave me a pointed ‘he’d better not fuck with you’ look before plastering a fake smile on her face.

“Seth, how nice of you to join us,” she said.

“My pleasure,” he replied, returning her smile with the same insincerity. “Calida didn’t believe I could do manual labor, so I’m here to show her I’m more than just a pretty face.”

 
The smile on his lips sent the butterflies in my stomach into a tail spin. 
He’s joking around
. 
Either he didn’t see the silent exchange between Macy and I, or he’s ignoring it.
 I would put my money on the latter because there wasn’t much he seemed to miss.

“Seth, man, nice to see you again,”
 Mitch called over his shoulder as he continued his task. 

“Good to see you.
 Looks like they have you doing all the work.”

“Yeah, but I
’m expecting to be well rewarded for my hard work,” he replied, winking at Macy.

We got back to work; Seth took over the steaming duties to give Mitch
’s arms a break. He needed those for work, and I didn’t want to be responsible for someone’s face lift going wrong because he had tired hands. He was resting, so Macy started scoring the other walls. Seth continued to steam while I worked on scraping.

“So how was your date?”
 His voice was cold, the light pleasant tone he had with Mitch and even Macy was no longer there. 

Almost instantly, my mood started to shift. I glanced nervously over at Macy, but she hadn
’t heard him.

“It wasn
’t a date,” I hurriedly whispered.

“He picked you up from your house and took you to an event where you spent time with him.
 That, Calida, is the loose definition of a date.” This time those bright blue eyes were focused on me and burning with intensity.

“Why are you being so…so childish about this?”
 I hissed as I climbed down from the chair. “I’m not fucking my boss nor do I have any desire to!” 

This time my voice was higher, and I saw Macy glance over at us.
 Seth cut his eyes briefly in her direction before turning back on me. I looked over towards Macy who was trying to figure out what was going on while still talking to Mitch. I turned back to Seth in time to see a smirk slowly creep onto his lips as he resumed his steaming.

“Childish?
 I’ve been called a lot of things, but never that.” 

I wanted to scream.
 I’d never met a man so annoyingly frustrating in all my life. I didn’t know what he wanted from me or why he kept pressing what I thought was a non-issue.

“As an only child, I never learned the art of sharing, and I have no desire to start now.”
 When he turned to look back at me, there was no longer a smile on his face. His words hung in the air as an unspoken threat or warning of some kind. 

“I
’m thirsty,” I mumbled, needing to get some space. Macy was quick on my heels as I walked into the kitchen.

“What the hell was that, Lee?
 Before he got here, you were all fun and what not. Now you are a ball of nervous, tense energy.”

“I
’m tired and hungry is all,” I replied, grabbing a bottled water out of the fridge. 

“Bullshit!
 I saw the body language between you two. That was not a pleasant conversation.” 

I was glad the mu
sic was still playing so I didn’t have to worry about Seth overhearing our conversation.

“Macy!
 Drop it please. It was nothing, a minor disagreement. I’m sure you and Mitch have them. No need to call in the National Guard.”

“That
’s different, Lee.”

“Why?
 Because I like Mitch and don’t pick apart every minor transgression he makes whereas you don’t particularly like Seth therefore everything he does is wrong somehow,” I snapped. I was beyond frustrated trying to figure out Seth’s moods this week, and I didn’t need Macy’s meddling right now.

“Lee, no, of course not.
 I’m just…”

“Just what, Macy?
 Dictating to me like everyone else in my life does?” 

The look on her face was one of shock and disbelief.
 I’d never spoken to her like that, and I wasn’t being fair to her now. She was just concerned. I knew that, but it was becoming stifling. Between her and Seth, I felt like I was suffocating.

“Sorry.
Didn’t realize I was a dictator for being concerned about my friend.” 

My shoulders slumped, and I let out a defeated breath. “You
’re not Macy. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that; you know that. It’s just been a long week with dealing with Patrick and Seth’s been…”  I stopped, not wanting to give her any more fuel. “I’m sorry. Don’t be mad at me. Please.” 

“Seth
’s been what?” she asked not ready to drop it. 

“Nothing, Macy. Please, just…it
’s nothing,” I replied, taking another sip of my water. 

She looked like she wanted to press the issue but thought better of it.
 “I’m sorry too. You should be able to talk to me without me being all pushy and judgmental. I’ll back off. Some,” she added at the end. 

We both knew it was not in her nature to stay completely out of anything, especially if she felt like she needed to protect me.
 I finished off my water and hoped that Macy didn’t see my hands shaking. I ate a banana quickly before we walked back into the living room to see Seth and Mitch talking and joking around. Seth looked over at me, causing me to momentarily stop in my tracks, an action that Macy did notice.

“Time for a change in music,” she said, walking over to my iPod.

Moments later, Carrie Underwood’s “Good Girl” came blaring out of the speakers. The smirk on her face told me she was playing that song to send a very clear message. Our talk about her backing off was clearly out the window as she stared directly at Seth and started singing along. Loudly. I was embarrassed but slightly amused at her brazen attitude. I couldn’t bring myself to look at Seth, so I went to the other side of the room to finish picking up the remnants of wallpaper off the floor. Waiting for that song to end was the longest three minutes of my life. Once it did, it immediately played again. 
Damn-it! She put it on repeat
. The second time, Mitch gave her a curious stare, and I mistakenly glanced in Seth’s direction. He was clenching his jaw; the message was not lost on him. He was pissed, really pissed. I stalked over to my iPod and turned it off then shot death rays towards Macy who tried, but failed, to keep an innocent expression on her face. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Seth walking over to me. His hand slid around my waist; his breath was warm on my neck as he leaned down rubbing the tip of his nose along my jaw line.

“Is there something you would like to say to me?”
 he whispered, keeping his voice soft, but it held that same tone from Monday.

“She was just joking around,”
 I choked out.

“Hmm, we
’ll discuss it later.” 

A feeling of dread settled in my stomach.
 He was so moody lately, so I didn’t know what to make of that statement. After taking a lunch break, we were able to make quick work of getting the rest of the wall paper down. By the time we were done sanding and prepping the walls for the new wallpaper, we were all tired. 

Macy commandeered the shower first with Mitch, so I knew it would be a minute before I could take a shower if I wanted any hot water.
 I finished sweeping up the last of the paper, trying hard to avoid Seth’s gaze. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him walking towards me.

“You don
’t have to help with the cleanup. I can manage.”