Fiendish: A Twisted Fairytale (92 page)

I pulled her roughly int
o my arms. Grabbing her hair, I yanked her head back, and gave her a punishing kiss. She pushed against my chest desperately. I held her tighter.

“Macy sends her regards,
” I hissed in her ear.

Her eyes got wide with fear at the mention of her friend
’s name. “Seth, please, please tell me you didn’t…you didn’t hurt her.”

“You weren
’t too concerned for her wellbeing when you decided to leave me,” I replied, keeping my tone even.

She quivered where she stood.
You were kind to her. You bottled who you really are for her. You were too gentle with her.

“Do you know what it’s like to learn that the one person that means the most you has been deceiving you?” I asked.

Calida
looked up at me, her brows scrunching together, and her beautiful emerald eyes flashed anger. “Yeah, I know a thing or two about how that feels, Seth.”

I smiled hearing her tone. “Well, then you know it
’s not a good feeling. And it’s one I don’t care to experience again,” I replied, reaching out to wipe away a tear.

She flinched. I grabbed her by the throat, slamming her back against the wall.
She let out a yelp from the impact.

“You didn
’t seem too shocked to see a dead man standing in your living room.”

“I…I called the cops…I…I didn
’t want you just in there…And then I watched the news, and…and there was never anything on…about…”

“Ah, so you were that anonymous caller that brought the cops out.
You’re kind heart is probably what saved my life, along with my knowledge of how to make homemade ipecac. Getting my stomach pumped was a lot of fun.” I smoothed the stray hairs from her face, smiling down at her. I leaned forward to whisper in her ear, “A little advice, next time you poison a person, you might want to make sure they are dead before you leave.”

The tears
streamed down her cheeks. “Seth, please…” she begged.  “Please tell me what you did to Macy.”

“Is that all you care about?” I bellowed, stepp
ing away. “You tried to kill me! You left me, again! And after a month of not seeing me, your only concern is Macy. If you were so fucking concerned, you wouldn’t have left! I told you what would happen!” I yelled, grabbing her neck again. “I warned you, yet you chose not to listen to that warning. Her fate is of your doing! This is all because of you and your selfish choices.”

I let her go
, and her crying got louder. I stared at Calida, her tears, her fear, no longer a concern as they once had been.

“I loved you. Y
ou are the only person I have ever loved, and this is how you treat me?”

She stepped closer to me, and I shoved her away
, causing her to stumble back and collide with the wall. Calida dropped to her knees.

“Oh god, what did I do? What did I do? Macy, I
’m sorry. Oh god, what did I do?” she cried over and over. “Seth, please tell me you didn’t kill her, please. I will come home; I won’t leave again just please…”

She
looked so sad and pathetic crumpled down on the floor.
She isn’t coming back for you; she’s coming back for her.

I kneeled down so that we were on the same level. “You will come home regardless; you will be home where you belong tomorrow.” I yanked her up like a ragdoll
, slamming her against the wall. She cried out from the impact, but I no longer cared about her pain. “You are mine! You will always be mine,” I growled at her.

Her chest
rose and fell quickly with her rapid breathing. Having her so close, feeling her soft skin beneath my hands, I leaned forward, burying my face in her neck. She smelled different, no longer like roses. I kissed her neck; she put her hands on my chest to push me away. I stood to face her. She was still trying to deny me. I yanked at the straps of her sundress, and the fabric tore with ease. Calida fought with me to keep the dress in place, but I ripped it free. Her hands moved to cover her exposed body, but not her breasts. Instead, her arms formed a protective barrier around her stomach.

I took a step back to look over her; she made no attempt to move. She was frozen in place
, cradling her stomach, refusing to meet my gaze. She flinched when I advanced towards her again. Prying her arms free, I pinned her wrists above her head and let out a small sigh as I ran my hand across her normally flat stomach, caressing the small bulge I found.

“Things were good, you were good, but then you left. You were my quiet
, and you left.”

“Seth…”

“No!” I screamed.

She
cringed, squeezing her eyes tightly, turning her head away from me.

“How far along are you?” I asked
, nuzzling in her neck.

“Thirteen weeks or so,” she answered softly.

I kept her pinned against the wall, gently caressing the small bump. “You ran away with my child. This wasn’t a last minute decision; you planned this.”

The rage building in me was becoming all consuming. I trusted her, I loved her and this is what I got for my kindness.

“How long did you know?” I yelled.

She jumped and tried
to pull free of me.

“I said how long?” This time my demand was punctuated with my fist going through the drywall beside her head.

“I…I estimated around si…six weeks when I took the test. I, um, it took three weeks to figure out how I could…how I could…”

“How you could what? Kill me? I did everything I could to make sure you were happy, that we were happy. My world was calm and balanced
, and then you just left me. You planned and plotted to run off with my child. Why?”

“I needed to protect my baby,” she whispered.

“From what?”  She turned her head to look at me.

“From you.”

***

He looked hurt and insulted, but I had to protect my child. From the moment I got that positive result, I knew I couldn’t stay. Letting him hurt and manipulate me was one thing, but I couldn’t let him do that to my baby. Things were better for him but much worse for me. The night of our wedding I told him I would stop fighting, I let him win, but it wasn’t enough. He had this need in him to hurt people, to hurt me, even if I didn’t fight him.

His attacks
would be random and unexpected, so I had no way of knowing how to prevent them. I feared waking up each day because I never knew what I’d face. The truly scary thing wasn’t the ways in which he inflicted the pain, the bruises and soreness that I had to endure I managed to deal with, it was how he acted afterwards. It was like he didn’t register what he had just done to me; my tears and begging were forgotten. And if I reacted hesitantly towards him, he would be angry because I was scared of him.

“You think I
’m that much of a monster that I would hurt my own child?”

“I…I
’ve already lost…” I stopped myself from making a dangerous situation worse.

He couldn
’t know about the other baby. He couldn’t know I’d kept something like that from him all this time.

“I think you would use him or her against me because that
’s what you do. Everything I love, you use as a weapon. And I couldn’t…I couldn’t let you.”

The words were barely out of my mouth when I felt myself being flung across the room
; my back collided with the metal frame of my bed. The pain from the impact knocked the air out of me, leaving me stunned and unable to react fast enough.

“Don
’t you mean everyone?” he growled. He grabbed me by my hair, yanking me up off the floor, tossing me on the bed. “That won’t be a problem much longer; there won’t be anyone left to worry about!”

“Seth, no!”
  I begged, but he ignored my cries. “Seth, please I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”

I had left him, tried to take off with his baby, and he was intent on punishing me. I tried to crawl across the bed towards my nightstand, but he grabbed my ankle
, pulling me back towards him. His body came crushing down on mine, pinning me beneath him. His hands circled my neck, squeezing lightly.

“Til death do we part,” h
e hissed. “Those were your vows, Calida. Til death, you made your attempt; now it’s my turn.” He squeezed tighter.

I frantically grabbed at his hands. “Please
, don’t do this. I’ll come back. I won’t leave again.”

He said nothing as his mouth covered mine. His tongue forced its way into my mouth. I struggled to push him off.  My hands were pushed above my head
, held tightly at the wrists. I felt my teeth cutting into my lip from the pressure of the kiss.

“You belong to me! That child you are carrying is mine! You tried to take what
’s mine. I want you to know the pain of losing what is most precious to you!”

He shifted so that he could push down my underwear before freeing himself from his own pants.

“Macy is alive and waiting for you. You will come home, and then you will watch as I drain the life from her. You will watch and know what it feels like. This is your fault. Do you understand? This is happening because of you! Say you understand.”

Seth stared down at me with cold
, unfeeling eyes, and I knew he meant every word. I couldn’t even feel relieved that Macy was still alive because he only kept her so he could make me watch her die.

“Please,” I sobbed
, struggling to break free of him. “Don’t do this. I’m sorry. Please, I’m so sorry. I was scar…” Seth’s mouth angrily covered mine, cutting off my pleas.

“Say it!” h
e growled when he pulled away.

“This is my fault,” I cried, willing to say anything to get him off of me.

Seth’s mouth covered my nipple. Pregnancy had made them tender, so when his teeth clamped down on the sensitive, bud I cried out. He pulled back slightly with it still trapped between his teeth, sending shockwaves of pain through me. The relief that flooded me once he let go was short lived as he mirrored his actions on the other nipple.

“Seth, please. Please
, stop. It hurts! Please!” I pleaded, struggling to free my hands. “I’ll come home, I’ll make it up to you, just don’t do this. Please don’t do this!”

His hands closed around my neck again. I grabbed at them
, trying to get air. Thanksgiving night flashed into my mind; the pain of what his anger cost me then, made the gravity of this situation much worse. Just as I felt myself blacking, out he let go. When he rammed into me, it felt like a knife cutting through my insides. I screamed out at the pain that surged through my body.

He placed his hand over my mouth as he with
drew and thrust forward again, my screams now muffled as he pulled out then forced himself back in a third time. I pushed against his chest trying to move him but it was useless. He was stronger than me, and I was helpless to stop his attack. He pushed into me with reckless abandon. He nuzzled his face in my neck sucking harshly on my flesh. I let out a strangled cry when his teeth clamped down on my neck, biting me so hard I was sure he drew blood.

“Please stop,” I cried weakly.

He looked down at me, and I saw those same eyes: the dead, vacant ones, the eyes that would gloss over when he’d hurt me, the ones that told me that tomorrow, if I made it to tomorrow, that this moment would be a distant memory for him.

I’d tried so hard to be strong, to keep up the façade, but the day I found a note on my desk for a battered women’s shelter scribbled in Kerrin’s handwriting, I knew I’d failed. I knew in that moment everything was crumbling. She never questioned me,
and we never discussed it. She just knew. I wasn’t strong enough to keep pretending everything was fine. I wasn’t strong enough to be what he needed me to be.

Finding out I was pregnant was the final push I’d needed, especially after I’d calculated back the date of conception. My baby may have been conceived in viole
nce, but I refused to raise him or her in it. I’d left to save not only myself, but also my child.

However,
as Seth ripped through my body, thrusting forward and driving himself deeper and deeper, I knew I would never be free of him. The pain was excruciating. I prayed it would be over soon, but he kept going, pushing into me, punishing me. His hand worked is way down to my breast, pinching my nipple hard between his fingers. His lips covered mine, muffling the sound of my cries. His weight was crushing me as he continued pumping his hips, driving himself into my body at a frenzied pace. Seth forced his tongue into my mouth, and I felt as if I was choking on it.

I couldn
’t breathe; I was suffocating, being crushed under his weight. I took in a big gulp of air when he finally broke from the kiss, then turned my head to the side, squeezing my eyes shut. My hands fisted the blanket, my cries now mere whimpers. This was my fault. I knew better than to leave him. This was my fault. I was selfish. I put Macy in danger, and I brought his wrath down upon me.

Finally
, he made a deep guttural sound as he thrust forward one last time. He lay on top of me until he grew soft. I couldn’t move, even after he rolled off me; I couldn’t move. The throbbing pain that ran through me kept me frozen. With a tenderness I didn’t expect after what he just did, he wiped the tears from my face before leaning forward to give me a soft, almost loving, kiss. All I could do was put my hands over my face and cry. Seth ran his hands over my stomach then he rested his head there for a moment. He gave it a tender kiss before climbing off the bed.