C18 What It Takes

“You bitch! I am going to make you pay! Not just you, but your fucking sister too.”

Face twisted with hate, Tad dragged her over the bed filled with briars and thorns.

Annabelle cried out as the unforgiving thorns pierced her body. She watched helplessly as her blood oozed out, draining the life out of her.

Her body was giving up on her and for a moment she wanted to close her eyes and rest. Forever should do it.

It should take away her pain and she would never have to worry about the hate-filled sound echoing all around her.

She couldn’t see him yet, but she knew she was done for anyway.

It was just a matter of time before he finished her off.

Yet she knew she couldn’t just leave like this.

Something was keeping her here.

Something that wouldn’t let her go.

Something she had to take care of.

Another scream tore out of her ragged body when she saw his crazed eyes above her.

Her eyes were glued to the dripping knife in his hands.

It looked familiar just as the alcohol-soaked breath wafting over her when he moved closer.

“Rot in hell,” he sneered as he swung his hand backwards.

She screamed as his face changed suddenly to a younger, familiar face. Gold-flecked, dark eyes sneered cruelly at her as he plunged.

The scream followed Annabelle out of her nightmare as she jerked upward.

She was disoriented for a while as she looked around.

This was not her threadbare room.

She was looking around at the somewhat familiar opulent room when his face slammed into her vision.

She hated the scream that tore out of her throat as she backed away against the headboard.

She hissed as her bruised back hit the solid wood, and she automatically held one of the satin pillows in front of her.

He raised a perfectly arched eyebrow at her as he looked at her choice of weapon without any expression.

“Bad dream?” he asked in a drawl.

“Dream? Dream?!” Annabelle thought in self-anger.

She had been sleeping? How could she sleep in this situation? She wondered in guilt.

Then she remembered that Judith had given her medication.

“For your pain,” she had said.

That damn nurse had made her sleep when she shouldn’t.

“I see you are looking to kill my workers. Next time, choose a better weapon,” he said without any change in his tone to make her know if he was mocking her or not.

She tossed the pillow aside and gritted her teeth to keep her groan of pain in as she quickly got off the bed.

“I have news,” he said simply.

Her head whipped towards him so fast that she got slightly dizzy.

“What news? About Cathy? Did they find her? They found Jane?”

“No to both,” he said simply.

She froze and stared at him. “What do you mean no? They have to find her. They… she has my sister.”

“I am aware of that,” he said caustically. He turned away and then back at her. “Look, I made a promise to you, okay? And I keep my word. That means you also need to stop bullshitting me. Remember I do not have to do any of this. I offer you help, now I need you to be fully square with me. You got me?” he asked as he folded his arms.

She nodded automatically.

“Who took your sister? Your stepfather said she had been stolen from your mom, and he was so sure that you knew about that. Since you think she is with this Jane, then I suppose he must be right. Now, how did that work? Who took her? I need to know the right place to look. Maybe the person has both Jane and your sister. You might be involved in a lot more shit than you can think of, you know.”

Annabelle shook her head slowly as she said with shaky breath, “Jose wouldn’t do that.”

His eyes narrowed dangerously as he asked, “Who the fuck is Jose?”

Anabelle was not even sure how to categorise him, but her thoughts tumbled out as she asked, “Why are you helping me?”

Annoyance crossed his face and this time it didn’t seem directed at her, “I don’t know. Call it being nosy.”

“As opposed to being bored?” she asked automatically, with confusion on her face.

His voice was not so flat this time as he said, “Now, what did I say about repeating myself? Is Jose a boyfriend?”

Annabelle shook her head at the ridiculousness of that thought. She had never had a boyfriend in her life. Tad made sure of that. “No, he is a friend who offered to help me. At least that was the plan,” she finished weakly.

“What did this friend take in return?” he asked simply.

Unexpected shame coursed through Annabelle at the look on his face. His lack of expression seemed to say much more. It was as if he knew. He knew, and she hated how that made her feel.

She had nothing to be ashamed of. Nothing to explain to him, but he was helping her. Either out of boredom or nosiness, he seemed willing to help her. She was going to get his help and hoped she could pay him back one day.

Though how she would pay a dangerous man like him back was beyond her, she knew she would find a way.

So, she would tell him what he wanted to know and hope it would be enough to save Cathy.

“I paid him.”

His silence scraped at her enough for her to blurt out. “I gave him what he wanted, and he promised to help me. He promised,” she said in an insistent tone as sudden tears sprang into her eyes.

She looked away to hide her tears from him. Then she turned her head back immediately when he said, “So you fucked him. You paid him in kind, yet you were acting like a snivelling virgin earlier?”

Annabelle held back the sharp retort that sprang to her tongue. She inhaled deeply to calm herself, straightened her shoulders and said, “I did what I had to do.”

“Yeah, right. I suppose you will offer to fuck me in return for my help too?”

Her knees quaked as his eyes brutally scraped her body. She wanted to back away from that intensity in his deceptively bored look, but somehow she knew that would make him think of her as more pathetic than he was thinking at the moment.

So, she straightened her shoulders and looked him straight in the eyes. “Is that what you want?” she asked calmly.

She saw a muscle tick in his chin, and she thought she would end up like the bloodied man from earlier for sure.

He took a step towards her, and she forgot to hold her stand as she backed away anyway. Thankfully, that did the trick of stopping him.

She had barely breathed in relief when he said in a frosty tone, “You dare to bargain with me with such cheap favours?” his eyes darkened more as his eyes swept her from head to toe again and back, “You don’t have what it takes to pull off such a bargain.

“Because I am cheap. I bet he won't say the same thing to that lady earlier,” she thought automatically, as she held herself rigidly against the onslaught of unexpected pain and battering because of his look and words.

The look was worse. It was as if she was a slug who had crawled into his shoes and he was about to crush him.

“I am glad we cleared the air on that.” she barely comprehended what was coming out of her mouth as she tried so hard not to crumble in despair. “Will you still help my sister?”

He was silent for a while, and she thought he had changed his mind after all. Would he dismiss her and let her go now? She had no idea why that possibility didn’t thrill her as it should.

It was what she had wanted all along.

“Tell me everything about your Jose. Everything down to what he looked like. If he had a mole, I want to know about it. I am sure you know everything about his body, of course.”