“Angie, I … I never did anything like that! I was never, ever mean to you in high school!”
“Well, all your bitchy friends were! Yeah, it was so easy for people like you. You didn't have severe acne; you didn't have to wear braces for the last three years of high school; you didn't have to wear freakin' glasses just to see the teacher's writing on the board!”
“Look, Angie, I'm so sorry that you had a rough time in high school, but those days are long gone now, and—”
“Oh, oh, so they're gone and done, and I should just forget about it, huh? That's really easy for someone like you to say.”
“I haven't had everything as easy as you think I have.”
“Yeah, well, you still don't know what it was like being a girl like me.”
“Ladies, ladies,” Simon interrupted. “Let's not argue now. Come now, Angie, at least one good thing happened in high school.”
“And what exactly was that, huh?” she snapped, still fired up from her outpouring of anger and resentment.
“Well, your nerdiness meant that you were very focused on your studies. And the skills in chemistry that you developed in those days led to our little partnership. Once our product spreads across the country, which it soon will, we'll be billionaires.”
“You two are sick,” I muttered. “Why don't you just date each other! Let me go, damn it, let me go!”
“I'm a lesbian, you moron,” Angie snapped. “You were just so self-absorbed you couldn't even tell I was faking my straightness.”
“And I only have eyes for you, my love,” Simon added, tracing a slimy finger along my cheek. “I don't want anyone else. You and me, we're supposed to be together. It's fate. You've been resisting the design of the universe all this time. And further proof of that is how fate led you into Angie's life. You went through all this trouble to change your name, move across the state, start a new life... and then you walk through a bar one night and bump into my business partner. Doesn't that just scream 'fate' right at you? How else co
uld such a coincidence happen? Of all the towns in this state that Angie and I could have set things up in, we chose the very one you live in. Isn't that amazing?”
“It's not amazing. It's horrible. It's the most-rotten luck ever. I prayed every day that I would never have to see you again... Every. Single. Fucking. Day. But somehow you found me.”
“It's fate,” he hissed. “Fate! Can't you see that; can't you understand that?”
“It's not fate,” I countered. “If it is, fate hates me.”
He laughed. “Hates you, maybe... loves me.”
“Alright, Simon, you've had your chat with her,” Angie said. “Don't you think it's time to give her more sedatives so we can get her out of town to your cabin in the mountains?”
Panic started to gush through my veins. Cabin in the mountains?
“What are you talking about?” I asked, trying my best to disguise the fear in my voice.
“You and I are going to have that wonderful life together we talked about. We will live happily together, as it is supposed to be,” Simon replied. “But I know you'll ... make a lot of noise about it until you get used to the idea, and I don't want you to attract the attention of, well, you know... the police. So, I have a nice little cabin in a very remote area of the mountains about three hours from here waiting for us. You’re going love it. The nearest neighbor is ten miles away, so nobody will hear you scream. Nobody besides me, and Angie, will know that you're there. And the place is about as secure as Fort Knox, Alicia. There will be no escaping. And after a while, you'll realize, as I did many years ago, that you and I are just meant to be together. And when you realize this, you won't even want to escape anymore. Then we'll be happy, you and I, together forever.”
“No,” I said. “No, I won't. This is crazy, Simon, it's crazy! Just, just let me go now, alright, and I won't even tell the cops about this. Okay? Please, Simon, come on, don't do this, don't do this...”
I could no longer hide the fear in my voice, and Simon could see it. A malicious smile crept across his lips.
“No amount of begging or pleading is going to get you out of this,” he said, his voice low and cold. “You'd do well to just accept it.”
“No, no, I'll never accept it! Never! Let me go, let me go!” I screamed.
“You're starting to get hysterical now, Alicia,” he said. “And I don't like that. Now, I won’t touch your lovely face, and as I told you before, I don't want to damage that beautiful body of yours, but if you make me angry ... I will. Now calm down. Angie, go get the 'special' wine. Alicia needs to go to sleep again so that we can get her out of here and move her to the cabin.”
“Perfect,” Angie replied as she walked out of the room. “I'm sick of hearing her whining.”
“Now, Alicia,” Simon said after Angie had left the room, “I need you to stop being hysterical. You need to accept that you and I are back together. Mm, I can't wait until we're in that cabin alone together. I've hungered for your body for so, so long... I can't wait to get those clothes off you, and to see you naked again, and to put my hands all over you...”
My skin was crawling with revulsion as he spoke, and all I wanted to do was run screaming from this place – but I couldn't. I was trapped, trapped in this nightmare from which there would be no awakening.
“In fact, why don't we get started with a little teaser for now?” he hissed seductively. Only, it wasn’t seductive at all. It was sinister. “I want a kiss from you, Alicia. A nice, deep, passionate kiss, like you used to give me. How does that sound?”