Page 43 of Under His Skin

“Nah. It’s boring.” Actually, Alex had wanted to accompany Tracht to court, but Tracht hadn’t let him. None of the news channels showed the full thing, just a few clips here and there. Apparently there was some sort of expectation of privacy, and they weren’t allowed to stream the case in its entirety. Even the parts that Alex had tried to watch were too confusing for him to follow, using big words he didn’t understand.

“In which case, I’d like to present you with this video I had made.”

She handed her own tablet to Alex. The first frame was of Franziska sitting on the witness stand.

He hit play, and watched all of Franziska’s testimony. He laughed when she started badmouthing Anna, but it wasn’t so funny when she pulled Tracht into the full thing.

It wasn’t funny at all when she mentioned Tracht’s treatment of Mikhael.

Who the fuck was that bondservant? How long ago? Did Tracht do things to him beyond just beating him? What did he look like? Tracht hadn’t ever mentioned Mikhael, but Tracht mostly didn’t talk about his youth in general. Alex didn’t care most of the time, but all of a sudden he wished he knew more about Tracht as a kid.

The video ended, and Alex handed the tablet back to Franziska. “Did he really do that?”

“Yes.” Franziska’s expression didn’t change at all. “It was one of the many things that convinced me that he was abnormal and beyond reform.”

“Fuck off,” Alex said without thinking. “Who the fuck are you to judge him?”

She didn’t even flinch, although Galanis, hovering next to her, looked startled. “Mr. Stone, I know it must come as a shock to you, but there’s no need to take it out on Ms. Tracht.”

What shock? That Tracht got his rocks off on terrorizing people? As if Alex didn’t know that already. “Why the fuck do you think I care about something Tracht did when he was a teen?”

And now, for the first time that evening, Franziska’s expression actually changed. But she wasn’t mad: no, she looked at him with the same pitying look Galanis had just a few minutes ago. Alex couldn’t fucking believe it. He was tired of all these self-righteous douches looking down on him.

“Alex. I wanted to show this to you so you would see that Johannes follows a pattern. He doesn’t care about people, and he never has. When his father died—”

“—he didn’t cry. I know. You said that the first time we met. So what? If my mom died, I wouldn’t give a fuck either. Maybe she’s already dead, I don’t know.” Alex couldn’t stand looking at her anymore, so he got up and paced to the other side of the room. The single window pointed out at a train station, people bustling in and out. They looked tiny from up here, like Alex could easily stomp them all flat.

He heard Galanis and Franziska whispering to each other. After a few minutes they shut up, and Franziska went to stand next to him at the window.

“I don’t presume to know how you grew up, Alex. But I want to assure you that my husband was a kind man. He did his best to be a parent to both Anna and Johannes, in a way that I never could. He looked at them and saw his children, his heirs. He was proud of both of them. To me, they were—and still are—strangers that I gave birth to.

“That Johannes had Gerald’s attention, his love, and could be utterly indifferent to it… he isn’t normal. He’s a monster, and he’s always been a monster.”

All this time, Alex had been under the impression that Franziska was a better mom than his own mother. But listening to her now, he finally understood why Tracht couldn’t stand her. “You really are a fucking bitch, huh?” Alex said, trying to do that thing Tracht did where he was calm but still scary.

He didn’t know if it worked, especially since he was so far from calm. Probably not. Franziska didn’t even look shocked, and Alex’s face was hot with anger.

Galanis reacted though. “Mr. Stone! I know you’re angry, but that kind of language is unnecessary. Ms. Tracht only cares about your well-being.”

“So? You want me to thank her? Because I’m not thankful. I don’t want to do any of this! I want to go back to Tracht.” Alex crossed his arms and glared at both of them, feeling the scarred skin pull at his temple.

He wondered if he could get away with beating them both bloody. Tracht always stopped him when he wanted to get violent, but hey, he was “free” of Tracht! What would Franziska think of him then? She’d been so mad about Mikhael—

Fuck, he didn’t want to think of Tracht with some other dude.

“Leave me alone. Both of you. I don’t give a shit about what you think of Tracht.”

The two of them whispered to each other again before Franziska said, “Understood. I suppose I should have realized you would be unable to understand what I’ve done for you. Johannes has had you under his influence for too long.”

What a load of shit. Alex raised his hand up to flip them both off. He heard the door open and slide shut again, and when he turned around, he was alone in the hotel room.

Fuck everything. He was going to sleep. He didn’t want to deal with the world anymore.

He crawled into the moderately comfortable bed and pulled the covers over himself, not caring that he would get his jeans and shirt crumpled. He closed his eyes.

And then… nothing. Alex frowned and turned to his side, but that didn’t help him relax either. He tried gripping the pillow, but that felt nothing like when he lay on Tracht’s chest. He pushed the pillows away entirely, hoping maybe they were just too soft, but that was just as uncomfortable.

He tried moving to the floor, and that reminded him of lying in the cage on the ship, but he still had all that free space to move his arms so it didn’t give him the same sense of confinement. Besides, when he was caged Tracht usually blindfolded and gagged him, or stuck dildos up his ass.

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