Page 38 of A Dance With Devils
Grabbing at a comforter on the bed, I take off after her and listen to the distant sound of her feet landing lightly. It’s so clear to me. Part of me. I can hear it in my heart, as if it’s pounding in time with my own. And all the colours keep flowing back to me, creating a trail through the halls to chase down and capture. Greens, reds, blues. So strong.
Laughter starts peeling out somewhere – hers. Loud and vocal, the sound of her voice singing coming soon after. A song. Notes. Like the notes I heard before. I halt and gaze into rooms, listening and checking them for her. Nothing. Just colours. It’s enough for me to start walking slowly again, following the colours in the hope of finding her again. My little Alice. My Alice who will beg and fuck and take me for as long as I make her.
I eventually find her crouched in a corner again, her back flat to it as she looks around.
She pants, hands batting at something in the empty space around her. “Alice Contreas,” she spits. “Alice Marie Contreas. Ally cat. Hate it. He called me that. Chased me.” She reaches forward, poised, her eyes glaring around the door frame into another room. “Cut me. Fly. Fly and be free. Jump first, and then fly. Kill.”
I snort and move, amused at fucking everything she’s giving me in this game. “Too many pills for you, little Alice,” I chuckle out.
Not enough for me.
Fuck it.
Her head whips around to look at me. “Secrets. Up, Malachi,” she snaps, launching at me. Panicked limbs send her straight up on my back again, satin lingerie sliding back into place against my skin. “Protect me. You can. Whit said you could. But we need to go up. Run. Fly. If not I have to kill. Kill them all."
I sigh at the feel of her on me again, seemingly possessive of the sensation regardless of refusing its meaning. Just fuck. That’s what we need to do. I need to beat her and find myself again, stop faltering in this version of reality that does not exist for people like me. No softness for Malachi Jones. No happiness either. I brought her here to chase and catch. To play with.
Nothing more than that.
“Time to fly, little Alice,” I muse, trying to dislodge her.
I reach into my pocket at the partially lucid thought, grabbing for the pouch to make all this go away for me at least so I can watch, but her hand stops me as it links with mine.
“Run with me. Please. Help us. Promise you’ll protect me.”
“I am helping you,” I mutter, harshly tipping her off me.
Flying. Maybe we should both fly.
I certainly should.
Her feet and hands land on the floor at the same time, her body seeming to right itself like an animal would from falling. She hasn’t fallen yet, though. In fact, she’s far from falling where I’m concerned. And it would be so easy now she’s panicked – too easy. We could fall together, find solace in that thought and end this constancy.
A pill slips in between my lips, and then another, and then more, as my body slowly backs away. No time for feelings or care. No want for it either. I should leave her here, maybe let the others play and chase until she becomes nothing to me other than another no one again. My frame holds, though. It holds fast to the floor and watches as she darts around me, fingernails grasping at surfaces as she goes. She’s scared. But not of me. Maybe she’s seeing something in her confused state like others do, desperate to escape whatever it is.
“Alice?” She looks back at me, her eyes trained over her shoulder as she waits. “Who is it?”
It’s not me, that’s for damn sure.
Another dash across the floor, several darts around the hall, and her crawling eventually brings her back to my boots. She waits there and grips my calf, pushing her body in between my legs. “Bad men. Him. Must fly. Up. Free then.”
The colours begin to grow in intensity, as more chemicals swim through me. All my bright colours ascending towards the ceiling. I watch the last of them scattering and dancing, oddly consoled by the feel of her still crouched beneath my groin. It’s just us and erupting colours for me now. Just us and the continued ebb of rainbows drifting up and down to the floor. And then eventually, the notes of our song start getting louder. It’s just them and the colours and the groans of this place around us.
A frown pinches in at the isolation of just two, as I follow the stripes in the air. Nothing else. Just me and her and our confused state. I look down and find my fingers in her hair, one of them twining the length of it in my loose grip. She’s still so focused, her body shivering as she uses me as a shield against her fear.
“Time to fly, little Alice,” I mutter.
She twists, looks up, and nuzzles her head in my hand. “Yes, fly. With you.”
Another handful of pills tumble into my mouth, no care for what they are or how far they’ll take me under, and I crouch to her level. “Open. Swallow.” Her eyes dart between mine and the one pill I’ve got for her. “For flying?”
I watch the trembling lips, watch the tongue slide out and then disappear as she clamps them closed and scurries backwards. She shrieks at my grip still in her hair, flicking her body over to try and get away from it. Over and over she rolls, all the colours of her tattoos throwing more rainbows back at me again. Reds, greens, blacks. All flowers spinning and twirling. Pretty to watch. Graceful limbs, strong and dexterous as she tries to out manoeuvre me. She can’t, though.
No one can here.
I drag, pulling the weight of her back along the broken vase she destroyed earlier, until she’s pinned down with my body. One hand slides under her to keep her close to me, and my mouth lowers to her neck, teeth scraping to get a taste of her panicked state. She’s hot, her skin like wildfire under my tongue, as I spread her legs and lower myself into place. I could sink my hand inside her if it wasn’t for this pill I’m holding, let my fingers find her tolerance for pain. Or maybe we should just fuck – right here and now while she’s fighting me and I’m ebbing away into the unknown with no return.
She stills under me, her whole body trembling, and then wraps her legs around my back.
