Malachi
The walls are closing in on me.
I stand, back resting in the corner of the room, and stare blankly. I don’t want them here. None of them. I want peace and quiet – my Alice and no one else. And yet all these assholes are lost in their world of hedonism, enjoying everything I provide. It’s causing noise, and chaos and lights and something I can’t fucking cope with.
Nothing’s clear.
Nothing’s focused.
And I can’t find Temple fucking Greene.
“Out,” mutters from me.
No one moves or changes their attitude. They carry on with their insidious desires and their sinister little games. No games. No more. My game is gone.
“Get out,” rumbles from me, as I move. Two women look at me, smiles and pussy on display. “I said get out.” They laugh, run their tongues over their lips and try moving closer to me. They’re both pushed so harshly they yelp like the dogs they are and try fearful instead with their gaze.
“ALL OF YOU. GET OUT!”
A man comes in front of me, a frown etched in. “They didn’t deserve-“
“Get. The Fuck. OUT!” His hands go up, his feet back stepping at the sound of my hostility. Good. I spin and say it again, and again, and again until the room around me starts to clear and they all pile out to the main floor. That’s not good enough for me either, and I continue shouting as I follow them.
My gaze goes up to the main security, my finger slashing across my throat to cut the constant fucking noise of music. It stops within five seconds, and then I’m left with a hoard of degenerates all seeming confused. They chatter and look around, searching for the problem. It’s me. I’m the fucking problem, and, at the moment, I’m done with all of them.
I walk up the crumbling stone steps until I’m up on the top of them, gaze still trailing over the crowd beneath me in search of Temple Greene. He’s still not here that I can see, and that’s too fucking coincidental for my liking. I nod at one of the security, letting him know he’s about to get busy, and he calls through to every other member of the team I have here.
I look out at them all and wonder who knew, or if anyone knew, or if someone down there helped him take her from me. “The castle is closed. Make them all leave,” I murmur. “Now.”
One face catches my eye, as I watch the team swarm and do their job effectively. He stands there in the middle of the floor, his gaze focused on me and nothing else. I don’t know why that is. He should be looking after his little Hannah, making sure she doesn’t get swept out of here with the rest of them. He doesn’t move, though, as the swathe of people and colours morph and change around him. He just stands there, staring, almost fucking proud about something.
It hits me then – he knows I’m in pain, knows I’m hurting. And because of it, he thinks he’s won some fucking game we’re constantly playing.
My forearms find the bar topping the wall I’m behind, and I lean forward to stare back over the overhang. He could be part of this. Maybe he instigated it, just like he did with this crap in my veins that means I can’t take my pills. Pushing? Forcing me to see something?
I don’t care about games.
I want my Alice back.
And then, eventually, there’s silence.
We stare, as he backs up to a table to lean against it. “Did you do this?” I call.
“What?”
“Take her from me?”
He smirks and chuckles quietly. The usual noise would drown the sound out, but now, with no one and nothing but an empty cavern of atmosphere, it rumbles and echoes around the space.
“No, Malachi. I didn’t.”
“But you know who did?”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because this is just like you. Or the you before your little play thing. Bored already?”
He scowls at me and lifts his drink to his lips. “That type of behaviour was a long time ago, Malachi. And Hannah is not a play thing.”
