When his eyes locked onto hers, her breath hitched, and she could do no more than stare at him. Her heart pummeled in her chest, pulsing to get out of the restricting cage it was captured in. Oh what enrapturing features he possessed! Should she have chosen to stare at a portrait for all eternity, he would be the defining centerpiece. Then, he blinked. Snap, went her fantasy, and she was ripped out of her dreamland. She rubbed her eyes wearily, mind screaming to enter her little world again.
Suddenly, she realized that on her face, she was exposed to him, and the curse would have grabbed hold of him. In a frantic panic, she could do naught but whirl around and reach blindly for a piece of cloth with eyes glazed with horror. She tugged on the bed sheets, stretched for the curtains…
"I am not affected." For the first time, he spoke. His voice was not of honey or coated sugar, but filled with determination, and stubbornness. There was a lilt of resonant quality, like tides on a shore.
She froze. This man spoke falsities! No man could resist her, even if they tried. Should she be alone with a man so suspicious, a man who could not even recognize truth in his face?
"How can that be? You lie." She whispered, the sharp syllables creating explosions in her speech.
"I tell you, I do not see what others see. What I see is a woman whose arrogance of her own beauty has deceived others into believing that it so. But I know that this lady is not the sort to swindle. I need an explanation. Who are you?"
"Witchcraft! You've done something to yourself! No man can stay away. Give me the ingredient! Tell me, and let me bless the world with it!"
"I hold no ingredient."
"I stay with no man who tricks me." She snarled with contemptuousness, and made a move to run out of the room, heading for the giant oak doors.
"You can't." His voice rang out, bouncing off the walls that made her feel heady already. She couldn't? She couldn't what? As if reading her mind, he went on, his voice carrying a tone of amusement.
"You can't go. Think. You have no clothes but the ones you don, the ones, may I remind you, that I gave you," and when she looked down, she saw it was true. A thin lace covered her, but not enough to tear and hide her face, "and you have no where to go to. You don't know where you are. You can't go anywhere. Think, I ask you." He finished with flourish.
Damnation! She saw he was right. In knocking herself out, she was a prisoner in her own mind, and now a captive of his. Who was this man? How could he have been given such a beautiful face and such an ugly inside? She suddenly slackened, back curved, defeated in every sense of the word.
"What do you want with me?"
"I don't want anything. I just need to know, who are you?"
"I have no name." Defiance struck in, for she knew that really, in the world, she was a nobody, and nobodies did not have names.
"Everyone has a name. Tell me yours."
"Dei."
"Dei what?"
"Deidra. I have no last name."
"Why are you this way?"
She flared up. What was 'this way'? Was she abnormal? Was she different from everybody? Even as she asked the questions, she knew the answer.
"I have enough of these questions! Give me my belongings and let me go! You have no need for me, and I can survive on my own."
"The world doesn't work that way. I can't let you go. I take my leave now, for I am busy. I bid you farewell."
"You can't leave me just like that! You cannot! How can you just kidnap me? Are you-" But what he was, he never found out, for he closed the heavy doors with a neat 'click', and strode to wherever he was destined to go.
She fumed silently on the bed, where she was sitting. How dare he treat her like she was no more than a toy that could be swung around and made light of? OH he would pay, he would regret doing this to her. One day. But how? How could she dent his armor? She abruptly stood up, lace making a slight swoosh sound. Although she was sure that Corbet had locked the door, she charged at it with fury so intense that wood would have incinerated near her. That was only in her dream world. The oak doors stood as solid as ever with shiny varnish glimmering in the day.
As she tried again, the door suddenly gave way, and she was propelled forward into a warm body. What had she done now! She had completely delivered herself into Corbet's hands, with silver wrapping and all! She stumbled out of his grasp, muttering apologies under her breath, but his hand caught hers as she shamefacedly made for the bed.
"Deidra, thank god! You're safe!" he pulled her into a hug, his torso against hers. Hold on, that was not the voice of Corbet…no, this voice full of passion and affection could not be that cold-hearted beast's voice. It was Jody!
"Jody, oh get me out of this-" She pulled away, searching urgently in his eyes, although she had not registered the hug yet. She only wanted to escape from this hellhole- THE CURSE! The words screamed out in her mind and she tore away from him, grabbing a pillow and covering her face.
"Deidra wait, it's okay, Corbet gave me something. I cannot be pulled in by the curse for a while. It's okay Deidra." He spoke again, his voice soft and inviting, full of sympathy. Slowly, Dei emerged from behind the pillow, face full of disbelief. So that little cheat did have something! Oh she was going to threaten him, make him tell her. And how could one be so selfish? To keep hidden the one thing that would make her life so much more bearable. He was rotten in the heart.
"Ah, there we are, you're so pretty…" Jody sighed in satisfaction.
"And don't I know it," she mumbled under her breath. Then, she thought. If Corbet gave Jody something, and they were such good friends, then surely Jody knew the substance too! Her fingers were fluttering in excitement; she was just so close to turning her life around! Masking her fervor, she asked, voice trembling a little.
"Jody, what was it he gave you?"
"I don't know, he didn't tell me anything, he just gave me something a little blue, a little green, a liquid of course, and he told me to drink it. And I did. I didn't ask him what it was…" he frowned in consternation, thinking deeply.
Her shoulders drooped in disappointment, and her eyelids closed resignedly over her disillusioned pupils. Her back slumped and hands steadied. Jody, pulled out of his thoughts by a disheartened sigh, felt awful. This girl had to survive; she had to be able to see the rest of the world. Maybe, maybe…
"I'll try to ask him Deidra, I will. Don't worry about this." He cupped her hand with his own. Immediately, the ball of black shot up.
"You will? You'll do that for me? Oh thank you!"
"Yes, I'll find it out for you. No promises though," he murmured, with a tight smile.
Dei flung herself at the man deep in thought. She hugged him around the waist, hard.
Yes, all was well. But how long would it stay that way?
A/N: OH THANK YOU FOR THE REVIEWS!!!!Special thank you to julissa and baby green eyes! You guys were so nice! Sorry, I haven't been updating, I'm really busy these days; tests nearly every day.
(baby green eyes) those people were actually Jody's friends, you'll hear more of them later on. Haha, yeah, Dei is supposed to be really restricted and trapped in this story.
Signed,
The Towel's Rage
