BEFORE I START: I wanna thank my one reviewer, my 8 follows and the five who have favorited this and I wanna apologize for not being as good with the updates as I should have been this week. Sorry. I've found an online editor, though there may still be a few mistakes peppered throughout that it didn't catch. A little more about Kate and Eloise's past come out. Also, huge announcement.. I have decided that Eloise is going to be one of the villians of my story and that she will not be paired up with Ben. I have a different fate in mind for her - sort of.
I hope you guys enjoy this and sorry it's shorter than the others but I felt like the chapter ends where it needs to. I didn't want to pour too many details out too early in the story, especially considering that my outline for this changes at the drop of a dime and it'd be frustrating to have to recant something I've made canon to my au verse.. if that makes sense?
The house was always just a shade too dark for Eloise's taste. No amount of lights turned on seemed to help. Sleeping was not an easy task, but with at least a half of bottle of wine in her system, she decided to try it. "Three god damn weeks we've lived here.. Three god damn weeks of nothin. When Jacques died, I was supposed to be a free woman, moving to California, finally about to make my dreams all come true.. Here I am, queen of this pit of hell instead.. Casting calls aren't comin in and agents laugh when I ask 'em to represent me. Starting to think what I did that night was for nothing." Eloise muttered as she stumbled and gripped the wall so she didn't fall into the steamy and bubbly bath.
Moira heard what she said and she tried not to come out but the anger boiled up in the red haired woman fast as her stomach churned bitterly.. Had her son's wife killed him? The woman had thoughts of just shoving the other woman face first into the bath, instead.. She kept herself unseen. So far, she hadn't been seen by Eloise. She'd only revealed herself to Kate because Kate was the one she felt the strongest pull towards and if Eloise's words were anything to go by, Kate needed her most.
'If you kill the woman, Kate has no family living to take care of her.' was the only sombering thought that kept Moira from murdering Eloise on the spot. The door slamming downstairs was what drew Moira out of her train of thought and her eyes settled on the clock.. Eloise hadn't given Kate a curfew, the woman honestly acted as if she could care less what Kate did. Moira, however, had.. And a smile filled the woman's face as she saw that it was 10 pm on the nose.
She walked out of the bathroom and watched Kate downstairs obviously pacing in anger. After a second, she appeared at the foot of the stairs and asked, "Tonight didn't go well?"
"The prick put his hand up my shirt."
Moira's eyes widened and she asked calmly, "What do you mean, Katherine?" as she looked at her grand daughter in concern.
"He was trying to cop a feel. Then he made me walk home from the movie theater when I dumped my soda over his head. It's not a big deal.. I'm just pissed about having to walk home in the dark.. This place is fucking creepy at night.. The road leading into this neighborhood is.. Weird.. The guy from up the road, the shrink.. He bought me up to the door."
Moira smiled. At the heart of it all, even in the worst parts of him, Ben Harmon was a good man.. Too good for Eloise, she thought to herself as one of Eloise's many comments on the sex appeal of the man came back to mind.
"I thanked him." Kate blurted out after sensing that this was probably going to be the next question her grandmother asked. Moira nodded and then said in a quiet and apologetic tone, "I'm sorry that you had to walk back.. And that boy didn't seem like a good one. I knew when he blew the horn and didn't walk up to the door, Katherine, you shouldn't have gone."
Kate hugged her grandmother and said quietly, "If it weren't for you, grandma.. I'd probably have lost my mind a thousand times over already." as she stepped out of the hug and started up the stairs, blowing the woman a good night kiss before disappearing into her room.. And promptly swearing when she saw Tate sitting there, in the window sill like he'd been waiting on her.
"Who the fuck was that douchebag?"
"He was my date. Now he's just a jerk I won't ever look at again." Kate gave a glare as she shooed him out of the window sill and then said calmly, "Get out of here. Didn't my grandmother tell you to get out of my room and stay out? Do you really want me to hex you into the next century, Tate Langdon? Because you know I'm at least partially capable of it."
"Right.. And we both know, Kate, you're drawn to me.. You won't hex me because I interest you."
"You interest me almost as much as the dick pic my ex sent me interests me." Kate mused, pausing in the bathroom door as she looked back at Tate and then said calmly, "Just remember, Tate.. I'm not like previous tenants.. If I want you gone, idiot, you'll be gone. I know how to banish unwanted spirits.. And I'm imagining Fiona and Axeman back in Louisiana would get a fucking kick out of you. Especially Axeman. He's always wanted someone to play who's the better sadist with.."
Tate moved to stand in front of her, hand at her hip as he said calmly, "You think you're this brave bitch, Kitten.. But you're really not."
"I never said I was brave.. Just not about to fall for whatever fuckery you pulled on me the other night. Now get out before I scream and my grandmother or my mom come up and see you.. If my mom sees you, she'll probably lose her shit and personally.. I like it here."
"So you don't wanna go."
"Nope. Louisiana has too many bad memories, okay? And not just because my daddy was killed there." Kate said the words quietly, stomach churning at what she suspected her mother did to her father. If she could prove it, she'd find a way to get her mother thrown into prison..
So what she had no family left to raise her? She could stay here. She was more of an adult than her mother had ever been.
Her grandmother was here and they had a connection that Kate had been longing for since she was a small child and she figured out that her mother didn't really 'love' her, not like her father did..
Tate watched her disappearing into his bathroom. He digested her words and then made a retreat to the basement where it began to click into place for him, things that made Kate the way she was.. He shook his head and scowled at himself. It shouldn't matter.
He didn't want to give a damn.
He wanted to just go back to being numb and lacking the will or conscience to give a fuck about anyone or anything but Violet, she'd changed all that… Now Kate was going to finish him off.
The thought was not a comforting one.
