Gone entirely was the friendliness and easy joking that had characterized Mathias for the last few months. Every move he made was carefully calculated and inexplicably sharp. His voice had a matter-of-fact quality that suggested what he was saying was not only undeniably true, it had also been said many times before. Almost like a university professor delivering a lecture or a minister delivering a sermon, Mathias absentmindedly stroked the stubble that grew more pronounced as the night dragged on.
"Where to begin." He mused thoughtfully. "You know some people would find it appropriate to start at the beginning. But I think we've already done that and I don't think you believed me. Beginnings are so overrated when all you want to do is find out the part you play. Don't you think so princess?"
Anne simply looked on, dumbfounded, as Mathias became more and more animated as his story continued. With every word he spoke an unsavory light seemed to grow stronger and stronger in his eyes until his gaze was glassy and feverish. Soon he was staring not at Anne but through her.
"My father I killed out of necessity. There was truly very little pleasure in extinguishing a life that is so close to just fading away on its own. Rather like using a sledgehammer to crush an insect, it seems to be such a waste of energy. Yet his death still managed to serve a purpose. After watching the casket slowly lowered into the cold, hard ground, I realized just how much power was available to me. I could make or break someone by simply eliminating one of their family members. One of my favorite parts was taking part in the funeral and listening to the blatant hypocrisy of the friends and family. Even the most foul-tempered drunk became a paragon of virtue as soon as he ceased to breathe and his worthless heart no longer beat in his chest. At first it was only the elderly or the sickly; those whose deaths wouldn't be seen as suspicious in the least. Then one day it happened. There was a girl who walked past me one day and I just knew I had to possess her. She had to be mine until the end of time. She looked quite a bit like you princess."
Mathias shot Anne an appraising look as she tried to bury herself in the soft cushions of the armchair. His voice took on a dreamlike quality as he began once again to drift off into his memories.
"Her hair was long and hanging in loose curls and the skirts of her dress were caught by the wind just enough to give a glimpse of her slender legs. She was the single most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Yet it wasn't her physical beauty alone that caught me off guard. It was her smile. One look at the curve of her lips and I was gone. Hers was a smile that managed to convey a teasing confidence with just a glance. I did what any red-blooded young man would have done in my place. I followed her. You would think that after a smile like the one she had thrown my way, she would be quite friendly. Yet the look on her face was one of disgust when I tried to strike up a conversation."
Mathias' voice lost its dreamlike quality and became hard and vicious. Agitatedly he got out of his chair and began to pace back and forth in front of the fireplace. Noticing that the flames were starting to slowly die down, he grabbed another log from the floor and tossed it into the grate. Pulling the poker down from the top of the mantle he began to jab the blackened metal into the log, pushing it into place. He punctuated each stab with a another word spat angrily. "Stupid. Stuck-up. Bitch." Suddenly he whirled on Anne, still brandishing the poker, the tip now red hot from its contact with the fire.
"What made her think she was so much better than me? She was the daughter of a small-town doctor for God's sake. I was the heir to the most successful business empire for a hundred miles and running most of the company by myself after I killed my father. Compared to me she was nothing. Yet she had the power to deny me what I wanted; her. Or so she believed."
The tip of the poker began to make a dreamy journey through Mathias' hands as he began to spin it around playfully, like a drum major twirling his mace. Glowing a cheerful red, suddenly it stopped mere inches from Anne's cheek. She could feel the heat radiating from the metal and she tried to draw herself deeper into the chair to distance herself from the searing point. Keeping the poker just far enough from Anne's skin to avoid burning her, Mathias ran the tip along the side of her face and under her chin. He used the threat of the heat to force her chin up so she was looking him in the eyes. What she saw reflected in those dark orbs was more terrifying even then the tale of death he was spinning.
"At first I didn't want to kill her; just to give her a good scare and force her see just how trivial she really was. But then I heard her screams and I couldn't stop. As I watched the life fading from her eyes I realized that the control I could exercise over friends and family of my victims was nothing compared to the control over life and death itself. Poison of some description had usually been my method of choice in the past but as I sat and watched her body cool it suddenly occurred to me just how much I had been missing by not being present for the death itself. Poison was so impersonal it seemed insulting to carry on using it after I had experienced the intimacy of death. Being lovers is like being across oceans when compared to the closeness felt when you feel someone's dying breaths on your skin. Do you see it yet princess? Do you see the part you are to play?"
Anne looked at him incredulously, "You're going to kill me?"
"Well yes, eventually. I wasn't planning on doing it tonight but you were just so sweet and helpless sitting in my lap. How could I resist?"