My Beloved

Chapter 35

Piper's knuckles reddened as she pounded against the door of Helen's home. She also rang the bell excessively. A mere moment later, she grabbed a brick from the ground, ready to break in.

It was already six in the evening. Piper had been driving around town, to her father's office and Natalie's house, but nobody was there. She even drove to the ranch, but found it empty. She had been trying to call her father all day, but he wouldn't pick up the phone. She needed some answers now. The tunnel inside Alex's home was mind-boggling in itself. She had walked along the tunnel and found the secret entrance to her father's study room in the Chapman mansion. For a moment, she had felt like she had been thrown into a Harry Potter universe. She had imagined how Alex had been using the secret passage all these years without her knowledge. The years of her father's deep, dark secrets. The years of Alex's repressed loneliness. The idea of it all left Piper's mind reeling, overwhelmed.

No more secrets now. Piper hit the brick against the window. "Dammit!" She grunted at the pain on her hand.

The door swung open to reveal a wet-haired Helen in a white robe. She looked absolutely bewildered. "Piper!? What are you doing!?"

Tossing the brick away, Piper pushed her way into the house. Her hair was messy, her face and back sweaty. "Is my father here?"

Helen shook her head. "No. He went out in morning, and hasn't come back yet. What happened? Is he all right?"

"Yeah, I'm sure he is," Piper said through her gritted teeth, her fists clenched.

Then, the hum of a vehicle approached the house, and they both turned to look out the window. Bill's black Buick was pulling over in front of the house.

"Oh, look, he's back," Helen said, relief filled her voice.

Piper quickly leaned against the wall. She had parked her car a block away, so that her father wouldn't know that she had come.

Helen turned to Piper, and frowned in puzzlement. "Please, tell me what's going on. Is there something wrong?"

Piper sighed. "Alex is missing."

Helen raised her brows. "Who?"

"My girlfriend."

"Oh." Helen blinked a few times. "And what does it have to do with—"

The door opened, and Bill entered. "Hey, honey. Sorry I'm late," he said, walking towards Helen, pecking her on the cheek.

Piper moved behind her father, and Bill turned to look over his shoulder. His eyes widened slightly, beads of sweat trickling down his face. He seemed roughed up somehow, pale and exhausted.

"Piper... What—what are you doing here?"

"I've been calling you all day."

A pause. "I was very busy at the ranch. We had some maintenance guys over—"

"I went there. No one was there." Piper glared at him, anger rising in her chest. "Where is Alex?"

"What?" Bill shook his head. "Piper, I haven't seen her—"

"Where is she!? I knew that you were at her house!"

Bill gave a quick glance at Helen, and the woman promptly went upstairs to leave them some privacy. He turned to his daughter and said, "Calm down. What's going on here? I was out around town all day, meeting up with those guys—"

"You're lying! Again! I saw blood on the floor and in the fucking tunnel! A fucking tunnel beneath our house, dad! That was fucking crazy! What other things have you been hiding? Where is Alex? Where did you take her!? Answer me!"

"I haven't seen her today! I really don't know! Piper—no—" Bill tried to hold his daughter, but she angrily pushed at his chest.

"Tell me where she is! What did you do to her!? What the fuck did you do!?"

"It was my blood! Mine! The blood you saw in the tunnel was mine!" Bill growled in Piper's face, pulling up his sleeve and raising his wounded arm up to her face. "Yes, I went to see her today. We got into a fight, and she attacked me! I tried to reason with her, but she's not like us, Piper. She'll never be!"

Piper stared at the bloodied bandages around his arm. It must be a pretty deep wound. It reminded her of the wound Alex had left on her brother's arm. It reminded her that Alex was, indeed, not human. But it also reminded her what brutality her father and brother had done.

Piper stared at Bill. "You can't do this to us. Not again."

"She's left on her own accord this time, I swear. You knew that this was going to happen. It's just you, living and hoping. Deep down, you knew that this couldn't go on."

"No, I didn't know that. Alex and I, we wanted a future together. She would never leave me again. You made her leave!"

"Yes, I made her realize that she's just an animal. You're in love with a beast. It's sick." His words came soft, but cut through her heart. To hear those words uttered by her own father paralyzed her mind and body. "I understand that you both had fought and survived together, and the strong bond would always be there. But Alex isn't a dreamer like you. When fear and pain subsided, she finally realized it and accepted it. She left. You're so young and hopeful, but one day you'll thank me for showing you the right path."

Piper slapped her forehead. She felt feverish, her throat dry, her heart hammering in her chest. She couldn't believe what made Bill Chapman. The perfect smile to go with his perfect lie. Her father. She looked into his eyes and all she saw was love.

An illusion.

But he was the Devil himself, and Piper had now realized how deceiving life could be. Her father knew the game, and he had played them for so long. Her gaze hardened when she said, "I waited for her three years ago. Nothing's changed. You won't change it." She then turned away and walked towards the door.

Bill sighed. "Oh, Piper, she finally understood. Maybe it's time for you to let go, too."

Halting in her steps, Piper looked over her shoulder, glaring at Bill. She never knew this man. "I don't want anything to do with you anymore," she said, and then slammed the door behind her.

Green eyes kept blinking as the haze began to fade. Pain slowly crept in, pulling her out of the fogged consciousness.

Gray ceiling. Dim room. Hard, cold floor.

Alex turned her head slightly to the side to see the set of bars. She was caged inside a room. It was much smaller than the one at the ranch. It appeared to be a personal station rather than a fully equipped laboratory.

Fangs. Fur. Claws.

Gradually, her head became clearer. Alex realized that she was in her cougar form. But how? She had grown the habit of staying in her human form at all time for the past few years, refusing to transform only until that night she had to fight Maya. She wasn't sure how she ended up in a cage. Something had happened to her. Something had been done to her body.

Bill's visit. The argument. The drug.

Squeezing her eyes shut, Alex raked through her mind for a possible explanation. She now recalled her desperate struggle, trying to fight Bill in the living room, and then being dragged through the tunnel, barely conscious, bleeding.

Fuck.

Panic started to set in. Alex tried to get up, but halted at the collars around her neck and all four legs. Her head was spinning just by the slight movements. She panted for more air. Her back ached, and her legs strained. The situation seemed to be worse than she had first thought.

"Lie down. You're not going anywhere."

Alex looked up to see Bill entering through the metal door. He was in a black jacket and a pair of black pants. He seemed a little pale, dark circles under his angry eyes. He was carrying a stainless tray in his gloved hands. A needle, its syringe filled with blue-colored liquid. The drug appeared to be the type Alex had seen it being used on Maya. For her memories, or lack thereof.

Bill came to stand next to the cage, staring down his nose at her. "Look where you are now. Inside a cage. I've always thought that it's where you truly belong, and I was right. I should have done this long time ago before you ruined everything." He knelt down in front of the cage and began to inject the substance into the IV connected to the cougar's neck.

Alex panicked. She wasn't sure what the drug would do to her. She tried to move, but the chains were too short and tight, greatly limiting her movements. She could only watch as the blue liquid filtered through drip chamber and down the tube before entering her body.

"Its side effect is to help you sleep better. I wouldn't protest, if I were in your position," Bill said, scoffing as he put the empty needle back on the tray. "Its main purpose is to rearrange your memories. It takes time, but it worked with Maya."

Eyes widened, Alex pulled at the restraints with all her might. She couldn't believe what Bill was doing to her. She couldn't allow it to happen. She had a new life. She had Piper to go back to.

Bill stared into the cougar's eyes, his gaze indifferent. "A clean slate. You'll be become someone new. I'm going to turn you into what you were originally intended to be. A killer. A hunter." He sighed. "It was all my fault. I should have raised you differently. Now, it's too late. You've ruined my daughter. You've turned her against me. You corrupted Maya, my prize, my blood, sweat and tears, with your grand idea of freedom. Bullshit. All bullshit! You don't know what freedom is. You wouldn't know how to live with it."

Alex growled at him, exhausted by the exertion. Her legs grew weaker, her head heavy, but she continued to fight the chains. She had to try. She had to get back to Piper.

"You destroyed everything that I had created, so I'm going to destroy you." His fists clenched, Bill sharply stood up, turning and walking towards the door. "Four shots, Alex." He stopped, looking over his shoulder, a small smile at the corner of his lips. "I was the one who shot Diane. Four bullets. Two in the torso, and two in the face. I was sad that it had to end that way, but she truly deserved it, considering the damages she had caused. Don't test me, Alex. You're expensive, but still expendable. You better behave, because I won't hesitate to put you out of misery like I did your mother. You're just an animal."

The door shut behind Bill, and the room was suddenly filled with agonizing silence. Her blood boiled, Alex violently writhed against the chains, trying in vain to lose the holds. His words echoed in her head, his hate drowning her. Her vision quickly darkened as she wheezed for more air. Her knees buckled and she helplessly flopped back down onto the floor. The last thing she saw was the swimming view of those bars that had seemed to seal her fate.

48 hours.

Piper had filed a report for a missing person.

Alex Pearl Vause.

It felt odd and painful when Piper had to spell out the name to the police. It shouldn't have been Alex. It shouldn't have been like this. What happened was so unfair to them, yet she had no one to tell, no way to cry for justice. The person she was looking for wasn't even a human. The person who took her precious away was her own father. She just couldn't bring herself to incriminate him.

Her heart broken, Piper went home, exhausted. She didn't know what to do next except to wait endlessly for Alex to somehow miraculously return. Her worry was driving her nuts. What hurt her beyond any understanding was her father continuing to lie to her even when she knew that he was behind Alex's disappearance. There was just no way to reason with him. There was almost no hope to see Alex again even though she had tried to put on a brave front with her father. Bill would never back down. He would never willingly return Alex to her.

Entering Alex's home, its silence pierced into her. She dropped her purse and key on the table before making her way upstairs. Throwing herself onto the bed, she clutched the pillow with both hands. She took in a deep breath, smelling Alex's hair, recalling Alex's warm body against hers. Tears streamed down her face. Her emotions molded into one big mess, missing, fearing and worrying for Alex. The sight of the blood in the tunnel still gave Piper nausea. Something terrible must have happened. Even if the cougar had harmed Bill, she would come home. Alex wouldn't just run off without an explanation, especially after all that they'd gone through.

Piper was so tired of running around, wishing, chasing and failing. She failed to find Alex. She failed to protect Alex from her father. It was too late now, and she feared that it wouldn't be just three years of waiting this time.

Blurry vision. Numbed limbs. Reduced hearing ability.

Alex blinked slowly as she gradually made out the picture of the rusty bars that separated her from the two men on the other side. One of them was her father.

No.

It was Bill. And the realization hit her, deep and hard. She never knew her father. Even with Bill raising her, he never felt like a father to her.

Alex squinted at another unfamiliar face. It was a man in his late seventies. White hair and blue eyes. Wrinkled face with three, clawed scars down across his left brow and eye. The man was watching her with wide eyes, marveled.

"Truly a God's gift."

"My invention," Bill said. He had a twisted smile on his face that Alex had grown to hate.

Alex looked at her hands. Creamy skin. No claws. She was now in her human form, but the chains were still there.

"I didn't know that such a creature exists!"

"Now, you know from me," Bill said, gesturing his client towards the chairs by the wooden desk. The two men sat down, both having a glass of Whiskey in their hand.

"But how can I be sure that she would obey me? What if she attacks people?"

Bill showed his client a small bottle filled with blue liquid. Alex recalled having seen Maya taking it daily to stop the pain. She realized then what Bill had done to her. He was going to sell her.

As a slave.

Slavery. Control. Mind and body. It was what Bill excelled.

Alex lied on the cold floor, naked, tired and embarrassed. A glance down at her own body, she was all skin over a skeleton by now. She couldn't eat, vomiting most things she had been fed. Her mind over her body, she was not winning. She wanted to get out of here. She wanted to disappear. She didn't even want to see Piper now. She didn't want Piper to see her this way.

The only positive thing Alex could think of right now was that she still remembered Piper. It relieved her that she was still capable of it.

Pipes.

Her love. Her life. The only purpose Alex had kept on breathing.

"On the house," the bartender said. He was a young man with a pair of black-rimmed glasses. He had a look of pity in his eyes as he looked at her.

"Hm." Piper just nodded. She had lost track from a Margarita to Tequila shots, and a lot of other things in between. She would most likely vomit later on, but it was the whole point of being at the bar tonight. She needed to 'forget' even for just one second, or else she would jump off the bridge to end this hell she was thrown into.

Two weeks had passed by, and her attempt to track her father rewarded her with very little productive result. There were a few places where Bill frequently visited. His office, Helen's house, and a gated residence in the outskirts of the city. Other times, he simply disappeared. Sometimes she wondered what her father's secret life must be like. She wondered how he felt, how his mind worked. She wondered who he really was, because the man she saw now was a very far-removed version of her kind, loving father.

One of the times, her mind wandered off its careful path, ending up with thoughts of Maya. The suffering of a child. Her violent, untimely death by Piper's own hand. Piper clenched her right fist. She could still feel the invisible knife in her grasp. Cold and hard. She could still feel the sharp swing of her arm, the drive of the blade into the thick neck, and the nasty pain that tore down her own shoulder, cut by the beast's deadly claws. She had never talked to anyone about it, but her fears had followed her like shadows. She had been near death. She had killed someone.

Something. Someone… a creature like Alex…

Piper gulped down her drink. No one would believe her, if she told them. She wouldn't even believe it herself. She didn't want to. She had asked Alex what they did to Maya's body, and Alex told her that Bill had Maya cremated as soon as he regained his consciousness after the incident. No one knew what happened inside the ranch. The tragedy was paid to be forgotten. Piper's crime was silenced, but the guilt thundered in her conscience every single moment. She had killed a girl—her father's test subject, one of his victims. Her hands were as tainted as his.

"Long day?" the bartender asked. He was standing behind the counter, cleaning a glass with a towel.

"Pretty much." Piper inwardly sighed. It had been a peculiarly exciting day. She had her suspicion about the unknown, gated mansion. She had tried to sneak in earlier today, climbing over the wall and breaking a window, only having to flee like a rat when the alarm sounded. She had expected that she must have been caught on some surveillance cameras, but no one had come after her yet only because her father probably didn't want to throw her ass in jail.

Private investigator had also been Piper's other option. She had hired one to follow her father, but the progress had been slow. Bill had been extra careful, and from what the PI told her, Piper found out that her father had several residences he had never mentioned to anyone in the family.

Two weeks may seem like a short period of time, but Piper knew that a lot could have happened during that time. After witnessing Bill's expansive laboratory full of cages, Piper was certain that he could have done a lot of things to Alex in just two weeks.

Two fucking weeks.

Piper's head was already swimming—drowning. But she wasn't going to swim tonight. She wanted to just let go. The fact that Alex had failed to come back to her only convinced Piper that Alex had been put in a vulnerable position. The thought only plunged Piper deeper into depression.

Frustrated. Hopeless. Scared.

Piper put her face in her left palm, trying to shut out all thoughts. She clumsily gestured at the bartender for another drink.

"That's enough. You're coming home with me," a male voice interrupted.

Piper's head slowly shot up. She squinted at the man standing next to her. "Larry…? What… what are you doing here?" She gave him a goofy grin. She remembered vaguely of their last encounter. Oh, shit. It was unpleasant.

Right… we broke up… last month…

"What am I doing here? I should be the one to ask that question." Larry helped her put on her jacket. He then grabbed her arm, helping her to stand up. "Come on, I'll drive you home."

Piper giggled as she grabbed her purse and waved at the bartender. "See you tomorrow, Nick…. Rick… Bye."

Larry ushered the blonde out of the bar, keeping his hands on her arms to support her balance. "You're so drunk. I can't believe you got drunk alone at a bar."

Piper stopped, her gaze saddened. She shouldn't be alone. She should be with Alex right now. She knew that Alex needed her, too, and it pained her that there was nothing she could do to stop the hurt.

Larry still held her arms, studying her. "Did you have a fight with her?"

"Are you..." Piper burped. "Are you here… to mock me?" Hands shooting up to cover her face, Piper wanted so much to cry right now, but she had no tears left. She couldn't tell anyone that it was her father who took Alex away, and why. She couldn't bring herself to report him to the police. She didn't even know what form Alex was in right now, risking exposing her secret. She had no explanation for Alex's sudden disappearance, and Polly already hated Alex even more. She just wanted to scream, wanting to let the frustration out.

Larry sighed. "You can talk to me, Piper."

Piper lowered her hands to her sides. She looked away, her eyes reddened. "No, we didn't fight." She pinched the bridge of her nose as tears shot to her eyes. "I—I lost her. I'm so fucking useless."

"What happened?"

'My scheming father kidnapped my hybrid girlfriend' sounded just about right.

Piper couldn't help but shake her head, throwing her hands up in defeat. "It's… complicated."

Larry groaned. "That's bullshit. Don't give me that excuse again. Did she hurt you? Tell me. I swear to God that if she—"

"You shouldn't be talking to me, Larry. You shouldn't care! You should have left me at the bar—" Piper tried to balance herself, one hand over the wall. "—to drown… in my sorrow… and self-pity…"

"I'll bill you later. I just left my date to drive you home."

"I'm not…" Piper burped again, her fingers over her lips. "… not breaking up with Alex... if that's what you want to know..."

Larry took her arm and started to lead her down the road to where he parked his car. "Really? I heard from Polly that she disappeared again. Has she come back yet? Is this her thing or what?"

Piper held her breath. She recalled how Larry had been by her side when Alex disappeared three years ago. It seemed like ages ago, and she didn't want to imagine how long she would have to wait this time, or if they would ever meet again.

"Aren't you tired of waiting for her? How many more times shit like this would keep happening?"

Piper glanced up at Larry, seeing the anger in his eyes. "It's not her fault," she said.

"You're making excuses for her again. I can't believe you." Larry shook his head.

"I don't expect people to understand... what we have, what we mean to each other." Piper's words slurred as she blinked slowly.

Larry didn't ask anymore. He drove her home, they both keeping silent through the ride. It was nice to just be around each other and not having to fight. Piper did want to remain his friend, but she didn't suggest it since she believed that he would need more time. At least, Larry was still friendly with Polly, who had been heartbroken by Matt's betrayal. Piper was just grateful that Larry had been there for her friend while she had been extremely preoccupied with finding Alex.

Alex. Her Al. Her beloved.

Piper wondered how they had come this far down the path of pain and cruelty. She wondered how far she could go until it would completely break her.

Larry's car pulled along the driveway of the Chapman mansion. There was a police car waiting. Piper's heart almost stopped at the sight of the two officers in front of her house.

"What are the cops doing here?" Larry frowned.

Piper suddenly felt winded. She shakily pushed the car door open and exited the vehicle. Promptly, the officers stalked towards her.

"Are you Ms. Piper Chapman?" One of the officers asked.

Ms. Claudette came out behind the cops, looking petrified.

Piper tried to find her voice. Her knees felt so weak that she thought that she was going to faint. Had they found Alex? Did something happen to Alex? It couldn't be good. The dark thoughts alone made her want to vomit. "Yes… yes, how may I help you?"

The policemen glanced at each other, and then looked at Piper again. "William Chapman was shot tonight. He's dead. We're so sorry, ma'am."

Piper stared blankly at the police officers, completely at a loss for words. Her world stopped. The screaming and cursing at her father at Helen's house roared in her head. It was the last time they saw each other. Piper had planned not to talk to him again until she got Alex back. She had had so much anger in her that she didn't think that she could ever forgive him.

Piper stared at the cops. Impossible. Her father would always be there for her. He would never leave her, no matter what.

Everything just felt so surreal that she was now standing in front of her home, looking in to see Bill carrying his little girl. Suddenly, she remembered all the kisses and loving words her father had given her. She was his world, and he was her protector. Their smile and laughter. Their tears and embraces.

Never again.

A/N: I'm so in love with Vauseman s5! so much fluff xoxo