Chapter 11

Angel Underground

In the hall, Jane turned warily to glance back at the doorway to the room she'd just blessedly vacated. She could feel a presence at her back; the way one would feel in a haunted house at a carnival, expecting a masked man to sneak up at any moment and pop a balloon in one's ear. Cheap thrills; Crane's thrills weren't cheap, though, were they? No, she suspected that they came at one heck of a cost. She also doubted that she'd classify them as 'thrills' so much as 'horrors'.

"Are you coming or what, Bitey?" Angie called impatiently. She stood with an orderly at her back, arms crossed over her chest, tapping a foot like a cartoon character. Angie was a character, indeed.

"Where are we going?"

"Outside again, of course. Crane likes to let us have a little more oxygen time on group days."

He liked to let them have a little more oxygen time on group days; it struck Jane that if she hadn't been committed for the last few weeks, she'd have no idea what any of that meant.

My, how language can change with circumstance.

Heading outside, Jane counted herself lucky that she rarely left her room without her sweater. The air was chilly, smelling of sharp autumn bonfires, Hallowe'en, real life. Probably all that oxygen blowing in from the outside world.

"What do you suppose it is we do breathe in there?" Angie mused, leading Jane to a corner. Setting herself on the ground, she seemed surprisingly comfortable. "Whatever it is, it gives me nightmares…"

Jane tentatively sat beside her. The grass felt wet, but that may just have been the cold. "Me too…" she agreed. "So, Crane's your guy, huh?"

The girl smiled at her brightly; her teeth were nearly perfect, save for the slight turn of her incisors. They appeared more prominently, displaying themselves as fangs. With her new identity as 'the biter', Jane almost wished she had them.

"Yeah, well. He hasn't accepted it yet." Her voice dropped to a passable impression of Crane. "It would do him a world of good to confront that, Jane."

Jane laughed; it sounded foreign to her own ears. She casually looked around. "Can we talk here?"

"Oh, sure. The guards leave me to myself in the yard; not much harm I can do to myself, or anyone, here. No escape, no guys small enough for me to overpower. And Crane never comes out here, so he's safely hidden away from me."

This was becoming quite a diversion from Jane's hellish new life. "What happened there?" she asked, trying not to sound too eager. She hungered for news of Crane's weakness, if he suffered one, and Angie appeared to have what she needed. "Did you two know each other outside?"

Angie snorted. "No, no. There is no outside", she answered incredulously. "No, I met him here, my first week, like you. I was in for attempting to confine a handsome young classmate in my house." She sighed. "He didn't know what he was missing. Anyway, Jon evaluated me, and damn if I didn't forget about that other guy right away. Those eyes…" she sighed again, blissfully this time. Apparently those eyes had distracted her from the fact that he was a monster.

"So, he evaluated you…?"

"Yeah", she said, coming back to herself. "He evaluated me, and found me fit to be confined here. And now I get to see him all the time. Well, I used to…"

"And?

Angie paused. "It was weird. Well, not if you know him. Like I said, it's hard not to fall into his trap once he has you pegged. I was in therapy with him for quite a while, like six months. He'd meet me early in the mornings, really early, sometimes even before the day shift started. The sun would be coming up. I'd get to see the sunrise reflected in those hottie glasses…"she giggled. "So, when he talks to me, I shiver. His voice, the way he looks at me…for months, I really thought he was getting more and more ready for me. I mean, he reciprocated, dammit! I swear it.

"The thought of someone not liking me back is seriously threatening to my well-being, y'know? So usually I go crazy – for lack of a better term – trying to figure out if a guy digs me. With Jonnie, I'd lay a hand on his leg, touch his arm when he'd talk to me in the hall, stuff like that. The first time I touched him like that he looked like I'd just put a tarantula on him or something. But after that…he'd make sure we were alone. Then he'd interview me, ask me sexy questions, like when was my first time, yadda yadda. He shifted in his seat like he was – ooh, just thinking about it!…anyway, for weeks and weeks this went on, getting stronger every day, until I couldn't stand it anymore…"

Jane had her doubts about Crane's interest in Angie, which Angie seemed to agree on, in a way. Hard not to fall into his trap…"What happened when you couldn't stand it anymore?"

Angie took a breath, staring off into the hard asphalt. "He got me. The bastard." She laughed, a short, bitter affair. "It was another early day, we were alone in one of those painful white rooms. Sometimes he'd let me walk around during a session, stretch my legs. He said I looked like I needed to relieve some tension. He said he could relate to that, wink wink. So I was wandering, looking out the window, and I remember the exact question he asked me at that precise moment."

Another full stop; Jane waited, but Angie appeared lost in the past. "Angie", she prodded, impatient.

"I wasn't looking at him; I'd needed a rest from the visual stimulation. I was looking out the window, and he said 'how do you want me to help you, Angel, what do you want me to do to you?' Well, the 'do to you' part just set me on fire, y'know? So I turned around, and he was suddenly right behind me, or in front of me at that point. He pushed himself onto me, understand? I swear to God, he did. He was just, like, right there, almost all over me. I just couldn't…I did the stupid thing."

"Which was?"

"I kissed him."

Jane's mouth fell open. Crane was handsome, in a way, but she simply could not imagine pressing her lips to his. He was bad inside, she felt it; he dirtied her with every session they had. She could, however, easily see him pushing himself onto a girl; he had practically done that during their last hypnotherapy date, if she was not mistaken.

Angie nodded at Jane's disbelief. "Oh, yes. And he kissed me back. I should have known, though; it felt wrong. Like he was phoning it in. At the time, though, I was eager to think he was into me, so I started to loosen his tie and stuff…and then an orderly walked in, and Crane pushed me away like I was trying to suck his blood." She shrugged. "I've been down here ever since."

"I see", Jane said, at a loss for words. He had reverse-sexually-assaulted her, it seemed. "Do you think…what do you think he was doing?"

"What do you think he was doing? I honestly still don't know. All the nurses and orderlies saw me hitting on him in public for weeks beforehand, and when I think of it now, he so obviously never gave anything back in front of them. So maybe he just set me up, or maybe he really was interested but had to back off because I'm a patient…" she shook her head. "I don't know. He continued to see me for a while after I got down here, but I was like obsessed at that time, and I started going through his stuff. I got caught just last week. Just last week…funny, it seems like longer that I hadn't seen him. I was getting it regular from him every day, you know."

Therapy, Jane understood.

"And that's the story of how I came to be underground." She glanced at the building next to them. "You know we're so far down there aren't even any windows for us?"

"I've never had a window here."

"Ah", Angie pondered. "He must have really liked you. Drove you crazy faster."

What a sweet, thoughtful man.

Looking back at all the signs he'd sent her, Jane realized that in his world, he very well may like her. He'd broken the ice by introducing himself as a doctor, he'd shown his affection by having her placed in his hospital for the insane. He'd even betrayed her scant trust in him by throwing her in the cellar; to top it all off, here she was, talking to his ex. If causing madness was courtship to him, he had certainly been a busy little bee.

How does one break up with a boyfriend like that?

Angie nodded with growing conviction. "Just you wait", she said. "He does like you. If he hasn't wormed his way inside you yet-" Jane wasn't sure what she meant by 'inside', but let her continue anyway – "he'll do it soon. You're not a raving lunatic, so he's got to be up to something. You and me both, kid." She put her arm around her, making Jane slightly uncomfortable. "We're his new wives, and he's just aching to break us in."

The thought nearly drove Jane to tears; she hugged her knees instead, and felt the chill air seep into her skin. Life was just a memory now, she feared; she was Persephone, and her Underworld would never let her go.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Alright, then! Remembering to take Angie lightly, sort of, right? And Thankyou for the great comments, folks. I believe I mentioned somewhere that I have actually managed to attract as readers the sort of writers I admire; imaginative, literate guys and gals with a critical yet supportive eye. Thanks, all! Keep reminding me that you're reading; it makes me want to post faster.

- nH