Chapter 13: That Deplorable Word That Victimizes

"I wish to be Providence myself, for I feel that the most beautiful, noblest, most sublime thing in the world, is to recompense and punish.'"

-Monte Cristo

"Sebastian, can you go see who that is?" Annette called out from her study as he stomped to open the door with an angry mood at what happened.

Still, as he opened it, he was suddenly not glad that he'd left his darkroom because standing in front of him with a smirk on that frustratingly beautiful face (why couldn't she have gotten fat in Paris?) was the very person he was interesting in strangling right now.

"You look like hell. Bad time?" Kathryn inquired, raising her eyebrows innocently as if he hadn't walked in on her fucking some loser when he had been there to apologize.

Wordlessly, he slammed the door in her face, hoping she'd get the very succinct message and fuck off.

"Who was that?" his girlfriend asked, coming out of the room with a curious expression.

"The devil incarnate."

More incessant knocking and it grew louder and more annoying when the knocking was joined by her sneering voice. "I never thought you'd be able to reach a new level of immaturity, but congratulations, Sebastian. You've proven me wrong."

Annette gave him a look and sighed, as if to say 'Let's just get this over with'. Sebastian had been in a foul mood since he got home yesterday, not even bothering to talk to Annette as he locked himself in his darkroom.

He opened the door against his will and Kathryn stepped in before Annette or Sebastian could tell her to go away.

"I believe you're in the wrong place, Satan. This isn't hell." He glared at her, still remembering the way Kathryn had looked at him when she was riding that… Whoever that fuckhead was.

"Funny," she replied, her green eyes passing from Sebastian to a bewildered Annette. "It certainly looks like it."

Kathryn wandered past them, looking around the place as if she was judging it. Her gaze flickered over disinterestedly at the photographs on the walls, and there seemed to be a disgusted sneer on her lips as she chanced upon a framed photograph of Kathryn and Sebastian during their senior prom. Barbie and Ken, she thought to herself as the couple tried to keep up with her pace. Terribly disgusting.

"Just tell me what the hell you came here for before I throw you out on your bony bulimic ass."

"Nice place. I somehow imagined it really would be a little white house with the picket fence to match. I wonder why you don't seem to like staying here anymore, Valmont."

"What do you mean?" Annette asked, her features scrunching up in confusion.

His girlfriend's obvious discomfort and denial at that she had had no knowledge of where Sebastian had been amused Kathryn. "Well, your pussywhipped boyfriend didn't come home the other night, correct?"

"So? He was busy, he's been under a lot of stress with school lately…" her voice trailed off, and it was clear that nobody in the room believed her.

There were those instances in one's life wherein you just have to tell a little white lie to make the other person feel better, but then again, the only lies Kathryn Merteuil had ever been capable of telling (and it was her preference) were not lies at all, but those dark, damaging truths that made the other person feel like shit. Guess which one she chose?

"He was with me."

Bitch. He threw a fixed stare at his conniving stepsister and grabbed her arm before Annette could throw him one of her hurt looks that made him feel an unbelievable amount of guilt. "Get the fuck out if you're just here to—"

Kathryn actually laughed, not even wincing a little as he touched her sore arm. "Don't flatter yourself, Sebastian. I came here for Annette."

"Me? Why?"

Kathryn heaved a sigh, as if she was making the biggest sacrifice in her spoiled, pampered life. "I've been made the head of the social committee arranging the Fashion Show for a Cause at the Hamptons three weeks from now. Apparently my mother has included you in the list, seeing as how Cecile Caldwell might be unavailable for quite a long time."

"That's because you had her shipped off to that uptight boarding school run by nuns with sticks up their asses." Sebastian threw her another angry look, one of the many things he'd love to throw at her given the chance.

She only smiled mysteriously, choosing neither to deny nor confirm his comment. "Minor details, of course." Turning her attention towards Annette, she began instructing the confused blonde. "Rehearsals will start a week from now the fittings included, of course, so don't pig out okay? I suggest you empty your otherwise boring social calendar to avoid any problems."

Sebastian could only stare at her incredulously. Was she high on those painkillers she chewed on like tictacs? Did she seriously think she was going to get Annette to be deluded and manipulated into joining her freak show when it was obvious that she was planning something?

Well, in the words of the infamous gray eyed blonde we all love and hate (depending on which side she seems to be on at the moment), "Who are you to say what people would and wouldn't do given the right influence?"

"She's not joining your stupid show." He interrupted before Annette could reply.

"Yes, I know she shouldn't." She assessed Annette from head to toe, giving her the cruelest, shallowest once over she'd ever given. "She's too fat. Honestly, if I had my way she wouldn't even be allowed to set foot in the estate."

He felt his protective instincts kick in as Annette crossed her arms over her flat stomach, obviously affected by Kathryn's comment. "You want to talk about weight issues? Take a look in the mirror, sweetheart."

"Oh, go fuck yourself, Valmont, because I never will."

"Go stick your finger down your throat, Kathryn, but then again you'd probably prefer Court Reynolds' dick… It is the same size as your pinky, if I recall you saying."

She rolled her green eyes, pacing about the establishment again. The couple heard the clicking of her heels stop as she opened the door to the indoor pool and gazed admiringly around up the high tinted glass ceiling that provided a perfect view of the sky. "This is a waste of architectural skill," She sighed, "to be lived in only by the proverbial clichéd reformed bad boy and his uptight hoity toity holier than thou Barbie."

"What makes you think I'm going to agree to this?" Annette asked, oblivious to the rapt attention Kathryn was giving at the blue marble tiles that surrounded the pool. If there was another thing Kathryn loved besides sex, herself, drugs, money, power and revenge (although not necessarily in that order), it was working out while you were in the coldness of the water, completely immersed in oblivion with only the steady splashing of the water to keep you company. She often did laps when she had a lot of aggression issues, although Sebastian was the only one who knew about it.

"My mother's already called your ailing father to inform him of your involvement for such a big charity… He seemed to excited in watching his darling daughter devote herself to a worthy cause, are you going to disappoint poor Dean Hargrove? I mean, I've never particularly liked the man when I was in Manchester Prep, but I've been known to have a heart once in a while. He's going to be flown here from Kansas just in time for the show, first class of course."

"Here I thought blackmail was beneath you." He snarled, furious at Kathryn for inciting the expected reaction that Annette was now having: Guilt.

"The only thing that's beneath me was you… The other night."

"Oh? And your fucktoy didn't count?"

"Is that jealousy I sense?"

"Are you high or has sex killed your intelligence?"

"Just perceptive. He doesn't count… I let him be on top… At least for the first few times."

"Could you be more of a slut?"

"Fine, I'm in." a third voice interrupted the warring stepsiblings and the two turned their attention towards Annette incredulously, as if they'd just noticed she was still in the room. "But I have a couple of demands."

Kathryn snickered nastily, "You're not important enough to make demands. However… it is for a fucking good cause, namely, to get my evil hag mother off my back, so let's hear it, Dorothy, and make it fast. Do you think I relish being here with you and Mr. Asshole of the Year over here?"

"First of, you stop calling me Dorothy."

She shrugged, "Okay."

"Second, there will be no plans of sabotage or anything that might harm or humiliate me or my father during the preparation and the actual show."

"Fine."

"Third, you treat me with respect. No insults, snide comments and the like."

Kathryn brushed her long brown hair back, her green eyes lighting up over her small triumph of her displeased stepsibling. "Done, done, and done. I'll call you for the details."

"I'm not finished." Annette said sharply.

"Don't push it, Annette."

"Lastly, stay away from Sebastian."

"Oh, I don't think you'll have a problem with that." He answered, his blue eyes cold and indifferent. "In fact, why don't we increase the distance?" he shoved Kathryn roughly, causing her to fall into the pool with an angry shriek.

"Damn, the wicked bitch isn't melting." He said disappointedly, noticing Annette's surprised reaction.

One minute they were kissing, the next he was avoiding her, now he's angry at her again? What kind of weird relationship did her boyfriend have with his stepsister?

"Son of a bitch!" Kathryn hollered as her head broke through the surface, her brown hair now plastered to her face, which oddly made her look little a little girl with her petite features. Her thin legs automatically kicked against the light blue pool and she seriously contemplated on having Sebastian killed while Annette watched... Or vice versa. She would thoroughly enjoy it either way. Fucking asshole.

The golden couple was now laughing their asses off, now that Pollyanna had recovered from the shock. The flailing brunette felt the water seep through her skin as their laughter echoed around the room. "STOP LAUGHING!"

And they stopped, but it wasn't because she ordered them to. Their faces went white as the noticed the clear blue water turning dark red from her blood.

"Ohmigod…" Blondie gasped, turning a sickly green.

Then Kathryn felt it, that intense, stinging pain in her steadily kicking leg that caused her to yell out a string of profanities while clutching her bleeding limb. "You idiot! The fucking stitches opened!"

"Call the doctor." Sebastian ordered and without a second thought, he dove into the pool and quickly reached his pained sister, wrapping his strong arms around her waist to keep her afloat. She sputtered as the water dribbled from her mouth, obviously the most ungraceful thing she's ever done. As though it was in her instinct to struggle harder now that she was being kept safely afloat, she splashed around, kicking harder. Kathryn was fighting as hard as she could to keep Sebastian away.

"Stop it." He demanded, wincing as she managed to kick his ankle.

"I'd rather drown than be saved by an asshole like you." She muttered, using her arms to push him away from her. The blood was flowing freely from her open wound. Sebastian's crisp white shirt was now light pink from the mixture of the water and the crimson liquid that flowed from Kathryn and even though she was clawing at him to let her go, he held on tighter, knowing she would sink if he did.

"Sebastian!" she screamed at him angrily. "Let me go!"

Not knowing what else to do, he pressed his lips against her ear, whispering in a pleading voice.

"Please stop struggling, Kathryn."

He didn't know if it was the fact that she had fallen ill at the knowledge that they were both submerged in her blood, or if the pain of her leg had caught up with her, or even the fact that she recognized the raw need in his voice and decided to answer his pleas, but she stopped flailing and lay still, waiting for him to pull her out. He looped his other arm around the back of her knees and used the other one to cradle her back gently; wincing as the ugly black gash he'd caused to open stared back at him in its red gory ugliness. Wordlessly, he climbed the steps and settled her down, her eyes staring at everything else except him.

"Sebastian?" she finally spoke, her brown hair hanging in clumps.

"What?"

She drew her palm back and slapped him as hard as she could. "Hurt me again and I'll kill you."

As the doctor treated her wounds, Kathryn's face no longer bore the pained look it had earlier even though the antiseptic must have hurt like hell. Her cold eyes were unforgiving as she stared at the pink water that now lay as still as her drenched body, not paying attention to the Annette's young doctor friend who couldn't stop staring at her.

"Looks like you've opened some old wounds." The doctor said, trying to initiate a light conversation with the green eyed beauty who never even winced at the burning pain.

His attempt to engage her in small talk caught Kathryn's attention as the petite brunette finally took her eyes off the pool and gave an unwavering glare at Sebastian and Annette, who stood uncomfortably.

"Yes, and I believe new ones have just been made."

---

"I love you, too?" the door opened and Kathryn walked in, her green eyes still as her gaze pierced into Sebastian. "My God… You're completely pussywhipped."

"Stop it."

Despite the harshness of Sebastian's voice, she didn't back down. Instead, she fixed the same stare on him, that indifferent, in-control gaze Kathryn had spent her whole life perfecting. "What happened to us?"

He gawked at her incredulously, as if he couldn't believe she was making such a big deal out of the entire fucking thing. "Nothing has changed!"

"Yes, it has. You're in love with her, you don't love me anymore."

He sighed, avoiding her gaze. "Oh, come on, Kathryn… It's just a bet."

She gazed into him, standing perfectly still she could have been mistaken for the most exquisite sculpture depicting the juxtaposition of indifference and sadness, her poisonous gaze bore into Sebastian's brain, trying to read his thoughts the way she had done so many times in the past. Finally, Kathryn approached him slowly, bridging the distance between them. Her eyes never left his face, that challenging look seemed to memorize every feature Sebastian had as though she somehow knew it would be the last time they'd be this way. Unblinking and unwavering, her shoulder length brown hair perfectly fixed and her mouth parting open, she grabbed the back of his neck and started kissing him, giving a little sigh as he responded. Delicious lips of twisted camaraderie, the bittersweet taste of Sebastian's warm mouth on hers, a kiss between hello and goodbye… Kathryn's last attempt to win him back…The moisture of their lips excited her the only way Sebastian could do it, having perfected the masterful art of manipulating and teasing, of seducing and loving alongside his stepsister… God, he just fit so well with her. Kiss away Annette Hargrove's innocence; suck the sweet venom of purity from Sebastian's mouth… Could he still be saved?

His firm hands grabbed her shoulders and pushed her away, breaking the last remaining connection they had. The seriousness of the situation escaped him, as he chuckled at her. Didn't he know what she'd just tried to do? Didn't he know that she'd tried to get him back? To win him over when in fact Kathryn Merteuil would have never reached out to anybody else had they been in the same position as him?

"This is ridiculous." He was laughing at her. Sebastian was laughing at her. At that instant she hated him so much, for making her want to feel, she hated him for making her want to break through the mask of placidness she'd worked so hard to keep. She hated The Bet, she hated that fucking car she only wanted to have just to spite him, and she hated her own body because it was the promise of sex that had sealed the deal. I love you, Sebastian. Fuck you. I'll bury you alive. And she did, the world around them melted and he was encased in a Plexiglas casket, the same mouth she'd kissed screaming at her.

Are you coming back to me, Sebastian?

I chose Annette, remember?

You don't love me anymore.

He seemed to hear her and the desperate, angry look on his face disappeared only to be replaced with a mocking sneer. Kathryn heard his voice, clear and distinct despite the barrier between them.

"I never loved you."

She sat up with a start, completely forgetting that her ribs were still in the process of healing. Her green eyes were wide open and there was a thin trail of sweat that ran down her forehead.

"Kathryn?" the man beside her stirred and in her moment of disorientation, it took a couple of seconds for the fact that this wasn't one of her many flings. This was Mathieu, and he was different.

She angrily brushed the tears that had formed in her lucid nightmare, forcing a laugh but instead got a strangled sigh, causing Mathieu's brown eyes to open and look at her closely.

"Another dream." He said quietly, using his thumb to brush away the remaining trail of tears. "I despise him for doing this to you."

"Forget it." She replied once her breathing had gone back to normal. She curled up beside him, the fear of being left alone disappearing as soon as he wrapped his arms around her. For the second time in Kathryn's life, she felt safe, although this time, it was in the arms of a different man.

---

As soon as she was fast asleep, he gently disentangled himself from her and walked down the hall, his bare feet unflinching at the cold wooden floors of the night. The Valmont-Merteuil townhouse was indeed impressive, even more so at night. The entire house had a mixture of a certain color but it was always matched with gold, Mathieu observed. The color of greed and elegance, it made sense.

"Ohhh…" a female voice gasped from behind one of the thick wooden doors, its volume easily surpassing the width. Mathieu cocked his head to the side, a shadow of a smile crossing his handsome face. Raising his fist, he gave a knock and the moaning stopped quickly, to be followed by a hasty sounding Belinda.

"Who is it?" she called out, her voice oddly sounding like Kathryn's for a few seconds.

"It's me."

"I'm busy at the moment, Mathieu."

He came in anyway to find the blonde model in various states of undress, her light gray eyes malevolently glinting underneath the New York moonlight. She looked poised and expectant, even a hint of a smile on her beautiful face that didn't mirror her male acquaintance's, a sandy haired young man who was covering himself with one of her pillows. Mathieu easily crossed the room, ignoring the flustered man as he smiled warmly at her, kissing her forehead gently.

"Somebody missed me." She commented coquettishly, disregarding the man's confused gaze.

He pulled out a small bottle of pills from his pocket, "I brought you something… Now can we talk?"

She pretended to consider the thought, shifting her gaze from her only trusted confidante to the now sweating heavily slightly muscular man that watched the strange exchange between the two. "But of course."

"I-I think I should be heading back to my dorm anyway… I'll see you tomorrow?"

The ravishing blonde kissed her bedmate for the night, her gaze never breaking away from Mathieu's, who only looked on with a smirk. "Call me!"

He raised his eyebrows, "So how did our friend rate in bed? Perhaps a possible perfect ten from the way you were moaning?"

The smile dropped from her face as soon as the sandy haired man left, collapsing on her bed with a sigh. "Try a negative ten." She rolled her eyes, "So that's why Annette didn't fuck him. It's completely understandable why she dumped him for Sebastian."

"Ah, yes… The infamous Trevor from Kathryn's sordid tale of betrayal… He did sound queer."

"You do know I am making the biggest sacrifice? Do you have any idea what fucking that loser was like?"

"No, and I don't ever want to know. It's bad enough that I had to fund his matriculation at Columbia, which is an utter waste of money. I don't bode well with benevolence and I don't grant mysterious scholarships for faggot losers."

"Yet here you are anyway, anything for your precious Kathryn." She shot back, the tiniest bit of anger in her usual cool voice.

The wrinkles on his forehead appeared as he frowned, raising a hand to caress Belinda's face. "Is somebody feeling resentful?"

"You love her more than you love me." Still, she did something that would have shocked even the indifferent Kathryn Merteuil, who had been under the influence of a dreamless sleep at the moment. Belinda instinctively melted under his touch, instantly becoming the frightened fifteen-year old she was when Mathieu found her and took her in all those years ago. She sounded like a petulant child whose father favored her sister more than her, and it was the sick cycle of her childhood all over again. Kathryn, with her flawless doll-like features and innocent smile, was the child for showing off, while Belinda, who had been quite beautiful in her own right, was for Julian Merteuil's own twisted sense of fornication.

"Comparisons should never be made in instances like this." His sharp eyes were used to the sudden shifts in Belinda's complex personality as he kissed her, erasing the frown on her face. The kiss deepened and when Belinda tried to push him on her bed, Mathieu pulled back with an apologetic look. "I have to get back."

The breathtaking blonde was persistent, her nonexistent heart hammering wildly at the mere presence of Mathieu De Comte in her room. She cast him a seductive look, speaking in mischievous whispers. "All the years we've known each other… Haven't you ever wondered what it would be like to be inside of me? To make love to me as I would only to you?"

She'd said that word again, that obscure word which always hung in the air between them even before he'd met Kathryn. "Goodnight, my beautiful Belinda."

As the handsome businessman crept back in Kathryn's room, he was about to resume his place beside her when she stirred, her emerald eyes opening sleepily and for a couple of blinks, she was the very picture of innocence. Kathryn Merteuil, the woman who sought blood and Mathieu was only happy to give it to her. Love. He deplored the word, yet as he glanced at her, with her healing beautiful body and fascinating life, he felt a slow smile spread across his face. It was the very same emotion that people like Mathieu, Belinda, Kathryn, and even Sebastian hated, yet in the safety of the mystery night befalls upon them; they're victimized by that cruel, double edged blade of love and desire. Sebastian had been the first one to fall from the pedestal of numbness, and if things go wrong, who would go next? Who would admit defeat under that trite, overused word that should never be used yet deep down inside their black hearts, was secretly felt? There was only one person who stood in the way, and although he had yet to meet her stepbrother, Sebastian Valmont would soon know that Mathieu De Comte was not to be taken lightly.

Sam: Don't worry, Sebastian won't make it so easy for her this time. He's too gorgeous to be too nice. What I can tell you is that he won't take the threats so lightly. God forbid I turn him into a pussy in the upcoming chapters. That's just messed up. Yuck. And the few twists and turns? That's just a fancy shmancy way of saying I really don't know what happens next. It's a mystery. Hahaha, btw, loved the new chapter. Flattered that you took some of the advice I gave, and don't worry, even though I might have guessed something for the later plot, I'm sure I'll still look forward to how you spin it.

Nicole: Sneaky is correct. Just don't keep figuring things out otherwise I might go insane trying to think up of new things to throw in. That whole Mathieu thing? That's a result of an attempt to keep you all on your toes. Hope it's working.

J: I look forward to your reviews. The longer it is, the happier I am, and the happier I am, the more I want to write the next chapter. So, write away! Hahaha!

Katie: I don't exactly know when the next one is coming out, and I'd love to hear your thoughts about where this should go (that is, if you're feeling extra nice... then send an email. Hahaha). You might just give me the ideas I wish I had thought of myself. ;-)

Washed Out: Thanks, as always.

jenny: Thanks for reading my story. ;-)