Beware
The beautiful sadist
La belle sadique
—
Scene II
Focus: les monstres
Little feet were walking towards him. When he recognized her face, realized who was truly standing over him, he tried to pull back into himself. The slim girl-child bent over him, her clear blue eye dancing as flaxen hair flowed over her shoulders.
"Tut, tut," she said with a gentle smile, tapping him twice onone side of his ruined face. It hurt, but not as badly as it should have; she wanted him to see what she did next.
"Missing this?" she asked sweetly. Her features shifted into those of his beloved. Restraint and composure were luxuries he had been unable to afford in eons. He choked on a dry sob, even knowing the deception. It was something she had shown him many times. A reminder, that she was the superior magician.
"Hm," she sighed, with a slight trouble to her brow, "I see they have been over-zealous to-night."
He shut his eyes as the faux face dissolved and became her natural face.
A face so beautiful that it was hideous to behold. For many years he had thought that he was something terrible to look at, and in that time his behavior grew to match it. But he had found there were worse things.
"Tut, tut, I say," she repeated with a bit more cheer, "Whatever would I do if you were to die?" The slight creature hoisted him up over her shoulders and lifted him. Maneuvering his limp form was not nearly as difficult as it should have been for someone of her petit size. He blacked out while she carried him back to the remains of his house. Awakening briefly as she pored water down his throat from his one remaining intact carafe.
"There now, snug in your coffin. I'll just have a tête-à-tête with a few of my darlings then," she giggled.
What Erik hated most about it was that it truly was a child's laugh. Pure and sparkling, carefree and innocent, all of the things it should not have been. It was one of the few natural things about her, and all the more ironic for that.
"Come now," she wheedled, recognizing the numbed disgust spread across his features, "it won't do you any good to be bitter. After all these years, too." She tossed her pretty dark curls. "Now, have a look at the face that should have been yours, before I go."
Disobeying her was impossible, and this diversion of hers damaged him far more than any of her 'darlings' ever could.
—
Ask and the great swami will explain all. Okay, that was a lie, but ask anyway and I will try. Rhyming is fun, kids! (Tête-à-tête is an expression used in English, but anyway it's literally 'head to head' meaning a private chat. She's being ominous. It's an implied threat to her 'darlings' for butchering him too badly.)