Part III: Family Matters

Chapter: On the beach

It was their third morning in the paradise.

Myers woke up to the sunlight that entered their villa through the curtains, to the sound of the waves and birds. He reached to feel Margot by his side - just to notice that the bed was empty.

His heart jumped, and immediately he panicked.

"Margot?"

He sat up, and glanced around, beginning to feel the fear in his bloodstream, the cold, iron taste on his lips. Margot was nowhere to be seen, but the door to the terrace was open. The warm sea breeze moved the white linen curtain, and sunlight danced on the floor tiles.

Christ, not again. I can't take it if she-

He was on the door in a heartbeat, pulling the curtain to the side.

A relief, as huge as the ocean, washed through him, when he saw her on the beach.

She was only wearing her white nightgown, and her hair fell to her shoulders like a fiery waterfall, the rays of the rising sun making it burn like a flame. She was on the shore, on her knees, as if she was looking for something in the sand.

Feeling his thoughts on her, she looked up and raised a hand to greet him.

"John!" she called out. "Com'ere!"

And there was a smile on her face.

That sight took his breath away, and suddenly he felt like falling. His knees went weak.

The first smile he had seen on her face, since… Since the things he really, really didn't want to remember right now.

He walked to her, slightly high headed by the sight of her, and sat down on the sand by her side.

"When did you get up?" he asked. "I got worried."

"Sorry." she said, but still with a smile. "Didn't mean to worry you. I just wasn't tired anymore."

"No worries." he replied, and reached to pull her hair behind her ear. "You feeling better today?"

"Yes. I don't know why, but… yes. Look what I found!"

She opened her hand, and there were a few very pretty, pink seashells. He took one, to see it better.

"It's beautiful."

"Isn't it?" Margot asked, and her smile widened. "I want to find more, and make something of them. Like a pair of earrings, or a bracelet."

"Sounds like a good plan." he returned the shell to her, feeling the familiar electricity of her, that made the hair on his arms stand up.

"Yeah. It does, doesn't it?"

The wind moved her hair, the sun rays made her skin glow, and Myers noticed she was getting tanned and there were a lot more freckles on her nose and cheeks than just a few days ago.

"Is it just my imagination, or are you looking more like yourself?" he asked, after a while.

Margot shrugged. "Maybe. I noticed it too. My boobs are definitely shrinking." she paused, and gave him a quizzical look. "Hope you don't mind."

"I think it's great." he replied, and it was the truth. Not that she hadn't looked gorgeous with the 'enhancements' the Goddess had given her, but Myers had missed the old Margot. He had fallen in love with the girl, who had been everything he had ever hoped for, and that girl sure as hell hadn't needed any supernatural plastic surgery.

"I think so too." she was silent for a while, fidgeting with the sea shells. "You know, it is not just my appearance that is changing. It's more than that."

"What do you mean?"

"It's like… I can finally feel the Goddess' effect on me fading. Like I'm waking up from a dream."

"Or a nightmare."

"Yes, indeed." a dark shadow passed her face, and for a moment her smile disappeared. "But the good thing is, I am coming back."

Suddenly Myers felt so emotional, that he had to fight back tears. He clenched his jaw and blinked a few times, to be able to speak.

"I've missed you." he said, his voice hoarse. "I've missed your smile. It's damn good to see it again."

"Oh." she laughed. "I hadn't even noticed that I was smiling."

"I noticed."

He pulled her closer, to kiss her, to bury his fingers in the cloud of her hair, and her sweet scent of roses and cinnamon was back, it surrounded him and he could not resist it. The kiss was slow and passionate, and it left them both breathless.

When he finally let her go, her pupils were dilated and her cheeks blushed.

"Oh..!" she breathed.

"I've never seen you more beautiful than right now." he exhaled. "You know that?"

"Yeah, I know."

She leaned closer for another kiss, and he read her mind as their lips met. She wanted him, and the thought made his heart skip a beat. Christ, how much had he longed for this! He groaned, feeling the arousal stir deep in his groin, making his heart race.

But Margot broke the kiss, and made a small laugh.

"I'd love to." she breathed. "But Kat's gonna be here any minute now with Dr. Sasson, and I'm pretty sure they don't want to see us at it."

He made a desperate groan, and lay down on the warm sand. He wished with every inch of his being, that Margot would join her, and he could wrap his arms around her, to pull her into a kiss, and then they would-

"You know, it's a drink." Margot's voice interrupted his fantasies.

Myers was puzzled. "What is a drink?"

"Sex on the beach. It has vodka, orange juice, cranberry juice and peach liqueur."

He laughed, with her. "You want one? I can order in, after your session with Dr. Sasson."

"No, don't." she shrugged, and stood up. "Let's go to the bar and get one."

"You sure?"

He was suddenly serious. It was their third day here, and Margot had not left the villa once. He had begun to think, they'd spend their whole honeymoon like this.

"Yeah. I think I've done enough of moping around. We have lived, and now it's time to be joyful."

That day was the turning point in many ways.

It wasn't like Margot was suddenly healed from all that had happened, for a long time to come, she would still sometimes sink into depression and self-loathe, but it was clear that she had made the decision to get better, and she was fighting to do so.

That day, when she woke up and didn't feel tired anymore, she found the seashells in the white sand and saw their beauty. She felt the warmth of the sun, heard the sound of the waves, unlike before, and every inch of her soul ached to remember how it had felt to be happy. And she made the decision to get there again. She went swimming in the ocean, for the first time in their time on the atoll, and she laughed as the seaweed got stuck into her hair. And when the night fell, she was sunburnt, sandy and alive.

They had dinner in the restaurant near the sea, and for the first time in ages, Margot felt hungry. It was the healthy hunger that followed the day in the sea and sun, and she ordered a menu of three courses. From the look on Myers' face she could tell he was beyond happy to see her eating, and it made her feel a bit guilty. Myers had had to force her to have as much as a bite lately. It sure shouldn't have been her husband's job to be her nurse on their honeymoon, Margot knew, and took another forkful of her delicious fish stew in a coconut shell.

"So, how about it?" Myers asked after she had finished her dessert - a heavenly pineapple sorbet.

She looked up from her bowl. "How about what?"

"Sex on the beach."

Margot laughed. "The drink or the real thing?"

"Both, if possible. But as long as we're in the restaurant, the drink would do."

He had a smile in his eyes, the one Margot loved above all else, and it made her suddenly feel alive on a way she hadn't even remembered.

"Fine. I'll have one, but it's kinda girly, so you might want to look at the drink list."

"I'm man enough to order a girly drink if I want to. I don't care if it has a pink umbrella in it, or flashing led light ice cubes, as long as it makes you smile." Myers grinned, and raised his hand to call the waiter.

When their drinks arrived, they were just as pretty as Margot had hoped for, and the sight did made her smile indeed. Myers, drinking it with a straw, looked cute as Hell, and Margot felt her heart skipping a beat.

She took the little umbrella from his drink, and stuck in into her hair.

She knew there were a million things they should talk about.

Like the fact that she had slept with other men this summer, however unintentionally, and she knew it must hurt John. And the fact that she had killed those men, drank their blood, and felt ecstatic doing so.

Myers still thought she hadn't been herself, that she had been forced to do it all, and there was one more thing they should definitely talk about. For Margot knew better. She knew she had been herself, or rather a version of herself. The version she could've turned into, if she hadn't been saved by her father as a child.

The dark side, and it's calling. Margot had been on the edge of falling many times, and now it had finally happened for real. She had let herself to be taken by the Goddess, unable to fight her power, she had let her erase her memories, her moral and her dignity - and turned her into the Margot she had always knew lived within her.

A monster.

Someone who should've been hunted down and killed a long time ago.

But she was still alive. She was on her honeymoon with a gorgeous, pure hearted guy who was mad enough to love her with all her flaws. She was having a drink with a little, pink umbrella in it, and she still felt the sun on her slightly burnt skin.

Instead of letting her die, her friends had risked all to save her. And that sure as Hell was one more thing Margot knew she should talk to John. It had been a stupid thing of him, to ask people to risk their lives to save her, and she was about to make sure he would never do that again.

But looking John in the eye, she didn't want to talk about any of those things.

She wanted to fall into the way he was looking at her, to the way he reached for her hand and their fingers entwined.

The 'Sex on the beach' was making her high headed, or maybe it was John, but either way, she felt her heart racing.

"I want to have the real thing too." she breathed, and felt her cheeks blushing.

"Now?" he asked, and let go of his drink. His pupils were dilated in the dark.

Margot felt the sweet weakness in her bloodstream, the need to have his hands on her skin, his arms around her body, his hips between her thighs, and it made her breathing shallow.

"Let's go already." she managed. "Time to be joyful."