"Missed a spot, Annie." Pitch said as she stood above her, motioning to a spot next to her. Annie was currently on her hands and knees scrubbing the marble floors of the dinning hall. She groaned lightly at his comment before turning to the patch of dirt to her left. "It could be worse." Annie assured herself in her head. "He could have killed you for good." The thought made her punishment for attacking her trainer seem much better. She would take scrubbing dirty floors to being to being torn to pieces any day. Annie leaned back onto her knees, wiping a bit of sweat from her brow as she surveyed her work. The floor shined brightly in the sun streaming from the large windows. A smile spread across her youthful face.
"Am I done?" She asked; looking up at Pitch, waiting excitedly for praise. His golden eyes scanned the vast room slowly, cupping his chin with long fingers. His hands moved to link behind his back as he gazed down at her.
"Yes, I suppose this will do." He said in an almost lazy manner. His eyes took one more quick sweep across the space before raising his arm as he remembered something. "I had almost forgotten, please set the table. Then you may dress." Pitch instructed firmly; looking briefly at her thin under dressings. His dark form turned to walk out of the room. "Make sure to look presentable. It is an honor to have such strong beings be on your side." He said over his shoulder to her. It was something that he did often, throwing words over his shoulder. It seemed exceptionally unpersonal and careless. Rude for the most part. Annie hadn't even been with him for a week and she already knew that he wasn't a very personal guy, not that she cared much. A little gratitude would be nice. Though the more she thought about it, the more absurd the thought became. He didn't owe her a thing, she was the one in dept. He took her in, not the other way around.
Annie sighed loudly at the truth of such ideas and pulled herself from the floor just as a dark mass dripped from the ceiling - seeming to come to help with the table - while another entered from the kitchen totting the finest plates and cutlery she had ever seen. Of course, she was just a poor peasant girl, so what did she know? Less than she cared to admit. This because evident as she stared helplessly at the large array of silverware. Annie rarely ever used spoons back in her village; choosing instead to just slurp soups straight out of the bowl, not very lady-like but it filled her belly. Eventually -after copying the shadows- Annie placed everything properly. She gave the table an arrogant gaze before turning to go back to her wing.
Nervousness began to set in as the gravity of the situation finally clicked. She needed to impress these creatures. Annie had no idea what would happen if she managed to upset of offend them in some way. With her luck who knew. Annie rolled her eyes at the thought. It always had to be her.
"I don't need help you know." Annie said between gasps as one of the clouds of darkness yanked sharply on the laces of her corset. Oh how she hated these things, so much so that she usually refused to wear them. Never had she worn one so insanely tight. Afraid that her ribs were on the verge of breaking; she pleaded with the mass to hurry up and be careful.
"Just a moment." It told her, annoyed. Annie rolled her eyes at the tone it had used. What a sassy one this was. The lacing was done relatively quickly after she had requested that it speed up the process. The garment allowed just enough room for her to take shallow, painful breathes. The irritation was etched all over her face and traced through her tone. "Who the hell would willingly wear such a dreadful thing?" Annie asked the minion behind her as she turned to examine herself in a nearby mirror. Though she hated to admit it, the corset did look good on her, really defining her young curves. The voice in her head snickered at her venom laced question. "Oh shut up." She said to the thing before it roughly slid a thin dress over her head. It consisted of two layers; the first was a deep red satin with length that swept the floor and sleeves that reached just before her shoulders. The next was an intricate black lace, deepening the bloody red color of the satin underneath. Her favorite part were the lace sleeves that reached all the way to the base of her thumb. Annie twirled once, enjoying the way the dress billowed slightly around her.
"Enough fooling around, you are late." The snarky voice rang in her head. Again Annie rolled her eyes at the damned being before rushing quickly out of her bedroom barefoot, following the loud voices and laughter of Pitch's guests. Their tone seemed a bit chipper for them. Late. She was late. Annie instantly found herself nervous of her punishment as she dashed into the dinning hall, nearly falling on her behind from the force of her stop. All eyes fall on her and the laughter stopped to glance at her. Pitch was the first to speak.
"Annie, don't you look lovely! Come sit, we were just talking about your training." He said in a lively in playful tone. Annie's face flushed at the memory as she quickly scanned for a seat. Pitch was sitting alone at the end of the table, four occupied chairs on either side of him. There was one available seat between Archer and Pitch. Everyone at the table greeted her warmly before continuing their embarrassing conversation.
"Anyways," Archer began next to her, placing his large hand on her shoulder. "the next thing I knew Annie here was standing with hair like Medusa and her eyes glowing red in this huge hole in the side of the shed and Lev was in the ground hugging a doll." Archer finished his story with booming laughter that which quickly echoed around the table. Are they laughing with me or at me?
"Oh, Annie, how rude of me. Let me introduce you to our guests." Pitch said warmly. "You already know War and Lev." War? So that was Archer's real name. It made a lot more sense than Archer. His hand moved to gesture to the person at his right, a man covered in all sorts of bandages. "Disaster." Well, that made sense enough. Next was a man will greyish-green skin, and a red nose, managing to look sick and healthy at the same time. "Illness." Next was Depression who actually looked the most human (with the exception of both Annie and Archer.) with pale skin and chestnut hair that fell in his eyes. Next to him was Lev. Annie was then introduced to a man with red skin. He looked sadistic with a cocky smile on his face, this was Pain. Lastly was Phobia. She was gorgeous with short, dark hair and the same golden eyes as Pitch. She wore a similar face to Pain.
"Annie, darling, we have heard so much about you." Pain said in an exaggerated tone. He was rude and Annie instantly disliked him. "Yes, I've heard good things about you as well." Annie said in a confident tone. She was not about to let this man get under her skin. His lips curled into that smile once more and he turned back to his food.
"So, how did you die?" Someone asked above the rest of the chattering at the table. It was Phobia, leaning forward on the table to look around Archer at her. The men on the opposite side ogled at her pushed up breasts openly, though she didn't seem to mind. The question was unexpected and brought back rather unpleasant memories. Why not? So Annie began her story.
"Well, I was at a lake with an old boyfriend's sister. He had died a few months before and she was mourning so I was there for her. One day she asked to go to the clearing where he died and I said okay. We ran around and played for a while." The whole group had quieted and leaned in closer to hear her story. "Next thing I know we were attacked by mother bear, we were probably a bit too close to her cubs. I woke up maybe a day or two later covered in dried blood a feeling the worst pain imaginable. I just wondered around aimlessly for months until Pitch found me." The table instantly erupted with questions about her life. 'What did you do?', 'What happened to the little girl?' but the one that jumped out at her was, "Can you tell us about your boyfriend?" It came from Pitch, which was a bit surprising to say the least. Annie never thought that he would be interested in her life, or maybe before life. It was an uncomfortable topic but she was motivated to share when the rest of the group nodded in agreement.
"Jack, his name was Jack. He was a two years older than me at the time. Around eighteen. He went ice-skating with his sister one day and fell through some thin ice trying to keep her from falling in. He really was a marvelous guy, funny, handsome," Annie looked around the room a bit scandalously. "well endowed." Her joke caused a few squeals and giggles, except for Pitch who looked a bit outraged. "Just joking. We had been friends all our lives, so his death was pretty upsetting." Annie had finished sadly. Wow, it had been a long time since she had even thought about Jack. It was a bit overwhelming, and Annie was genuinely relieved when they decided to change the subject.
"I'll need to speak to you after." Pitch whispered in her ear. A lump formed in her throat at his words. What is she being punished for? Being late? Talking too much? Annie sat in anxiety for the rest of the night, feeling even worse after everyone had said their goodbyes and left. They had taken forever to finally leave. The second the door had closed behind their guests Pitch turned to her with a look of anger across his ashen features. "Well endowed?" He said in disbelief. Admittedly, it was a bit out of line to say such a thing, but she hadn't really meant it.
"It was just a joke, Pitch." Annie said worriedly. She hadn't expected him to get mad. What was he mad about anyways? That she may or may not have seen a man's bits? Pitch scoffed at her, rolling his head and eyes toward the ceiling. "You made yourself look like trash, Annie." With that he grabbed her bicep tightly, able to easily overlap his fingers around it. "And you made me look like a fool. Only fools associate with trash." He ranted as he pulled her roughly up the stairs to her bedroom. It was terrifying, Pitch usually was during the few times that she had seen the man enraged.
"If you wish to speak like trash, you will be treated like trash!" He yelled at her before shoving her into the large room and stepping in after her, locking the door with a loud and intimidating click.
Needless to say neither of them slept that night.
Well golly would you look at that. Hinted sex and penis things.
Right. On. So seventh chapter, what did you think? This actually wasn't going to be added in any sort of detail originally because I just wanted to move on in the story but I thought, hey, why not. It is a pretty important bonding experience between everyone and extremely important to the relationship between Pitch and Annie.
That's all I really have today but if you've never listened to Cars That Go Boom by Le Tigre before than you are a l0zer.