Chapter 28: Chapter 28

Polina is quiet as Vadik leaves the room with Drazen, closing the door behind him. When we’re alone, I turn to look at her with concern.

“Are you…?”

“It’s fine,” Polina says quietly. “He’s…” she looks away as her fingers play with the stem of her wine glass. “He likes to pamper me.”

“Is that all he likes to do?” I press.

Her throat works up and down, her gaze dropping.

“I’m a dancer,” she mumbles. “Ballet. I’ve danced my entire life. Mostly in Russia, where I’m from. But then I was in a company that was touring Europe. That’s where I met Vadik; in Austria. He came to the show, took me out afterward, and told me he’d make me a star.”

I wince, taking a sip of my wine.

I don’t know this story personally. But fuck, every woman “knows” this story.

“Vadik has ties to the Zakharova Ballet, in New York.”

I smile. “My friend Bianca dances with them.”

Her eyes light up. “Really?”

I nod, feeling warm as I smile at her. “Yeah. She’s an incredible dancer.” I reach out and rub her arm, surprised at how soft and silky her skin is. “Like you.”

She looks away. “You’ve never seen me dance.”

“Well, you were touring Europe,” I laugh. “I think that puts you at a certain level.”

Polina smiles shyly and looks down.

“He was…” She shakes her head. “Sweeter at first. He gave me so many presents, took me to fancy parties and dinners. Nice clothes, cars.” She sighs. “Now, I don’t even dance anymore.”

She looks away, brushing the back of one hand against the corner of her eye. I take another sip of the seriously amazing wine, monetarily distracted by the gorgeous way the light slants in through the windows before I look at her.

When I do, I shudder a little. Where she’s just wiped at her eye, she’s smudged some of her foundation.

The ugly purple bruise underneath is suddenly much more visible.

Fuck.

“Look, Polina, we obviously don’t know each other, and I don’t know your life. But… Can I say something?”

Her face has fallen a little as she turns back to me, nodding miserably.

“I was with someone who didn’t appreciate me, too,” I say quietly. “Someone who mistreated me, didn’t respect me.” I shrug. “So I cut him loose and kicked him to the curb.”

Polina smiles wanly. “I think that would not be so easy in my case.”

My brow furrows. “Do you need help? I mean, seriously.”

She starts to open her mouth. Then she looks away, wiping her eyes again.

“I—I’m so sorry,” she suddenly says.

I frown. “Polina?”

I blink a little at the wild trails of light that stream from her hair as she whirls back toward me. I flinch when she yanks the wine glass out of my hand.

“You need to get out of here.”

My brow furrows, my skin tingling with light and energy and color as I push aside a pink butterfly to be able to look at Polina directly.

…Then everything I’ve just thought makes me freeze.

Skin doesn’t “tingle with energy and color”.

There are no neon pink butterflies living in Vadik’s house.

My gaze slides through the sea of jellyfish swimming around me to lock with Polina’s wide eyes that are turning into two glowing suns.

“What…” I choke. “What’s happening…”

“You’ve been drugged,” she blurts, her face white with terror. “Vadik put something on the rim of your and your husband’s glasses, before he handed them to you.”

My eyes swim through the sea of jellyfish that are now back to butterflies, narrowing on the wavy, pulsing glass of wine in her hand.

“What?!”

“You have to get out!” She urges me. “Please! Come! I can help you⁠—”

“What…what about Drazen?” I blurt, hoping I’m curtseying deeply enough to the giant rabbit sitting on the desk across the room dressed in a sumptuous velvet robe and a crown. I mean, he is royalty.

Holy shit, I am FUCKED UP.

Whatever I’ve been dosed with is making me lose my mind. The visuals and the sounds are trippy enough. But my very thoughts are wandering, going inward and deeper into my subconsciousness.

“Drazen…”

“I can try to help,” Polina blurts, tugging my arm and dragging me away from King Fluffy. “I don’t know where Vadik has taken him, but I will⁠—”

The door to the room flies open. Or does it? But then I hear Polina scream and see the fear on her face, and I know the door really has just opened. And that really is Vadik standing in the doorway with a few of his men.

“Ahh, Polina,” he growls. I flinch as he yanks her away from me, leaving a trail of bleeding purple and white that turns to orange in her wake. “Such a willing hostess, always trying to help our guests.”

She cries out, and I flinch as he slaps her across the face and shoves her back toward his men. My wide eyes lock with hers, panic flowing through my veins as the guards drag her away.

Vadik turns back to me with a smile so wide it stretches past his ears. It’s toothy and terrifying, with teeth as big as walrus tusks chomping at me as he speaks.

“You don’t look so good, Mrs. Krylov,” he chuckles. “Perhaps I used too much.”

I back away from him, the jellyfish morphing back into butterflies as they swarm me, making me shudder as I try to fend them off.

Vadik laughs. “Lysergic acid diethylamide, Mrs. Krylov.”

Oh fuck.

I’ve smoked pot like five times in my life, and that’s the only “drug” I’ve ever taken.

Now I’m on fucking LSD, and I’m tripping balls.

“My chemist mixed it with some sort of accelerant so you absorbed it a bit quicker.” He chuckles. “Comes on stronger, too, I’m told.”

I cry out, cowering as the dream state around me devolves into a nightmare.

“I think maybe you should stay right here for a while,” Vadik growls. “I’ll be back soon, after I’ve had my fun with your husband.”

His enormous T-Rex smile chomps down, biting the now black and blood-red jellyfish swimming through the room, cutting a few in half as I scream.

“After that,” he chuckles. “Perhaps you and I can have a different kind of fun.”

A jellyfish zooms down to try and bite my eye out. I scream and drop to the floor, covering my face as Vadik laughs somewhere near the ceiling.

“Good, you found the floor,” he snickers. “Hold on tight.”

The door slams behind him, rattling the universe as he leaves me to my nightmares.