The tomb felt emptier than ever that night, as though eleven and everyone else far off in the distance, at untouchable range. I wished more than anything to stop my thoughts, but they wouldn't cease no matter what I did until sunrise finally took all that away from them, if only the sun had not handed it back to me when it set. I had laid in that box all of yesterday, not even bothering to rouse myself more than to take a sip or two of blood, and today I wanted to be the same. I must have laying in coffin hours willing the evening away, it felt so large around me, and I so alone. I slipped out of the coffin and walked to my dresser without a word, like a walking corpse, caught in the action, deprived of the intention. "Eleven," I said, "I'm gonna take a bath." I dropped my clothes to the floor and slipped on a fuzzy white bathrobe, and approached the door.
"Very well," he replied, "Don't scald yourself too badly now." I turned the key and swung the door the open, the light outside almost blinding me, and strolled down the hall. It was empty now, as I had requested it, and as I swung open the large wooden door to the bathroom, I could have sworn that down the hall I head heard footsteps, yet I brushed them off in favor of solitude. It must have been my imagination, for there was no possibility someone would disobey my orders. I dropped my robe and hung it on the wall beside the sink in the tiled entryway, taking a glance at myself as I walked past the mirror.
I could see the tire in my face, my wavy black hair slightly dull as I pulled it up into a nautilus bun. The kingdom's red supplies were going to be taxed today, I thought as I slipped past the door and entered the large bathroom. The blue tiled walls were obscured party by the clouds of steam, and I walked straight past the large bath and the medium temperature one in favor of the hot, which I had requested be brought up to scalding temperatures. The air bubbles rose in it as I simmered, and though it burned my skin as I slipped in, I only winced at the cold tiles as I sat on the edge before entering completely. No matter how hot I made it, it was never warm enough.
But in a moment all my peace was gone, as I heard the slight creak of the open and close of the bathroom door, echoing through the tiled walls like the scream of a child. I swam through the water to the edge, peering through the misty air towards the doorway. First it opened only ajar, but then it fell open suddenly, revealing a white figure in the distance. It couldn't be her, she was locked in the dungeon unconscious, it couldn't be, yet as she grew closer I could tell it was.
"What are you?" I scoffed, "A ghost come to haunt me, eternally unvanquished. Are you the culmination of all bad I ever did, and if so why haven't you come sooner? Dear god woman, how come every since I woke up you seem to lie behind every corner? Will you not leave me at peace, it would do you good too you know?" She was in clear view now, her black hair cut short like it used to be in a sideways curl that hung over the side of her face from the top of her head, the sides shaved down short and round so her ears popped out and made me want to do things I knew I should not. I hated that feeling, I hated everything about seeing her, and everything about not seeing her.
Her white dress flowed out from her hips, a stark contrast to the metal cuff and chain around her waist. God, I thought, she kept the chain on, forgetting for a moment that I should wonder how she got out. Her big blue eyes shone like water in the sun, her sculpted slender face had a sad smile plastered to it's pink lips, and I hated that I knew it wasn't a lie. When she lied, she chewed the inside of her cheek, or at least reached to do so.
"I've nothing to fear anymore Mine," She replied, her voice smooth like silk,"My daughter is as safe as yours is. I have no reason to fear anything anymore."
"You never did in the first place, that might have been part of the problem." I replied.
"But there was a time I did have fears, and having them gone now is ever more freeing than them no existing at all." I saw her cheek go in a dent, her jaw twist to the side, latching onto the inflamed skin I knew existed behind her pale cheek.
"You lie, where else do you wish to deceive me?" I asked, but she only nodded knowingly.
"Darling you know I've no ability to deceive you if I tried, but let's leave all that serious talk behind now. May I join you?" She had reached the edge of the hot tub now, and I slipped back to the other side of the pool, letting my chest drop from it's cover and spreading my arms out and resting them on the cold tile edge of the tub. With a fling of her slender hand she let the chain bundle drop into the water, sinking quickly to the base of the tub and pulling on the cuff on her waist, I toyed with the end of the steel with my foot. She pulled her white dress up through the bondage and over her head, letting it fall on the floor behind her, the metal falling down slightly, exposing her bellybutton on her toned hourglass figure. It rested on her hips, her tiny waist exposed.
"Someone's lost some modesty since I last saw her." I saw hurt in her face as I said the words, and wondered what hidden meaning they might possess. She slipped in slowly, the boiling water singing her skin as she dropped into the water, exposing only her shoulders above it's distorted surface. I kicked up the chain with my foot, catching it on my toe and bringing it up to my hand, reeling it in underwater until I snapped her forward a little. The heat must have been getting to my head, for it was so hard to think with her before me, and all the things I neglected to do with her before she was ripped from me running through my head.
That was the problem, I had often convinced myself she was ripped from me instead of the reality, that she had repudiated me. For a moment I could never imagine the girl I slipped from her shell, one built of a life of thrill meant to disguise a profound fear for settlement and commitment, going out and enlisting another to chain her down. I had taught her submission, settlement, most everything she knew, and she had taught me so much, it was impossible to me she would be so careless as to do away with her life in a moment like that, and take the largest commitment known to man upon her shoulders. It made no sense, but what did?
She drifted forward like a leaf, but I saw her hold back, and gave the metal another yank, her leg grazing mine as she grappled with the pull. She seemed infinitely warmer than the water around me. "Don't you want your kiss, or are you as afraid to steal it from me as I blood from you?" I asked.
"I intend to take no kiss from you," She replied, and now I saw the hurt in her eyes clearly, and god did I want to drop everything I knew and help her.
"I suppose that's well enough." I replied, "But you won't even touch me now will you? What have I done to deserve your repulsion?"
"It's not you," Her words came out quickly, and she turned away, hiding her face behind her short black hair.
"Why in the world did you come back here?" I asked, "Do you have a death with now that's you're alive again." dragging her closer by the chain, I caught her by the top of her back in my hand, drawing her closer. Her warm skin against mine seemed to pulsate it had been so long since I touched her, surely a touch wouldn't hurt.
"If I had a death wish I would have stayed away from you." She replied, "You're very being beside me is what's keeping me alive."
"How so?" I asked, "I could dash your head open on that tile right now and take it off with a chain if I pleased, and I dare say I have every right to." Even the words made my spine tingle though, just to say them lighted some terrible fire in my depths.
"But you would never do that, never be so messy, nor do such a thing to me. Isn't it about time, Mine, that you be a little more honest, and at least admit you have as much ability to kill me on your own, or watch my death, as I have ability to deceive you." Her words were half-hearted, but sang so much truth I didn't even notice the lacking conviction in her voice.
"Stop calling me that," I replied curtly, "That time is passed, if I am no longer your love and you no longer mine, there is no place for you to call me such. I do not call you Rose, do I?" She perked up at the word, a lost hope flickered deep in her eyes.
"No, but I cannot say I love you any less than when I fled you," She replied softly, "Though I do not expect the same from you."
"You love me still?" I exclaimed, "You put me through all that and claim now you love me? You know you can't take back what you've done."
"How am I supposed to love anyone but you? I spent my early life training to please you, spent my active life reveling in your rewards, and the rest of it hiding from you. Apart from Elly, you are the only other person I have ever known. My friends are married, they have forgotten me, my family hates me and never liked me in the first place, society scorns at my name, there is no one for me but you." Her voice was desperate, yet when I pulled her close, she grimaced like all she wanted was to run from me.
"Then you love those whom hate you?" I asked, "Irony at it's finest."
"Well you hate that that loves you?"
"And why is that," I retorted, but she didn't snap back like when I spoke of modesty, didn't turn her head but looked me straight on, her blazing blue eyes staring at mine unfazed by my words. Why didn't she act like I expected her to? Given everything that happened, why was she acting like this? I pulled myself up onto the cold tile, feeling it freeze the sensitive skin on my thighs. "Well you're here for some reason, why? Do you want a tour, or did you just miss being tied up?" I asked.
"Regarding you, I'de take anything you'd give." She replied, slipping closer as I scooted up on the tiles and stood. I didn't know what to say to her anymore, so I left off there and started towards the door, drying off with a towel in the entryway, and turning away as she did the same. Just seeing her made me want to take her back, but doing so went against everything I had ever stood for, everyone I had ever been. I was Mortemine the insatiable, the undeniable, the unappeasable, I couldn't let her take those from me again. So I slipped on the bathrobe and let her follow me out, her white dress replaced beneath the metal.
"Library?" I asked. She went tense for a moment before relaxing, her cheek dented again by the pull of her blunt white teeth.
"I've not been to your bedroom in a while," She replied, and not knowing the reason for her lie, I allowed it.
"That's no surprise." I replied, walking down the hall and staring up the large staircase. "I'de be worried if you had been there recently." When we reached the top I swung the white double doors open, revealing the slightly dusty room beyond. The huge bed was opposite, it's fluffy comforter indented as it lay smooth over the bed. The white and gold canopy above hung down from the ceiling, and the room echoed with my footsteps before I reached the large red carpet that coated the center of the floor. Paintings hung from the walls, a chandelier of silver from the ceiling, and the windows were covered by dusty crimson curtains, and spanned from the floor to the ceiling, about double my own height, and I was by no means short.
In all honesty I had not slept in this room since the day Rosetta fled, for that morning, waking up so alone here had been far too much to ever return. It showed in the dusty layer that coated the room, a couple cobwebs had taken up shop in the corners, and the curtains had clearly stayed closed for some time. "You sleep here often?" She asked.
"I've been dead a while," I replied, hoping she didn't know how long, for this much dust would not have accumulated in such a short time. I could see in her face that there was a likelihood she knew. She let her chain fall to the ground onto the rug, pooling in silver coils at her feet and dragging out as she walked towards the bed, scrapping a line in the dust of the footboard. "How was it you got out?" I asked, "faulty staffing?"
"No, Elly broke the chains and bent the bars for us, your staff probably doesn't even know yet. I asked her to leave mine on." Rosetta replied, I threw my head back in laughter.
"Broke that chains, that puny little girl, you must have finally gone mad." I replied, "That whole dungeon is made of titanium, you couldn't break anything in there with a bulldozer."
"But I'm not lying," she replied, turning to look me in the eyes, her mouth still and resolute. "And if I was, I couldn't be here, the lock on this chain is in the middle, but she broke it at the end." I bent down and picked up the chain, reeling it in and examining it. She was right, at the end there was no aberrations, and as I due it in I found at the middle a large titanium lock, still secure around the connected chains. No one had even tried to budge the thing. How the hell had that puny little girl maimed her way out of a titanium prison?
Perhaps there had been a default in the metal, but I had a team check for defaults when it was built, and there couldn't have been a default in every cell they happened to be located in. But it was impossible for her to have done what I was now sure she had, and therefore I decided something must be arrye with my beliefs, and disregarded it all for another time. "What is you point?" I asked.
"I don't believe I have one," She replied, her voice smooth like she knew something I didn't. I stalked up and slipped my silver key into the lock on the back of her bondage, allowing the metal cuff to snap open and fall to the ground, cautioned by the fluffy carpet. After a moment I stepped back, and with a glance at the clock decided it was sufficiently close to sunrise to go to bed, my worn body aching as I moved. I felt like a rusted robot toy, it's joints all sticky so it only moved in painful joints, instead of smooth connected turns. "You're not going to tie me?" She asked, stepping toward the window. "I could run."
"I only tie people I love," I replied, watching her eyes shrink down into distraught holes on her face. "You won't run, we both know that well enough. Will you sleep at the foot of my bed like a dog, or the head of it like the wife you refused to be?"
"I'de gladly takes the foot," She replied. I think she knew that I was just being mean, that really I wanted her at the head, wanted her close, comfortable, even if I couldn't allow it for myself. "But there are no blankets there." I hated myself for leaping at the opportunity.
"Fine," I replied, "Take the head." I slipped in and stayed near the side, turning my back to her. She entered and did the same, though I could not see her, I knew. And for a long time we lay there, listening to the erratic flow of our breath, and knowing full well that neither of us were sleeping. I wanted to turn around and latch onto her warm back so badly it ached in my chest like a constant pull, but I couldn't do that, not with what she had done to me.