New Home

That, it turned out, was not the end of that. You could leave Pine Grove, leave Lanius... But she wasn't going to make it easy on you.

Not only that... It felt like the universe itself was trying to twist your arm. Overnight, your laptop --a relic from when your father went to grad school-- stopped working. No Best Buy in Pine Grove, so you'd have to wait until you were back on campus to get the ancient thing fixed.

At least you had your phone. That was, until you didn't. A couple days after your computer died, you lost your phone. It sounded silly, but, in Lanius' winter manor, it was an easy feat. You didn't exactly have any friends or family to call or text, but you planned on checking your school email on it and now you couldn't.

You had an endless amount of spare time and no electronics to fill it with. Luckily --or unluckily-- for you, Lanius found things for you to do. Things for you to do with her, of course.

"I know what you're doing," you told her one day. The two of you were alone in the living room, all but cuddled up on the couch.

She made a half a dozen excuses to get you in that position. The room was cold, and most of the couch blankets were in the wash, so you had to share a knitted green monstrosity that wasn't designed to fit two people under it.

It ended with you all but sitting in her lap as the two of you watched some holiday baking show.

She didn't even try to deny it. "You'd have to be dumb and blind not to," she laughed.

You wished her friends and family would be a little less obvious in their support of your courtship, too. Whoever you turned to, whatever you discussed, the conversation always ended with them singing the praises of their matriarch and their home.

One day, you were talking to this pretty brunette number named Selena. She was a friend, not blood-related to the Lanius family in any way. The way that she talked about Lanius the woman made it obvious how absolutely head-over-heels in love she was with her.

Jealousy was an ugly trait, but you had to ask, "If you love her so much, why aren't you with her?" Even if you could argue the neutrality of the question, you couldn't argue your tone. You all but spat at her.

Selena looked shocked for a moment. Then, answered, "She doesn't want me. She wants you." She didn't sound too pleased about it either.

Maybe your mother was right, and you truly were a hateful little creature. But the admission lit a fire in your belly and made your chest ache.

...

You woke up bright and early on your last morning in Pine Grove, in Lanius House, determined to get to the mechanics as soon as the shop opened, leave before you fell in love.

But, much like a bear hibernating for the winter, Lanius was difficult to rouse. In her defense, it was still dark outside. In your defense, you had barely slept the night before, waking every hour or so to check the clock. At seven, you decided enough was enough and decided to wake her up.

"Lanius, wake up," you whispered as you sat up in bed. Your voice was loud enough for her to hear, but hushed enough not to be heard outside the master bedroom. You had your hand on her shoulder and were shaking her rigorously.

She moaned and groaned in response but didn't fully regain consciousness. Still, she murmured in her sleep, "I'm awake, I'm awake..."

"No, you're not."

"Yes, I am..."

"No, you're not!"

"Yes, I am."

This back-and-forth continued until she was finally awake enough to say, "Kiss me."

"What?!" You borderline-squawked.

"Kiss me, and I'll get up." Her speech was slurred with drowsiness.

"No!"

"Then I suggest you make yourself comfortable, honeybun. I'm not getting up for at least another few hours." With that settled, she turned over in bed, facing away from you, and let out a lovely snore.

You sat with your thoughts for a long time after that. Sure, Lanius had pressed a kiss or two to your hands, the spitting image of chivalry, but you never kissed her back. Your face got hotter and hotter the longer you thought about it.

In fact, maybe you were thinking too much of it. It was just a little kiss. Just a little one.

Just a little one, you decided before leaning to press a chaste kiss to her cheek.

"There! I kissed you! Now let's go!" You demanded. It was enough to wake her up, at the very least. She rolled over with a groan before sitting up to look at you, eyes still at half-mast.

"You call that a kiss?" She asked gruffly, before letting out a low chuckle. "I'll show you a kiss."

You sputtered at her indistinctly --nothing but nonsense-- as she wrapped one massive hand around the back of your neck and reeling you in. You didn't fight it, couldn't decide whether or not you wanted to. So she made the choice for you.

Her mouth was hot as a glowing red fire poker, but soft and plush --almost silken-- like a throw pillow. She lit a spark, and soon you were set ablaze.

Her tongue lapped against your gently parted lips in little kitten licks. The moment you realized your mouth was opened, even slightly, you closed it. If your mouth tasted as bad as your morning breath smelled... God, it was so embarrassing that you didn't even want to think about it.

She whimpered a little, as if you had just slammed the heaven's gates on her, before letting out a short sigh. You could feel the soft tickle of her breath beneath your nose as her hand on the nape of your neck traveled upwards until her fingers were tangled in your hair.

Contrariwise, you hadn't inhaled since she pressed her lips to yours. She must have realized this, since she eventually pulled away just long enough for you to catch your breath --gasping like a drowning woman-- before leaning in for another kiss.

After the fourth or fifth kiss, you weren't just gasping anymore. You were panting as if you were a dog in heat. It was beyond embarrassing. It was humiliating, how you were all but debilitated by a few simple smooches. Your face was so hot you feared it might set your hair on fire.

So, when she leaned in for the last time, you slipped a hand between your mouths, so her next kiss landed in the center of your palm.

"The mechanic," you squeaked, at a loss for what else to say.

She blinked at you, her eyes wide and dark. Those dazzling gold irises were reduced to thin bands around two all-consuming black pupils.

Then her brows knitted together. As she slowly sat up, you leaned back so the two of you were no longer sharing the same breath. Your goal was to put enough distance between you that you could duck if she tried to kiss you again.

She didn't.

"What about him?" She asked, dazed and confused.

"You got your kiss," you explained. Or exclaimed. Hell, you did a little bit of both. You should really lower your voice. You didn't want to wake the whole house. Just Lanius. "Now get up! If we leave in the next hour, we can be at the shop around the time they open."

"You still want to leave?" She sounded so legitimately heartbroken that you almost wanted to deny it. But you stuck to your guns. The two of you had had this discussion before. A lot of things had happened since then, but your decision had not changed.

You nodded once, quickly.

"I thought..."

And, because you were a glutton for punishment, you just had to ask, "What did you think?"

"I thought I could change your mind," she answered, sounding more helpless than you'd ever heard her before.

"You thought wrong." You spoke those three little words in a decibel above a whisper, but they sounded loud as thunder in the otherwise silent room.

Lanius screwed her eyes shut tight in an effort not to cry. You recognized the trick. You'd used it before. It worked, but it was only a temporary fix. When she opened her eyes again, they were glossy with unshed tears... And alight with anger.

"You can't leave," she said. "I can't let you."

That stopped you in your tracks. Your pity disappeared. Indignation took root in its stead. "What do you mean, you can't let me? You can't stop me," you scoffed, crossing your arms over your chest.

She tilted her head to the side like a curious woodland animal. "How do you expect to get to the mechanics? Hell, how do you expect to get anywhere on your own?"

"If no one will give me a ride, then I'll just walk."

"You'd freeze to death or die of exhaustion before you reached the mechanic on foot. And even if, by some miracle of miracles, you managed to survive the trip, your car still wouldn't be there. The old man has probably already scrapped it for parts, melted down the metal he wasn't able to sell."

You paused. You wanted to tell yourself you were curious, like a scientist on the edge of a breakthrough. In truth, you were just scared. "Why-- Why would he do that?"

"Because that's what I told him to do," she said, as if it was the simplest thing in the whole entire world. "I said that I would never let you go, and I intend to keep that promise."

You stared at her for over a minute, examining her face and posture for any indication she was lying. There was none.

Panic hit you like a bullet in the back. You darted out of bed, made a mad dash for the door.

But Lanius was quick for someone her size. She got there first, formed an unmovable wall between you and your only escape route.

You did the next best thing. You screamed. "HELP!"

"Stop that," she ordered, taking a threatening step towards you. You clambered backwards until you had backed yourself up into a corner.

"SOMEBODY, HELP ME!"

"I said, stop!" She advanced on you as if you were a doe she didn't want to spook, scooped you up and threw you back onto the bed. Desperate, you threw a punch. She caught it, then pinned you to the bed like a butterfly to corkboard. "This room is soundproof," she explained. "No one is going to hear you. And, even if they did, they wouldn't help you. I'm the matriarch. What I say, goes."

"You can't keep me here against my will!" You yelled, squirming incessantly in her grasp. "Someone will come looking for me!"

"Suppose they did... Where would they start looking? No body, no crime. For all they know, you could have disappeared anywhere along the road between here and your fancy university."

She must have seen the hope drain from your eyes, felt your struggles weaken... Or maybe she was just confident in her ability to catch you again, should you make another break for the exit... But she let you go.

You scrambled away. Once your back hit the headboard, you brought your knees up and hugged them close to your chest. You didn't know when you started crying, but now you couldn't stop.

"Are you going to hurt me?" You whimpered. It was impossible to keep your voice steady with how your lower lip was trembling.

"No, no..." She crooned before sitting on the foot of the bed. "Of course not, honeybun. When have I ever hurt you? Sure, I had to scare you a little to get you here, in my arms. But needs must."

It took a second or two for the full weight of her confession to hit you. "God, it was you... It was all you, wasn't it? You staged it! The dead deer, the home invasion, the vehicular vandalism..."

She didn't even try to deny it, just shrugged. "I tried just making myself available, but you refused to reach out. How was I supposed to show how dependable I was? I needed to make you need me. A little at first, then more later on."

"You manipulated me!" You shrieked.

And she showed no remorse in doing so, either. "You can't say that I didn't do everything in my power to make you want to stay. Now changes need to be made. Some small, some big. I will try to be nice, but how easy this goes depends on how much you fight me."

You couldn't come up with any witty or sharp comeback to that, just started sobbing harder.

She reached out to you.

You shrunk away.

She frowned sternly before making a second attempt, patted your shoulder in what you assumed was supposed to be a comforting gesture. When you tried to shrug her off, she gripped your shoulder firmly.

"There are things you don't know... About me, about my family... Things you wouldn't understand-- Things you would never believe. Even if I told you. So I need to show you. But we can take things slow. Now that you are staying here, with me, we have all the time in the world."

What the hell was that supposed to mean? You supposed it didn't matter.

Lanius wanted to depend on her completely, wanted to soften your hard edges, wanted to mold you into her perfect other half. But God knew you weren't going to make it easy on her.

Even in a book of lies, there is some truth. Your mother was right about one thing. You were a fighter.

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THE END.

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