Amanita: Poison Shot

Chapter 96: Dear Stranger (Part 2)

Then, Apollo confessed he had been spying on me for the previous few days. He admitted that he had been waiting for me to take action and that what I had done the previous day –my weaponised coffee– had amused him a great deal. Next, he spoke of Dr Stein as if he would love to smash her head against the wall for insulting me as she had done.

Next, he blackmailed me. First, he said he would allow me to take an active role, that my theory would get the highest priority, that he would even give me the credit in his next meeting with the higher-ups, and that my salary would be juicier. For a price.

He knew about my other job. He had seen me accept those lust-driven tips from drunkards with my boobs. He had been there the night we had celebrated the wet T-shirt contest with beer, in which I had been forced to take part by my boss there, just like the rest of the barmaids.

Of course, he had taken pictures and videos of me with his smartphone, which he showed me. I could swear I hadn't seen him there. I saw myself shamelessly dancing on the bar to the horrid music being blasted through the loudspeakers with my white wet T-shirt, displaying my hard nipples through the fabric. Admitting I had been forced to do it and that I had been acting all the time didn't earn a nanosecond of his attention.

I tried to steal and break his phone, but he managed to save it from my wrath with a cheeky attitude. Bile rose up my throat. Anger ran through my veins.

Besides, those photos and videos were already stored in the cloud, he said. When he stated that they weren't public yet, I understood he had the upper hand in this, and that he would always have it.

What he wanted from me didn't take me by surprise.

He wanted me.

Then, he professed his love for me with passion. My idol in love with me? I found that hard to believe.

To engage me in conversation, he added that he saw himself in me. His younger self had acted in similar ways as I had done. He understood how hard it had been to succeed. His understanding of how I felt was music to my ears.

However, I guessed he was trying to impress me, but I knew better than that. Naturally, he was no pawn in that game. He was a player. Both of us knew that.

When he realised that, he smirked at me and praised me for not being fussy like the rest of the women scientists involved in the project.

I decided to give him a chance, or at least I pretended to do so. I promised myself I wouldn't delude myself into believing anything he would say or promise me in the future. He wanted to use me for his own amusement, just like he had done with Dr Stein. I knew he would get bored of me soon enough and discard me. My resolution was clear, but my willpower, in the long run, wasn't.

Despite my reservations, I became the apple in Apollo's eyes ever since that day – and I loved it.

My juicy salary enabled me to leave my job as a barmaid. I felt thankful for that.

When Dr Stein was told about me getting promoted like that, she looked like she was getting a blood clot in her brain. The rest of my colleagues weren't happy either, especially because their theories got discarded like paper tissues in a heartbeat.

Fuck you, I used to think. They had been mistreating me all that time. It was their time to suffer. I admit I was stoked on pride, mainly because Apollo never stopped flattering me.

Nevertheless, my colleagues weren't easy to beat. They started to bitch around me, pestering me like my former co-workers in the pub.

Apollo used to whisper his venomous words into my ears then: that they were jealous, that they would kill to be in my shoes, that he adored me and my ability to trigger their jealousy, that I would become rich and famous when I would save the world by his side.