Algernon Black

(Chapter 72) Less

"Lucy!" Algernon yelled after her once out into the corridor.

"What!" Lucy yelled back, stopping in the midst of her escape to glare at him.

Algernon froze seeing water burning her eyes. When she had said causing her pain hurt him, she didn't know how right she was, but she also didn't understand how incapable he was at stopping himself either. He searched in himself for the words to make her understand that when from behind Lucy, he spotted two noblewomen rounding the corner. They clamored together and watched on from afar, forcing Algernon to swallow down what he had been trying to say. Instead, he resorted to what he caused best. Pain. The kind that kept people safely away from him.

"There are places in this world that aren't meant for some people, and here, amongst all of us, isn't meant for you," Algernon said before turning to walk away, but Lucy's strained voice stopped him.

"Because I'm less?" she asked, almost failing to speak over the deep ache of her chest.

Algernon turned back around but stayed silent as he watched the two women walk into an adjoining hallway. Probably hiding just out of sight but close enough to hear.

"So then who is it meant for?" Lucy demanded the tremble of sadness in her voice hardening to rage. "The privileged bloodline's of the nobles who bought or bribed their child's spots here? Because the last good king wanted nothing more than the pompous, cold-hearted, elite ruling this country."

"Cold-hearted," Algernon repeated, testing the words on his tongue.

"You don't know what cold-hearted is," he said in a low controlled timbre. "But I can show you." Suddenly Algernon forced Lucy back until her spine dug into the crown modeling as one hand pinned her waist and the other planted against the wall beside the side of her neck.

Lucy stared up at him as cold air hit her legs with Algernon's hand at her waist dragging up her dress. Algernon read clear the hate in Lucy's eyes and felt it towards himself for the sadistic part of him growing ever stiffer.

"You did tell me to try to break you," Algernon said, staring down at Lucy as his hand rounded inwards and lifted her dress higher until the very tops of her legs were exposed. "Didn't you?"

Lucy felt the first pleasurable brush of Algernon's thumb across the center of her breasts, the same moment Algernon felt the painful tip of her dagger dig into his chest where she had pulled it free from her thigh once he had pulled her dress high enough.

Algernon paused. "Go on. Do it." He gripped the ribs right under her chest as he tried to use the pain to edge her on. Lucy was tempted to. She wanted to hurt him as he hurt her. Hurt him like how all the nobles hurt her with their insults and looks of disgust. She gripped the dagger harder but didn't move it.

Algernon shifted his face so he could look directly down at Lucy. From this close up, he could see what everyone else saw, what made her inherently different, why she would never belong amongst them. Because where every else wouldn't have hesitated to act out in malice, her hand stilled and the edges of her eyes bottled up tears.

"If you want to live in this world it's not enough to have a cold heart." Algernon placed his hand over the one Lucy held her dagger in, moving the point to rest over his heart. "You can't have one at all." Lucy saw drops of red start to seep onto the razor-white tip of the dagger, where Algernon had pierced it through his skin. The blood didn't show through his back shirt, but it blared against the knife and Lucy immediately lowered it.

"Exactly like I've been saying," Algernon said, his voice lowering. "You don't belong here." He released his hand from the side of her body, leaving an aching pain on her upper ribs and a worse one in her heart. Lucy didn't look up but waited with her head down until Algernon walked far enough away that he couldn't see her tears hit the floor.

On his way, Algernon caught sight of the two lingering noblewomen, whispering between each other. He forced his muscles to relax and though he wanted to do anything but, he returned to the ball, regretting nothing and everything he had done tonight.