After Maison Blanche

Chapter 6

Marlena watched as Stefano finished the last of his drink. The drink that she had drugged with the tranquilizers Celeste intended for her to take the previous night. Marlena had watched John slowly deteriorate over the last few weeks, and she'd finally decided to devise a plan to get them safely out of Maison Blanche. John had lost a significant amount of weight because he was eating barely one meal per day. His incoherence in his drugged state, left Marlena living in fear for what the drugs were doing to him. She had no idea what type of chemicals Stefano was injecting into John's body. But, it was much worse than just drugs. He had cuts along his arms, and on his back. John had bruises along his rib cage, from being punched repeatedly. Stefano claimed John simply needed to be more cooperative. When Marlena questioned him, John wouldn't give her any details about how he was injured. Even in his ever weakening state, he tried to shield her from the horror of what was being inflicted on him almost daily. While she held him in her arms, and cried over his condition, John had stroked her face, and told her, "I'm fine, Doc. It's going to be okay. I'm going to figure out how to get us out of here." Marlena knew that John was too weak. Stefano had beaten him, and drugged him, repeatedly. John had nothing left to give. If she didn't do something, he would die. So, she'd come up with a plan.

She watched Stefano's face, studying him for signs that the sedatives might be taking effect. She was disappointed, since he seemed to be suffering no ill effects. Instead he stared at her naked body lustfully, clad only in her panties, and white thigh high stockings, and he said to her, "Go on...do not stop. Go on. Go on."

As Stefano leered at her body, with a grin on his face, Marlena began to lower her stocking down her leg slowly, drawing this seduction out for as long as possible, in the hope that he eventually collapsed. She has to force the bile rising in her throat back down, and pray the drugs took effect before her charade went too far. If Stefano realized what she was up to, she wasn't sure how he might react. She didn't think she could handle much more of his pawing hands on her skin, or his mouth on her body. She'd have bruises later, from the rough, careless way he'd grabbed at her. This was the stuff of nightmares, but her mind kept going back to John. For John, to save his life, she would endure Stefano's bites on her breasts, and his hot breath along her leg. John. For John. Stefano licked his lips as he said to her, "You are beautiful Marlena. I know why all men want you...and now you are mine..."

Stefano lowered his head to place wet kisses along the inside of her knee, and Marlena shivered in revulsion. His face rubbed along her inner thigh, and Marlena had to remind herself that John was fighting for his life, chained in the dungeon directly below them. She absolutely had to follow through with this plan until the end. Just when she felt like she couldn't take anymore, and she might push him away, Stefano collapsed face first into the sofa, and Marlena sobbed in relief, shoving his hand away from her body. She pushed his body to the side, refusing to allow herself to panic now that it was over.

For some reason, readjusting her fallen stocking helped her gather her sense of control, as if that one gesture calmed the raging panic in her body. Swallowing back the feeling of disgust once again, she ran her fingers along Stefano's belt, unhooking the keys to John's shackles. She grabbed Stefano's smoking jacket from the chair, and quickly wrapped it around her naked body. She shivered again in disgust. Without thought, or care to her state of undress, Marlena rushed to the dungeon to unchain John, and get the hell out of Maison Blanche.

John had watched what was happening on the monitor helplessly as Marlena undressed, and laid herself bare, physically and emotionally, for a psychotic sociopath...just to save his life. John wasn't certain his life was worth everything Marlena just went through. His heart ached for her knowing that, as she allowed Stefano to kiss her, and run his hands along her body, she was disgusted inside, and very likely scared. She did this for him, and he would never be able to repay this. She wouldn't let him if he tried. He glanced over at a very drunken Celeste passed out on the dungeon floor, and hoped she stayed in that condition. When he looked at the monitor again, Stefano had collapsed, and Marlena was pulling the keys off of his belt loop. Hope rose in him fast, as well as something else that never truly left him...love for the woman who just seduced their enemy to save his life. That woman, that amazing, brave, courageous woman...he still loved her.