The Beast of Napa

22 - Full Form

Catriona knocked on the parlor door. She didn't hear a sound, but she felt Griffin's presence behind the door. Too timid to speak, she cracked the door open, leaning her head in to see his shadow in the window.

She stepped in, closing the door behind her.

"Rose, I'm not in the mood for —"

He stopped when he turned to Catriona's polite smile. She held out his bracelet.

"You dropped this. I think the clasp is broken."

He sighed and took it from her, inspecting it.

"I can fix it if you'd like," she said.

He snickered, the shadows in his eyes shifting.

"Fix it?" he repeated. "Doll it up and make it better than new? Like this?"

He pointed to her dress and hair, his lip pulling back in disdain. Before she could answer, he huffed and threw the bracelet across the room.

"The image of perfection and competence, yes?" he asked.

Her fingers rung the fabric of her dress. "Do you hate it that much?"

"You look like the rest of them. You even act like them now."

"I thought..." she stopped.

"You thought it would bring you more fortune? Make you as high in status as the rest of us? It's a good thing to get out of the slums, I can't dispute that. But you seem to change so easily..."

"Easily?" she threw back, fists clenched. "Do you know how much my heart races when I have to speak in front of people? I feel like I'm in a permanent job interview, putting forward my best foot at all times and spinning every possible weakness."

"You do it well for a beginner. Very natural."

"I learned it from you!"

"Blaming me then?"

"You told me not to show fear and to never let them have any power over me."

"I told you not to become one of us."

"Then tell me what to become!"

His tongue grazed his bottom lip as his eyes narrowed.

"Is that all it takes then?" he asked. "I tell you and you become it?"

She swallowed.

"Yes," she replied. "Because you exist... and I don't."

He responded with a painful, breathy laugh, a sigh of frustration and disbelief soon after.

"That explains it then," he said bitterly. "You wanted to exist, so you attached yourself to anyone who could create you. In the end, the form doesn't matter."

Griffin turned his head again towards her, an arrogant glint taking over the darkness in his eyes.

"Is that why you flutter between Patrick and me?" he asked. "To attach yourself to anyone who gives you form?"

She blinked in disbelief. "I don't flutter between yo–"

"Yes, it's natural for a woman wanting status to find a suitable sponsor. I underestimated you. I didn't think you had that kind of devil in you."

"How can you say such things?"

"Are they false? There is a room full of women out there that have done exactly the same thing. How are you different?"

Catriona opened her mouth to speak, but the accusations had jumbled her thoughts so much that she couldn't think of any way to respond.

"The Prohibition has attempted to shame the sin of men," he said, "but yet, there is nothing to shame the greed of women. It's as if everyone forgot that woman ate the forbidden fruit first in order to be like God... and yet, the man was punished."