Conform or Suffer: The Darkness of Beauty

Chapter 31 Perfume

Quig recognized the scent, mixed with the aroma of lilac and earthy spice, trying to cover up a caustic odor. He thought, 'is Zill trying to repel me with an anti-love potion?' He stepped closer to Grew-Ella and could see her blushed cheeks and feel her hands tremble.

"Let's chat without my sister." Zill led Chase and Quig into the garden room.

Quig coughed. Rotted plants and dusty sheets covered the furniture.

"Wow, Karen has become a slob." Chase talked with his hands.

"You're using my sister to avoid reject status." Zill shook Quig's hands and twisted his thumb back.

He yanked himself away and walked closer to the door. "Avery-Joy and I informed Grew-Ella that you tried to toss me into a workhouse."

Zill sneezed twice and ignored the long-dried residue that seeped into the floor. "Loser, you always crept after my sister."

"I'm not playing with anti-love potions and serums, and I never propositioned or threatened you," Quig said.

"Do you mean the dating party where you claimed Zill flirted with you? The photos and videos were doctored. Grew-Ella is a sweetheart, but no man would pick her over my wife." Chase kicked over a dead pot of roses, spilling the dirt on the tiles.

Quig found a broom and swept up the mess. "I chose Grew-Ella."

Yoleta entered, removed a dusty sheet, and threw it in the trash. "Sweetie, I know what you're doing to your sister. Don't interfere. Karen invited your mom, but not you."

"Dot turned her against me." Chase picked up the container and flung it.

"Your bathtub potion is an ingredient in many truth serums. Anti-love potions don't work, and those serums are as easy to botch as back-alley plastic surgery. I'm also immune," Yoleta said.

"Is it because you can't feel?" Zill asked.

Yoleta turned to Quig. "I'll send over a cleaning crew. We've ignored this room long enough."

Later in Karen and Paul's Den

*

Quig and Yoleta exited the garden room. Zill and Chase stomped behind them.

Yoleta grabbed Zill and Chase's hands, and all three vanished.

"What happened?" Karen asked.

Yoleta popped in a moment later. "They're back on board Flint's ship. He gave me a temporal watch to hop between the multiverse and time. The wedding's timeline is now locked, and they can't disrupt it. He stole a spaceship to ruin the wedding."

Grew-Ella stared into her tea. "Wasn't that a dream?"

"I'm going to prepare the apartment." Quig left and drove home.

When he unlatched his door, he found Yoleta's personal shopper had heaped Grew-Ella's belongings on his tea table. Quig put them away, including her clothes and seashell collection.

He displayed Grew-Ella's hand-drawn comics and photos of him on the laundry room door, including two taken by Dot while he was hospitalized.

Quig turned around and saw his sister, Ida, walk out the reflection of the glass in his living room mirror. He hugged her and felt her arms. "I feel you."

"Yes, I'm alive."

"Why didn't you visit me before? You know how sad I've been."

"Most people pretend they don't see me. I visited you in dreams, but I seem to be pulled into the shadows. There are so many things that I wish I could tell you." She helped him unfold the cot in the closet, and they stretched it out widthwise to fit, changed the sheets, and positioned gifts on top with silk carnations.