Dealbreaker

Chapter 9: Back to Reality...

(Ashley's POV)

Back to the present timeline...

"Ugh, fffine, Adrien. My snacks are hidden up in my room under the bed. The code to my snack safe is my birthday. And don't you dare look at me like that! Wouldn't you lock your snacks in a safe if you were in my place?!" I asked him rhetorically, and he chuckled a little at my cute banter. "Okay, okay! Chill the heck out, Ashley! not everything is a personal attack on you, okay?" He chuckled as he walked upstairs to my room, only to return with my unopened party-size bag of crunchy Cheetos in his hands just a couple of minutes later. "Well, are you going to get me a small bowl to put my share of Cheetos into it or not, little sis?" Adrien playfully asked me as he headed back downstairs towards me. "Yeah, yeah. Hold your horses, ya dork!" I replied sarcastically as I headed towards the kitchen for his bowl.

******

I came back a few minutes later with his bowl, and luckily, he hadn't opened the bag yet & was waiting patiently near the bottom of the stairs (what? I've been a little extra on edge lately because of Bill! Gimme a break, alright?).

Anyways, soon after I'd gotten the bowl for his share of Cheetos for him and we'd both sat down beside each other to make sure that it was fair, I felt... Uneasy, to say the least. Must be either Bill tryna tell me something, or Da- er, Father is nearby. Eh, it'll be alright! I mean, right?  I reasoned inside my head as Adrien finished putting in his final couple of pieces of Cheetos, hand the bag back to me, and then head back up to his room with a sweet smile on his face as he did.

I smiled back a little at him as he did, and as I was about to up to my room, I sensed Father's terrifying presence. "GAH! C-can you quit sneaking up on me like that? It's really starti-" I barely got to finish my sentence before he interrupted me by putting his hand up to silence me, and I reluctantly did so in fear.

"Thank you. And about your question, I will try to do so, but first, you need to do something for me first, okay, Ashley?" He replied, and I hesitantly nodded my head yes, which seemed to satisfy him and made him continue with his proposal. "Good. Now, before I begin, give all of me your phones except the flip phone." I reluctantly obeyed (and I only had three of my normal phones on me because I needed to keep the load light earlier back), and he pulled out a grocery bag from his pocket to put the three actually functional phones in. He then carefully set the half-full bag on the floor and continued, "Good. Now, let me get on with it, shall I? You have disobeyed me, ran away from the mansion without my permission, and-"

Slide! Click-click!  "Do I have to remind you yet again of how extremely bad her mental health is because of you, Gabriel? And of the countless upon countless times that you screamed at her and then akumatized her just for the sick, sadistic fun of it?" Nathalie reminded him, making his eyes go wide in terror at her current badass demeanor and attitude. You really do love me as if I were your own, don't you, Nathalie? Well, fuck the Mafia! She's a whole different breed of badass!  I thought confidently as I watched her intimidate my Father into finally backing down.

"Y-yes, N-nat- I-I mean, Ms. Sancour. I-I'll try t-" Click-click!  "Oh, there's no 'try' in this. You either do or you don't. There is no loopholes or middle ground here, Gabriel. You got that, you maniacal sicko?" Nathalie asked him rhetorically, awaiting an answer from him, and he just fearfully nodded his head as a yes at her in response, which seemed to satisfy her and make her lower her gun from the back of his head. "Good. Now give her back her phones, stay outta her business, and get outta my sight before I blow you to bits, you sicko," she threatened, and he just nodded his head yes, gently pushed the grocery bag with my three other phones in it, and then immediately dashed to his study in pure terror.

"Huh. He actually left you alone for once after only a simple death threat. Well, that should hopefully and finally teach him to not mess with you and punish you for simply just trying to be human and escape his evil ways. Are you okay, Ashley, obviously both mentally and physically?" she asked me after she put her Glock into its holster, and I tried to at least say something since this was the third time that this has happened this month (normally, you'd expect a normal person to back off of me when she's around, but... Ya know. He's evil and determined to shape me even more into his trauma toy. 🙄)

Anyway, as I tried to say at least something to her and thank her for saving me from him, I unfortunately heard Bill pipe up, "Wow! The one that you call Nathalie is a such a baddie, isn't she? I'd hate to be Gabriel right now from after what just happened, am I right?" Oh, my Lord. Can you just shut the fuck up right now? We'll talk later, but right now, I really have to-

My thoughts were thankfully interrupted by Nathalie, who only cleared her throat and shot me that terrifying glare of hers to get my attention. "Huh? Oh, yeah. Right. That. Yeah, I'm okay," I replied with a slight shrug, and although she didn't seem to believe me, she just nodded her head at me in response and walked off.

I smiled a little and slowly walked up to my room, half-wanting to just fall asleep and end the day (even though it was only 3:45 PM), and the other half of me wanting to stay up all night to avoid the nightmares from that sadistic Dorito that I called Bill Cipher.