The Cannibal Bride *WattyAwards2024

10)Dance with the devil

"Toxic" by Yael Naim

A few days later, Cory was still bombarding Alyssa with questions she had no real answers for. She knew her friend was worried about her, but she didn't have time to reassure him that she wasn't losing her mind. Mostly because it was starting to feel like she was.

"So, you're going to go out with a guy you think is partially responsible for your sister's abduction, and you don't think that's insane??" Cory demanded for what was probably the seventh time that day alone.

Alyssa would be the first to admit she wasn't really experiencing rational thought any longer. She was bordering insanity with her twisted ideas and conspiracy theories. In her defense, there was no time for rationality. She was functioning solely off sudden rage. Mostly, at herself that she didn't piece together how suspicious the phone call truly was. Now that Alyssa realized it was all a clue, a white-hot rage was coursing through her realizing she was played by Tom Stern.

Where was Cassi? Was she okay? Was she being fed? Was Alyssa's seemingly preposterous hypothesis that she was sold into a sex trafficking ring true? Worse...was she even still alive?

There was no way to know. Cassi stopped answering phone calls and texts. Her phone was shut off.

Alyssa's parents threw this strangeness into the corner with the rest of their doubts. In their idiotic minds, Cassi ran off with the boy she loved, plain and simple. It made Alyssa angrier. She didn't have even her own parents believing her. The anger bubbled.

There was no way possible Alyssa was going to let the Stern family get away with doing something heinous to her little sister. Cassi was the only person in her family who loved her regardless of her actions; to hell if she wasn't going to do any possible course of action to see her again. If she had to hold a gun on their entire family of the Stern family to get information on Cassi's whereabouts, that was exactly what she was going to do. To hell if she was thrown in jail in the process.

"Insanity is just a synonym for imagination," Alyssa called loudly, curling her hair. She knew this casual response was just going to irritate Cory further.

Friday night had slowly crawled its way around and the young man was still trying to talk Alyssa out of her asinine idea. She couldn't really get too upset with him. What she had in mind was the epitome of insanity. It was risky as well as stupid. Hell, when she tried even thinking about her intentions, it gave her a massive migraine.

Alyssa was going to attempt to play the one person of the Stern family who seemed to want to talk to her.

Ian.

Monte Flounder was a restaurant for the well-dressed. It was quite the fancy establishment that proudly produced eighty-dollar lobster as well as a ninety-dollar porter house. One could actually get their reservations cancelled if a wealthier customer wanted to book the entire restaurant for an evening. Alyssa had never stepped foot in the place. To her, there was no need to spend over forty-eight dollars on a salad when she could simply buy supplies from a grocery store for under ten bucks. No one who asked her to out ever took her to dinner. They offered coffee or movie dates, nothing that was too pricey for a college student.
Knowing how expensive the restaurant was made Alyssa dislike Ian just that much more. Obviously, this date was an in-your-face showing of how much money he had to flaunt.

But Ian was the one chance Alyssa had to squeeze information from the Sterns without the possibility of another arrest.

For once in her life, she knew she was going to have to doll herself up to make this ridiculously insane interrogation work. She would have to place nice, and even girly. She would have to quickly learn the art of flirting as well.
Alyssa wore a slinky black dress that hugged her hips, leaving a nice little V-neck slip to showcase her firm breasts.