You Can't Always Get What You Want

Listen

Helena was in my control for the next eight months following our fifth month date. At it turned out, her hearing was more sensitive than she'd taken the time to realize, having chosen deafness when her mother died. Her hearing was far more powerful than the average human's, therefor she made a very good spy. She'd helped me take care of some personal business more than once.
We left her little apartment and stayed in whomever's home I decided was the nicest. The only time I ever made her sing was when I couldn't sleep, which was, upsettingly, more frequent than I would have liked. I never made her sing anyone to death, though. She should have been happy about that.
I stared at Helena over my Canard à l'Orange. She looked beautiful sitting across the Patterson's table from me. She was wearing that same stunning indigo gown she'd picked out for that date so long ago. I couldn't resist the memory of my hands unzipping that dress in the hotel room to reveal the lingerie she'd bought just to look special for me. We'd been living just as elegantly since that night, and we hadn't spent a cent the entire time. Every so often I thought back on that night and remembered how much I'd enjoyed it. It really had been the best date I'd been on up to that point.
"Do you like it?" I asked Helena as she took a bite of the duck. She looked up at me from across the table and nodded.
"It's delicious," she complimented as if I'd made the meal myself. I grinned and turned my head to look at the Pattersons in the kitchen behind me.
"Well done, Pattersons," I announced, "Now go away."
     I looked back at Helena to find her watching the Pattersons leave the room. As soon as the door closed behind them, Helena's eyes shifted to me, she smiled, and then dropped her gaze to her food again. I couldn't tell what she was thinking. She had that same unreadable expression she'd had back when she was deaf and I used my power on others.
"Tell me what you're thinking," I asked, stabbing a piece of duck meat with my fork. Helena stopped with her fork halfway to her mouth and lowered the fork back onto the plate.
She swallowed, looking down at her food still. "I wish you wouldn't treat people like slaves."
     I paused mid-chew and stared at her. Slaves? The Pattersons? I continued chewing my food and swallowed. I licked the sauce off my lips, considering her words. I'd always told her I wouldn't make her do something she didn't want to do, was this one of those things? Living in someone else's home? Maybe she was homesick for that quaint little apartment of hers.
"The Pattersons, you mean?" I clarified. Helena looked up at me and nodded. I cleared my throat and mimicked her. "Alright. We'll leave them alone after dinner. We'll go wherever you want." Helena smiled at that.
"We could go to a play," Helena offered, "I know you enjoy them too." I thought about it and nodded. We hadn't been to a play in months. I didn't know what all was showing, but that wouldn't be difficult information to obtain.
"That is a marvelous idea, Hel," I agreed with a grin. The remainder of dinner was spent reminiscing the past plays we'd seen together and discussing what we'd like to see tonight.
Just as if promised, we left the Patterson's home directly after we finished eating, and the play we'd just walked out of had lasted almost four hours. The sun was long gone, leaving the moon to cast shadows wherever the city lights wouldn't reach. I held tight to Helena's hand, letting her swing our clasped hands between us as we walked.
"Where would you like to go now?" I mumbled into Helena's hair as we walked. I planted a kiss on the side of her head and looked down at her. She smiled up at me.
"Home," she replied, "My apartment. It's just a few blocks from here." She twirled so that she was walking backwards in front of me. "We can get cozy and fool around a little," she suggested, inching closer and closer to my face, but stopping short, "What to you say?"
I smirked at her teasing and turned her so that she was between me and a brick wall. I planted the gentlest kiss on her forehead before whispering, "Stay right here." She bit her lip and nodded as I let go of her. I turned toward the street and the flower stand I knew I'd seen. I didn't look over my shoulder as I walked casually across the street toward the stand and got in line behind a couple picking out flowers.
I gazed at the last long-stem rose, waiting patiently for my turn to pick up the flower and pay for it. I knew that particular style was Helena's favorite, and I wanted her to have it. As if reading my mind, the man in front of me picked up rose and held out a five dollar bill to the vendor. I sighed in annoyance at the empty barrel where that rose had been. That rose was supposed to be Helena's.
"Oh, now why'd you have to go and do that?" I scoffed at the man as he and his date began to turn away. They both stopped and looked at me. I nodded to the flower in his hand. "That was the only bloody flower I came over here for and you just had to get to it first, is that it?"
"You got a problem, man?" the guy grunted, turning back to face me fully. I could see his girlfriend trying to get him to stop, but the man was ignoring her.
I shrugged. "I'm just trying to have a nice evening with my sweetheart. You're the one causing trouble," I answered. My comment seemed to make the guy angrier, but I turned my attention to the woman next to him. "You can do better than him," I assured her, "Break up with him and go home."
The woman turned to the man, and handed the rose back to him. "We're done." She shook her head and walked away. The man looked like he wanted to plead with her for a moment, but she was already clomping away down the sidewalk like I'd told her to.
The guy turned back to me. "You foreign prick," he spat, "I'm gonna-"
"Give me the rose," I commanded, holding out my hand. The man put the rose in my hand with a sort of confused look and then stood there, dumbfounded. I smiled at the long stem and then grimaced at the man. "Oh, go screw yourself," I told him dismissively as I turned back to return to Helena. I could feel the vendor's eyes on me, so I paused and pointed at him. "You saw nothing."
The man didn't even respond, he just turned his attention to his flowers as if nothing had happened. I looked back across the street to where Helena was waiting for me. She was struggling to follow my orders as a short man kept trying to pull her into the alley I'd planted her next to. Fury flared to life in the pit of my stomach. Nobody touched Helena but me. As I stalked back toward the corner, the man put a hand to Helena's throat, pulled out a knife, and, pressing the flat side of the blade to Helena's cheek, whispered something to her.
How dare he! "Oi!" I barked, picking up my pace. I tossed the flower toward safety at Helena's feet and tugged the man by his collar back into the alley. "Leave her alone!" I snarled at him. The man yelped in shock, but didn't get a chance to put up too much of a fight as his knife went flying somewhere into the alley. I looked back toward Helena, who was peeking around the corner. "Don't look, Hel," I ordered. She disappeared around the corner, but I knew she hadn't left the spot I'd told her to stay in.
The man whimpered, but I didn't care. "Pick up your knife," I growled, letting go of the man so that he could retrieve his knife from where it had landed in the scuffle. The man scrambled over and grabbed the knife. "Now, everywhere you touched her, I want you to cut that place on yourself, do you understand?" The man nodded frantically, and I scowled. "Go on then."
The man reached up with the knife and cut along his jaw, then across his cheek, slowly. I didn't turn away as the blood dripped down his face. He then proceeded to cut a gash along his right side, only to switch hands and cut up the length of his left arm. I waited for the final cut, the one along his neck. I waited to see him collapse before I turned away. He could bleed out for all I cared. I turned the corner and picked up the rose at Helena's feet.
"Come on," I muttered, putting an arm around her shoulders and escorting her away from the alley, toward home. I held the rose out to her and she took it, but she didn't smile. She looked a little spooked. I would have been perfectly content ignoring the matter if she hadn't spoken.
"I could hear his heart racing." she breathed, "What did you do to him?"
     I looked down at her to find her gazing up at me. I didn't know what that look in her eyes was. Horror, maybe. Was it because of me or him? I frowned at the question. Technically, everything that happened to him, he'd done himself.
"I didn't do anything to him," I responded honestly. I shook my head and hugged her closer to me, looking ahead as I added, "Forget about him." I glanced back down at her, and the look in her eyes was gone. "Don't worry about a thing, I'm here."