You Belong To Me

Chapter Dishwasher

Chpater Dishwasher

'if what you feel is only a desire to possess
then it is not love.'

the dishwasher and the Cirque

Theo had promised her only two things; that the gentleman was not inside the awaiting motor vehicle, and that he would really hit her in the head if she didn't calm down.

Those words actually gave reason to her fears. She really had been worried that Tremaine was in fact waiting just up the way to exact some sort of vengeance or punishment. Ali could not explain why she had villianized him so harshly in her imaginings of him over the years but imagine she had. All she conjured up was the worst of thoughts and all his worst character traits. He would be domineering. He would be callow and uncaring and preoccupied and spoiled.

Inside the lavish automobile Theodore said he was turning on the heating system just for her comforts. He went to careful pains to slowly turn around on the pitch back road. There was a hush after Ali had managed to breathe through her nose.

"Sorry I manhandled you."

"..."

"It was inappropriate." But not unnecessary, he thought to himself as he became more comfortable and lax in his driving position. There were no words for a few moments as the car heated to a toasty temperature. Theo glanced back once. "I thought," he paused, casual in his drawl. "Back there on the road, that you'd try 'nd take my head off while I was driving."

"..."

"Then I figured you were done trying to run."

"..."

"Are you?"

"What does he want?"

Theo smiled back at her once, happy that she was speaking. They were of the same class, the two of them. They worked for what they had and what they ate. Ali was like him. No good would come from either of them putting on airs of superiority. "I don't know. Mistress... huh."

"Abigail."

"That's the one. Mistress Abigail sent for you. When you didn't turn up he sent me to the first road outta town."

"..."

"..."

"Just like that?"

"Were you expecting something else?"

Ali had never responded. Instead she tucked her gloved hands into her wool coat and pulled her hat down farther on her ears. She didn't want to think right then. Thinking was tiring and if one had no one to share findings with it was utterly useless. Self assessment is overrated if there's no one to monitor your progress... or note it at the least.

She did not want to think of how plush the seats were, how the lovely leather seemed to contour to the back of her thighs and knees. She did not want to sigh and relax her head against the cool window. Ali had no time for such sentiments.

She thought instead of trying to flee again. She thought of jumping from a moving vehicle and giving Theodore another run at tracking the animal that she was. Ali had a mind, for a moment, to see if she could scream bloody murder once her car door was opened in the city. Her midea had been to bring about a little attention, get herself some help from a passing person.

When Theodore drove his long shiny Lincoln to the dirt road of the brothel Ali realized no one on that particular plot of land would give a shit if she screamed for help after Mistress Abigail had sent for her only to discover her gone.

She slumped in the seat then, defeated. So much for a few strangling neighbor people at nearly two in the morning, just lounging about somewhere... wherever she thought that they were going. Ali paused in the back of the car for a moment after Theodore opened her door as though she were a lady. "Will you let him hurt me?"