In the Arms of a Villain

15

We ride in silence. She looks out the window. Maybe I should kill her.

"Are you happy I'm back?" I ask.

"Mom and dad will be disappointed," she murmured.

Her parents are an issue. I should kill them.

"What if Mom and dad disappeared?" I asked looking over at her. "Forever."

She frowned. "What do you mean?"

I glance at her. "Nothing, just a thought. Speaking of your parents, what did they think? Of your accomplishment I mean?"

She shrugged. "They said I needed to marry Robert."

"Ah. Are your parents agents?"

"What's an agent? You mean from TV?"

Wait. How is she a mole if she doesn't know what an agent is? Maybe she's lying? I glance at her. No.

"Don't you know? FBI agents? Cops? They do that. Infiltrate criminals and then arrest them?"

She shook her head. "Mom and dad just told me this is what I had to do."

"So they sent you to me?"

She nodded. "Uh-Huh."

"And you were to what? What were you supposed to do?"

"Um...make you trust me. Be your friend. Do whatever you wanted. And then, when they said, you have to go away."

Do whatever...they whored her out to me. Wow. I didn't think they were that bad.

"What your parents did...what they wanted you to do, they abused you. You don't need to listen to them," I explain.

She looked at her hands. "They love me."

"They don't. They wanted you to be at my mercy. I could've done anything to you. And they knew that."

"Stop," she whispered.

"I could've tortured you. I torture everyone else that's what they expected,"

"My mom and dad just want me to be safe—"

"You could not have been less safe," I insist. "They didn't teach you to do anything. They wanted me to take advantage of you—"

"Please," she closed her eyes.

I clench my jaw and pause. Innocent. Pure. But so dirty. God I hate her. But if I've ever felt any type of love this is it.

How fucked up can she be?

"Fine. Fine, hey," I kiss her head. "I won't say any more. I missed you."

"You're not upset?" She bit her lip.

"What did I say? I'm proud. You are a little bitch. My little bitch. I'm impressed with you."

She leans over and puts her head in my shoulder. "You're not gonna kill me are you? I wanted to write to you, and say sorry but...they said you would kill me."

Kill her? Maybe. But what fun would it be? Look at her. So cute. Fucking crazy.

"I'm not gonna kill you," I whisper. "You see you don't need your parents anymore. You never did, since they left you on my doorstep."

She looks up me. What did they do to her? It's like they wiped her mind or something. But that's not possible. That's not—

"Why not?"

"Because...I'm your family now. You don't have to listen to them. Haven't I taken care of you? Didn't I love you? I taught you everything you needed to know."

She nodded. "You did," she whispered.

I smile. "I taught you how to cook. I taught you bust skulls open with bats. I taught you math, and love. Did your parents teach you that?"

She shook her head. "No. No they didn't."

"Because they aren't your family. But I am. I always have been."

She smiled. It's seriously uncanny. She's a blank slate like she was I met her.

Exactly when I met her. And yet, when I left her, she had changed. She was different. What is this?

"You do remember don't you?" I ask; "what I taught you. Our time together?"

She nodded.

Then what the fuck? How did she regress?

We drive in silence for a while. I hear sniffling.

"Baby?"

She looks up at me with tears in her eyes.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't want to go home." She sobbed.

I smile. "And you never have to again. Ever."