Wicked Ugly Bad (A Kinda Fairytale) (2 page)

Marrok
was the best looking man in the Four Kingdoms, Good or Bad.  If he hadn’t been
born evil, he would have been a perfect knight.  Even his body was custom made
for charging around on horseback, slaying monsters.  Tall and broad-chested,
with muscles that didn’t come from a gym.  His looks were so… gallant.  So
heroic.  Such a shame that a dashing, valiant exterior was wasted on a complete
asshole.

Everyone
in their group was assigned the same solid red uniforms, but Marrok was one of
the few who looked stunning in the familiar sweatpants and t-shirt that read,
‘EVIL.’  It annoyed Scarlett that she was on the same security level as that
maniac.  Firstly, because the crimson color of her “EVIL” outfit clashed with
her red hair and secondly because she
wasn’t
evil.

Ugly,
yes.  Wicked, sure.

But,
she wasn’t like the
wolves
, for God’s sake.

No
Baddies were popular in the Four Kingdoms, but Marrok and his brethren were some
of the least respected.  They were only tolerated for their entertainment value
and then quietly disposed of when they being useful.  They were usually “drafted”
into televised athletic competitions, because of their size, aggressiveness and
camera-ready faces.  They were bet on and bought and treated like prize winning
race horses.  Except, unlike horses, women often paid to sleep with the wolves.

Marrok
was the best player in the Wolfball leagues, but he caused endless problems
both on and off the field.  Even Scarlett knew that and she refused to follow the
brutal mix of wresting and football that always seemed to leave someone broken
on the ground.  He was brilliant at his assigned role as the… whatever the
player who tackled people and tried to kill them was called.  If the different
positions even
had
names.  The sport gave every indication of being a
rule-less melee, so maybe the players were all interchangeable.

It
seemed to Letty that the Good folk of the Four Kingdoms just liked to pit their
teams of semi-enslaved Baddies against each other out of sheer random
bloodlust.  Most wolves accepted that as their lot and made the best of it for
as long as they could, soaking up the limelight and relishing their pseudo-celebrity.

Marrok
had taken a different path.

He’d
been uncooperative to the point of madness, dismissive of everything the Good
folk held dear, and unrepentantly Bad.  In return, the audience loved him… even
if his inability to follow orders got him thrown in jail a lot.

It
helped that he was gorgeous, of course.  And charismatic.  And a fantastic
liar.  He was constantly in and out of the WUB Club for violating rules.  But,
he always returned to the field with a shining smile and a promise to do
better… which he absolutely didn’t mean.

It
was
completely
ridiculous that Scarlett was lumped in with the biggest,
Baddest wolf in the Four Kingdoms.  Letty had never done anything wrong and
they treated her even worse than someone with fifty counts of Badness on his
record.  She’d formally protested the unfairness of it when she first arrived,
which in retrospect had been a mistake.

It
just meant she’d caught Marrok’s attention.

He
gazed at her with cruel delight from across the share circle.  “I was thinking
about you last night.”  He drawled, ignoring the fact she was ignoring him. 
“As you know, thinking of others takes us outside of our own problems.  I think
about you
a lot
.”  His unsettling yellowish eyes glowed.  “Now… did ya
ever consider that maybe you
wanted
Cinderella to climb into that
pumpkin and steal the guy from you?  Maybe it was your way out.”

Scarlett
kept her gaze on his and didn’t respond to his idiotic theory.  Reactions
encouraged him.  Marrok preyed on the weak, so you just had to stare him down
like any other animal.

“I
mean, maybe you knew Cinderella was the mysterious girl at the ball the whole
time.  Maybe you
wanted
her to have that dipshit Charming.  Maybe you
were
glad
when she jammed her foot into that shoe, because it got you
off the hook.”

Scarlett
wasn’t going to say one word about the glass slipper to anyone.  Her stepsister
had spies everywhere.  Still, Marrok’s smug words pissed her off.

“Off
the hook?”  She scoffed.  “The hook where I’d get to marry the handsome prince
and rule a kingdom with my piles of money, you mean?  We should check with your
doctors, because they need to adjust your meds, Wolf.”

His
mouth curved at that, understanding the threat.

Ever
since she’d stopped taking her pills, Scarlett had developed a sixth sense
around other patients who’d started their own secret rehab programs.  Just
looking at him, she knew Marrok was keeping himself clean and sober, which frankly
scared the hell out of her.  She came from a long line of famous criminals and
even she was impressed with his potential for villainy.  She had no idea what
he was capable of.

Especially,
since he knew
she
was abstaining from her tranquilizers, too.  She could
see the awareness of it in his gaze as he leaned forward.

“I
think we’re both doing okay with this dosage.”  He murmured.  “And I didn’t
mean to upset you, by bringing up your past.  I’m sure you told yourself you
wanted to be the trophy princess for that dickhead.  But, in the end, your…” 
He hesitated thoughtfully.  “Hmmm.  Hey, Doc, what’s the politically correct
phrase for not gettin’ any, again?”

God,
Scarlett hated him.

Marrok
didn’t bother to glance in Ramona’s direction as he pretended to remember. 
“Oh, yeah!”  He snapped his fingers.  “Your
repressed sexual desires
got
the better of you, Red.”

She
wasn’t sure whether the nickname derived from her hair, the group’s color
designation or “Scarlett.”  Whichever reason, it bugged her.  “If I offered you
some kind of dog treat, would you finally shut up?”

He
ignored that.  “Your instincts subconsciously drove you away from that
limp-dicked man-boy, for your own good.  You secretly wanted some evildoer to
fuck you into the ground, even while you were pouting that you didn’t get a
fairy godmother to whammy you a pretty dress for the party.”  He snorted.  “And,
by the way, why the hell would you want a guy
that
hung up on women’s
clothes?  I think it hints at unresolved issues in your childhood, don’t you,
Doc?”

“Wonderful.” 
Avenant waved a languid hand towards the wall clock.  “The wolf just beat his
own record for beginning the weekly barrage of sexual harassment.”  He looked
over at Ramona and arched an imperious blond brow.  “I’d like to once again
petition for a class system to be implemented in this institution.  I should be
in with a more elite group of villains, rather than with this rabble.”

“I’ll
pass your complaints on to Dr. White.”  Ramona agreed quickly.

She
always quickly agreed with everything Avenant said.  The former Prince of the
Northlands had a commanding presence and a habit of talking at everyone like
they were his servants.  Even the hospital staff jumped to attention around
him.

Tall
and lean, with shoulder length white hair and the face of a Nordic god, Avenant
looked
exactly
like a prince of the Northlands
should
look: Even
with his fall from grace and condescending attitude, women in the WUB Club,
Good and Bad, drooled over him.

Well,
the ones who didn’t spend an hour a week in a share circle with the bastard,
anyway.

“Did
you just call us ‘rabble,’ again?”  Esmeralda the witch snapped.  “Because we
discussed hurtful words last week and I remember adding that one to the whiteboard.”

Avenant
lifted a shoulder in an indifferent shrug.  “I’m sure sheep would rather be
called elephants… But they’re still sheep.”

Esmeralda’s
crimson eyes narrowed.  Like most witches, her skin was a lovely shade of green
and she liked to show as much of it as possible, which took some real doing in
shapeless sweatpants.  She was young and at the height of her powers, so it
must bug the hell out of her that she couldn’t just blast Avenant through the
wall for his insolence.  Like everyone else in the WUB Club with magical
powers, though, she wore a spell inhibiting manacle on her left ankle.

Ramona
clapped her hands, trying to regain the group’s attention.  “Alright, let’s get
started, people.”  She was a tall, thin fairy, who wore a lab coat every day
because she thought it made her look smarter.  “We’ll start with Marrok’s
thoughts about Scarlet.”  She gave him an encouraging nod, her gray eyes eating
up his handsome face.  It was unprofessional the way she ogled him.  Marrok
really should file a complaint about it.  “It’s good that you’re having so much
insight into others.”  Ramona gushed at him, her gaze straying down his body. 
“It shows that you’re really listening in group.”

Marrok
modestly shrugged.  Either he didn’t notice Ramona’s inappropriate attempts at
eye-sex or he was just immune to them by now.  God knew they happened every
week.  “Talking about things with friends helps us process the past and make
better choices in the future.”

Scarlet
made a disgusted sound.  Marrok had made a career out of bouncing from crime
scenes to mental institutions, so it wasn’t surprising that he’d memorized all
the buzz words.

Every
time he was released, all the officials agreed that
finally
he’d learned
his lesson and was sure to play nice.  Every time they were wrong.

The
guy navigated the WUB Club like a shark in a goldfish aquarium.  His performance
reviews were spotless.  He told all the doctors just what they wanted to hear. 
He probably filled his feelings journal with poems about repentance and
kittens.

How
could the others not notice he was a fiend?

He
smirked at Scarlett.  “Well, I was saying that my inner-self feels like Letty should
prune some of the negative weeds in her mental garden and self-actualize the
healing process.  She needs to know that we’re here to support her personal growth
and to watch the flowers of her positivity
bloom
.”

Only
he could make that stupid psychobabble sound like an invitation to an orgy.

“That’s
beautiful, Marrok.”  Ramona sat down in the circle and looked over at Scarlett. 
“Anything to add?”  She sounded far less interested in whatever Letty’s
contributions might be, but she picked up her clipboard and jotted down
something
glowing
about Marrok.  “Your sister would be so pleased if you’re
ready to show some signs of progress, Scarlett.”

“
Step
sister.”

“What?”

“Cinderella
is my
step
sister.”  The words were too harsh, but Scarlett couldn’t stop
them.  Nothing pissed her off faster than a mention of the sainted Cindy.  She
could see the disapproval on Ramona’s face and it set her temper off like a rocket.

“You
think it would be
wonderful
to be her sister, I know.  Everyone does. 
That’s because you have no idea what’s she really like.”

“But,
everyone in the Four Kingdoms knows!  She had a terrible life of subjugation,
but kept her good heart and charitable…”

“
She’s
the crazy one.”  Scarlett interrupted, leaning forward in her plastic chair. 
“You know, Cindy sang
constantly
just to annoy me
. 
The noise would
get into my head until I thought I’d snap if she didn’t shut-up.  Only she
never
did.  She couldn’t have been
that
mistreated, if she had time to
memorize so many brain-crushingly annoying little ditties about love and
rainbows.  She
like
s subjugation, so I actually tried
not
to give
it to her.  It makes her sickly happy.”

Marrok’s
eyes gleamed with deviance and lies.  The perverted jackass loved it when she
shouted.  It turned him on.

Beside
her, Drusilla stirred at the mention of Cinderella.  Poor Dru was so drugged
she was actually buying into the bullshit brainwashing of this place, which
just pissed Scarlett off
more
.  “Letty, if you don’t work the process,
you’ll never…”

Scarlett
cut her sister off.  “And that’s not even mentioning all her woodland pals
lurking around, doing her unnatural bidding.  Gross, creepy, human-sized rats
making breakfast in the morning. 
Rodents made the coffee, people!
  Do
you get how unsanitary that is?”

“That
does sound appalling.”  Avenant concurred.  He managed to look like he was
holding court, even in his “EVIL” t-shirt.  “In my castle, I didn’t even allow
trolls
near the kitchens for fear of disease.”

“Hey!” 
Rumpelstiltskin objected hotly.

Avenant
rolled his eyes.  “Oh, your people are grimy basement dwellers and you know
it.”

“I’m
telling you Cindy got off on the housework.”  Scarlett continued.  “No one
made
her do it.  She has some kind of twisted cleaning fetish.  She uses those rats as
BDSM toys.  It freaked me out every time I saw how scrubbed the floor was.  I
thought she was going to mop straight through the marble with her bizarre
perversions.”