Wicked Ugly Bad (A Kinda Fairytale) (21 page)

On
the other hand, touching the water meant losing everything that made her
Scarlett.  She’d either sink to the bottom and die with no clue as to who she
was, or she’d be fished out by the guards and spent the rest of her life in a
fog.  She’d still be in the WUB Club, she just wouldn’t be
her
, anymore.

Scarlett
blew out a long breath.  “I think we have to go back.”

“You
sure?”

“No. 
But, if I’m going to be stuck in that pit, I at least want to remember the
expression on Ramona’s face when I hit her with that chair.”

Marrok
started laughing, the sound of it wild and free.

Scarlett
found herself grinning in response.  No, she didn’t want to forget
any
of this.  Hell, they’d escaped once.  They could do it, again.

Maybe.

“I’m
not going back.”  Avenant shook his head, standing by the stern.  The cold air
blew through his long blond hair, the white strands reflecting the moonlight
like icicles.  “You
are
crazy, Scarlett!  We’re a few hundred yards from
never
going back and you want to go back?!”

“We’re
sinking, you idiot!”  Esmeralda shouted.  “
You
might be better with a personality
reboot, but most of us
like
having our memories. 
And I like not
melting!
”

“I’m
not going back!
”

“Letty!” 
Benji cried.  “What do we do?  I have to know right now!”

Scarlett
cursed, still not wanting to say the words that would return them to their imprisonment. 
Logical or not, it wasn’t in her nature to give up.  She frantically tried to
think of a miracle.  There
had
to be a way.

“Keep
going!”  Avenant insisted.

Dower
leaned over the edge to look at the depths of the lake.  He obviously had no
idea how to swim and was terrified by the dark waves.  “Unless you guys can walk
on water, we only have like two minutes before…”

Avenant’s
eyes narrowed.  “Wait.”  His head whipped around to look at Scarlett.  “I
can
walk on water.”

Marrok
snorted, looking aggravated about this entire situation.  “I don’t even want to
think
about the theological implications of…”

“Ice,
you moron!”  Avenant interrupted.  “My powers are back, so I can freeze the
lake.”

Scarlett
and Marrok exchanged a glance.

“This
is why we put up with him through all those meetings, isn’t it?”  He surmised.

She
gave an excited nod and looked over at Avenant.  “Do it!”  She’d
known
there had to be a way!  “Benji?”  She staggered to her feet.  “Stop the boat so
the ice can form around us.”

“Hang
on.”  Dower held up his palms, his tone anxious.  “Let’s think about this. 
What if we fall through the ice?  What if we drown?”

“I
know how to freeze a lake, interloper.”  Avenant cracked his knuckles as Benji
cut the engine and the boat slowed.

Extending
a hand, Avenant gave his fingers a complicated wave.  Almost instantly a rush
of cold air washed over the water like a cyclone.  The arctic blast was filled
with magic.  Not just physically freezing, but drawing on the powers of ice and
snow and deadly cold winter.  Letty had never felt anything like it.

Maybe
Avenant really
was
the rightful Prince of the Northlands.

Scarlett
ducked back down beside Marrok, staying out of the worst of the blizzard.  “How
long will this take?”  She had to raise her voice to be heard over the howling
wind.

“For
someone of my abilities?”  Avenant glanced at her with an arrogant arch of his
brows.  “It’s already done.”

“You’re
kidding?”  She blinked and then poked her head up to look out over the frozen
lake.  He wasn’t kidding.  As far as she could see there was nothing but
beautiful, frosty, solid ice.  Scarlett barely suppressed her victorious fist
pump.

Tuesday
share circle for the win!

“Everybody
get overboard.”  She ordered.  “We’re hiking straight across the ice.”

Avenant
gave a slanting smile.  “Admit it, peasants… Could the usurper wearing my crown
have pulled
that
off?”

So much of
the patients’ acting out comes from envy.

They know
they can never experience the pure and noble life that Good Folk do.

They are
doomed to wickedness.

Psychiatric
case notes of Dr. Ramona Fae

Cinderella
was on her knees, cleaning the already spotless floor of her bedroom.  Naked
and panting from desire, she ground the bristles of her scrub brush into the
tile and tried to improve her dark mood.

Charming
had betrayed her.

No
one cared about her wedding plans.

They
all wanted her to fail.

Cinderella
was a princess and they treated her like she was nothing.  Her own fiancé would
rather have an ugly stepsister.  Her wedding was going to look like some
redneck prom thanks to everyone else’s incompetence.  The glass slipper was
still lost and, if Charming had his way, Letty and Dru would soon be free.

She
needed to be fucked.  It was the only thing that might make her feel better.  But
Jack was making her suffer.  Cinderella had been cleaning for an hour, so she
was hot and ready, and still he wouldn’t give her any relief.

At
least
someone
was making an effort to improve her day.

“My
boots are dirty, again.”  He was standing directly behind her, his gaze on her
exposed ass as she bent over.  “Clean them while you work.”

She
quickly moved to comply.  Any hesitation would be punished.  “With my tongue,
sir?”

“Not
this time.”  His foot slipped between her legs, pushing her knees farther apart,
and he wiped the top of shoe against her dripping wet core.  “Make them
spotless.”

Oh
God
…  She moved her hips against the soft leather of the boot.  “Yes,
sir.”  Her forehead dropped to cool marble as she tried to wash them with her
body.  “May I please come, sir?”  She was dying.

“Not
until I’m inside of you.”  Jack said heartlessly.

“No.” 
Cinderella gasped in ecstasy.  She hated it when Jack took her, which meant
that she loved being forced to do it.  He was so rough and he sometimes didn’t
let her come, at all.  His passion always left bruises and the marks delighted
her.  “No, please don’t.”

“You
will do everything I tell you, wench.”  He gave her a shove with his boot.  “I’m
going to fuck you until you learn your place.”

“I
won’t do this.”  She cried, knowing her resistance would just make it rougher
and more enjoyably horrible.  Jack liked to punish her when she fought.  “I’m a
princess.  You can’t treat me this way.”

“Shut-up.” 
Jack gripped her hair, wrenching her head back.  “Do as your betters tell you
or you’ll be sorry, understand?”

She
whimpered out a helpless agreement.

He
enjoyed humiliating her more than any of the other men did, which meant she
only called on Jack for special occasions.  He would do unspeakably twisted
things to her, laughing as she suffered the indignities.  Sometimes he took
pictures of the depravity and then he showed them to the other men later.  It
was so low.  So terribly degrading.

When
she really needed a pick-me-up, she needed Jack.

His
hands callously fondled her, not for her enjoyment, but for his own.  He didn’t
care what she found pleasurable, which just increased her pleasure.  Cinderella
struggled against his hold, simply to make him grip her even tighter.

“Do
you want me to tie you, again?”  Jack shoved her down and got into position,
not giving a shit about foreplay.  “Do you want all the men to come in here and
touch you while you’re bound?”

“Oh
no, please.”  She whimpered, hoping it would happen.

Last
time the men had taken her, one after another, while Jack taunted her.  He’d
been completely in control, allowing the unworthy creatures to soil her soft
flesh for his own sick enjoyment.  Telling them to do whatever they wished to
her and forcing her to say thank you to each one as they finished.  For hours,
she’d been at their sick mercy.  After it was all over, Jack had made her lick
them all clean as he watched.

She’d
been so abused and sore and subjugated.

It
had been heaven.

“Then,
spread your legs wider.”

She
acquiesced to his brutal demands.  Her favorite part of this game was how sick
it was that her pure body was being ravished by dirty men who should never
touch her.  A princess wouldn’t lower herself to fight this monster, though. 
She’d submit and let him have his wicked way with her.  What choice did a poor,
mistreated girl have?

Jack
smirked and began working his erection.  Sometimes he came on her naked form
before he took her.  Cinderella would need to wash herself for hours to remove
the taint of this creature sullying her beautiful skin.

“You’d
like me to mark you like this wouldn’t you, wench?”

“Yes,
sir.”  She’d loved it.

“Too
bad.  It only matters what
I
like.”  Jack leaned closer to her ear.  “It’s
time to do your chores.”  He snarled and moved to crouch behind her.  “Don’t
come until I tell you and I’ll try not to hurt you… much.”

“Yes,
sir.”  She was going to come at his first painful stoke.  She could feel it.  Disobeying
him would carry a severe sentence and she couldn’t wait.  “Please, make me do
my chores.”

“What’s
your most important chore?”

“Servicing
you, sir.  I’ll do anything you say.”

“That’s
right, you will.  And I’m in the mood for something
very
special,
wench.”

“Oh
yes…”

A
knock sounded on the bedroom door and Cinderella nearly screamed in frustration.

No,
no, no, no,
no!

Why
did people want to ruin
everything
for her?

Swearing
out the vilest oaths she knew, Cinderella shoved Jack away and reached up on
the bed to grab her pink robe.  The men knew better than to bother her during
chore time unless it was an emergency, so this had better be good.  She yanked
the door without bothering belt her robe.  “
What?
”  She glowered up at
Gustav.

“We’ve
had word from the prison, your highness.”  His eyes stayed on her face, not
looking at her naked breasts or Jack standing there with a delicious leather
whip in his hand.  Unless she ordered him to, Gustav never participated in
chore time.  His reluctance just made her use him more.  “There’s been an
escape.”

Her
eyes narrowed.  “An
escape?
”

“Yes,
you highness.  Scarlett led it.  She and Drusilla have broken out.”

Because
he was the closest hittable object, Cinderella hit him.  “How could you let
this happen?!”  She shrieked.  “If Letty is free, it could ruin everything!”

“I
know, majesty.”  He didn’t even flinch under her blows.  He was used to them. 
“The flying monkeys are already tracking them, but your stepsister has taken
them into the Enchanted Forest.”

“So?”

“So,
the trackers are afraid to go in there.  The woods are filled with men from the
Lollypop Guild.”

“I
don’t care if they’re filled with
landmines!
  Get the monkeys in there
to track Scarlett down!  It doesn’t matter what it takes, I want her dead and I
want my glass slipper! 
Now.
”

“Of
course, majesty.”  Gustav stepped back, his lip bleeding and his cheek bruised. 
“Prince Charming is searching for her, too.”

“Already?” 
That was so typical of the asshole.

“He’s
given word that Scarlett and Drusilla are not to be harmed in the recapture efforts.”

“
God
,
I hate him.”  Cinderella’s hands fisted, her nails digging into her palms. 
“All I want is my crown?  Is it really so much to ask?  But, that stupid
simpering fool is determined to ruin
everything
.  Tell the monkeys to do
whatever it takes
to stop Scarlett and retrieve my property!”

“We
should kill Charming.”  Jack said as Gustav hurried off to do her bidding.

“
Before
I become the princess?  You think I should give up everything I’ve worked so
hard for?”  She whirled around to face him.  “You want me to stand by and let
my hideous stepsister steal my perfect life?!  You hate me!  Is that it?”

“I
worship you, highness.”  Jack stepped closer to her.  “Which is why I know you
deserve so much better than that ball-less prince.”

“I
do deserve more.”  She agreed with miserable sniff.  “After the wedding, I can
be done with him.  But, for now, he’s the only way I can take my rightful place
as princess.”