Reaper's Word

Chapter 20: Not Really Free

The first thing that Clair did was to take a real shower. She stood in the bathroom with the chair pressed to the inside handle and scrubbed like she'd never scrubbed before. She did everything to feel normal and clean. She also found a pair of scissors and trimmed her hair the best she could. She thought about chopping it really short but didn't.

Clair had found some fresh clothes that fit her well. She wasn't so sure that the house hadn't prepared that for her. These clothes were a pair of black dress like pants and a white turtleneck. It was still cool in the house and this wasn't so bad. She didn't need to worry about being totally hidden. Though she wasn't going to change her habits for three days.

She brushed out her hair and fingered it. The wet mass was heavy and had a slight curl to it. She scrubbed her teeth, flossing and rising. She felt so good to be clean, and she was always normally a clean freak. She would have done a bit more for him if she could be allowed one day every week to do this.

Clair tossed her bad clothes into the chute. She knew that the chutes all came out somewhere in the basement. From there she didn't know what happened to them. She went out the door after checking and went to the kitchen for food. She had a quick dinner. Happy to have milk for the first time in months and that it was fresh. She ate some of the fruit there as well.

"Thanks." She said to the house and moved off. There were actually three kitchens in the house but the main one had most the food and it was huge. She passed two people coming to find some eats and they looked at her,.

"How are you so clean?" The one woman asked.

"Showered, I won the game I played with him." She looked envious. The other woman already slipped into the kitchen. She left Clair and Clair moved off down the hall. She wanted to learn more about this place now that she had time to do it.

However she grew more tired and moved off to find a room out of the way to sleep in, she wanted a bed. Clair found one on the third floor in the left wing. She laid down, a chair against the door and she fell asleep. Was it going to stop Isaiah or the hounds? Not really but she'd get warning and it would stop the humans.

Morning came and Clair opened her eyes, she glanced at the clock. It was almost ten. She'd been asleep for nearly nine hours and it felt good. She felt good, felt like a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Now that she didn't have to be so careful, she could explore and commit more to memory than she already had.

Clair meandered through the house looking at everything, and testing for hidden doors. She found one that she hadn't known before and it led to a room that had no doors at all. It seemed the small crawl space led right in here and to nowhere else. The room was simple and square oddly it had a stereo system setup with speakers along the walls. She moved to the stereo and looked at the CDs there and shook her head. She didn't know how these things got here but they did.

She tested the walls and found one to be a false wall that opened to a closet with different gowns and suits. She laughed a little, this closet had no exit. She looked at some of the intense looking gowns that had to be years old but in pristine condition.

There were far more modern ones as well and some she would never have dared to wear in public. She looked at the tuxes and dress clothes for men. The shelf above had hats and gloves and she took one that reminded her of the gangster hats in the fifties. She put on a tie letting it hang loose and tipped the hat, she grabbed a pair of shoes from the floor. It took her a bit to find one that fit her. In the end she found a pair of closed toed shoes with high heels on them.

She put them on and grabbed a cane from the closet and feeling that she should make the most of her time, she went to the stereo and put in a CD at random. She let it play and moved to the panel with the

crawl space. Out in the other room the music couldn't be heard. She went back in and twisted one of the speakers that led her right into a hall. No sound out here either.

She went back in the room and put in a CD she knew and danced to it. A solo routine she'd learned long ago and enjoyed. After it was done she moved back to the closet and pulled out different dresses and tried them on. Looking in the full length mirror there. This was fun, and she'd always loved dresses but no where to wear them.

"Not bad." She said standing in a tight midnight blue evening gown that fit to her body like a glove. It hugged her chest making it look bigger than it was and the soft flare to her hips. A slit in the dress went all the way up to her hip.

"To bad I don't like to show my butt." She said swishing the back of the dress to show skin. She gave a laugh and took it off, pulling out a few others and trying them on. She couldn't get the ball gown to lace up in the back all the way but it was a gold color and made her hair very dark. She tried a pink dress that was so short she didn't think that she could sit or bend without exposing herself. She took it off and grabbed a white one.

This one had a tie around the neck and the straps connected right to the part of the dress that covered her breasts. She tied it up and if she hadn't had her bra on. She wasn't sure how she would have even stayed in the dress. There was a lose tie around the waist and it had a kind of handkerchief bottom, though the front under skirt cut off mid-thigh and the back fell farther to the floor.

Clair was curious to see just how this dress would hold her without the bra so she reached back and took it off with a bit of work pulled it out from the dress and fixed it properly.

"Eek, no quick movements I guess."

She turned in the mirror and looked at the back. It cut down in a v to her lower back. It was a pretty dress but one she didn't think she could ever wear. She picked up her bra and turned looking at the

other dresses. Facing out into the room she sighed and undid the dress she wore. Putting on her bra she grabbed the hanger and put it back up.

She touched several of the other ones there, which one, which one? The music was still playing and she sang along to the song that was going. What she was doing was strangely fun and made her feel very light.

"Just one more and then food." Maybe she'd go in the dress just for fun. Why not, right now was her chance to feel safe. To feel good for once in what felt like forever.

There was a black one that she pulled out made of a soft material and another rather clingy one. She put it on and it was very nearly see through. Most the dress on the bottom hung to one side. The dress coming all the way up to mid-thigh. It had a tight part for the upper chest and no straps, she turned in a slow circle.

"Think I like that blue one." She said and took it off pulling on her normal clothes. She was going to the kitchen to cook herself a meal, a real one, and was going to sit down and eat it like a normal person. Not shoving it in her face.

___Isaiah___

Isaiah watched through the one way mirror as Clair left the closet. He'd chanced upon her moving through the passageway. He'd come to a sudden halt as he'd glimpsed the movement. She stood there in nothing but her underwear sorting through the dresses.

He'd decided right then to stay and watch her. He'd leaned back against the wall his arms folded, nails biting into his arms, digging into skin. At one point, he was pretty sure he drew blood, but didn't look down to see.

The sight of her slender body in those garments and how she moved in them... A woman made to wear such tight fitting things. If he'd only been able to touch her. He'd have gone right in that closet and dragged her to the floor. As it was he continued to shift as his body grew hard and uncomfortable. The most he saw of her was when she undressed.

He had a growing irritation at the small bits of material that covered her without the gowns. Any time she removed her bra she always put it back on not facing the mirror. He wondered if she was ashamed of her body. He couldn't see how she possibly could be.

He moved now as she left through the wall and out into the hall behind him. He turned the corner as she disappeared around the opposite corner herself, he went into the room. The scent of her thick in the air. He moved to the closet and her scent was strongest here. He glanced at himself in the mirror, his eyes were dark, very dark, but not solid black yet.

Isaiah had decided that he didn't much care for Clair in the normal clothes that she wore. He wanted her in these garments. The ones that hugged her body and offered a glimpse of soft expanses of flesh. He moved from the closest, memorizing the ones he'd liked most on her. Then he went to the hall and followed where she had disappeared to.

He followed down the hall at a slow pace. He felt others moving around a few of the rooms, and listened to what they were doing. He glanced at the ceiling, Gustav was still alive. His mind hard to read but he was a manipulator. His ability to read minds was very helpful as well. Currently he moved swiftly down the hall in the opposite direction above Isaiah. The man was filling the heads of those that he could get to listen with ridiculous nonsense.

There was a strong smell coming from the direction of the kitchen. A smell that had never filled the house before. At least while he'd been here, it was the scent of human food cooking. Curious he moved down to the kitchen to see what it was.

___Clair___

Clair didn't make anything complicated. Just shoved a frozen pizza into the oven. Then made noodles boiling them, and heating sauce in another pan. Alfredo sauce. She wondered how old the frozen pizza was. Couldn't be that old seeing the hell hounds ate everything in the house once the humans were gone. She wondered why they would even bring something like that, but she was glad at the moment.

"Why they would think anyone would use this, oh well glad it's here." She felt a kind of warmth from the kitchen to her. It was happy to be being used. Just like the room she'd stumbled upon today.

"You cook as well?" She jumped and grabbed the knife near her turning. "No need for that, can't touch you." Isaiah said and she relaxed a little. Yeah well he wasn't the only one that might attack her. She didn't trust the others in this house either.

"I was taught to be self-sufficient."

"Fascinating." Clair didn't want to take her eyes off of him, but she knew he had to keep his promise. She went in the cupboards looking for a strainer. She got one and set it in the sink. She stirred the sauce and then dumped the noodles.

"Is there some reason you are here?" She asked looking over her shoulder to where he stood watching her, his eyes dark. What could he possibly want with her, when at the moment he could do nothing to her?

"The pleasure of your company." She eyed him suspiciously, he gave her a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "You, I am still trying to figure out." She took the sauce off the heat. He'd never watched a human prepare food before.'

"I'm sure I'll know when you do."

"Will you?" He mused as she dumped the large amount of pasta he was sure she could not eat into a large bowl, and then the sauce over it.

"Yes, I'll be dead." He gave a light laugh at that.

"And that is what perplexes me so. Ready for your death but fighting so hard against it."

"How did you get stuck here?" She asked suddenly. "I mean why haven't you ever tried to leave?" She asked curious as to how one like him got stuck in a house like this. It was clear that he wanted to leave, and he had to have been here for a long time. He was always willing to make a deal and she was wondering just what it would take to release him. If the price to help was her freedom too.

"Oh I'd leave if I could, trust me. I made a promise that caused this to happen. I'm much more careful when I word the things I say now."

"What will it take to free you? I don't suppose it's something anyone here can do." She stirred the noodles as she asked not looking at him.

"I would have offered you your life if you could free me." Well, he probably wouldn't kill the one that could free him as that one was permanently going to be bound to him. In exchange for his freedom they took being bound instead. They would be bound to him. Cause and effect, that's how magic worked. How science worked too, kind of funny how close the two were and no one even knew it. Seeing Athena was the reason, it also had to be a woman. Not that that was a complaint to him. Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

"What does it take?"

"You don't have what I need, so it doesn't really matter. There is a very specific set of rules and requirements for my release and you are lacking one very important one."

"Oh." She sighed and grabbed a smaller bowl to put her pasta in to eat it. She moved back to the stove and opened it. It was a strong but not completely disagreeable smell. She grabbed a plate and moved to grab a knife. She cut the pizza and took a piece moving to the next room to the table there and sat down. A glass of milk already there, he followed her.

"I thought I was free of you for three days."

"Free of me doing anything to you. I'm allowed to be in any space of this house I wish." She took a bite of her food and he moved to the table sitting across from her. She seemed perfectly calm in his presence at the moment. So he would see just how calm she could remain with him here.

"Are you waiting for my time to run out? Following me, that's obsession."

"Perhaps." He responded. He noted that she still didn't meet his gaze. She always fixed it to a spot near his shoulder or past him.

"Over a human, who's not worth much in the way of life according to you."

"This is true, but tell me Clair, do you not value certain objects you own more than others? Not desire to use certain ones more often or more than once?"

"Yes."

"Your value at the moment is above the others in the house. It's really your ticket to keep living."

"Until you break your toy." He could hear a few moving in the kitchen and he understood now why she made more food than she was going to eat.

"I hope not to break you too soon." She looked down at her food. "Why don't you ever meet my gaze for more than a few seconds?" He asked suddenly annoyed. He wanted to know what she was thinking. See her reactions, but she hid her eyes from him and he couldn't hear her mind.

"Why do I need to?" She retorted, he looked at her bent head. He'd had more conversation with her than he'd ever had with anyone in years. It was nice in a way, different.

"Because it annoys me that you don't." He snapped not meaning to but he couldn't very well take it back. He wanted to read her the way that he could others, but she was very hard in more ways than one.

"Sorry for the inconvenience." she said in an almost snide tone. Different from her normal quiet and almost respectful manner.

"Are we feeling a bit jaded, or comfortable with your current condition?"

"No, not comfortable at all. The longer one has with their freedom the more you tend to forget that you are not truly free."

"Very smart." He stood.

"You don't ever have to give a human the chance to live. Why do you?" This time her eyes met his. He was silent for a moment and felt a few urges rush up so he stood. Best to leave, he knew himself too well.

"I get bored, and I like to play games. Goodnight Clair." He said turning to leave, because he needed to leave her presence. Or do something he'd regret.

"Goodnight Isaiah." He looked over his shoulder at her, but she wasn't looking at him anymore. He didn't know how to feel about her calling him by his name, it felt personal. He thought that he saw a slight smirk on her face.

She was playing with him and he saw it right there. This was such a hard choice. He moved down the hall thinking. He could keep her around, enjoyment was hard to find as of late. She provided him with a

good amount during her time here. Unfortunately his desire was far more than his need to keep her around. He'd want her blood and when she failed he wouldn't be able to stop himself. Isaiah gave a harsh sigh still thinking.