Shadows chapter 10
Plans






There was the sound of a key turning in the lock not long after Irissa had left for school. Suzanne leapt out of bed and hurried down the stairs.
She tried not to show her disappointment when it was Marco and not Enrique who stood in the lounge and appeared eager when he grabbed her roughly and kissed her, more of an assault on her than an act of any real desire.
Suzanne had no doubts he was merely demonstrating ownership, but she giggled and kissed him back.





“I came to check on how you were settling in and to tell you I want you at the mansion on Saturday night. We are entertaining a few business clients and they will need some entertainment,” Marco said. “It will be formal wear, classy. These are important men. From the old country.”

Suzanne smiled and said sweetly,

“No problem. I have some lovely things in the wardrobe. I haven’t had a chance to thank you for them yet. Marco glanced at the couch and smiled back.
“So you can do it now.”








He took off his clothes and settled onto the couch. Unlike his brother he had no concerns about the glass at the front of the house.

“Come here,” he ordered.

Suzanne joined him on the sofa and kissed him with all evidence of desire and pleasure.

With no gentleness or finesse Marco turned Suzanne to lie beneath him and assaulted her lips with his, the pressure of his mouth bruising, grazing the inside of her lips against her teeth.




He made no effort to arouse but forced himself into her, hurting her. Suzanne tensed and bit back a cry of pain, but he felt her discomfort and it seemed to excite him more. His pace increased and he thrust deeper, enjoying the pain he was inflicting on her. His nails dug deeply into her as he reached the peak of his pleasure and let out a roar as he came.




Almost as soon as he was done he rolled off of her and demanded that she make him breakfast. Bruised and aching Suzanne walked stiffly to the kitchen and cooked food for him. Still naked he sat opposite her and detailed the requirements for the night at the mansion.

Suzanne had hoped he would leave quickly after he had eaten. She wanted a bath to sooth her aches and a chance to get dressed and go shopping, but he seemed intent on staying the afternoon. Eventually Suzanne announced that if he didn’t mind, she was going to take a shower. She was grateful that he did not suggest joining her, but glanced at the clock and nodded.




Irissa could not have missed that the man who greeted her on her return from school was a Cappelli. He had a marked resemblance to Enrique. He was less bulky in his build and his face was narrower, with a cruel set to it, but the family resemblance was unmistakable.

She smiled politely and headed to the kitchen to clean up before going to work. He followed her and asked her how she was enjoying the house and how she was doing at school. He stood so close that Irissa felt very uncomfortable.





His eyes travelled over her with slow study, taking in every detail of her face and body. Irissa felt her skin crawl under his gaze. She tried to move past him to get ready for work, making polite small talk as she did so, aware that she should not be rude to her mother’s employer, and the man who had put a decent roof over their heads.

Suddenly he grabbed her hand and brought it to his lips, pressing them slowly against the back of her hand. Irissa pulled it away, startled.

“My brother was right, Irissa. You are a very beautiful young woman,” he said in an oily voice.”

Strangely, Irissa felt betrayed at the idea that Enrique had discussed her with this sleazy man.





“Angelo has excellent taste in women,” Marco smiled.

Irissa felt a surge of relief run through her.

Marco reached out and tried to stroke her cheek. She leapt back out of his reach.

She hit out at him, pushing his hand away.

“Don’t do that!” She snapped.

At that moment she heard the car horn outside in the street. Her lift. Gratefully she ran from the house to the car.




At her daughter’s cry Suzanne came back down the stairs. Marco grabbed her and pulled her into his arms.

“I’m leaving now. I will see you at the mansion. And Suzanne, bring your daughter,” he ordered.

“My daughter?” Suzanne asked, startled.

“Your daughter. Make sure she is dressed appropriately. She is old enough to start earning her keep. I am not a charity,” Marco nodded.

He grabbed her and pulled her to him, kissing her possessively.
After a few moments he released her and made an abrupt departure.






Suzanne sat on the sofa, her face set in an angry scowl. Her situation with the Cappelli’s may not be the best in the world, but it was the best she had had in a very long time, and that slut of a daughter of hers was not going to ruin it for her. It was time for something to be done about Irissa.

Shadows Chapter 9

The Needle and The Damage Done




Gok Han frowned at the mae jong game in front of him. He was edgy and trying not to show it. The man he and his brother Lee were waiting for was late. The Cappelli’s had interfered with two of their shipments in the last month. Gok was getting tired of the Talians interference in his business. There was going to be a reckoning.





His deliberations were interrupted by the arrival of a third man.
“The woman and the goods are in the car outside,” Ho Chang told them. “She is not comfortable.”

Lee smiled grimly at his associate’s conservative choice of words. The woman her referred to was a drug addict and had travelled the long journey from Pleasant View without a fix.

“Bring her in,” Gok ordered. “And have the meat goods taken upstairs. The rest bring to me.”






Gok looked impassively at the woman as she sat down. She was fidgeting and shaking, unable to stay still. Her fingers tapped nervously on the table. Gok’s lip curled slightly into a sneer. Lee lowered his head. He himself had never been able to lose all sympathy for people who had begun on the woman’s path. It did not stop him from selling what she needed, or trafficking in the other vices he and his brother sold, but there was always some small part of him that felt sympathy. Gok felt total contempt. As if the people he sold to were less than human.





Cruelly Gok continued the game and spoke to the woman. Her eyes were unfocused throughout and her movements were jerky and uncoordinated.

“You are happy with the deal we have made?” He asked casually. “You have given us something of yours. In return we will give you what you need to feed your habit for the rest of your life?”

The woman nodded shakily.

“There is no going back from this deal. That does not bother you?” Gok persisted.

Again the women shook her head.



Gok stood up and left the room. Lee followed him, leaving Ho to give the woman what she needed. He and his brother went to the bar in the music room to wait. Lee looked at his brother’s face as he mixed drinks.

“The woman is beyond contempt,” he murmured.

“She is as I expected. It is a small thing,” Gok replied. “She is a small thing.”

Sometime later Ho and the woman joined them in at the bar. The woman was no longer shaking and she reached for a drink with a smile. Ho made small talk with her. Lee looked at his brother’s impassive face and had the sense that he was waiting for something.




Suddenly the woman clutched at her chest and began to gasp. Her eyes were wide and frightened. Lee closed his eyes. His brother had intended this all along. The woman had been given what she needed for life, but that life was to be very short.

She gasped and reached out her hand to Ho. He took another sip of his drink and watched her with no emotion. The woman closed her eyes and her knees buckled.







She crumpled to the floor and lay still. Lee covered his eyes. Sometimes his brother’s methods were too much. Yes, the woman had been destined to die. As an addict she was not trustworthy and if she had revealed to anyone what she had sold to them it could make life unpleasant for the Han family. But to do it here, in their home... There was a half smile on Gok’s lips. He had enjoyed watching her die.

Lee turned from the woman’s crumpled form and left the room. Gok followed him.

“Get rid of that,” Gok called to Ho. “Leave her where she will be found. The police will believe her to be just another overdosed addict. We will inspect the merchandise.






Gok climbed the stair to the first floor and touched a panel in the wall. The panel slid aside and the two men entered a hidden room. It was large and decorated in soft girly colours. There were three beds against one wall. In each one was a young girl deep in sleep.

Two of the girls were oriental, smuggled into the country by the Han brothers.






The third was a western girl. Gok looked carefully at her sleeping form and smiled. There would be many customers for this one. It was strange that however many girls they had working for them, certain men always preferred girls of their own race. Still smiling indicated to Lee that they should leave the room.






It was some hours later that Phoenix Rozzen awakened in a strange room. She had vague memories of feeling very tired after her mother had poured a soda for her. She pushed herself from the bed and looked around the bright room. Two other girls were also pushing themselves out of bed.

The two other girls appeared to know each other. They began chatting together in what sounded to Phoenix like Chinoise. She approached them cautiously and said ‘hi’. The older of the two, a girl of about fourteen, smiled sweetly at her.





“Hello. I am...Mai,” she offered in a heavily accented and very halting voice.

“I ....Kimi,” the younger girl, who may also have been a little older than Phoenix, added.

The two girls had great difficulty pronouncing Phoenix’s name.







Mai and Phoenix sat on the sofa talking as best they could.

“It look nice place ... but we here, not good thing,” Mai ventured.

“I bet. Especially as there is no door. No way out,” Phoenix looked around the room and frowned. There was a fridge, a cooker, beds, a television and computer games. Access to a bathroom. A prettily decorated prison.

Phoenix was not yet thirteen, but she was smart and streetwise. Her mind was running on all of the possibilities of three young girls being held prisoner and she was scared.

Chapter 7
Dream Lover





In spite of the argument and how upset she was, Irissa fell back asleep straight away, as if she were being pulled deep into a deep dark tunnel. Then, ahead of her was light and there were trees. A white figure stood at the edge of the tree line. She had seen the white wolf before. It moved towards her and without hesitation Irissa bent to greet it. The animal licked her hand and stared at her, mouth open. It almost looked as if it were grinning at her.





As she passed through the trees to the beach she felt her clothes change as always. This time, though, her hair seemed alive and moving and there was something growing at her brow. The black framed mirror was no longer on the beach, but was sitting beside the path. She glanced into it and realised there was a silver circlet adorned with a crescent moon on her brow. Ignoring the other figure sitting beside the water, she greeted her teacher and they spoke about the presence of the wolf.




The Teacher sat down and indicated that Irissa should do the same. Now she looked at the third person. Enrique Cappelli sat staring out at the ocean, unaware of their presence.

‘Why is he here?’ Irissa thought.

‘He is not. You must call him. Summon him, Irissa,’ said the voice in her head.

‘Why?’

‘It is necessary.’




It was peaceful here. Wonderful. The ocean swept up to him, surrounding him then washing away in a peaceful, calming rhythm. It whispered to him, gentle and soothing. Hypnotic. He could have sat here forever.

He paddled his hands in the water, feeling it trickle through his fingers. He felt the urge to giggle like a child. He could not remember a time when he had felt so much at ease. He could let this water sweep him away...

Then the sound of the waves became a voice, a female voice, soft like the whisper of the water, calling his name. He felt her presence there on the beach with him. Irissa.

‘Will you come to me? Here? Now? I need your help.’

‘Anywhere you want...’ he answered serenely.

Then he was beside her, still on a beach. They stood within a circle. He knew enough of Rowena’s activities to understand its significance. She looked different. He took her hands in his.

‘Command me,’ he teased, comfortably.

He was dreaming and she was here and anything was possible.







‘Do you want to be here, Enrique? Khalil says that there is need of a binding between us,’ she whispered.

‘I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else,’ he replied.

The man Khalil moved between them and placed his hand on the cover of the book in the centre of the circle. His deep voice chanted in a language Enrique did not understand. Then he moved to the north quarter of the circle and made a call in the same language. He made a similar call at the other three quarters before returning to the altar.

Irissa raised her arms and called to the ‘Lord and Lady’ to attend the rites. Enrique watched everything they did with the same serenity he had felt beside the water.

Khalil spoke again and this time Enrique understood his words.

‘Now hear ye the words of the Great Goddess, she who called of old Artemis, Astarte......’





The rhythm of their voices was compelling and hypnotic, first Khalil speaking, then Irissa. Something was building within the circle, energy flowing between the three of them, forming threads and ties.
Ties that seared through his blood and mind, spreading warmth and contentment, intensifying emotions already there...








Then there was Irissa and nothing else. Enrique reached for her and drew her into his arms, pressing his lips against her forehead. He stroked her soft dark hair, breathed in the scent of her skin....





...Then stepped back and moved her gently away from him.

‘This isn’t right,’ he whispered. ‘I’m too old.... you are too young...’





‘Flatterer,’ she teased gently.

‘Oh my God, Irissa....’ he reached out to touch her, to see if this was real, but of course, it wasn’t and anything was possible.

They were outside the circle and he was reaching for her, feeling her move towards him. She was hesitant, uncertain as he drew her close to him.


Then he was kissing her and damn, there had never been a dream like this. Her lips were soft but eager on his and he could taste her, a faint flavour of cinnamon and honey in her mouth from the desert he remembered they had eaten. The jasmine scent in her hair from her shampoo. Every sense seemed heightened and every touch felt more real than any waking experience her had ever had.







Then the world shifted and he was naked beside her on an ornate bed. He took her hand and twisted his fingers into hers, marvelling at how moon pale her skin was against his. Every detail of being with her was something wonderful to be dwelt on. He ached with wanting her, but was agonisingly afraid of rushing and ending this...

Enrique lay back and pulled her slowly down him, feeling her skin come into contact with his inch by inch. He kissed her deeply, his tongue gently exploring her mouth, touching the tip of her tongue. She said his name very softly and he felt the vibration of her voice in his mouth and throat, intense and surreal in this place of muffled sound.





Another strange, dizzying shift and he was looking at her from outside the circle. She was reclining on a low bed at the centre of the circle, half hidden by drifting swathes of muslin, a dreamy look in her eyes.

As he stepped into the circle she turned her head and smiled a welcome. Not the kind of smile he got from the women that moved in the Cappelli’s world. She said his name again and he heard it in his mind.






She extended her hand to him and rolled onto her back. Enrique lowered his body onto hers. He could feel the warmth of her skin, slightly sweat slick in the humid air. Carefully, afraid of hurting her, he pushed her legs apart and eased himself inside her.

The small gasp of astonishment he made was lost in the strange environment. This was real, more real than anything he had ever felt. She was warm and moist and sheathed him so perfectly. Then she was moving with him, her body in perfect synchronisation with his.





No-one, ever, had made him feel this good, this intensely. He thrust into her, desperate for release of the tension inside him, yet he was afraid of that ending. Of being separated from her.

As his pace quickened she was in perfect time with him and when the orgasm swept over him, crashing through him like the breakers on the rocks he felt reciprocal responses in her body. He found the strength to push himself up onto his arms and look down at her. Her eyes were closed, her lashes lying dark against her pale cheeks. Her lips were parted and relaxed and the sleepy, sated expression on her face told him that her experience had matched his.






Another shift of perspective and they stood once more at the centre of the circle, facing each other. Enrique could hear the black man’s voice in his mind, speaking the words of a chant. All he could think of, though, was Irissa and how much he wanted to hold her again.




As if in answer to his thought she stepped into his arms and tilted her face towards his. He kissed her again, deep and tender.

Sensing that his time with her was nearing an end he crushed her tightly against him, feeling the soft warmth of her body against his. He twisted his fingers into her hair as if trying to hold on to what he knew he was about to lose....





He was still mostly asleep and he felt her body beside him in his bed. She stirred slightly, murmuring in her sleep.






He pushed himself partly onto one elbow, seeing her briefly there as he felt her warmth fade beneath the bedclothes.

He sank back into deep sleep, alone now, exhausted from the night’s exertions which had left his body as drained as if they had been real.





He awakened some hours later, feeling a strange mixture of emotions. Love and tenderness for the girl Irissa.
An aching, intense desire for the young woman she had been in his dream. And a hollow unhappiness at the path his life was currently taking. There was also the thought that he would never be able look at her again without remembering how she had been last night. Thank heaven she would never know.





Irissa slept deeply through the remainder of the night, until her alarm clock roused her.

She sat up, confused. Somehow during the night she had lost her pyjamas and the cool air touched her skin like a caress. The thought brought a blush to her pale skin. She felt heat suddenly running across her body and focused on the need to reset the central heating timer.

i




As she rose from her bed, though, pictures, images and feelings kept flooding her mind. Enrique’s face and body filled her memories. She could still feel his touch on her skin and the weight of his body on hers.
And the way he had made her feel.

Okay, she thought, if that is what it is REALLY like I can see why people do it.

Thoughts of the things she had seen and heard around her mother though, had always painted a very different picture of the relations between men and women. And that sort of relationship she could way easily do without.





As she began to dress she had three thoughts in mind.

Why had her Teacher thought the ritual and activities of the night so important?

How the hell would she ever look Enrique in the face again? Thank heaven he didn’t know that it had been a shared dream.

And, giggling to herself, after such an intensely orgasmic experience, could she really still class herself as a virgin?

Chapter 6

Shadows Chapter 6
Fascination





Enrique Cappelli joined his brothers in the ‘courtyard’ after breakfast. It was a family tradition that the family had a chat there early every morning. Since his return from College, though, Enrique had noticed a change in how not just the meetings, but the running of the family had changed. Marco was taking control and his father did not seem to object. It was Marco who occupied the chair, the traditional position of authority, while His father sat on a sofa beside Angelo.





If he was being completely honest with himself, Enrique had been uncomfortable in his own home since his return. He had always accepted his family’s crooked activities, but there had been a code of honour, he had felt, when his father had been making the decisions. Things that the family would and would not do. Now everything seemed acceptable.

When Enrique had been young there would have been nothing remotely like the ‘auditions’ Marco had held for the ‘girls’. Afraid of his brother’s temper, Enrique had taken part in that weekend, but it had not been his idea of how to treat women. He kept his eyes on his father as the meeting progressed. Stephano was quiet and merely nodded at everything his eldest son said. Enrique wondered if his father was also afraid of his elder son.





“You’ll go and visit the Galloway woman today, Enrique,” Marco told him.
Enrique nodded. He had no objection to that task. He wanted to see how the Galloways were settling into their new home. And especially he hoped to see the girl Irissa. He wondered how she liked the room he had decorated for her and the clothes she had been bought. His mind drifted towards the first day he had seen the girl in his friend Rowena’s shop...

He had taken his niece Cara to the shop. Julius had ignored his twin daughters since their mother had moved out of the mansion. A disgraceful situation, Enrique thought. The two girls adored their younger uncle. Enrique had been showing off to his niece when the other girl arrived. Cara had started speaking to her at once. Enrique had gathered from the conversation that the newcomer served in a local diner.






Cara had wanted to browse and buy in the shop so Enrique had gone outside onto the patio. A short while later that dark girl had come outside. She had been speaking to a young man Enrique had recognised, a detective from the local station and the partner of the man Marco most hated, Sergey Solarin. Enrique had been unable take his eyes off the girl. She was eerily like the girl in a picture he had purchased when he was seventeen.

The girl of his dreams come to life. Pity that she was so young. He watched her laughing and chatting to the detective and smiled wryly to himself. Or that he were not still seventeen instead of twenty two. He was being a stupid romantic, of course. Would he ever have taken a girl like this home to meet his family?






He almost laughed aloud at the girl’s antics as she talked about music to the detective, at one point mimicking the guitar antics of the lead man in a group she liked. At one point in the conversation though, he had almost jumped out of his seat. The detective had been asking her about her mother and he heard the name ‘Galloway’. That morning Marco had asked him to get a house organised for one of the girls they had hired. A woman called Suzanne Galloway.

The girl was Suzanne Galloway’s daughter. The woman didn’t look old enough to have a child of fourteen or fifteen years old. Enrique’s interest in the girl had suddenly increased. A mixture of pleasure and fear had struck him at once.


The detective had left the store and the girl had gone back inside. So had Enrique......







“Are you listening to me?” Marco irritated voice had brought him back to the present.

“Sorry, yes,” Enrique said dutifully.

“I said make sure and fuck her while you are there,” Marco repeated himself.

“What?” Enrique gasped, not yet completely aware of what his brother had been saying, his mind still on Irissa.

“The woman. Make sure you make her work while you are there. I want her to remember that we own her, understand?” Marco sounded even more annoyed at his younger brother’s wandering attention.

“Yeah, okay,” Enrique answered. “No problem.”


Jealousy







Enrique waited until the others had left then went out to the second limo.




He drove up the hill and into town still thinking about Irissa and Suzanne.
“Get them decent clothes. Do something with that little room for the kid.” Marco had instructed.

Enrique had been pissed off. Okay, buying a few clothes for a woman. No big deal. He knew the type of things Marco would want her to have. But what did he know about a teenage girl. He had been going to ask Cara’s advice that day. Then he had seen Irissa and known he would have been talking to the wrong niece.

He has spoken to Rowena and had ordered a number of items to be delivered to the Galloways intended home.








Back at the mansion he had made a number of calls. The first one had been to an interior designer friend. The second had been to his other niece, Catalina.






Catalina had been bursting with curiosity when she had met him at the boutique.

“I need a new wardrobe for a fourteen year old girl. Everything. Not sweet and fluffy like Cara wears. A bit more like your style, but really dark colours.” He had explained.

“Who is she? And if you know what she likes then why don’t you just buy it?” Catalina had demanded.

“I can’t buy undies and things for a fourteen year old! I don’t want to think about what kids your age wear under their clothes. That’s pervy!” Enrique had found himself blushing.

Catalina had looked astutely at him.

“Funny you thinking that, Uncle Enrique. Because your brothers have girls my age working for you and I’m thirteen,” she replied tartly.

Enrique had cringed. That was another one of the changes in his family that he so hated.









Catalina had seen his discomfort and had let him off the hook.

“So, what is her colouring? How tall is she? Without being pervy, what size is she. Compare her to me,” she had commanded.

“A little less tall than you, but not much. A little fuller in the ...uh... the bust. Very pale skin. Like moonlight...” he had found Catalina’s sharp eyes on him again and had felt his skin burning.

“Sounds like a girl that works in the diner, actually. Ok. I can shop with her in mind no problem.”

“Be prepared for some heavy usage on your credit card, my dear Uncle. Your girl is going to get some nice stuff,” she had grinned.

Enrique had given exaggerated sag of his shoulders.

“Do your worst,” he had sighed.





His memories were interrupted by his arrival at the Galloway house. Suzanne was in alone and she seemed delighted to see him. She smiled with apparent delight.

“Enrique, I haven’t seen you in days. You look ...very good,” she purred.


She took his hand and led him to the sofa. Enrique had considered disregarding Marco’s parting command the way Suzanne snuggled up to him on the sofa told him that she expected to have sex with him that morning. He wasn’t going to object. She was beautiful, sexy and seductive. They sat talking and flirting for a while.

It was Suzanne who moved toward him and instigated their first kiss, moving into his arms and draping her legs across him.






Enrique twisted his body round as the kissed to have her lie beneath him. She gripped his hair and pulled him closer, making eager little noises in her throat.

They kissed passionately for several minutes before Suzanne began to pull his shirt out from the waistband of his jeans. Enrique drew back from her and took a breath.

“Let’s go upstairs,” he suggested.

“The sofa isn’t comfortable enough for lovemaking?” She asked in a honeyed voice.

Enrique winced.

“I’d rather not have sex in a goldfish bowl,” he said lightly, indicating the expanse of glass behind them.






They settled onto the bed for another session of making out.

“You don’t like windows,” Suzanne said in a sultry tone. How do you feel about mirrors?”

Confused, Enrique let her undress and removed his clothing slowly. She took his hand and led him to the bank of mirrors on the wall behind her bed.




“Take me here, Enrique. I want to see how beautiful we are together and how perfectly we fit,” she whispered huskily.

Uncomfortable with her intensity, the possessive way she was looking at him, Enrique hesitated.

If he refused to have sex with her and she told Marco, though...

He did as she asked.







We’ve got company, Irissa thought sourly as the male voice carried out of her mother’s room and into the hall. Seems to be enjoying himself. Why do they always have to make such a damn noise about it?

She went downstairs and did her homework at the desk in the lounge then prepared her meal. Her mother and the man appeared a while later.

He was surprisingly young and actually, she thought, very good looking. Her mother introduced him as Enrique Cappelli, which surprised her even more. This was the man Suzanne had been talking about. She was even more astonished when he took some of the food she had cooked and joined them at the table, chatting amiably with both of them.





“I have an addition to your room decor,” He told Irissa. “A picture. If you don’t mind I will put it up there.

“Sure,” Irissa said. “I’ll leave you to it. I have dishes to do.”

Leaving Irissa and Suzanne with household chores Enrique took the picture he had brought from home and put it on the wall in her room.





She seemed to have settled in, he thought, looking at the personal items around the room. His curiosity outweighed his guilty feelings as he made himself comfortable on her bed and glanced at the little book that had been on her bedside cabinet. He frowned in concentration. It seemed to be a list of herbs and their uses, with hand drawn colour pencil sketches. Rowena had similar things. The girl fancied herself as a bit of a witch. Well he should have guessed that by her presence in the shop.

Suzanne’s voice had him jumping guiltily to his feet and heading downstairs. Ignoring Suzanne sitting at the kitchen table he crossed to where Irissa sat on the sofa.

“Do you like your room?” He asked. “Is there anything else you need?”
Irissa looked warily at him. Why was he talking to her when Suzanne wanted his company?






“It’s lovely,” she answered, adding nothing more.

“What about the clothes? Are they okay?”

Now Irissa really tensed. The idea that this man had been shopping for her and had got her sizes so spot on...

He sensed her apprehension and almost saw the reason written across her face. Damn, he was scaring her.

“I hadn’t a clue,” he said hastily. “My brother said everything was to be perfect for you both. I know what women like, but not young girls. Seems my nieces both know you from the diner though and Catalina chose your clothes,” he explained.






Irissa stood up, her tension easing.

“Can you tell her thank you?” She asked.

Enrique sensed something was still bothering her.

“Catalina is an angel, Irissa. She knows your situation, but she won’t breathe a word, nor will she ever tell anyone about the shopping trip she and I had,” he said, too softly for Suzanne to hear.

“My mother will flip if you don’t go and drink coffee. I’m going upstairs to study,” she smiled, a genuine smile that lit up her face.





“IiiiiRRRiiiissssaaaa!” Suzanne’s voice screamed, cutting into her daughter’s peaceful sleep.

Groggily Irissa pulled herself awake and out from under the blankets. She hesitated before moving. The tone in her mother’s voice spelled trouble.








“You and I are going to have a serious falling out, you little slut!” Her mother started right away. Irissa spread her arms helplessly.

“What have I done?” She asked.

“You are a lousy little bitch. What are you about, trying to steal my man? Flaunting yourself in front of him like that? Flirting? You better watch out, madam, or you are going to land yourself in big trouble. I will make you so sorry!” Suzanne screamed.

“I wasn’t flirting! I wasn’t trying to steal anybody! He spoke to me about if I liked the house and the room, that’s all!” Irissa replied. “I tried to be polite because I know you like him, is all.”






“I was trying to be polite...” her mother sneered.

The hairs on the back of Irissa’ neck stood up suddenly. Something was there, in the room. Something growing in the house, fuelled by her mother’s rage and jealousy. Feeding on the negative emotions.
Irissa realised that the entity was somehow attaching itself to Suzanne and that it had been present in the house when they arrived.

“I’m telling you that if you keep this up, you will be out, bitch. And I don’t care what your pet detective does. He has no right to interfere in my life,” Suzanne yelled.

She stopped suddenly in her tirade and stared at Irissa.

“That’s it, isn’t it? Little miss butter wouldn’t melt.... he’s fucking you. You and the big detective.... I’ve heard he hangs out with the young ones! You little slut, you are letting him...”







Irissa’s face twisted into a mask of rage. Suzanne took a step back. Irissa’s usual reactions to her rages were to be cowed and burst into tears. Now she looked furious, almost ready to kill.

“Don’t you ever, EVER say anything like that again you foul mouthed bitch! I am not YOU and Sergey Solarin is the best, kindest and most honourable man ever! You... you aren’t even fit to say his name!” Irissa roared.

Suzanne took a moment to regain her composure then she laughed.

“Stupid little bitch!” She sneered. “To react like that you feel something for him. All right. I apologise for suggesting you are sleeping with him, but you’ve got something for him. Your reaction proves it. Well, have your crush, girl. But keep your eyes off my man.”

Shaking slightly from her outburst, stunned by the fact that she had stood up to her mother and disturbed by the increasing strength of the entity, Irissa said nothing.






Irissa sat down on a chair at the desk to compose herself before going back up the stairs, aware of the presence on the stairs behind her.

What, she wondered, would Rowena’s take on this be?