19. Chapter Eighteen
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
MARGERY
S lowly, Margery started to wake the next morning. She was so relaxed; it was like she had slept for twelve hours. It had been the best night’s sleep she had in a while.
What had changed? Why was last night a really good night whereas the others weren’t?
She let out a sigh of contentment and snuggled into the softness of whatever was in her arms. She held it closer to her chest and snuggled her face into it. What was it? The only thing she could remember that was this soft was the stuffed zebra Ethan had given to her before he died.
But even then, it wasn’t this soft. There were parts of the stuffed animal ’missing. Whatever it was, she didn’t want to let it go. She wanted to stay in bed for the remainder of her life and snuggle into it.
Margery knew that wasn’t actually going to happen. She had a life to get back to at some point. Not the rest of this week but she couldn’t get too comfortable because going back to work was going to be a struggle.
Opening her eyes, she looked at her arms to figure out what she was holding. Her eyes adjusted to the brightness in her room.
Zebra .
A pink zebra was what she was holding. She didn’t own a pink stuffed zebra.
Screaming, she threw the zebra across the room. She sat and pushed herself against her headboard, her eyes on the zebra the whole time. How did that get there? She didn’t remember having it last night.
Her mouth fell open as she vaguely remembered somebody touching her cheek, murmuring something, and it being placed in her arms. What did the person say? Why couldn’t she remember?
She continued to look at the zebra in horror. Ethan was here last night. Was that why she felt the hairs on her neck and arms stand up before she fell asleep? How did he get into her house? How long was he watching her for? How long had she not noticed he was in her house?
Was she safe?
How much longer was this going to go on for before he gave up? She knew Ethan said she was his, but maybe he would forget about her, or maybe he would get tired of playing his games.
Margery closed her mouth and continued to stare at the stuffed zebra. It had magically fallen right side up and was looking at her. It was like Ethan was making sure of it to haunt her .
If he had managed to figure out how to do that, he was dedicated. Did all of them do that, or was it just this one? Was it a coincidence, or was it supposed to happen?
Either way, Margery wasn’t going to try and figure it out with the other ones. Part of her wanted to know, but the other part really didn’t. Not when that could have been his intention to freak her out even more.
Her gaze was trained on this stuffed zebra on the ground. Did it move? Margery shook her head. The stuffed zebra couldn’t move—it was just a stuffed toy.
Unless Ethan got one that could move.
She shuddered at the thought. She would have a full breakdown if it ended up moving. She would burn her house down and move to a different city or even a different country.
Maybe she should do that now.
“Come on, come on, you’ve got this,” she mumbled to herself. “It’s just a stuffed toy.”
Slowly getting out of bed, she made her way toward the zebra. The first thing she looked for was the word on the chest. Each one had a different word, and she didn’t understand why. It didn’t make any sense.
You.
That was the word embroidered on the zebra’s heart. Why?
Margery held it close as she walked out of her room and toward the living room where the other ones were. Ethan was playing some type of mind game, and it was working. Her mind was constantly on him, trying to figure out what he was doing.
She placed the newest zebra at the very end before she sat on the couch and stared at them. What was she going to do? This was getting out of control, and she didn’t know how to fix it.
She started to look at the words embroidered on the heart.
“Shit,” she whispered as her breath hitched.
Her eyes flew over the words again, not believing what she was seeing. How had she missed this?
“Daddy’s coming for you,” she muttered. “Daddy’s. Coming. For. You.”
Shit . Ethan had called himself Daddy in front of her. She could vaguely remember somebody whispering it in her ear. When it had happened, she couldn’t tell, but it felt real what she was remembering.
But how did Ethan know? She never told him she was a Little. She never got the chance to, so how did he know?
No one knew that Margery was a Little. It was a part of her she didn’t want people to know. She had read horror stories about Littles telling others, and it usually resulted in backlash.
Right now, she was content with no one knowing. Content being in Little space by herself.
Okay, that was a lie. Margery had longed for a Daddy to swoop in and take care of her, cherish her, love her, discipline her, and so much more. She wanted the cuddles… and the spankings.
Pleasure spankings, not necessarily the discipline ones.
She looked back at the stuffed animals. She did not need to be thinking about having a Daddy and pleasure spankings. Not when her mind was on Ethan the whole time .
Margery had fantasized about Ethan being her Daddy several times. But that was the thing; they were just fantasies. When she thought about them, he had been dead.
Now, he wasn’t.
And her mind was thinking about him doing it now, even though he had changed. Her mind was going back and forth about whether she found it sexy or not. She knew she shouldn’t because he was stalking her, and making her go crazy, but she couldn’t help it.
The longer she thought about him killing Max because he was going to keep her away from him, the more she was turned on. The thought of him being so possessive that he would kill for her, that was hot.
Margery never thought she would find something so horrifying to be arousing. Was she wrong for that?
“I am not thinking about this right now. I can’t be,” she muttered. “It’s crazy for me to be turned on about murder.”
But she found herself getting wet every single time she thought about it. Did that make her a bad person?
“You need to stop thinking about this,” she told herself. “It is not the time to think about this. There’s never a good time.”
Maybe she did need to talk to somebody about this. Was it normal to be turned on when somebody killed for them? Was it normal to find the man hot?
Those were all great questions that she didn’t have the answers to. She wanted to ask somebody, but she figured it probably wouldn’t end well.
Would that person check her into a facility? Would they deem her insane ?
Margery probably shouldn’t ask those questions then. She didn’t want to get locked up in some place never to be able to leave. It wasn’t on her bucket list or agenda.
She screamed as her phone went off. Snatching it up, she answered the phone.
“Hello?” Margery’s voice was shaky with nerves.
The only thing she could hear on the other end was somebody breathing. Breathing heavily down the phone.
“W-who is it?” she asked.
But the person on the other end didn’t say anything. They just continued to breathe into the phone. The hairs on the back of her neck and arms raised the longer she stayed on the phone.
Margery quickly ended the call and punched in nine-one-one but stopped herself from calling. Officer Matthias was not going to believe her. She still didn’t understand how every single time she called, he answered. No matter what time of day it was or how many days in a row she called, it was always him.
She stared at the phone. What would she tell Officer Matthias if she did call? Margery couldn’t say she got a random call and knew it was Ethan. Not when people thought he was dead.
Officer Matthias would call her crazy and probably recommend she check herself in somewhere. Just like Adalisa had suggested as well. But she wasn’t going to do that.
Ethan was alive. He had been sending her things, stalking her and now he had called her.
Margery knew it was him. Deep down, she just knew. Her phone went off again, and she flinched. But this time it wasn’t a random number, it was Adalisa.
“Hello?” she answered.
“Hey, I just wanted to check in. I told you I was going to be checking in on you every day. How are you holding up? How are you feeling? Do you need anything?” Adalisa fired at her.
She pulled the phone away from her face and took a calming breath in and out. Adalisa didn’t need to know what had happened or what was going through her mind. She had a lot going on, and Adalisa was going to suggest checking herself into a place.
“I’m doing good,” she replied.
What else was she supposed to say? Margery didn’t want to lay it on too thick and have Adalisa ask her several more questions.
“Margery.”
She sighed. “Yes?”
She felt like there was going to be a lecture now. Adalisa loved to give lectures when she could. Margery thought it was because she didn’t have anybody else to lecture and help. Whatever it was, sometimes Margery appreciated it, but most of the time, she didn’t.
Adalisa did some pretty wild things, although Margery didn’t do that. While she didn’t like to be reckless, she sometimes did wild things to get her heart pumping. There was nothing wrong with that, but she definitely wasn’t like Adalisa who did it all the time.
“I’m just looking out for you,” Adalisa sighed. “I just want what’s best for you. I want you to thrive, and I want you to live a happy life. Right now, you aren’t doing that. I’m worried about you. You’re so paranoid and worried about this person stalking you. You’re worried about seeing a dead guy when we know people can’t rise from the dead. Go talk to somebody.”
“Adalisa, we’ve been over this. I’m taking the rest of the week off. We’re going to see how it goes. I’m fine, I promise.” That was a total lie and Adalisa probably knew it, but Margery didn’t want to concern her any more than she already had.
“I know you’re just saying that to ease my mind.”
“You know me too well. I’m going to be fine. The first couple of days are always rough, but I’m going to get through it. By next week, I’ll be back at work, and I’’ll be good. You won’t recognize me.” Margery tried to sound as convincing as possible
Adalisa chuckled. “And if you’re not looking better by the time you come back, what then?”
Margery was going to regret saying this. “Then, I will talk to somebody.”
“And if that doesn’t work?”
“I don’t know. I’ll move out to the middle of nowhere and be paranoid alone.”
“Do. Not. Joke. About. That. It’s not funny.”
“It’s a little funny. Maybe I should start looking at properties now so that by the end of two weeks, if I need to move, I can.”
“Still not funny.”
“Okay, come on, I won’t look for properties. If it does come to that, you can chain me up in your house, and I can be your pet zombie. Never allowed to leave the house’’.”
“I’m not going to chain you up like a pet zombie.”
“It could be cool,” Margery joked.
She was met with silence. Adalisa obviously didn’t like her jokes, but it helped Margery cope with what was happening. It’s not every day someone could say they were getting stalked by their ex, who had died years before.
“Can you please be serious for a second?” Adalisa asked. “I’m really worried about you.”
“I promise, I’m going to be fine. It’s going to be bumpy in the beginning, but I’m going to get better. I can feel it.”
Margery was lying again. She wasn’t going to be better in a couple of days. This had been going on for a while and she still wasn’t good, a couple more days wasn’t going to help. But Adalisa needed to know Margery had faith in herself.
“Okay, and if it doesn’t get any better, then you’ll talk to somebody. You promised.” Adalisa sounded concerned.
“I promise.”
“Well then, I guess I’ll leave you alone. Enjoy the rest of your night, and I’ll check in with you tomorrow.”
“Thank you.”