CHAPTER 2
A GLIMPSE AND A DANCE
GRIMM
4 years ago
I went back to Boston every two weeks, just so I could catch a glimpse of her again, for the photos I accumulated over the last two years were never enough to satisfy the hunger. That tempestuous need she implanted in my stomach with something as simple as a smile.
Her name was Arella Santino.
I found a pretty daring kid with a knack for hacking to find her and dig into her past, but there was nothing he could uncover about her before the age of nineteen, when she moved to the States and got into Harvard Med School, with a fucking scholarship. Other than that, the woman seemed to have appeared out of thin air. No birth records, no medical records, no insurance, not even a prior driver’s license, nothing from before she started college.
She was a ghost who’d materialized into a human being, and instead of growing bored with her, I became all the more obsessed.
I wanted to unfold her.
With her first semester of her final year of Med School underway, she was now twenty-four, and I had to see her, even if it was just for a second. I wanted to know the color of her eyes and hear the sound of her voice.
Over the last two years of watching her, I’d noticed more and more about her, like the fact that she only trimmed her hair once a year, and even then, she only took an inch off, keeping that beautiful blonde hair long as fuck.
I found it rather odd that she had dated no one in all the time I had been watching her. The woman rejected any jock, geek, good boy, or bad boy stereotype to ever glance her way. Granted, she spent most of her time in the library, studying, or in the small coffee shop close to campus, also studying, or in her room, where, you guessed it; she was studying.
Top of her class, that one, and a good friend to my little sister, as they had been roommates every year since Willow started college. But where my sister was wild and always wanted to go out and have fun, Arella always wanted to stay in and have a cramming session.
But not tonight.
No, tonight she was finally corrupted enough to attend a party.
Tonight, I could finally get a closer look without worrying that she might figure out I had been stalking her. Tonight, I could blend in and approach the source of my addiction without raising suspicion, because tonight was Halloween, and everybody loved the Grim Reaper on Halloween.
I hated parties with a passion and never attended them, not even when I’d been the one in college.
Yes, I went to college, the horror.
~ You didn’t learn much, if you ask me.
~ Fuck off, disrespectfully.
I hit the side of my head with the bridge of my palm as I saw her enter the living room of the frat house where said stupid party took place, dressed as fucking Elsa of all things, with some of that long blonde hair pinned in some sort of intricate braids on top, while the rest of its impressive length flowed down her back in soft waves. She wore little makeup, which made her look like a pale, inhumanly beautiful angel.
But why the cold, little angel?
A pair of long gloves covered her hands and arms. The light blue dress she was wearing was thin, and fell to the floor, completed by a detailed corset with snowflake patterns cinching her waist in and pushing up her breasts.
Tasteful
.
She never showed more than the perfect amount of skin, so as to pull you in without laying it all on the table.
Arella had an elegance about her, she knew how to be a temptress without trying too hard, a femme fatale of sorts. Everything she did seemed effortless, as though she was born with it and there was nothing that she could do about it, and because of that, she didn’t give any attention to the opposite sex – not that I minded – reserving all of her time and attentiveness for her studies.
A fucking conundrum.
~ Or maybe you’re reading too much into the situation. Just saying.
How could she be walking sin and still not allow herself to fall into it?
As for jewelry, she only had one thing: a thin golden chain with a delicate cross pendant which hung around her long, slender neck.
~ I have a better necklace for her.
I knew she was religious, which may have been one of the reasons she didn’t date, but I had yet to find out how she came to be in such a stranglehold with God.
It didn’t make any sense.
~ You’re the one not making any sense. She’s beautiful and a saint, what more do you want?
I hit the side of my head as I lit a cigarette and watched her make small talk with some douchebag who tried to hand her a drink, which she refused because she was smart enough not to take anything from strangers.
Arella looked out of place as she moved through the crowd of half-drunk students who were either dressed in slutty outfits, or as monsters from different TV shows or mythology. Vampires were all the rage among young people this year, right next to Call of Duty and Game of Thrones characters.
She looked uncomfortable as she approached the improvised bar I was leaning against, almost as if she was wondering how long she had to stay before she could go back to analyzing the skeleton in her room, even though I was sure she could recite all two hundred and six bones in the human body without stuttering or pausing to think.
She reached for the stack of paper cups and took two from the middle, smelled them, then wiped the edges with a tissue. She took a sealed bottle of vodka, unscrewed the cap and poured the liquid into one, rolling it around a few times before pouring it into the other one, then used the freshly sterilized cup to pour herself some coke zero.
I frowned.
~ Only trace amounts of alcohol, huh? Such a good girl.
I stepped behind her, my hands itching to touch her, to pull her closer, glue her to me if possible, but I only pulled the mask over my mouth and lowered my head next to her ear.
“Afraid someone may be messing with the drinks?” I asked in a low, rather raspy voice.
I noticed how her body went rigid for a brief moment, her hand tightening the hold on the plastic cup, before she turned her head to look at me over her shoulder, those eyes piercing into mine.
They were green. Such a raw, powerful shade that it sent tingles down my spine.
~ What do you know? He feels things now.
For that brief moment in time, when her eyes dug into mine like daggers into flesh, the monster inside me took a step back, as if her gaze subdued him without any effort. And so, the voice in my head zipped its mouth shut for the first time in years.
“You can never be too careful,” she replied, offering me one of those beautiful smiles I longed for, the hint of a dare lingering in her tone.
Just like that, giving that smile away to a total stranger.
And her voice, fuck me, soft as a damn rose petal, and my brain automatically imagined said voice moaning my name, chanting it, fucking screaming it.
“I suppose you’re right,” I nodded without moving my eyes away from her face, stepping to the side and leaning against the table. “So, do you come here often?” I rolled my eyes internally, and she laughed, loudly.
Unapologetically.
So fucking real.
“Does that line actually work for you?” She leaned against the table next to me and the skirt of her dress touched the long robe I was wearing.
“Not really, but I figured it would be a good conversation starter,” I tilted to the side, lightly bumping my shoulder into hers, and she giggled.
“Ok, I’ll bite.” She turned towards me, taking a sip of her drink before speaking. “I don’t get out much.”
I knew that.
“Why not?”
She shrugged. “I don’t see the appeal of these things. I suppose I prefer solitude over shallow conversations with people I might never see again.”
I watched her for a long time, probably way too long because she started fidgeting at some point, averting her eyes and shifting her weight from one foot to the other.
“You think I’m weird, don’t you?” she asked when I didn’t say anything.
“No. I don’t get out much either, but only because people either irritate me or bore me to tears.”
“What made you come out this time?”
I froze for a second.
~ Now what, genius?
“I’m indulging a curiosity,” I said dryly. “Let’s call it a social experiment.”
“How’s it going?” she laughed, relaxing again in my presence.
God, this was infuriating.
“Great, now that I found you,” I winked.
I fucking winked.
What the hell was wrong with me?
~ I’ve been asking myself that question for a long time. Call me when you have an answer
.
I suppressed the urge to hit myself in the head again, thinking I blew it with that cheesy line, but a subtle blush crept up her cheeks and she smiled. It was a shy one, like she didn’t expect that, then we fell into silence, because she didn’t answer anymore, and I had no idea how to continue.
The song changed to a slower one, and an idea reared its ugly head, pushing me to do the one thing I probably sucked at more than talking.
“May I have this dance?” I asked, offering her my hand.
~ Ok, now you’re just trying to make a fool of yourself. You know what? I’m down, go for it.
Fuck, I didn’t dance. As in, never.
I was pretty sure dancing was used as a torture method for men like me in the old ages, so why was I willingly subjecting myself to such atrocity?
~ Because you want to have an excuse to put your filthy hands on her.
She looked at me with wide eyes, her cheeks a deeper shade of pink, her pupils dilating for the shortest second before going back to normal.
“You know what? Why not? I was dragged out here against my will, but I can at least make the most of it,” she giggled, and I could have sworn my heart skipped a beat.
What is this sorcery?
The moment her slim fingers threaded through mine, every hair on my body stood at attention, and when she deliberately pulled me to the middle of the improvised dance floor, making me almost stumble on the long black thin robe that served as my costume, my heart skipped another beat.
Did I need to see a doctor?
~ Wait another year and you’ll see her, but we both know there’s no cure for infatuation.
~ Shut up
.
Ever so slowly, she put her arms around my neck, clasping them together as her fingers brushed the back of my head, and I wrapped mine around her waist.
We swayed to the music, completely off rhythm. Well, she swayed, I just moved robotically, kind of like a penguin trying to run, and I reveled in the feel of her soft body so close to mine.
She smelled so good, none of that sweet perfume women usually bathed themselves in. No, Arella smelled like lemons, fresh and clean, and so fucking delicious.
~ Good enough to eat.
~ Devour.
My obsession reached the moon as I held her in my arms, because she felt like freedom, and I wanted to be free.
“You need to relax, Reaper,” she spoke softly, looking up at me with a genuine smile, one that extended from her mouth and reached the corners of her eyes, light creases wrinkling her soft skin.
“What did you call me?” I asked, half-shocked, half… scared?
Maybe.
She laughed, and my heart exploded.
~ You truly need to see a cardiologist.
“Your costume,” she tapped her finger against the plastic skeleton mask. “
The Grim Reaper
.”
“Oh,” was all I could say.
~ I knew you were whipped, but I didn’t think you were also stupid.
~ Could you just shut up for a minute?
~ I could, but you would miss me.
~ Doubtful.
“Why did you choose this costume?” she asked as her fingers traced the contour of the mask.
I paused for a second, because I hadn’t given much thought to my costume. I just went to a shop and chose the first thing that caught my attention. The only reason I even wore the stupid thing was so that I could blend in with the college crowd while I was certainly much too old for this shit.
“Maybe we choose to dress as what we are,” I shrugged, “or what we want to be.”
She seemed to ponder my words for a few moments, then smiled.
“By that logic, I am either an ice princess or I want to be one,” she said, looking down at the ground where her dress swept across the glittering floor.
For the briefest of moments, I could read worry on her face, as if she actually saw herself as icy, as if she believed herself cold, freezing even, and I couldn’t take that.
I dared to trace the outline of her jaw with my finger, stunned by the smoothness of her skin, and stopped under her chin to tilt her head back up, just because I wanted to see those beautiful green eyes again, if only for a minute.
“You could never be ice,” I leaned forward until I was so close I could feel her warm breath sneaking under my mask and caressing my face. “You have too much warmth in you to ever freeze.”
“You don’t know me,” she whispered, her eyes boring into mine, a hint of mischief sparkling in her pupils.
“And if I say I want to, would you give me the honor?” I asked, even though I shouldn’t have.
My body went stiff as I looked into her eyes, searching for the answer as my thumb brushed small lines on her waist. She seemed a little surprised by my choice of words. She tried to cover said surprise with a shake of her head and a tiny shy smile, but she couldn’t cover the blush on her cheeks.
I should have left the moment she asked about the costume, because now I wanted to stay locked in that place forever, swaying to a soundless melody while the music neither of us seemed to hear played in the background, so engulfed in each other that we forgot where we were.
“I want to see your face,” she said, her fingers already pushing up the mask.
Right when I was about to grab her hand and stop her, my sister bumped into Arella, wrapping her arms around her neck, laughing, drunk out of her mind.
~ I swear to fuck, this kid is a menace on legs.
That, she truly was. My sister was trouble incarnate, but her timing couldn’t have been better, so I couldn’t hate her for it, because she was saving me from making a huge mistake, namely actually showing my face to the woman I had been stalking.
“Are you having fun, Ari, baby?” she stuttered her words, and I narrowed my eyes as the blonde ripped herself away from me to steady Willow.
“Not sure which one of us is the baby here,” Arella scolded, a hint of amusement coating her tone as she circled my sister’s waist to keep her from falling.
“I am not a baby; I am a b… what other b words are there?” she laughed.
Loudly. Annoyingly.
~ Here’s a b word: bitch.
~ That’s my sister, asshole
.
~ Half-sister.
I gritted my teeth and suppressed the urge to smack my head.
“Okay, not a baby, let’s go get some water into you and put you down for a nap, shall we?”
Willow nodded her head, drifting her eyes to me for a moment, but then she went back to clinging to Arella for balance.
“I have to get her home,” she smiled, giving me an apologetic look, and I nodded, watching as she struggled to walk Willow out of the frat house.
As she reached the arch that separated the living room from the hallway, she stopped and turned her head to me.
“Hey, Reaper?” she called.
“Yeah?”
“What is your name?”
I stopped breathing for a second, and a smirk ghosted my lips before I answered, one she couldn’t see as it lay hidden under the mask.
“
Grimm
.”
She shook her head, laughing, then she disappeared down the hallway, taking whatever laid inside my chest with her.