Chapter 6 #2
“I find myself more entertained in the story if you are…playing along. If you are not, I find the story miserable to endure.” He made a noise as if he had just eaten a raw oyster that had been left out on the counter for a week. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”
Right. Okay. Sure. Her thoughts trailed back to the fact that they were…
in a book. Not just in a story, but in a book.
The madness of Wonderland came back, glaring and flashing into her head like staring directly into the lights of an ambulance.
Cringing, she looked away. “Am I real, Vile? Honestly?”
With a heavy sigh, he walked up to her. “In so much as you believe my words, the following statements are entirely truthful.” Crossing his arms over his chest, he regarded her with an unreadable expression.
“You are just as real now as you were the moment you were born. You are just as real as your sister or anyone else you have ever met in your entire life. And, as I said before, you are just as real as I am. And just as real as my brother Virtue.”*
Turning his words over in her mind, she let out her own sigh and looked away.
His purple eyes just seemed to stare through her.
“So what does it matter, is what you’re saying?
If I am fake, then I’ve always been fake.
So what does ‘fake’ even mean, in this context?
If I’m a doll on the shelf who suddenly became cognizant of my own existence, what is the use in despair?
” She chuckled quietly. “I’ve read I Have No Mouth, I know where that ends. ”
“Precisely.” With a pointer finger, he gently turned her face back toward him. “And this is why I am furious with you for being so easily dismantled. You are too clever to be broken down over trivial matters.”
“They’re trivial to you. Not to me.” She smirked. “But you’re a villain. I figure you’d have a hard time understanding other people’s feelings.”
“Hmph.” He smirked back at her, clearly unoffended by her jab. “So! Now that we have all that uncomfortable business sorted out.” He stepped away again, gesturing at the library around him. “Let us wager on what horrifying story your sister and Virtue are cooking up for us as we speak.”
With a groan, she shook her head. “No bets. Not with you.”
“Oh come on, it’s all in good fun.”
“Your idea and my idea of ‘good fun’ are very far apart, if you haven’t noticed.”
“No. They aren’t. And that is exactly what I am noticing!” He made that disgusted face again. His shoulders slumped as if in defeat. “You set the terms, then. I simply wish for a little light-hearted diversion.”
“Are you capable of anything light-hearted?”
“I am all villains in all fiction, remember? We have a children’s section down that way.” He gestured aimlessly down the endless, winding corridors of books that trailed off into the darkness.
She huffed a laugh. “That’s all we need is my sister to trap us all in a copy of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.
” Frowning, her mood deflated just as quickly as it had been lifted.
“I hope she’s not upset with me.” Where was she, anyway?
Usually Virtue and Sidney were right there when the story ended. What was taking them so long?
Was Sidney upset that Sasha had decided to kill her?
Probably.
But it was—it was her or…
She shuddered and rubbed at her neck. “You promise she didn’t feel anything?”
“I didn’t write it. And neither did you.
So I doubt it.” He shrugged. “As to if she’s upset?
You would know better than I. I can never predict the good ones.
I have seen them come and go a hundred thousand million times and it all remains down to a coin flip at the end of the day.
Will she be the stalwart, head-held high type?
The one who will never lose faith in you?
Or will she be the kind whose heart shatters easily and gives you up as a lost cause the moment you turn your gaze to the darkness? ”
“I haven’t—”
“You have.” Vile folded his arms across his chest again in defiance. “Oh, you have. Don’t pretend otherwise. And you were like that when I found you! That’s why you’re with me and not with him.”
That had her up and moving again. Not because she honestly thought she could get away from him—she wasn’t an idiot. She knew he could be anywhere in the library in a blink of an eye. Hell, he might honestly be the library, she wasn’t quite sure.
“Not exactly, but the first part is accurate.” His response came from nowhere in particular. Just echoed off the walls as she walked, her footsteps echoing off the marble and wood around her. “And I know what you are doing.”
“I’m sure you do.” She rolled her eyes.
“You’re avoiding admitting that I’m right.”
One foot in front of the other. Focus on walking. “So, what’s your guess on where Virtue will send us?”
The laugh that Vile paid her in response was both evil and yet filled with mirth at the same time. She’d answered his question and avoided it in the same breath and he’d seen right through it. Whatever. It’s not like she really had a choice when he could cheat and “read” her thoughts.
There were only so many self-defense mechanisms she could deploy against something like that.
“You haven’t set the terms of our game yet,” he said from everywhere and nowhere.
“Fine. If I guess the genre correctly, I get to pick our characters. If you guess the genre correctly, you get to pick our characters.” That seemed fair.
She was going to lose, and he had been doing all the picking thus far anyway.
So when she inevitably guessed incorrectly, she’d just wind up back where she was going to be anyway.
“Your defeatist attitude will get you nowhere in life, dear Sasha. You should try to make a game where you win something new, either way. You already have me at the disadvantage by the sheer benefit that I wish to play.” Without warning, he was suddenly standing beside her, stepping out of the shadows as though he had always been there.
“You have so much to learn about being a villain.”
Startled, she twitched, grunted, and kept walking. “I’m not a villain.”
“Yet. Here, I’ll give you an example.” He clasped his hands behind his back. “If I guess correctly, I get to choose my character. If you guess correctly, you get to choose your character.”
“But you usually get to choose both.”
“Correct. But in losing, you get to pick your own.” He grinned. “Even in forfeit, you win more than you had before.”
It felt like they were still in goddamn Wonderland. Shutting her eyes, she fought the urge to scream. “Sure. Let’s use those rules. Assuming you’re not cheating, and don’t already know.”
“I can’t read ahead. That is one power I do not have. Unless I’ve been edited, but that’s extremely rare. I think only a few of my cousins can do that on the regular.” He looked off thoughtfully. “But we’ve never met.”
There was a lot to unpack there, and she didn’t want to touch any of it. “I’m going to assuming Virtue is currently arguing with Sidney, and trying to get her on board with…whatever genre it is that he is so desperate to throw us all into.”
“A fair reading of the tea leaves.”
“If that’s the case, it’s a genre that he loves, and one she hates.” Chewing on her lip, she thought it through. What genre would the Hero of all Heroes adore, but her sister despise? Something where Virtue would win without question. But something radioactively nerdy.
There were two options that came to mind.
“Sasha!” Sidney called from far away.
“Quickly now,” Vile nudged her elbow with his. “Lest I not be able to make my choice.”
“Shit. Um.” Scrambling, she picked between the two impulsively. “Superheroes.”
“And I shall choose High Fantasy.” He smiled with that expression of I-Already-Know-I’m-Right.
“Fuck.” Wincing, she ran her hand through her hair. “That was my other guess.”
“Was it?” He hummed. “I can only trust you, as you did not think the words to yourself. But it is not like you to lie. But you are correct that it was probably between those two choices, yes. Ah! Hello, Sidney.”
Sidney ran up to them, skidding to a halt some ten feet away. Her eyes were wide, and she glanced between Vile and Sasha nervously. “Are you—what’s—Sasha. You—”
There were the tears again.
She killed her sister.
Again. “I just couldn’t…I’m so sorry…It was that place. I can’t be in that place—” Her fingernails were on her forearm.
And Vile once more snatched her hand away. “I said enough!”
“Get your fucking hands off her!” Sidney ran toward him.
It was all the excuse Vile seemed to need. His expression twisted to one of cruel, vicious glee. Turning on Sidney, his form melted into the shadows that were now suddenly alive with glowing, purple eyes and teeth that were far too sharp. Far too many teeth. And far, far too many eyes.
The room instantly grew dark and cold as the shadows stretched out over the lights, seeking to consume the fixtures and seemingly the room itself.
Come and see me for what I am! Fight me, little human, if that is what you wish!
Sidney screamed, staggering backwards and landing hard onto the marble tiles.
“Vile, stop it!” Sasha shouted. “She doesn’t know!”
The shadows congealed, forming back into the figure that resembled a man standing at Sidney’s feet, glaring down at her. But he said nothing. Just glowered at her with pure hatred.
Sasha balled her hands into fists to keep from scratching at her forearms. When Virtue ran up to help Sidney to her feet, he looked at both Vile and at Sasha with the same look of…betrayal. Disgust.
As if they were the same.
She couldn’t do this. Shaking her head, she went down an aisle of books.
I’m not a villain.
I didn’t do anything wrong…
Did I?*
* Ah, the joys of “being technically accurate.” -V
* The old refrain… -V