6. - – Piper
CHAPTER SIX
-
PIPER
One Week Later
All week, Dimitri has been helping me build my pain tolerance.
It always starts with actual training, but ends with fucking.
I love every second with him. I’m remembering more of my life, but also lives I’ve lived before I was Piper.
Vanessa, Darcy, Megan, Cheryl, and Barbara.
The list goes on and on. In each one, I was abused in some way or another.
I did a violent death in each one of them, and always ended up in hell due to suicide in the middle of dying.
It’s like my soul wanted to escape back here to Dimitri.
I haven’t talked to Dimitri about it, but I’m confused by the trials.
The first test is surviving, right? So why would I learn to survive when dying brought me here?
If I survive, I won't come back to Dimitri. If I choose another path, it won’t lead me back here, so I have to keep dying the same way.
Sometimes freedom is standing by your happiness, even when you’re meant to sit for something calmer. I don’t want calm, I want Dimitri.
“Are you ready, Little sinner?” Dimitri asks, wrapping me in a tight hug.
“How exactly do I fail?” I ask.
“Why?” he asks me.
“Because isn’t the point to get back to you? That would mean I need to kill myself again or do something that will bring me back here to you.”
“If that’s how you interpret that, then go with your gut,” he says, kissing me. “Never second-guess yourself.”
“That’s not helpful,” I say with a frown.
“These are your trials, my love. I can’t give you the answers,” he says, cupping my face. “No matter if it’s this lifetime, or the next, I will be here waiting for you until the end of time.”
“I’ll come back to you,” I promise. He doesn’t say anything, he just kisses me like he’s telling me goodbye again.
“Let’s go, Little Sinner. They are waiting for us.”
I nod once, and he takes my hands into his. In the blink of an eye, we are in the center of a room, surrounded by what I presume is the council.
“Welcome, Piper,” Artimus says as he approaches.
“Let’s just do this,” I say dismissively.
“Alright,” he says. “You will return to the night of your death with your memories, and your goal is to survive.”
“Okay,” I say. “And then I come back here?”
“When you die or go to sleep, you will return here,” Artimus confirms. “Ready?”
I turn and wrap my arms around Dimitri, and he hugs me tight, like he’s hoping that if he hangs onto me, I won’t have to go. “Please come home to me, Little Sinner. Please,” Dimitri whispers.
“I swear on everything I am, I will return to you,” I promise, kissing him.
“Returning in 3… 2… 1…”
A bright flash of light blinds me, and everything starts to disappear. When the brightness begins to fade, a familiar room materializes around me. I am in the living room. Beer cans are on the coffee table, trash strewn around, and there’s a strong odor that smells like unwashed ass.
The main thing that I remember about my life here with Colt was that I was severely depressed.
I felt stuck, and I hated everything about my life.
I’ve given up years prior. That is evident in the state of this place.
The first thing I do is navigate my way to the kitchen, where I find trash bags.
This has absolutely nothing to do with surviving, but I just feel like I need to do it.
Life is easier when your surroundings are cleaner.
It takes every bit of your energy, but I think if I had tried to take it on a little at a time rather than facing the issue head-on, maybe I could’ve helped myself.
In reality, I don’t know if that would’ve helped, but I do know that I always preferred a clean environment, no matter the lifetime I was in.
I start picking up trash in the living room before moving to the dining room and the kitchen.
Little by little, I clean the house. It’s bright and warm outside, and I am hyper-focused on this task.
Before too long, a panic washes over me that I don’t quite understand.
I see the time, and it says that it’s almost six at night.
Am I supposed to be doing something right now?
I don’t remember every detail of this life, especially routine routines.
I assume I’m supposed to make dinner. I go into the kitchen and look around to see if I can find something to cook.
I find a pound of ground beef and some mac & cheese, so I make hamburger steaks.
Easy, right? Season the shit out of the ground beef, rolled into a ball, push it flat, and cook it. Boom, hamburger steak.
I hear a door open, and the nervousness is shaking through my body. What’s wrong with me? “Hey,” Colt says behind me.
“Hey,” I say with a sheepish smile.
“You left a bag of trash on the porch. Go pick it up before the bears get it,” he says, grabbing a beer from the fridge and leaving the kitchen.
What the fuck? I just spent hours cleaning this house, and that’s all he has to say?
No wonder I was depressed. Holy fuck. What the fuck is the point in cleaning if he’s still going to nag me about it?
I roll my eyes and leave the kitchen to go to the front door.
I step outside and grab the bag so I can walk it to the large city trash can.
When I get back in the house, I return to the kitchen, and there is smoke billowing from the pan.
“Shit!” I hiss and pull the pan off the heat. I don’t have the heat that high. Why the fuck was it on high?
“Why the fuck did you do?” Colt screams as he comes into the kitchen. “Are you fucking stupid?”
“Stop yelling at me,” I quip. “Did you turn this heat up?”
“You’re fucking delusional, Piper,” he barks at me.
“Me? I did not have that heat up that high. Why the fuck would I do that and walk away?”
“I don’t fucking know, but you did,” he shouts. “Now dinner is ruined. I work all goddamn day, and all I ask for is to eat when I come home. Now you’re here fucking burning shit like I’m made of money.”
“If you knew it was that high, why didn’t you fucking turn it down?” I ask. “I did not have it up that high, and you are not going to fucking gaslight...”
I am cut off when he rears back and slaps me so hard that I fall back against the counter, knocking a pot of mac and cheese onto the floor. “Look what you did?!” Colt screams at me. When he rears back again, I cower in fear of him hitting me again. “You know what? It’s time that you apologized.”
Colt grabs me by the hair and drags me out of the kitchen while I scream in pain. When he gets me into the living room, he pulls me up and shoves me over the arm of the couch and yanks my knit shorts down.