FicWad

Paulina felt a hand on her back. She was slumped over, sobbing into her knees. Tears leaked beneath the blindfold, soaking the tops of her thighs and dripping down onto the seat.

“It’s okay,” came Ray’s voice awkwardly. Paulina noted briefly that he was doing a shit-job of comforting her. “You’re…okay.” He sounded like he’d rather be doing anything else. Then why was he doing it at all? “What do you wanna do?” Paulina ignored him, sniffing and rubbing her eyes through the scarf. He didn’t ask again, just kept driving. She didn’t even really care where they went. At the end of the day, they’d just be going back. Back to Hell, back to torture, back to Frank…

They drove for a long time. An hour, maybe two. Paulina wasn’t counting. She didn’t care. All she felt like doing, really, was going back to her room and sleeping. She even found herself drifting off, the rocking motions of the car lulling her to a dull stupor. All too soon, Ray was removing her blindfold and leaning across her back to open her door for her.

“The beach,” he said when Paulina finally looked up.

“I see that,” she said listlessly, not waiting for Ray before stepping onto the sand and running down to the shore.

It was a steep incline, increasing her speed uncontrollably the closer she got. When Paulina finally tried to stop at the water’s edge, she lost her footing, falling face-first into the ankle-deep water. Before she was able to truly stand again, a huge wave swept her farther into the depths. She just managed to catch a breath beforehand and began trying to swim out of the undertow that had pulled her under. Her eyes were wedged tightly closed against the saltwater, and she couldn’t feel the ocean floor. Paulina’s mind, desperate for oxygen, forced her mouth open and an attempt at a breath, clouded by saltwater and bubbles. She felt it in her throat, and her nose, and her eyes shot open. They began to burn with the salt, and Paulina’s mind began to panic. She continued to try to breathe, but just felt her lungs flooding with seawater, her throat beginning to close. Paulina’s mind began to cloud over, the lack of oxygen taking its toll, her thrashing arms and legs losing stamina.

This is it, Paulina thought dully. I’m going to die now. She was oddly at peace with this thought. Perhaps the past six months had just been building up to it; perhaps she didn’t care anymore whether she lived or died; perhaps her body’s lack of brain function just couldn’t waste energy on emotions that didn’t matter. The undertow pulled her farther and farther, and she no longer struggled. Black seemed to be closing in, and the peaceful cloud that filled her ears muffled all the commotion going on elsewhere, in the water and out. Just as she felt her body going limp in the water, something wrapped around her waist from behind, a rushing feeling filling her senses as she was pulled above the surface of the water.

“Are you fucking insane?” Ray yelled, and Paulina could hear no anger in his voice, only panic. He carried up to the shoreline and then farther up the beach, far away from the water. “You went under and never came back up!”

“The undertow got me,” Paulina told him hoarsely after steadying her breathing and coughing up all the seawater she’d swallowed. She was still a little dizzy, but the rush of oxygen to her brain helped her gather her composure. “I couldn’t get myself out.”

“I almost thought you’d…” Ray rubbed the back of his neck, shaking out his wet hair. “I mean, you were totally limp when I pulled you out. You weren’t struggling at all.”

“You were worried about me,” Paulina said, looking at the older man and offering a wan smile. He cleared his throat and shrugged.

“I guess I was.” He rolled his eyes. All at once, Paulina’s face crumpled, and she threw her arms around Ray’s shoulder, beginning to sob into his chest.

“What’s wrong with me, Ray?” she cried. He stiffened and looked around, but the beach was too crowded for anyone to notice the couple, so he relaxed a bit, patting her back awkwardly. “What’s the matter with me?”

“You shouldn’t--” Ray began, but stopped. He sighed. “Don’t--don’t worry about it, Paulina.”

“But--but what’s wrong with me? There must be something!”

“Why would you think that?”

“Frank!” she wailed. Paulina couldn’t help it. Nothing she did was working. She was trying her best, but Frank wasn’t interested. He would never be. She was young, she was foolish, and impulsive, and unappealing.

“Paulina, don’t worry about him,” Ray told her, biting his lip. He pushed her away and Paulina sat back on her knees, sniffing and wiping her face, feeling sand grit on her skin.

“Why not?” She ran a hand through her short, wet hair, rocking back and forth on her heels.

“Because…Paulina, because I have a feeling that your time here will be drawing to a close very soon.”

It hung in the salty sea air for a moment; Paulina stared, trying to wrap her mind around what Ray had just said. How could he possibly know that? Drawing to a close? What could that mean? Would she see her parents again? Or, perhaps, more likely, would they just…

“The way things are going, believe me, I can tell.” For some reason, this thought wasn’t comforting to Paulina. In fact, it was quite unsettling.

“But…but I don’t care about that.” She realized when it left her mouth that it was very true, and Paulina chose not to think about how sick that was. “I just--I want him to not hate me.”

“He certainly doesn’t hate you.”

“How could you know?”

“Paulina, just trust me on this. He just…he’s…the best word is frightened.”

“What could he possibly be frightened of,” Paulina murmured, running her arm under her nose.

“He just doesn’t know how to deal with what he’s feeling right now. He’s confused. He’s the type of guy that’s always in control, and always knows what’s going on. When he loses that control, he gets scared. You scare him.” Ray reached forward and began brushing sand off of Paulina that had stuck to her wet skin when she’d first come out of the water.

“I don’t think I scare him,” Paulina said, shaking her head and laughing humorlessly.

“You scare him. The thought of you scares him. The control he loses when he thinks of you scares him.” Paulina could tell that Ray really believed what he was saying. She just shrugged, rubbing her eyes with her fists, sniffing deeply. This conversation was making her head ache. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, wishing she could go back to sleep and not wake up.

“Okay,” she said with a shrug.

Ray looked at her for a moment. “Do you want to eat?”

“I don’t care.”

“Come on, let’s go get some food. I can see your energy draining.” He stood, pulling Paulina up with him and guiding her back to the car.

“Can I get you something to drink?” They were at some little shack by the beach. It was seafood themed, which Paulina found obnoxious.

“I’ll have a Coke,” Ray said.

“I’ll have water.”

“She’ll have Coke.”

“Diet.”

“Regular.” Paulina glared at Ray. The waitress faltered.

“Whatever he says,” Paulina finally relented, waving her hand in frustration. The waitress rushed off. “I like water.”

“There’s nothing wrong with having a little sustenance every once in a while, especially when you didn’t eat breakfast.”

“I ate breakfast, I just didn’t keep it.”

“Drink the Coke,” he said, rolling his eyes as the waitress set down their drinks.

“You two know what you want?”

“I’ll have the mahi-mahi sandwich with fries, please.” Ray handed the waitress, whose name was Heidi, his menu and looked at Paulina.

“I’ll have a grilled cheese and fries.”

“We don’t have that.”

Paulina stared at Heidi with an incredulous look on her face. “You don’t have two pieces of toasted bread with cheese in between?”

Ray reached out and put his hand warningly on Paulina’s. “Now, dear--”

“It’s not on the menu. Ma’am,” she added, but it sounded a lot more like she actually meant “bitch.”

“Don’t you have a kids’ menu?” Paulina was feeling more and more irate with every word.

“No. And even if we did, you’re not a kid.” Paulina’s jaw dropped. Narrowing her eyes, she snatched Ray’s menu out of Heidi’s hands and opened to the sandwich section.

“I’ll have a toasted tuna and Swiss sandwich, with no tuna, pickles, mayonnaise, mustard, onions, or lettuce, and instead of Swiss, I’ll have American cheese. With a side of fries. Thanks,” Paulina added, raising her eyebrows and handing Heidi the menu.

“Right,” the waitress snapped, walking off, shaking her head ever so slightly.

“She’s probably going to spit in your food,” Ray said, taking a sip of his Coke.

“I had Windex sprayed down my throat this morning. Unless she spits ammonia, I’m not too worried about it.” Paulina took a drink out of her cup. “So,” she said, setting it down. “What do you think I should do about Frank?”

“I don’t know why you think you can just start asking questions now.” Ray cocked an eyebrow.

“The end is nigh, you said it yourself. Might as well get some answers. Answer the question.”

“What do you want me to tell you, Paulina? I don’t know how you can get into his pants. Walk into his room naked, I don’t know. I don’t care.”

“You’re no help,” she told him, shaking her head and sipping her Coke.

Paulina knocked lightly on Frank’s bedroom door. She felt nervous; maybe because of what she was about to do; maybe it was because she was clad in nothing but a bra and underwear. Either way, she was very nervous. However, she pasted on a brave face and entered when she heard a grunt of approval from the other side of the door. She closed it slowly behind her and leaned up against it in what she hoped was a seductive pose. Frank was on his bed reading, and didn’t look up.

“What do you want,” he muttered. He was lying on his back, holding the book above his head. Paulina couldn’t see what it was, but she didn’t think it could be more interesting than a half-naked girl at his bedroom door.

“Oh, nothing. Just sayin’ hello,” she said, smiling when he finally looked over. He only glanced, but when he turned back to his book, Frank’s eyes remained stationary on the page, instead of roving back and forth. Paulina’s smile grew.

“Hi,” Frank said stiffly, continuing to stare at his book. Paulina strode over to the bed, laying herself down beside Frank. She lay her head on his upper arm and stared up at the book he was reading. “What are you doing?”

“Just looking,” Paulina said softly. “What are you reading?” Frank sighed heavily and closed the book, keeping the page that he was no longer reading with his thumb. Paulina smiled. “Flowers for Algernon,” she read.

“Mhmm…” Frank turned back to his page and continued not-reading.

“Liking it?”

“No, it’s fucking stupid. I can’t even understand what he’s saying.” He closed the book and tossed it to the floor, sighing heavily again. “He’s a fucking retard.”

“It gets better once he gets the treatment. He starts spelling correctly and using grammar skills then.” Paulina turned on her side, lifting her hand and tracing swirling patterns across Frank’s chest. He tensed further.

“Whatever,” he breathed, grabbing her wrist and removing it from his chest. Paulina dealt with this by rolling over on top of him, resting her chin on his chest, in her hands. “What are you doing now?”

“Just looking,” she repeated. Paulina flattened her hands on Frank’s chest, leaning forward and touching her lips to his. He hesitated, but not for long. He pressed back, snaking his arms around Paulina’s waist and down below her ass, pulling her closer. That was all she needed. She pulled away.

“Well, this has been fun. Good night, Frank,” she said, smirking and leaving the room. She half-expected him to come out after her, but he didn’t. No problem. She’d just keep going until he gave in.


What a tease. I told you guys this would be a big chapter. Ray just told her that the end is near...WHAT COULD IT MEAN??? I know, of course. You don't. Will they kill her? Turn her loose? I think a slaughter scene would be interesting, albeit a bit creepy. What did you think of this? How about that last part? How about that ocean part? I know, a lot happened this chapter, but I didn't want to split it up. Oh well. Deal with it. I got two or three "hurry up!" comments. Chill, please. I try, I really try. But I have a job, five days a week, 9-5. I work at a summer camp, and as much as I love working with these kids, it's tiring as hell, and I usually just come home and sleep. So...yeah....Be patient. It will all come in good time. Was this long-ass chapter worth the wait? I hope so. Anyway, go comment/rate/subscribe, please, and I'll get to work on the next update. Thanks. OverAndOutxx