The Florencia Lozano Homepage - Fan Fiction
AFFLICTION
BY TROG |
CHAPTER
48 |
CHAPTER 48
The sapphire blue Aegean sparkled in the late afternoon sun as Tea sat at the edge of the water...looking out at the horizon where the white, fluffy clouds met the crystalline sea. She sat quietly...waiting...waiting...
Five weeks had passed...a month....a week...and two days had gone by and she had heard nothing from Todd...or from anyone. For the first few days upon their arrival in this nightmarish paradise she had expected Todd to arrive any moment on his white horse, waiving his sword in the air, dragging the police and all of Llanview behind him, coming to her rescue...but as the weeks passed on she had begun to lose hope.
This place was beautiful...a beautiful prison. She watched Mikos, the hired guard who was never more than ten yards away from her, watching her while smoking his cigarette beneath his bushy black mustache and shaved head. The powerful wind whipping off the ocean flapped open his black jacket revealing the gun strapped to his chest, the sunlight glinting off its barrel like a beacon warning her of her imminent danger. He had never spoken to her...he didn’t speak English...he only received his instructions from Aaron who spoke perfect Greek.
When she left the main house Mikos was there, often unseen, but always hovering in the distance like a dark, dangerous shadow. In the house she was under the watchful eye of Aaron...or Eva...a middle-aged and sour housekeeper with tightly bunned blond hair who only communicated to Aaron in German. It was like the tower of Babel... everyone able to speak but unable to communicate with one another. The only person she could talk to was Aaron...and sometimes she felt so isolated...and so lonely...she was even forced to speak to him...just to hear the sound of her own voice...to reaffirm her own existence for at times it felt like she was disappearing...like something that had died and had already been forgotten.
Her honey-colored skin had bronzed in the sun and glowed against her white bathing suit, and her wet hair hung half-way down her back, streaked and lightened by the harsh, constant sunlight. Swimming was her only escape...the only time she felt free...away from the watchful eyes of her captors. Each day she would swim out a little farther hoping to see something in the distance...a boat...a plane...perhaps, even land...but there was only more water...clear, topaz blue water that went on endlessly. Each day she would return from the sea and sit by the water’s edge for a few hours and just wait....
Tea stood up suddenly, seeing a black boat in the distance...but it was only the supply boat that came once a week. Watching the boat approaching she recognized the curly-haired young man, Jorgo, who brought provisions now and then. He seemed pleasant, always waved at her as he docked at the tip of the long pier that jutted way out into the water. She had tried to approach him a few times but Mikos and Aaron quickly interceded.
She grabbed the long, sheer, white robe that laid beside her and quickly slipped it on as she began to walk toward the pier when she saw Aaron run quickly out of the house, down the stairs that descended from the marble terrace and spilled out onto the beach. Mikos blocked her path as Aaron headed toward the pier to meet the supply boat.
As young Jorgo placed boxes of items on the dock and handed some letters and packages to Aaron, Tea observed Aaron in his loose white tunic over khaki pants and bear feet. He was such a handsome man...hideously beautiful...monstrous in his perfection. Todd was so imperfect...that large nose, his thick lips, that disfiguring scar across his face...and yet...he seemed so beautiful to her in retrospect....with all his flaws and sins, with all his insecurities...so humanly beautiful, she thought as tears rose to her eyes. Aaron’s beauty was flawless...lifeless...he didn’t even have a scent she thought recalling that wild, musky, almost gamy smell that came off of Todd’s skin when they made love.
Finally, Jorgo waved good-by to her and she watched sadly as the boat moved away from its mooring and began to drift away. Her isolation became unbearable every time she saw Jorgo’s boat moving away from her. Mikos walked onto the pier and began carrying boxes into the house as Aaron strolled in her direction carrying a large envelope in his hand.
As he came closer she watched his icy blue eyes roam over her exposed body as her sheer robe and hair billowed wildly in the breeze. Looking at her smooth, bronzed thighs, her partially exposed breasts and her hard nipples poking through the soft fabric of her wet bathing suit, she saw lust rising beneath his controlled countenance as he struggled to keep his eyes on hers.
She could see his body responding to her, smell his awakening desire for her...but she made no attempt at covering herself...she just let him look, let him see what he would never get from her willingly.
“You look lovely, my sweet, but I do wish you’d consider something less...revealing...when the supply boat comes in.”
“These are the only clothes I have...and you bought them. I went swimming...what am I suppose to wear? Would you prefer I wear nothing at all instead? I believed the last time I tried that you disapproved!” she said defiantly, referring to a few weeks ago when she swam naked in front of Mikos in her anger at Aaron. Sadly hurting and defying Aaron, using his own jealousy and frustration against him had become her only weapons.
He purchased all her clothing... simple, elegant and very expensive clothing. Everything was white. He wanted her only in white. Often he would pick out what she should wear...laying it out on the bed when she came out of the bath to let her know what he wanted, quietly controlling her. It was after such an episode that she strolled out of the house, dropping her bathrobe on the veranda and walked out naked on to the beach much to the shock of Mikos and Eva who watched her walking slowly toward the water and go for a swim.
Aaron was furious as he stood on the beach, holding her robe and pacing....waiting for her to come back in. But she took her time and swam until her body gave out. Finally, exhausted she headed inland and walked back to shore as Aaron waited, his face angry and cold, holding the robe open for her as she walked defiantly past him, wet and naked, and back into the house under the watchful eye of Mikos and Eva. Her body was all that she owned and she would not allow him to take that away from her.
“Yes...of course...you’re right, my dear,” he said, remembering her little stunt. He loved her rebellious nature but was becoming increasingly impatient with her resistance. Physically he was out of his mind...laying beside her every night...his body on fire for her...but, unable to touch her. Often he would get up and walk along the cold beach trying to control his natural urges...giving his body a chance to relax and unwind before he went back in and watched her sleeping. How long, he wondered....how long before she surrendered....before she gave up on Todd Manning. How long could he go on like this...
“I have something for you.”
“I don’t want anything from you...I thought I’d made that perfectly clear!” she snapped as she began to walk away from him and head down the beach. He followed her.
“He’s not coming , Tea. If that’s what you’re waiting for...I can tell you that he’s already moved on.”
Tea stopped, then turned around slowly.
“Todd loves me. He’ll never stop looking for me.”
“Like the last time you left him?” he said smiling.
“I didn’t leave him this time!”
“Didn’t you, my dear. I gave you a choice...and you took it. I didn’t force you to come. You left him...and maybe...just maybe he’s beginning to realize that,” he said as he handed her the manila envelope he’d been carrying.
Tea stared at it for awhile, then opened it pulling out a large black and white photograph. It was a picture of Todd, lying on a bed with Blair standing above him...kissing him, while Starr stood beside them smiling. A lump of nausea rose up to her throat as she gazed at the picture. His hair was a little longer so she knew the picture was recent...and when she turned it around it was dated five days ago. She also noticed the hospital room.
“Todd’s in the hospital? Did you hurt him?” she said as her eyes filled with tears and she approached Aaron angrily.
“No, my love. He had some minor bout with his ulcer...nothing more serious than that. Luckily he has his loving family around him to comfort him. You see, Tea...he’s already moved on...moved back in with his family. I told you he’s weak...can’t stand to be alone. His love for you is fickle...transient...motivated by loneliness and nothing more...any woman’s love will do for this man. His current choice of wife shows me he‘s not very particular. He‘s forgotten you already, my sweet.”
Tea shook her head.
“NO!” she shouted. “This means nothing,” she said before turning away from him so that he wouldn’t see the tears that ran quickly down her face. She buried her face in her hands, shaking uncontrollably, sobbing wildly as she broke down. Suddenly she began to run down the beach, letting the wind dry her tears as she raced away from him, letting the picture fly out of her hands, the wind carrying it high into the air before it slowly drifted down landing on the warm sand.
Aaron watched her as she headed inland, disappearing into a grove of olive trees as he signaled for Mikos to follow her. Slowly he walked over to the picture and smiled picking it up and placing it back in it’s envelope. Reaching into his pocket, he removed a cell phone and dialed a long series of numbers.
“Yes...it’s me. I must say that picture that you sent was very affective...but I need more. I want a picture of Todd Manning in your bed...I don’t particularly care how you get it. That is all it will take...than we’ll both have what we want and you won’t hear from me again...I’ll be waiting,” said Aaron into the phone before slipping it back into his pocket.
*******
Tea ran blindly, past the olive and fig trees that traversed her path, that image of Todd and Blair...and Starr floating beyond her...sealed in the theater of her brain...playing over and over again. Finally she stopped. Hysterical and exhausted she leaned against the bark of an old fig tree, it’s bark cool and smooth as she embraced it and stroked it and cried uncontrollably. As her grief turned to rage she began hitting it with her open hand, than her fist, before a hand came up behind her and held her back...stopping her from hurting herself.
She turned slowly expecting Aaron and ready to hit him...but it was Mikos, with his kind dark eyes...and his gun. Turning slowly she leaned back against the tree as she watched him pull a white handkerchief from his pocket and wipe her face gently with it. His shiny bald head and olive skin gleamed in the afternoon sun as he examined her bloodied hand and wiped it with the handkerchief. Tea watched him, moved by his kindness before she noticed the gun tightly embedded in a brown, leather holster wrapped around his shoulder.
She smiled up at him sweetly and he smiled back. It was the first real communication between them...he had never been this close to her...probably on orders from Aaron and she noticed something that hadn’t quite occurred to her before. Mikos was a man! A man with all the weaknesses and natural urges of a man and the look in his eyes was very revealing...unmistakable.
Tea reached up and touched his mustache lightly, fingering it delicately before she reached up and pulled his head down to her...kissing him hard, with all the passion she could muster. He tasted of onions and smelled of old sweat but she persevered, letting her tongue slide into his mouth seductively, until his large, heavy body responded urgently and shoved her brutally against the tree behind them, grinding his hips against hers before Tea ended the kiss and quickly slipped out from beneath him. When she turned around he was leaning against the tree, panting and breathless, staring at her with a dark, forbidden desire. It made her smile coquettishly and as she lifted up her head she realized her power...he was hers now...not Aaron‘s.
She turned and walked away from him as he slowly followed, lumbering in her path a few yards behind like a faithful dog as she headed back to the main house. Feeling strangely reenergized, powerful, her head reeling with new possibilities, she smiled as she glanced over at the sea and all that water. She was sick of water...and sick of tears...and sick of waiting....
to be continued...
2002 Copyright by Trog
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