ecstasy | corpse husband

chapter 36.

The end is near.

That's what's written in morbid red lettering across a large advertisement poster on the wall as the four of them walk inside the store. It's dark, save for the natural light trickling in from the windows, and rather frigid. Even inside, their breaths are materializing in the air as they observe the room.

Flare notices the grotesque sign. "That's a bit melodramatic, no?"

"Or right on the money," Elowen replies in a quiet voice. Something is crunching beneath her feet, and she finds it's glass on the floor courtesy of a broken mirror. That's reassuring.

There's an audible sigh in the room, tight with tension, and Markie jiggles the handcuffs around her wrists. Flare stops to turn to her, which pulls her backwards since they're still attached. "Yes?" he asks but receives only a scowl in return. "Oh, right." Realizing why, he removes the towel-gag from her mouth.

"Let me go. You said you would uncuff me to use the bathroom."

"And I will," he responds, weighing her with his eyes. "Why so eager? Do you dislike me that much?"

"These handcuffs are hurting my wrist."

"You know what's going to hurt more? Your teeth in my back when you suddenly decide I look like a tasty treat for you to rip into. Pardon me if your wrist is the least of my concerns."

He's about to replace the gag in her mouth, but Markie jerks her head away before he can. "I would go for the neck," she remarks with a curl of her lip.

"Too bad you aren't quite tall enough. I appreciate the heads-up, though." He smiles thinly and lifts the gag again.

"I got the pregnancy test!" Anette's voice calls from the other side of the store. She reappears holding two boxes in her hand, one pink and one blue.

"Is one for you?" Flare cocks an eyebrow.

"Ha ha," Anette deadpans, moving some of her long hair over her shoulder. "We should probably have her take two, just to be sure."

He nods. "Naturally."

In the back of the store is a hallway leading to the staff-only areas and bathrooms. It's completely dark here with the lack of windows, only bright enough to see the outline of each other's figures.

"Elowen, you have the key for the handcuffs?" He glances at her over his shoulder.

Elowen nods, retrieving the small key from her pocket. Corpse had insisted the key stay with someone other than Flare, for obvious reasons, and entrusted it to her. He didn't seem to want anything to do with it himself. It's hard to decipher how he feels about Markie. In a way, he does care about her. He must if he went out of his way to save her life. Yet there are moments where he's wary, treading unsurely, as if she's some bottomless pit he doesn't want to fall back into.

When he was handing her the key, he had looked Elowen in the eyes and spoke very lowly, "Keep your distance. Please, can you do that?"

Despite not understanding the context, he looked very distraught about it all and Elowen had nodded compliantly. It pleased him.

With all of the precautions he's been making them take, you would think this is an ex-criminal on their hands.

Once Markie is released from her binding to Flare, her hands still cuffed in front of her, Elowen goes to untie the gag but Flare stops her.

"She doesn't need her mouth to piss. Leave it on."

"You're treating her like some kind of convict," Anette complains. "See it from her point of view. She was attacked, nearly died twice thanks to us, and her supposed rescuers are treating her like shit." The cuss sounds wrong coming out of Anette's mouth. "She hasn't done anything to deserve it."