Submitting

Prop

Their laughter echoed against the walls of the room as music still played softly with the crackle of fire in the warm fireplace and delicate snow falling outside. The candles on the table were almost at its ends and so was this awfully unbearable dinner as they chatted on an empty table after dinner while I sat there, hands still tied up and completely ignored. With my head held down, I could do nothing but endure this painful moment. My only solace, this obnoxious dinner, like every other thing, will pass away in time. The only cost being patience.

"I mean, how could you be so stupid? Chasing the very thing that you should be running away from! Hah!" Ivan, with his self sprawled against the chair a lot less elegantly, commented at a previous remark which I wasn't quite following at all.

The plates and dishes were all cleared off the table now. What remained now were crystal tumblers for two and a bottle of a whisky which looked nothing but costly with intricate indents of designs and a name carved in gold colour which was not easy to read in its cursive script and especially in the dim light of the candles it was way harder to do so.

"That's what makes it a movie though. The stupidity of it all, which makes wasting the precious time of this ruthless life, worth it." Dimitri chimed in the debate as he sipped on his whisky after swirling it once, instilling the stench of alcohol more in the air.

All of this conversation was more like a debate to him, while I remained invisible.

Liza on the other hand was very invested in the conversation. After all, it was a discussion about movies in the horror genre and from what I knew about her, she never could pass an opportunity to bring it up in conversations.

"I completely agree with Dimitri. All of us need something to be something else in our lives. Even if it is fictional or nonsense. Just to keep ourselves occupied so that we don't trouble ourselves with questions about life that will make us nothing but sad." Her hand rubbed against her belly as she smiled wistfully, refusing to meet my eyes.

It was almost as if they were doing this deliberately to make me cry. Or angry.

All this discussion was nothing but a ploy to make me yell at them, give them a reaction. Scream at their heads, because whatever they were saying was indirectly connected to the situation I was made put into. Moreover, Liza was put into as well.

So that baby is supposed to be her distraction? A life changing factor that is supposed to make her forget the way she was actually made to accept the baby? And I had to agree with that, just because she always wanted to be a mother? The more accusing questions that I raised in my head, the more agitated I became. My breath picked up a little as I hung my head low and fisted my hands.

"We should totally watch a horror movie with hot coco. All this date night and everything is cool, but nothing beats a family movie night with horror movies." Ivan's irritating voice butted in once again. His very voice, infuriating me further as the hysterical laughter that I had forced in me for so long, couldn't stay trapped anymore.

"Happy. Fucking. Family? Are you deranged? Oh, wait for a second, you are! You pathetic fucking prick, why would you ever say that? This is a family, alright. A group of people with twisted, evil and obnoxious minds who intentionally subdue the right rather than the wrong in all of it." The last part was meant more for Liza than the rest of the two people in the room. And even though I didn't look at her when I said those words, I knew it reached her loud and clear.

"The all knowing queen of morality. Hail queen Rose! The epitome of perfection! Cheers!" Ivan raised his glass as he shouted words that did very little to calm me down. It was not his motive thorough, and according to his plan he did succeed. Squeezing out another reaction out of me that I didn't want to surrender and yet again failed to do so.

"I pity you. You survive on other people and whatever scraps of emotions, actions or any sort of response they give to whatever you try to probe out of them. Most of the time forcefully. Because no one ever will notice you otherwise. That's how insignificant you are, Ivan. I truly pity you because you are too afraid to be alone with yourself because you hate yourself, or are you afraid of the dark deep demons inside you that consume the life out of you?" I smirked, I caught the fish in the net at last.

The shiny crystal in his hand shattered like it was not made out of expensive glass at all. Perhaps a flimsy prop that breaks at the slightest touch. Of course that wasn't true, and it made me so, so incredibly happy like I have never felt before. A smile crept up on the face as I stared at him right in the eye. Green and black at the same time. Evil swirled in them, his soul. Not really mixed but the base itself on which everything else laid.

Blood oozed out of his hand like slithering snakes as he sighed slowly with a smirk of his own, resting on his face. A winning retort ready on his lips as he leaned back on his chair and held the gaze he had set on me, in my eyes, in my soul.

"Tsk tsk. And yet, queen Rosie. Here we are. Me sitting here, watching you pleasurably, all tied up and indisposed to a wheelchair while you can do nothing but run that pretty mouth of yours with no one to save you. All alone but not lonely at all."

I couldn't deny that.