Who am I kidding? Of course Asmodeus would come here to cause chaos.
“What are you doing?”
“Woooo… I am the ghost of your mother’s asshole after she rammed a stick up it too far,” Asmodeus says in his best rendition of a ghost.
I raise an eyebrow, not pleased, but heobviouslydoesn’t care.
He hurries over to her bird trinkets, which are the only semblance of life in the house, and pushes one. She’s collected them my whole life, and they seem to be the only thing she cares about. I remember buying her one when I was younger, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen it since.
“Don’t you dare touch those,” I warn him.
He slides one over until it looks like it’s copulating with another.
Jumping to my feet, I hurry over to stop him. “If my mother sees this obscene display, she will be pissed.”
“I believe your mother was born pissed,” he whispers in my ear before blowing on the other.
I wave my arms around, trying to grab him, but of course I can’t feel him. And then I see another bird trinket being flipped on its back all the way across the room.
“Asmodeus, dammit, get your ass over here right this second and sit down or wait in the car!” I snap. I rush over, prepared to stop him as I wave my arms, hoping to catch him because he’s now movingeverythingout of order.
Of course that’s when Patty steps into the room carrying a tray with a drink on it. She gives me a disgusted look, probably because it appears like I’m in this room alone flapping my arms as though I’m trying to be a bird myself.
“What in the world are you doing?” Andthenshe sees the birds in various stages of copulation. “Are you achild? Not even a child would do this!”
Anger eats at me as I prepare myself to yell at Asmodeus for such a foolish display of childish behavior, but it’ll only make me look even more uncultured.
Patty sets the glass down and shakes her head at me. “These had better be fixed before your mother shows up.”
She turns on her heel and stalks out of the room.
“This isn’t fucking funny, Asmodeus. If you’re just going to create a mess then I want you to leave. Fix the fucking birds and sit down or leave.”
I sit down on the couch and glare in the general direction he should be in.
Suddenly, I feel his breath on my ear, and I have to fight back the shiver that tries to race through me. “What if I say no?”
I grab him in a headlock, very much aware that the only reason I got my hands on this man is because he allowed it. Even so, I jerk him down and pin him to me. “You are getting on my fucking nerves, you hear me? I’m not finding any of this shit funny.”
“It’s an awful thing when others hold so much control over you,” he says. “Trust me, I know. You feel crushed, like you can’t breathe. Like there’s no way out. There’s this suffocating feeling holding you down and forcing you to tuck away all the parts that make you who you are.”
I freeze. “No one has… control over me.”
“No?” he asks as he drops his invisibility from where he’s sprawled across my lap, looking up at me with his vibrant blue eyes. It’s like I’m held prisoner by them. “Your mother demanded that you come. You were uncomfortable from the moment you showed up. You were ridiculed for being late even though you were right on time. And then as punishment, as away to belittle you, you’ve been told where to sit and then left for nearly half an hour.”
I stare at him, wanting to yell at him some more… but is it because I know he’s the only one here I can throw my frustrations at?
“You don’t have to put up with this,” he says.
“I’m not putting up with anything.”
“Then get up and find her or tell her you’re leaving or just leave. You want me to?”
“Don’t you dare.”
“Beatrice, we’re leaving!” he shouts. “We have plans!”
I clamp my hand over his mouth. “Shut it.”
