“Your father will be angry. When will you ever learn?”
I am frozen inside. My tears dried up years ago, and as Morgan pulls me from the room, me in one hand, the doll in the other, she drags me to my father’s den. As we stumble through the door, his shocked expression is loaded with anger as she screeches, “Look at this child, Enrico. Look at what she did.”
She tosses the doll onto his desk, which stares up at him like a freak, much the same as me, and his fist comes down hard on the wooden veneer as he roars, “You stupid girl.”
I shiver inside as he pounces, moving quickly for a large man, and as he grips my wrist, he slaps me hard around the face, the pain blinding me as my head falls to the side.
“Take her away. I can’t bear to look at her. She’s just like her mother, deranged.”
Morgan’s grip bites into my skin as she pulls me from the room, and as soon as we reach mine, she pushes me inside so ferociously, I slide onto the floor and crash against the edge of the bed.
“You’re a freak, Tiffany. A psychotic bitch who needs to be taught a lesson.”
Her eyes blaze into mine, and then she advances slowly, that one act filling me with more fear than anything thatpreceded it. As she towers above me, she whispers, “You are like me, Tiffany. You have so much potential. Perhaps I can help you.”
I press against the bed as she drops down beside me and reaching out, grasps my chin in her fingers, her nails digging into the flesh.
“I can help you contain the madness and use it more effectively. We will make a good team, my darling. Leave it with me; I can help you.”
The sudden change of demeanor confuses me: the soft smile replacing a harder one, her fingers once cruel now soothing as she wipes away my tears.
“I can help you, Tiffany; don’t shut me out. Your mother abandoned you; I will not.”
She whispers, “Trust me, darling. I can help. You remind me of myself. I know what is going through your mind; I always will. We will make a formidable team, my darling. You are not on your own anymore.”
I’m speechless as she leans forward and presses a soft kiss on my lips, before pulling back, her eyes ablaze with excitement.
Then she leaves without another word, and as I curl up into a ball on the floor of my room, the demons circle as they prepare to pick apart what is left of my soul.
CHAPTER 5
JOSEPH
She’s dreaming. I say dream, more like a nightmare, and I should know. Her breathing is erratic, her gentle cries strangely soothing, and the twitch of her limbs indicates a struggle of some kind.
It’s fascinating to watch, and I wonder what is running through her mind, hoping it’s me. Hoping I fill it with terror, and I don’t know why.
She is fearful. I see it when she stares at me. Her sneer and contempt do little to disguise her fear, and she believes words are weapons that will help defend her against the madness. She is deluded.
I study her as she cries in her sleep, no tears just empty moans, and something stirs inside me. Recognition.
It’s as if I am watching a copy of me, and I appreciate the beauty of unconscious madness.
This is interesting. A study, if you like, and this one act has made Tiffany Zaferelli way more interesting to me.
With a start, she jerks awake, her frightened eyes searching for answers, settling on me instead.
She closes them against the madness, and when she opens them, it’s gone.
“Are we there yet?”
“What are you, a child?”
She struggles to sit up straight and proud, and the hard edge to her jaw is something I recognize. Contained emotion. Something I have perfected well, and I wonder what madness I would find if I cracked open her shell and allowed her demon to fly.
She has become way more interesting to me now, which spells trouble for her, because in a split second I make my decision. I will break her apart as a mere distraction and nothing else.
I’m excited, for once in my life. I have a project that promises great things. I have a purpose, a person to dissect and explore at leisure. Madness in plain sight, a woman no less, someone who will walk beside me, under my perfect control, blended into an ideal, a dream if you like. I will take her anger and mold it into something unbreakable, and we will be an unbeatable force—together. Then, when I have finished with her, I will set her free, moving on to my next victim, my path in life now clear.
