Nancy and Crystal stood at the window facing the tarmac, and for a while, they were silent. One plane took off, and then another. Crystal sighed, and in a voice that was barely audible, she said, “This is bullshit….”
“You think?” Nancy growled sarcastically. “Who the hell does he think he is? And what gives him the right to fuck with my life like this?”
Crystal shrugged. She knew that nothing she could say would help improve her friend’s disposition, so she said nothing.
“What are we going to do?” Nancy asked.
“We’re not without options,” Crystal replied. “If we took a direct flight to any of Washington’s neighboring states, once we landed, we would have a plethora of options.&rdqu
There was a razor blade on the night table. She looked at it for a minute, and then she picked it up. “To cut or not to cut,” she murmured. “That is the question...” And then she began to giggle.What is it about Shakespeare and me this evening? - she wondered. Still smiling, she brought the knife to her Radial Artery. Back and forth, not up and down - she reminded herself.Just as she was about to begin cutting, someone knocked on the door. “Miss Smith! Miss Smith! Are you asleep?” It was one of the servants.There must be an emergency - Crystal thought, and she immediately assumed that it had
Crystal nodded, and then she turned to a servant. “Go and cook a large pot of porridge and keep it hot. If he does not eat now, maybe he will eat later.” Then she took wet clothing that was on the night table and wiped off the blood around Nathan’s mouth.“I tried to do that,” one of the servants said apologetically, “But he wouldn’t let me. He even spat blood on my uniform. It should be easier now that he is asleep.”Crystal turned and saw that it was true. He was asleep, after all. “Nathan. Nathan, Nathan,” she murmured. Then, she sighed and said, “You are such a troublemaker. And so stubborn too.” She knew that he would not let either of them bathe him while he was awake, so she quickly fetched a new basin of water and began to unbutton his clothes. Once he was naked, she started to clea
Eric and Paul sat at the bar a half a mile away from the castle, and they were both half-drunk. “You aren’t much of a man,” Paul scolded. “A real man knows how to keep his woman in her place.”“She has a very strong temper,” Eric growled.“Perhaps that’s not it.” Paul snicked. “Perhaps you are having problems.... Down there... There are dr*gs for that, you know? Have you ever heard of Viagra?”“Shut the fuck up!” Eric hissed, “You and I both know that isn’t the problem. You and I have gotten into enough trouble together that you should know better than to even say that!”Paul sighed and finished what was left of his beer. He belched contentedly, and then he said, “
Eric straightened his collar and came down the stairs. He had also drunk a lot, but he had not lost control or blacked out. Thus, he did not have a hangover.As he reached the landing, he saw the servants gathered around the couch in the living room, and his brow furrowed. What is this?- he wondered.A moment passed, and then he heard Paul’s voice. Almost immediately, the servants turned around and began to clear out - and he was able to see what all the fuss was about. “Oh, my God?” Eric chuckled. “What happened to you?”“I had a hangover,” Paul replied. “And it is all your fault. Can you get me a couple of Advil and a large glass of ice water? My head is killing me!”
Paul hit Nancy’s hand with the bamboo pole, forcing her to let go of the hose. She was all that he was thinking about, so it caught him off guard when the crocodile bit his bottom.Nancy could not help but laugh. She had warned him, but did he listen? Of course not. She thought - Men are single-mindedly stupid!Paul cried out in pain, and as the reptilian beast increased its grip on his heinie, the bamboo pole fell to the ground. Had he not had previous experience with crocodiles, this might have been the end of him.Paul fell backward, and as his weight fell on the beast, it was forced to let him go. Then, when it attacked again, he was ready for it. Paul reached out, grabbed it by the mouth, and pulled it open as far as he could.Eventually, the skin began to tea
When Crystal told Nancy her idea, her eyes widened, and she shook her head. “No,” she said, “I cannot involve Noah in this matter. I do not want to involve anyone else in this unless we must.”“Fine.” Crystal sighed and said, “We will only use Noah as a last resort. Anyway, we also have Nathan, and if I can get word to Vic, we might find that we have more options than we realized; if he will help, that is.”“It shouldn’t be a problem.” Nancy giggled, and her cheeks turned red. “I can tell that he has a crush on you. If you play along with it for a few days, he is sure to go along with whatever you say. As for your father, with a little bit of help, we shouldn’t have any problems having him transferred to Kuerto. After all, you are his next of kin.”
Paul’s heart began to beat fast as he prepared to shoot his ex-wife. A slight sheen of sweat appeared on his forehead, and as his hand began to tremble, his confidence faded. He did not know if he could shoot her. His life would be so much easier if he did, though.He could go back to his normal life, marry Michelle, and have the children that he had always wished he had. But he could also imagine Nancy’s life spilling out through a hole in her chest in front of him, and that disturbed him.He had wanted to teach her a lesson.It had never been his intention to kill her, but she had boxed him into a corner, and he did not know how to back out of it without losing face.“Are you going to shoot me or not?” Nancy mocked him.
As evening approached, the servants were given instructions to move Nathan upstairs. He was to be put in the room next to Eric’s. There was a door between the rooms, but it was no longer in use, and bookcases had been set up in front of it on either side. Once Nathan was set up, these barriers were removed. This way, when Eric took Crystal's that evening, he would have a front-row seat to the ‘show.’Downstairs, Paul, Nancy, Crystal, and Eric were casually drinking in the living room. Up until now, they had been having cocktails, but the time had finally come to open the bottle of wine that Paul had gifted to the newlyweds.When it came to pouring Nancy a glass, though, Paul refused her.“Hey!” she hissed. “Why aren’t you giving me?”