Reaper's Word

Chapter 20: Not Really Free

The first thing that Clair did was to take a real shower. She stood in the bathroom with the chairpressed to the inside handle and scrubbed like she'd never scrubbed before. She did everything to feelnormal and clean. She also found a pair of scissors and trimmed her hair the best she could. Shethought about chopping it really short but didn't.

Clair had found some fresh clothes that fit her well. She wasn't so sure that the house hadn't preparedthat for her. These clothes were a pair of black dress like pants and a white turtleneck. It was still coolin the house and this wasn't so bad. She didn't need to worry about being totally hidden. Though shewasn't going to change her habits for three days.

She brushed out her hair and fingered it. The wet mass was heavy and had a slight curl to it. Shescrubbed her teeth, flossing and rising. She felt so good to be clean, and she was always normally aclean freak. She would have done a bit more for him if she could be allowed one day every week to dothis.

Clair tossed her bad clothes into the chute. She knew that the chutes all came out somewhere in thebasement. From there she didn't know what happened to them. She went out the door after checkingand went to the kitchen for food. She had a quick dinner. Happy to have milk for the first time in monthsand that it was fresh. She ate some of the fruit there as well.

"Thanks." She said to the house and moved off. There were actually three kitchens in the house but themain one had most the food and it was huge. She passed two people coming to find some eats andthey looked at her,.

"How are you so clean?" The one woman asked.

"Showered, I won the game I played with him." She looked envious. The other woman already slippedinto the kitchen. She left Clair and Clair moved off down the hall. She wanted to learn more about thisplace now that she had time to do it.

However she grew more tired and moved off to find a room out of the way to sleep in, she wanted abed. Clair found one on the third floor in the left wing. She laid down, a chair against the door and shefell asleep. Was it going to stop Isaiah or the hounds? Not really but she'd get warning and it wouldstop the humans.

Morning came and Clair opened her eyes, she glanced at the clock. It was almost ten. She'd beenasleep for nearly nine hours and it felt good. She felt good, felt like a great weight had been lifted fromher shoulders. Now that she didn't have to be so careful, she could explore and commit more tomemory than she already had.

Clair meandered through the house looking at everything, and testing for hidden doors. She found onethat she hadn't known before and it led to a room that had no doors at all. It seemed the small crawlspace led right in here and to nowhere else. The room was simple and square oddly it had a stereosystem setup with speakers along the walls. She moved to the stereo and looked at the CDs there andshook her head. She didn't know how these things got here but they did.

She tested the walls and found one to be a false wall that opened to a closet with different gowns andsuits. She laughed a little, this closet had no exit. She looked at some of the intense looking gowns thathad to be years old but in pristine condition.

There were far more modern ones as well and some she would never have dared to wear in public.She looked at the tuxes and dress clothes for men. The shelf above had hats and gloves and she tookone that reminded her of the gangster hats in the fifties. She put on a tie letting it hang loose and tippedthe hat, she grabbed a pair of shoes from the floor. It took her a bit to find one that fit her. In the endshe found a pair of closed toed shoes with high heels on them.

She put them on and grabbed a cane from the closet and feeling that she should make the most of hertime, she went to the stereo and put in a CD at random. She let it play and moved to the panel with the

crawl space. Out in the other room the music couldn't be heard. She went back in and twisted one ofthe speakers that led her right into a hall. No sound out here either.

She went back in the room and put in a CD she knew and danced to it. A solo routine she'd learnedlong ago and enjoyed. After it was done she moved back to the closet and pulled out different dressesand tried them on. Looking in the full length mirror there. This was fun, and she'd always loved dressesbut no where to wear them.

"Not bad." She said standing in a tight midnight blue evening gown that fit to her body like a glove. Ithugged her chest making it look bigger than it was and the soft flare to her hips. A slit in the dress wentall the way up to her hip.

"To bad I don't like to show my butt." She said swishing the back of the dress to show skin. She gave alaugh and took it off, pulling out a few others and trying them on. She couldn't get the ball gown to laceup in the back all the way but it was a gold color and made her hair very dark. She tried a pink dressthat was so short she didn't think that she could sit or bend without exposing herself. She took it off andgrabbed a white one.

This one had a tie around the neck and the straps connected right to the part of the dress that coveredher breasts. She tied it up and if she hadn't had her bra on. She wasn't sure how she would have evenstayed in the dress. There was a lose tie around the waist and it had a kind of handkerchief bottom,though the front under skirt cut off mid-thigh and the back fell farther to the floor.

Clair was curious to see just how this dress would hold her without the bra so she reached back andtook it off with a bit of work pulled it out from the dress and fixed it properly.

"Eek, no quick movements I guess."

She turned in the mirror and looked at the back. It cut down in a v to her lower back. It was a prettydress but one she didn't think she could ever wear. She picked up her bra and turned looking at the

other dresses. Facing out into the room she sighed and undid the dress she wore. Putting on her brashe grabbed the hanger and put it back up.

She touched several of the other ones there, which one, which one? The music was still playing andshe sang along to the song that was going. What she was doing was strangely fun and made her feelvery light.

"Just one more and then food." Maybe she'd go in the dress just for fun. Why not, right now was herchance to feel safe. To feel good for once in what felt like forever.

There was a black one that she pulled out made of a soft material and another rather clingy one. Sheput it on and it was very nearly see through. Most the dress on the bottom hung to one side. The dresscoming all the way up to mid-thigh. It had a tight part for the upper chest and no straps, she turned in aslow circle.

"Think I like that blue one." She said and took it off pulling on her normal clothes. She was going to thekitchen to cook herself a meal, a real one, and was going to sit down and eat it like a normal person.Not shoving it in her face.

___Isaiah___

Isaiah watched through the one way mirror as Clair left the closet. He'd chanced upon her movingthrough the passageway. He'd come to a sudden halt as he'd glimpsed the movement. She stood therein nothing but her underwear sorting through the dresses.

He'd decided right then to stay and watch her. He'd leaned back against the wall his arms folded, nailsbiting into his arms, digging into skin. At one point, he was pretty sure he drew blood, but didn't lookdown to see.

The sight of her slender body in those garments and how she moved in them... A woman made to wearsuch tight fitting things. If he'd only been able to touch her. He'd have gone right in that closet anddragged her to the floor. As it was he continued to shift as his body grew hard and uncomfortable. Themost he saw of her was when she undressed.

He had a growing irritation at the small bits of material that covered her without the gowns. Any timeshe removed her bra she always put it back on not facing the mirror. He wondered if she was ashamedof her body. He couldn't see how she possibly could be.

He moved now as she left through the wall and out into the hall behind him. He turned the corner asshe disappeared around the opposite corner herself, he went into the room. The scent of her thick inthe air. He moved to the closet and her scent was strongest here. He glanced at himself in the mirror,his eyes were dark, very dark, but not solid black yet.

Isaiah had decided that he didn't much care for Clair in the normal clothes that she wore. He wantedher in these garments. The ones that hugged her body and offered a glimpse of soft expanses of flesh.He moved from the closest, memorizing the ones he'd liked most on her. Then he went to the hall andfollowed where she had disappeared to.

He followed down the hall at a slow pace. He felt others moving around a few of the rooms, andlistened to what they were doing. He glanced at the ceiling, Gustav was still alive. His mind hard toread but he was a manipulator. His ability to read minds was very helpful as well. Currently he movedswiftly down the hall in the opposite direction above Isaiah. The man was filling the heads of those thathe could get to listen with ridiculous nonsense.

There was a strong smell coming from the direction of the kitchen. A smell that had never filled thehouse before. At least while he'd been here, it was the scent of human food cooking. Curious hemoved down to the kitchen to see what it was.

___Clair___

Clair didn't make anything complicated. Just shoved a frozen pizza into the oven. Then made noodlesboiling them, and heating sauce in another pan. Alfredo sauce. She wondered how old the frozen pizzawas. Couldn't be that old seeing the hell hounds ate everything in the house once the humans weregone. She wondered why they would even bring something like that, but she was glad at the moment.

"Why they would think anyone would use this, oh well glad it's here." She felt a kind of warmth from thekitchen to her. It was happy to be being used. Just like the room she'd stumbled upon today.

"You cook as well?" She jumped and grabbed the knife near her turning. "No need for that, can't touchyou." Isaiah said and she relaxed a little. Yeah well he wasn't the only one that might attack her. Shedidn't trust the others in this house either.

"I was taught to be self-sufficient."

"Fascinating." Clair didn't want to take her eyes off of him, but she knew he had to keep his promise.She went in the cupboards looking for a strainer. She got one and set it in the sink. She stirred thesauce and then dumped the noodles.

"Is there some reason you are here?" She asked looking over her shoulder to where he stood watchingher, his eyes dark. What could he possibly want with her, when at the moment he could do nothing toher?

"The pleasure of your company." She eyed him suspiciously, he gave her a smile that didn't reach hiseyes. "You, I am still trying to figure out." She took the sauce off the heat. He'd never watched a humanprepare food before.'

"I'm sure I'll know when you do."

"Will you?" He mused as she dumped the large amount of pasta he was sure she could not eat into alarge bowl, and then the sauce over it.

"Yes, I'll be dead." He gave a light laugh at that.

"And that is what perplexes me so. Ready for your death but fighting so hard against it."novelbin

"How did you get stuck here?" She asked suddenly. "I mean why haven't you ever tried to leave?" Sheasked curious as to how one like him got stuck in a house like this. It was clear that he wanted to leave,and he had to have been here for a long time. He was always willing to make a deal and she waswondering just what it would take to release him. If the price to help was her freedom too.

"Oh I'd leave if I could, trust me. I made a promise that caused this to happen. I'm much more carefulwhen I word the things I say now."

"What will it take to free you? I don't suppose it's something anyone here can do." She stirred thenoodles as she asked not looking at him.

"I would have offered you your life if you could free me." Well, he probably wouldn't kill the one thatcould free him as that one was permanently going to be bound to him. In exchange for his freedomthey took being bound instead. They would be bound to him. Cause and effect, that's how magicworked. How science worked too, kind of funny how close the two were and no one even knew it.Seeing Athena was the reason, it also had to be a woman. Not that that was a complaint to him.

"What does it take?"

"You don't have what I need, so it doesn't really matter. There is a very specific set of rules andrequirements for my release and you are lacking one very important one."

"Oh." She sighed and grabbed a smaller bowl to put her pasta in to eat it. She moved back to the stoveand opened it. It was a strong but not completely disagreeable smell. She grabbed a plate and movedto grab a knife. She cut the pizza and took a piece moving to the next room to the table there and satdown. A glass of milk already there, he followed her.

"I thought I was free of you for three days."

"Free of me doing anything to you. I'm allowed to be in any space of this house I wish." She took a biteof her food and he moved to the table sitting across from her. She seemed perfectly calm in hispresence at the moment. So he would see just how calm she could remain with him here.

"Are you waiting for my time to run out? Following me, that's obsession."

"Perhaps." He responded. He noted that she still didn't meet his gaze. She always fixed it to a spotnear his shoulder or past him.

"Over a human, who's not worth much in the way of life according to you."

"This is true, but tell me Clair, do you not value certain objects you own more than others? Not desire touse certain ones more often or more than once?"

"Yes."

"Your value at the moment is above the others in the house. It's really your ticket to keep living."

"Until you break your toy." He could hear a few moving in the kitchen and he understood now why shemade more food than she was going to eat.

"I hope not to break you too soon." She looked down at her food. "Why don't you ever meet my gazefor more than a few seconds?" He asked suddenly annoyed. He wanted to know what she wasthinking. See her reactions, but she hid her eyes from him and he couldn't hear her mind.

"Why do I need to?" She retorted, he looked at her bent head. He'd had more conversation with herthan he'd ever had with anyone in years. It was nice in a way, different.

"Because it annoys me that you don't." He snapped not meaning to but he couldn't very well take itback. He wanted to read her the way that he could others, but she was very hard in more ways thanone.

"Sorry for the inconvenience." she said in an almost snide tone. Different from her normal quiet andalmost respectful manner.

"Are we feeling a bit jaded, or comfortable with your current condition?"

"No, not comfortable at all. The longer one has with their freedom the more you tend to forget that youare not truly free."

"Very smart." He stood.

"You don't ever have to give a human the chance to live. Why do you?" This time her eyes met his. Hewas silent for a moment and felt a few urges rush up so he stood. Best to leave, he knew himself toowell.

"I get bored, and I like to play games. Goodnight Clair." He said turning to leave, because he needed toleave her presence. Or do something he'd regret.

"Goodnight Isaiah." He looked over his shoulder at her, but she wasn't looking at him anymore. Hedidn't know how to feel about her calling him by his name, it felt personal. He thought that he saw aslight smirk on her face.

She was playing with him and he saw it right there. This was such a hard choice. He moved down thehall thinking. He could keep her around, enjoyment was hard to find as of late. She provided him with a

good amount during her time here. Unfortunately his desire was far more than his need to keep heraround. He'd want her blood and when she failed he wouldn't be able to stop himself. Isaiah gave aharsh sigh still thinking.