She looked like a serene angel, glowing in the depths of rancid hell. Smooth alabaster high brow, swathe of dark hair falling neatly across her slim shoulders. Dark leather straps barely holding together the shimmering fall of white south silk dress, faintly gleaming with woven threads of real gold. But it was her eyes that were surreal, clear, untroubled grey, untouched, innocent, direct, surveying the room as she took a sip of her old fashioned.
He sat back in the depth of the leather couch, the lingerie clad girl on his knee lost her balance and fell to the floor, giggling. An angel should have been horrified at the scene, an exclusive social club restricted to only those with generations of money and social clout. There were no crass movie stars or freshly rich entrepreneurs to interrupt the ones who belonged here, no press stories leaked or delicious pictures drooled over by suburban hoi polloi. But then why would she be shocked? Her parents were frequent visitors to the rooms upstairs.
She walked towards him, her legs flashing through the slits, the silk shifting and settling with her stride. He grinned up at her, unrepentant, cheeky. His friends laughed with him, rogues all, expecting a fight, shouting lewd nasty comments in slurred alcohol and drug soaked voices, suggestions she shouldn’t have understood, and if she did, suggestions which should have horrified her, disgusted her, made her take off the only jewelry she wore, a gaudy natural ruby engagement ring, and throw it at him, flouncing off in huffing outrage.
But he knew his angel better, so he offered her the discreet carved box, from which she selected two pills, one yellow and the other, blue. She sank to her knees in front of him, looked in his eyes, making sure he saw the glint of power.
“Lunch with my parents, be eager to please, Prince Charming come for his bride, to ask permission from her father. And get your friends to clean up. You understand?”
She paused, her eyes steely, slightly narrowed, till he nodded, slightly. Then she smiled, her soft pink lips curving into pure evil. An angel, fallen.
-alka
Oct 2016
