Chapter 271: Who Did This?
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!”
Eric told one of the servants to get the water and medicine, and then he slowly approached his friend. “You were pretty drunk last night,” he said. “I am surprised that you had the energy to do anything other than pass out.”
“What are you talking about?” Paul threw a sofa pillow at Eric and said, “Speak plainly, man!”
“Well…” Eric rubbed his chin thoughtfully.
“I doubt Nancy took you back, so you must have fooled around with one of the servants.”
Paul frowned. “Is that how little you think of me?” he asked. “I would never be desperate enough that I would fuck around with the staff.”
“Not even if you were blackout drunk?” Eric smirked and said, “You should really watch how much you drink. Just look at yourself. I think that you might have a problem!”
Paul looked down, and his face turned white when he saw what Eric had alluded to. “Who did this?” he gasped. Then the color returned to his face, and he said, “Never mind. I. will check the security cameras.”
****
Paul’s face turned angry as he watched the security footage. “How dare she?” he muttered. First, Nancy had stomped on his face. Then she had cut his clothes and exposed his genitals. “This is unforgivable….”
He watched in dismay as the servants hovered over him. One of them leaned over and poked at his shriveled-up manh**d with a pen. She flinched when it twitched, and she stepped away in disgust.
Eric laughed so hard that he dropped the cup that was in his hand. He had never laughed so hard in his life. “This is what happens when you let a woman run wild,” he said. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you!”
“That damned woman!” roared Paul. “Where the fuck is she?!?!”
****
Nancy was squatting in the flower bed in the castle’s backyard, gazing off into the distance. She did not know what had become of Clark since she had last seen him, and she missed him very much.
Suddenly, a branch broke behind her, and a flock of birds took flight. It’s Paul – she realized. And somehow, she knew that he had figured out that she had been the one that had disrupted his sleep.
“Nancy.” The footsteps stopped behind her, and Paul said, “Don’t move!”
Nancy did as she was told. She was not a fool. She knew that if she ran, he would catch her. “Are you here to try to hurt me?” she asked casually. In the past, she had obediently let him hit her, but those days were over.
Paul inched closer to her, and with the sun behind him, his shadow fell over her like a foul blanket. He is like a demon – she thought. “What now?” she asked.
“You know what you’ve done to me,” Paul replied. “And turnabout is only fair play. I will do to you what you did to me, plus interest.” He smirked wickedly and said, “I’m going to strip you naked and offer you to a group of horny men.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Nancy’s face turned pale. “I don’t know what you’re talking about! I didn’t do anything!”
“Didn’t do anything? Paul scoffed. “How dare you lie to me like that? Don’t you know that this castle is rigged with security cameras? I saw everything that you did to me, so there is no point denying it.”
Paul reached out to grab Nancy, but she was prepared for this. When she came out to the garden, she had brought the hose with her. Until now, she had kept it hidden in her lap. Now that he was about to attack her, she spun around, pointed the hose at him, and blasted him in the face with ice-cold water. And such was the force of the hose that it blinded him and sent him reeling.
Finally, Paul was able to get out of the way of the hose, and Nancy turned it off. “Shall we parley?” he asked.
“Fuck that!” Nancy shouted. “Get away from me!” She shook the hose menacingly. “And unless you want more of this, you had better leave me alone from now on.”
“Nancy!” Paul roared. “Stop it, you stupid woman!”
“You asked for it!” After getting to her feet, Nancy turned the water back on, and she began to force him to retreat. Bit by bit, he inched away from her until he reached the drop that marked the end of the property. He lost his footing, fell into the river, and was swept away by the current.
Paul tried to swim upstream, but it was no use. The current was too strong, and it took him over a short waterfall. There, the water settled, and he was able to pull his waterlogged body to the shore.
Once Paul had regained his wits, he stood up and began to climb up the side of the waterfall. When Nancy saw this, she grabbed a bamboo stick and started jabbing him with it, and after only hitting him a few times, he fell back into the water. Then as he struggled to his feet, she laughed hysterically. “What’s the matter?” she asked. “A little water never hurts anybody!”
Paul shook his fist in the air. “I will kill you for this!” he shouted. He began to climb the cliff again, but when Nancy went to shove him back down again, her face lost all its color.
Paul had mysteriously disappeared. He was hiding under a layer of lotus leaves, but she could see neither his hide nor hair.
Nancy stared gloomily into the lake with the bamboo pole in one hand and the water hose in the other. “He has to be here somewhere,” she muttered.Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.
Suddenly, she felt a tug on the other end of the bamboo pole. She stumbled forward, and if she had not had the water hose, she would have gone over the cliff. She felt another tug on the pole, and this time she let go of it. It was either that or went over. But now Paul had the weapon, and she was vulnerable.
Paul brought the pole down on Nancy’s shoulder, and she collapsed.
Paul hauled himself over the edge. He stood over Nancy and basked in the glory of his success. He spat on Nancy and laughed. “Are you ready to meet your maker?”
Without lifting her head, Nancy said, “You’re forgetting something.” Then she rolled over, and just as she was about to shoot him in the face with a blast of ice-cold water, she saw something moving among the lotus leaves. It was a crocodile.
When Paul saw the Terror in Nancy’s eyes, he jabbed her in the side with the pole and demanded to know what the problem was. “It’s a c-c-c-crocodile…” Nancy stammered.
“Is that all?” Paul laughed. He did not believe her. “You should be more worried about what I am going to do to you. Compared to me, a crocodile is nothing!”