wants to be, and somehow that fits him perfectly.
The bed is massive and imposing, a grander and scarier looking version of mine. Where my bedposts are plain and my drapes are feminine, his bed looks more like a cage than a bed. Where there would normally be two bedposts connecting the footboard with the roof, this bed has four, with carved wooden spikes hanging down at intervals between them. The thing is the blackest wood I’ve ever seen, and the heavy fabric at the sides lets no light in or out. The carvings make it look like the images I’ve seen of old churches, which strikes me as strange because Baron seems the opposite of religious.
But then he does so love to be worshipped.
The bed is somehow predictable, but it’s the other things that confuse me.
The artwork on the walls is macabre. A naked woman with a triangle for a head and black horns extending to a full moon. A man with a honed body, but missing his hands and with sockets for eyeballs. A woman chained to a chair while skeletons surround her, a look of panic in her eyes.
Everything from the bed to the art to the imposing and strangely shaped furniture is horrifying… but altogether it’s strangely beautiful.
Just like the man behind me.
“This is where I sleep,” he says. “Where I eat. Drink. The only place in the world where I can be truly alone, and therefore myself. Where I don’t have to be the monster in the mask. No one is allowed in here.”
He sounds sad when he tells me, as if he wishes it could be different. But also sincere and vulnerable. Like he’s letting me have a glimpse inside a physical secret. I swallow and turn around to face him. “Then why bring me here?”
“Because, sweet girl, we are covered in blood, and my shower is the only one in the whole house connected to a somewhat reliable generator.” He says it so matter-of-fact that I wonder if I was imagining the vulnerability a minute ago.
Somehow, though, I don’t believe him. I think there is perhaps a small part of him that wants to let someone in. He just won’t admit it.
He’s already walking away from me, motioning for me to follow him.
I walk a few steps behind, taking a longer route to avoid a black and silver area rug which is so detailed and intricate it has to be from the old world. Baron doesn’t bother. He just walks straight across it. I have to rush to keep up.
In the far corner of the room, there is a door. Baron walks straight in, but I hold back.
It’s dark in there.
I hear the familiar sound of his lighter flicking and take half a step in as the room begins to illuminate.
The candles flicker against dark slate walls and reflect on a large glass panel. He reaches behind the glass to turn a dial, and a moment later water cascades from the ceiling.
He turns back to me, his head bent low, one hand pulling me farther into the room while the other closes the door behind me. He switches our positions… and then locks the door.
“Wha—”
“Strip,” he says.
I spin around, eyeing him warily while I decide what do to. He has seen me naked so many times, I suppose it really doesn’t matter anymore. But there is no man beside us now waiting to have his teeth removed.
“I can’t shower alone?”
He lets out a half-laugh and tilts his head to the side. “We might as well be chained together at the wrists now, for you will never leave my sight again.”
“You’re joking with me.”
“Do I sound like I’m joking?” he asks, taking a step toward me.
No. Not particularly. But in order to protect my own sanity, I’m going to believe that he is.
He closes the distance between us before I have time to react. His fingers grip the dress just below my thighs, and he pulls the fabric up.
A few seconds later, I find myself yet again standing before him in nothing but my stockings and the belt which holds them up.
He takes my shoulders in his hands and guides me across the room.
I’d expected to be thrown in the shower, but it seems that isn’t his intention.
Not yet, at least.
There is a mirror on the far wall, and it’s below the mirror at waist height that the candles sit around the large sink. He stands behind me, his hands keeping my head in place