Europe / Florence / Palazzo Medici Riccardi (A Bedroom): June 22nd, 2020.
(Persia's POV)
"Let's start with you, my dear." I said laughing softly with a wide grin as a gun moved from underneath the blanket and pointed right at the woman.
The room went cold.
The woman's eyes moved toward the gun for a brief moment and said with visible fear in her eyes "T...there is a misunderstanding, this is ketchup."
The room went completely silent, the storm resounded outside.
"Ketchup…" I thought, my eyes narrowing.
The beautiful woman was completely still for a moment and raised the knife in her right hand in a surrendering gesture and went over to the the nightstand beside the bed and sat the ketchup knife down on it.
"Who are you." I asked calmly, my eyes fully examining even the slightest bit of her movements.
The beautiful woman glanced at me, both of her completely pale blue eyes squinting as she said calmly "I am matilda, your grace's maid."
"Ok…matilda, why are you in here." I asked very calmly and carefully with squinting eyes, my life was worth something but at my core money was worth more then it, but what is the use of craving money if you can't keep your head connected to your body to be able to attain and own it.
Matilda was completely silent for a moment.
She was a very beautiful older looking woman with a diamond shaped face, pale albino skin tone, pale blue eyes that were void of any worry, she had black straight bob styled hair and was 4'9 in height with a voluptuous, curvy and toned figure dressed in a black and white revealing maid attire.
"I came to get your plate, your grace." Said matilda calmly while pointing at the empty plate of food on the nightstand with her sharp golden nail.
The room was silent.
My eyes stayed on her for a long moment.
"I didn't want to wake you so I tried to stay silent." Said matilda calmly with a smile as she caressed her stomach gently.
"She would make me a ton of money in my previous life" I thought with one closed eye while lowering the gun.
The room became heavy.
I removed the covers off of my body gently.
My eyes widened subtly.
Fat.
That was all I saw.
Fat.
Suddenly a memory flashed through my mind of a older woman struggling to walk by herself and needed crutches to get around with, which was this body that I apparently now occupy.
Matilda followed my eyes all the way down to my veiny feet and said as she took a glance back at my face "This is a time for a decision to be made. I lessened your pain but you will not live like this for the rest of your li…"
"Says who…" I asked suddenly from out of nowhere.
The room went completely silent
I leaned back against the head of the bed with the gun gripped tightly in my right hand and said with a smile "Be careful with your words."
"My apologies, but your grace is particularly correct. I must commend your intellect, your grace." Said matilda calmly with a smile as she continued to gently caress her stomach again gently.
I nodded and said with a fake sigh "Looks like I'll be here for awhile then."
Matilda's eyes squinted sharply and she said immediately "You will n…"
"When is dinner gonna be ready, maid." I asked with a uncaring yawn as I picked my nose with my pinky finger.
The atmosphere suddenly became deeply uncomfortable.
Matilda stared at me for a long moment.
Then she laughed.
Softly.
Gently.
Beautifully.
It was not a kind laugh.
It was the kind of laugh that made the candlelight tremble and the rain outside feel a little farther away from the cabin then it was supposed to be.
"Hehehehe." Said matilda with a small smile as her sharp golden nail slowly dragged down the side of her stomach.
The room went cold.
Her pale blue eyes stared at me without a single bit of warmth left inside of them.
"Men are truly arrogant creatures." Said matilda calmly, her voice losing every bit of softness it once had.
My finger stayed against the trigger.
My body stayed against the bed.
I did not move.
Not even a inch.
Matilda tilted her head slightly and said with a cold smile "I did my best to keep your old ass alive because you were useful. Do not mistake usefulness for importance, your grace. If you continue to speak to me as if you have authority inside of a castle that is currently not yours, I will remove your head from your shoulders and place it outside for the beasts to eat before sunrise."
The storm boomed outside.
*BOOOOM*
The walls shook.
The candlelight flickered.
My eyes stayed on her.
Matilda took one step forward.
The floor creaked beneath her weight.
"You are damaged. You are crippled. You are inside of a castle that used to be yours. You are alive only because I'm keeping you alive." Said matilda calmly with a freezing expression on her face.
She raised one golden nail toward me.
Sharp.
Long.
Clean.
"Leave this castle when I tell you to leave, or I will end your life right now." Said matilda calmly.
The room was silent.
I stared at her.
Then I smiled.
Not wide.
Not loud.
Just enough.
"Is that so. So this was a plot orchestrated by you." I asked calmly.
Matilda said nothing.
I leaned back against the pillow a little more comfortably while the gun remained pointed at her.
My arm was weak.
My stomach was hungry.
My body felt like it had been bitten in half by god and spat back out because I tasted bad.
But my eyes.
My eyes worked just fine.
I had been watching her from the second she walked in.
The knife.
The stomach.
The height.
The nails.
The eyes.
The way she talked.
The way she moved.
The way she did not care about the gun.
Not at first.
But there was something she cared about.
There was something her hand passed near twice.
Not touching.
Never touching.
Protective without looking protective.
Her stomach.
A small beautiful stomach, housing a child that will never be acknowledged by the father sitting in the center of her like a crown the world forgot too steal.
My smile widened.
Matilda's face did not change.
But her body did.
Barely.
Just a single breath.
A little too still.
"Start dinner." I said calmly with cold eyes.
The room went completely silent.
Matilda stared at me.
I raised the gun slightly.
Not toward her chest.
Not toward her head.
Toward the stomach she was covering.
Matilda stopped moving.
Completely.
There it was.
My smile became cruel.
"You are too small for me to waste bullets on your body, and I am too tired to play tough with a woman that looks like she wrestles bears for exercise." I said calmly with a cold smile.
Matilda's eyes narrowed.
"But that precious looking stomach housing a bastard…" I said softly while my finger tightened slightly against the trigger.
The candlelight flickered over the gun.
Over her face.
Over the stomach.
"That looks expensive. It will be worth a good amount of dollars." I said with a gentle smile on my face.
Matilda said nothing.
I laughed softly.
"It also looks important." I said calmly.
The storm outside kept screaming.
Rain slammed against the roof like a crowd begging to be let inside.
Matilda's golden nails slowly curled into her palm.
I saw it.
I saw the anger.
I saw the threat.
I saw the calculation.
Good.
She was not some goddess.
She was not untouchable.
She was a woman.
A monster maybe.
A short, beautiful, mature looking woman with a stomach full of a stolen future.
But still a woman.
And everybody had something they did not want broken.
"Now…" I said calmly while pointing the gun directly at her stomach.
Matilda's face went colder.
"Start dinner, or I shoot that pretty little weakness out of your body. I am a pimp, I don't do this for play and I definitely don't do this for fun. Dismissed and we both learn what happens next." I said with the smile still plastered on my face.
The room became heavy.
For a moment, neither of us moved.
The sweat beneath me kept spreading.
My breathing was rough.
Wet too.
Matilda stood in the candlelight, completely still, staring at me like she was deciding whether or not my skull would look better open.
I stared right back at her.
Not blinking.
Not moving.
Not backing down.
Because there were only two kinds of men in this world.
The hunger.
And the meal.
I had not crawled out of chicago death and into some half dead corpse just to become breakfast for a small woman with pale blue eyes and a breeding problem.
Matilda's lips parted slightly.
Then closed.
Her cold eyes moved from my face.
To the gun.
To my finger.
Then back to my eyes.
The silence lasted for a long moment.
Then.
Matilda smiled.
It was not friendly.
It was not warm.
It was not defeated.
It was the smile of a creature that had just discovered a insect was poisonous after trying to step on it.
"Interesting." Said matilda calmly.
I smiled.
"Season it well my new bitch." I said with a sweaty grin.
Matilda stared at me for another moment.
Then she turned around silently.
Her footsteps moved across the floor with slow heavy grace.
She picked up the ketchup knife from the nightstand.
My gun followed her.
She paused.
Then placed the knife back down.
Slowly.
Very slowly.
Smart woman.
Matilda walked toward the doorway without another word.
The door opened with a soft creak.
The hallway beyond her was dark.
Before she disappeared into it, she glanced back at me over her shoulder with those empty pale blue eyes.
"You are going to regret believing you understand what you are looking at." Said matilda calmly.
I picked my nose again and said with a tired expression "And you are going to regret making me wait on dinner. I find I prefer the back view better than the front. Keep walking toward the kitchen."
Matilda's face did not move.
Then she left.
The door closed behind her.
*Creaaaak*
*Thud*
The room went silent again.
Only the storm remained.
I kept the gun raised for a few more seconds.
Then my arm dropped against the bed.
Heavy.
Pain immediately swallowed my body again.
"Fuck" I thought with a tightly clenched jaw.
My breathing came out rough.
Wet.
Broken.
My eyes moved toward the closed door.
Matilda.
Pregnant.
Stomach weakness.
I smiled weakly.
This world had barely started and already some small weird pregnant bitch was trying to use and discard me like trash after robbing my body of its worth child without permission.
Funny.
Very funny.
My eyes lowered to the sweat beneath me.
Then to the gun in my hand.
Then toward the luxerious ceiling above me.
Annabelle de' medici.
Former duchess of house medici.
A elderly woman that refused to die.
My lips curled upward.
"No. Not annabelle" I thought with cold eyes.
My grip tightened around the gun as I thought calmly "Persia zarwick"
The thunder roared outside.
And for the first time since waking up inside this broken body, I laughed.
Softly.
Wetly.
Painfully.
Because if this woman thought I was leaving this castle with no legs, no crew, no money, no map, no food, no body and no answer for what the hell my life had become.
Then she was dumber than the dead man who used to own this body.
And I had a feeling matilda was not dumb at all.
…
THE END…