Entangled (Vice Games) (3 page)

I laughed as I scrambled the eggs. My hair was like a bird’s nest and dressed in my sloppy but comf
ortable track pants and shirt, I hardly considered myself worthy to be called beautiful.

‘How old are you?’ she asked.

‘Twenty three,’ I answered as I halved the eggs in the pan. Breakfast was eggs on toast, simply because I didn’t have anything else in the fridge. Anna ate it without any protest or sign of emotional distress. I thought of it as strange or perhaps staying up all night helped calm her down.

A knock at the door quickly reversed this.
Anna held her fork in mid-air and fear filled her doe like eyes. I stood up and she immediately grabbed my arm.

‘Please don’t,’ she begged and shook her head. Tears formed at her eyes and I could feel the wave of terror rising inside her.
Her chest heaved. I placed my hand on her hand and reassured her.

‘It’s going to be alright,’ I told her. ‘It’s just the door.’

‘Who would come knocking at this hour?’

I opened my mouth to reply but could not give an answer.
‘I won’t let anyone take you away. Do you trust me?’

Anna whimpered and eventually nodded her head. She followed me down the hallway and to the door.
I peered through the door and found that it was Tristan.

‘It’s your brother,’ I informed her. Anna clutched my arm and shook her head. Her eyes pleaded me. ‘I can’t just let him stand there. I’m sure he means well.’

‘He doesn’t listen to me anymore. He only listens to that bitch.’

‘Let me talk to him and maybe I can convince him to be your brother again. How about that?’

Anna was terrified. She hesitated but eventually agreed. I opened the door and Tristan did not seem at all surprised to see his sister standing behind me. He was not wearing his usual suit jacket this time and his cream colored shirt was unbuttoned at the top. His hair was swept to back and his face was stone cold. There wasn’t a hint of tiredness upon him, unlike me who had been up all night. I knew what I looked like and although I was not conscious about it with Anna; I felt my drab appearance more acutely in his presence.

‘Hi,’ I found myself saying.
He looked past me. For a split second, I saw that he was concerned for his sister.

‘Annabelle,’ he started. Anna immediately shook her head and clutched my arm tighter. I could feel her heart rate increasing and a possible onset of another panic attack. That was the last thing I needed right now. I immediately turned and held her shoulders.

‘Anna, look at me,’ I said to her, my eyes staring intensely into hers. She was breathing rapidly and the moment of peace she managed to gain over the past few hours was quickly dispelled. ‘Anna, you have to trust me, okay?’

Sh
e nodded and gritted her teeth. When I felt that it was safe to allow my eyes off her, I turned back to Tristan.

‘I think she should stay with me for a little while,’ I said to him.

Tristan glanced at me, then to his sister and saw that it was wise to accept my suggestion.

‘Two days, then you’re coming home,’ he said.

Anna shook her head. ‘You’re going to put me back in the Main House, I never want to see that place again,’ she said, her throat choked with pent up tears.

Tristan observed his sister’s reaction. She was in a fragile state and one wrong move could set her off again. I sensed it and immediately turned to face the distressed gi
rl. There must have been something in the way I spoke to her that managed to quell the rising panics Anna felt.

‘Two days, that’s better than nothing. Look, we can take this one day at a time, yes?’

Anna’s bottom lip quivered and I felt like I was dealing with a child rather than a teenager. The drugs were still in her system and thoughts of going back on them threatened to put her over the edge again.

‘One day at
a time,’ she repeated after me, breathing in deeply.

‘Yes, that’s right. One day at a time.’

It is one thing to ask for one day off, it is another to ask for a second day immediately right after.
I did my best to forget that I also had the rent to pay.

‘Are you about to die?’ Roger asked. He was unhappy.

‘No but this is an emergency. You have to let me off. Look, I’ve always been a good worker and I’ve never had a sick day since I’ve worked here.’

‘I don’t care,’ blared Roger in his booming voice. ‘And I don’t care if it’s your cat, dog, goldfish, best friend or parents are dying, if you don’t turn up for your shift, consider yourself fired.’

‘What? You can’t do that.’

But Roger had already hung up. Anna peered at me from the couch with the tub of ice-cream in her hands.
She could tell that something was wrong. I didn’t want to tell her. She was in a fragile state and didn’t need my problems to add to her worries. Besides, it is technically her fault that I’m about to be out of a job and most likely a place to live as well. But I couldn’t tell her that. Who knows what she might end up doing because of it.

‘What’s wrong?’ she asked.

‘My boss. Don’t worry about it. He’ll find someone to cover my shift.’

‘He’s firing you, isn’t he?’

‘No,’ I lied.

Anna saw it
on my face and frowned. ‘Please don’t do that.’ She took another spoonful of ice-cream. The cold sugary sweetness was doing her a great deal of good. Compared to the last twenty-four hours, Anna was more emotionally stable and has ever been for a very long time. The imminent return to what she calls the Main House still loomed over her but the reduced drugs in her system made her less anxious than she would have been on them.

‘How about this,’ Anna started, ‘you can work for Tristan. I’m sure he can
find something for you do to.’

‘What? Your brother? No.’

‘Why not? It’ll mean you’ll be close by when they try to drug me up again. You’re the only person I feel that I can trust. I mean, you’re real and not fake like everyone else. And I need you because you listen and they’ll listen to you.’

I understood what Anna meant. She was talking about the doctors and those around her. My time with Anna had revealed that she’s been on medication for so long that her sanity is questionable. Her mind’s constantly jumbled and anything she says doesn’t make
sense; and because of that, no one is willing to listen to her. Tristan had been her rock for the past few years until his fiancée showed up. I still don’t know her name as Anna always called her the bitch. Her mother died when she was five and her father remarried quickly after that. I noted the bitter tone when she spoke about him and never once calling him dad in her conversations with me. Medication began when quickly after her stepmother moved in and she’s been on them ever since. Her list of pills grew as the years went by and now they’re injecting things into her.

It’s also
revealed that Tristan has always been against it but he had no power over their father’s decisions, which from the sound of things are influenced by his new wife and something about a lost court case. I didn’t press Anna for these facts. She willingly told me and I felt that by telling me, she has a weight lifted off her.

My mobile phone sat on the coffee table and Anna grabbed it without my permission. Her nimble fingers began to tap something in.

‘What are you doing?’

‘Getting you a job.’

I paced across the room and attempted to grab the phone off her. Anna placed the ice-cream tub down and hurdled over the back of the couch. I chased her about but she was quick to get away. I saw her press send and a message was sent.

‘Who did you just texted?’

‘Who else could I have texted?’

‘Give me back my phone.’

The phone buzzed as a reply message was received. Anna flicked her finger over my phone again and informed me of its contents.

‘You’re hired,’ she said.

‘What?’

‘Tristan’s hired you. I’m sure you can discuss pay rates and stuff like that later.’

Anna gave me back my phone and returned to her spot on the couch to finish her ice-cream. I looked at the message and saw that it was a simple
yes
in the reply. I was unsure about how to feel before the sense of dread rose from the pit of my stomach. I didn’t want to work for Tristan. It meant that I would see him more often and although deep down I was not against that, the man has a fiancée. I closed my eyes and shook my head.

‘No,’ I said.
I was being silly to even dare think that he and I could develop into something else. For goodness sake, he’s getting married.

‘Yes,’ said Anna, completely out of context from what I was thinking.
‘You have to work for him. He’ll probably put you up as my babysitter or something like that, which I don’t mind if it’s you.’

‘You’re sixteen, you don’t need a babysitter.’

‘I’m emotionally unstable. I need someone with me.’

I laughed. ‘Oh really? You seem pretty stable to me right now.’

‘That’s only because I’m with you and not with them. I mean, come on, you feed ice cream and leftovers from your fridge. Everyone else just gives me pills.’

It was hard not to agree.
As I stood there and contemplated my situation, a loud cracking crash sounded in the kitchen. Anna and I went in to investigate and found that the ceiling had collapsed. The water damage had weakened the structure above and there was a gaping hole over where the leak is. A brown mush which had been the insulation and big slabs of crumbled ceiling lay on the ground.

‘Holy crap,’ I found myself saying. I placed the mobile phone in my hand down on the counter and edge
d closer to peer up at the damage. I lived on the top floor, which meant that I could see the rotting roof struts. Mushrooms were also growing at odd angles in the wood.

My phone buzzed and I turned to find it in Anna’s hands again.

‘Did you just text him again?’

‘Yes. You’re going to need a new place to live.’

‘You didn’t need tell him that. I can find a place on my own.’

Anna shrugged with a delight
ed innocence in her clear eyes. ‘He’s sending someone over and you should pack.’

‘What?’

Anna grinned. For once in her life, everything seemed to be going her way. She turned around and bounded for my room.

‘Anna, come back here,’ I called and chased after her.

‘Do you have a suitcase?’

‘What? No.’

It was the truth. Alison had borrowed it when she moved out and she hadn’t the chance to return it yet.

‘Huh. Alright. That can be arranged.’

‘Anna, don’t,’ I said as her fingers expertly tapped out another message to her brother. The teenager seemed to take delight in maddening me. She jumped across the bed and managed to slip away as a reply came through.

‘
Jace is coming.’

‘Who’s Jace?’

‘The gardener.’

In twenty minutes, a knock came at the do
or and Anna raced to answer it. Jace was a middle aged man with tanned skin and dark greying hair. He had a friendly demeanor about him, like that fun uncle you could always talk to at a family gathering. I saw his surprise when he caught the jovial smile on Anna’s face. It was something that he had not seen in a long time since his employment with under Tristan Vice.

‘This way,’ said Anna as she bounded down the
hallway.

‘And you must be Miss
Walters,’ he said to me.

‘Phoebe will be fine.’

Jace came in with two large cream colored empty suitcases. I noticed that they were Prada and was forced to pack my stuff in them. After emptying my wardrobe, it didn’t even fill the first suitcase. There wasn’t much in the living room except for my ancient second hand laptop and some photographs of my family. What was left was the old couch, coffee table and an outdated television set. I attempted to salvage the things in the kitchen but the rumble blocked my path. Within the hour, I found myself in the car with Anna as Jace drove us away, I looked out the window and something told me that it was going to be the last time I ever see the building again. The landlord finally got his wish without officially kicking me out.

I was shocked to find out that I would be living in a mansion.

‘Don’t worry, this isn’t the Main House,’ Anna said when she caught the look on my face. I felt a wave of apprehension as the car pulled up the long driveway. ‘It’s Tristan’s house. Jace, please don’t make me go back to the Main House.’

I peered out the car’s window and is
thoroughly impressed. The structure was two stories high and seemed to be made of metal and glass. It was an architect’s dream design job and exuded with modernity and money. It was clear that Tristan Vice is incredibly rich as my eyes swept across the endless manicured lawns and topiaries.