CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
MILES POV
I watched the terror bloom in Hailey’s eyes as realization sank in – this was no mere audition, but something far more sinister.
The foolish girl’s chest heaved with panicked breaths as I loomed over her, savouring the scent of her fear.
“Wh-what is this?” she stammered, trying in vain to wrench herself from my iron grip. “If you think I’ll just go along with your sick games…”
I tsked in mock disappointment, giving her a little shake like one would a disobedient pup. “Such naivete ill-becomes you, my dear. I admired that charming pluck when you dared speak out against me before. But now?”
My lip curled in a cruel sneer as I drank in her vulnerability. “Now I find that foolish pride merely primes you as the perfect new plaything to break.”
Hailey’s eyes flashed with impotent fury. “You’re deranged! I don’t know what kind of power you think you have over me, but I swear if you don’t let me go this instant-”
“You’ll what?” I cut her off with a low, rumbling chuckle. “Struggle futilely while Igor here assists me in keeping you… compliant?” I nodded toward the hulking brute standing sentry nearby. “Go ahead, exert what meager backbone still remains to you. I do so enjoy a spirit that requires… rigorous taming.”
My grip on her jaw tightened as I pulled her face mere inches from my own. “But for now, I’ll settle for your obedience. You’ll be returning here promptly at 8 AM tomorrow so we might continue our… private explorations of your craft. Any objections?”
I searched Hailey’s eyes, daring her to defy me and witness first-hand just how far I was willing to go to shatter her completely.
For an endless, breathless moment, those dark pools simmered with impotent rage and indignation.
At last, she gave a terse shake of her head, swallowing hard. “F-fine. I’ll be here.”
Grinning like a wolf who’d just cornered a hapless lamb, I gave a nod of satisfaction and released her. “There’s my good girl. You’ll find such compliance opens many… rewarding opportunities between us.”
I watched her flee from the warehouse, still trembling and pale as a specter.
Oh yes… she had gotten the message loud and clear.
Can’t wait for morning to Come.
My driver whisked me away, peals of dark laughter bubbled up unbidden. For the first time in ages, I felt that delicious thrill of the hunt burning through my veins.
Hailey’s suffering would be a long-savored vintage, with each nubile hope and aspiration extinguished in aching, agonizing increments.
I could scarcely contain my glee as I watched the feisty actress storm out. Far from being cowed, Hailey’s eyes burned with defiance even as terror flickered across her features.
She fancied herself brave, did she? Unwilling to bend to my whims? We would see about that.
From the moment that impudent girl had dared speak to me so disrespectfully at the audition, I knew she would be my newest conquest.
Not a romantic one, of course – such trivial dalliances held no interest for me. No, Hailey would serve as the object of a far more delicious game.
One where I obliterated her fragile spirit, stripped away each layer of pretense until she lay naked and broken before me.
The thrill of it already coursed through my veins like an intoxicating elixir.
“Did you enjoy your little audition?” My agent’s shrill voice sliced through my reverie as I exited the warehouse.
Celia always seemed to take personal offense at my… predilections.
“I take it your little acting exercise went… well?” Celia’s clipped tones sliced through my reverie like a harsh fluorescent light.
“Swimmingly,” I purred in satisfaction. “I dare say our ingenue will prove herself a most… captivating subject for my interests.”
“Don’t get carried away,” Celia warned in that familiar nagging tone.
Celia’s heavily mascaraed eyes narrowed to slits. “You’re playing with fire, Miles. Don’t do anything foolish that could jeopardize this project.”
“Come now, you wound me.” I tsked in feigned hurt. “When have I ever let my… indulgences interfere with business?”
“Need I remind you about that aspiring ingenue in Paris? The one who tried slitting her wrists after your ‘indulgences’ with her?”
I waved a dismissive hand. Dramatic little tart, overreacting as per usual for her sort.
A few harsh critiques during our intimate “rehearsals” and suddenly I’m the villain. So typical of the emotionally frail.
“Water under the bridge,” I assured Celia. “I’ve learned to be more… discerning with my playthings since then. Hailey seems a more resilient spirit – it should prove a much more diverting game before she breaks.”
If anything, the icy look my agent slid me only stoked my anticipation further.
So few could understand the rapturous thrill of shattering someone’s delusions, of watching the light slowly die behind their eyes as they accepted utter defeat and subjugation to my will.
A true artist reveled in such masterpieces.
“Just don’t go too far,” Celia warned, voice terse. “We’re on a tight schedule and I won’t have you derailing everything with another lost leading lady.”
I smirked, already envisioning the many delicious torments I had in store for my defiant new obsession. “You have my word – Hailey won’t be going anywhere. Not until I’m good and done with her.”
The limo carried me home through a torrential downpour that had consumed the city.
How apropos – a cold, driving rain to match the bone-chilling dread that must be consuming the ingenue even now.
Perhaps she would pull into her drive, staring hollowly ahead as rivulets of rain streamed down the glass like tears she dared not shed.
The thought made me chuckle darkly, enjoying a hint of the fear I would pull from her very core.
My penthouse sat in darkness when I arrived. I preferred it that way – light only proved a distraction, an obstacle for predators protein as myself.
My housekeeper Margot was smart enough to remain unseen on nights like these. It wouldn’t do to have a servant blundering in on my… private contemplations.
I poured myself a snifter of bourbon and settled into the towering leather chair positioned before the wall of windows. The city skyline twinkled and blurred in the downpour, like a million desperate souls afloat in an inky sea of oblivion. I found the thought rather poetic.
Sipping the smoky liquor, I reclined and allowed my mind to roam the many possibilities for Hailey’s torment. Would I break her spirit through cruel taunts and scathing humiliation on set?
Forcing her to stumble over lines again and again like an imbecile until she crumpled under the crew’s mocking laughter?
Or more… physical coersion, perhaps? Hauling her into darkened supply rooms to subject her to unspeakable degradations as I pulled her to the very brink of sanity, only to dangle it mercilessly before her?
I shifted in my chair, relishing the electric charge of excitement that pulsed through me. So many tantalizing choices.
It had been far too long since I’d indulged these pleasures – the intervening months of churning out insipid romantic dreck had left me ravenous for the hunt, for a new source of sport and cruelty. Hailey was manna from the heavens.
How perfectly fate had delivered her into my grasp. I’d meant to taunt and dismiss her at the audition, to embarass and deprive the arrogant waif of her desperate dream.
But then I’d looked into those smoldering eyes, glimpsed the banked embers of pride and defiance that lurked beneath.
In that fateful instant, I’d been seized with lusher ambitions for the girl’s suffering. Why dash such vibrant Embergence so quickly when I could relish stoking it into a raging inferno before mercilessly extinguishing it?
I set my tumbler aside with a contented sigh, gazing out over the glistening cityscape. Yes, toying with Hailey promised to be a richly fulfilling pastime in the coming weeks.
This is actually interesting.
Already, I tingled with the thought of her terror, of shattering that stubborn resolve one excruciating piece at a time until she was naught but a hollow, gnawed-upon husk for me to discard.
Perhaps I would even let her taste a fleeting glimmer of success, let the meager dreams of that big evening wear off just long enough for hope to bud in her breast. All the more exquisite for me to reach in and violently uproot it before her very eyes.
A chuckle of sadistic glee rumbled up from my chest. My new plaything would provide years of amusement, I could just sense it.
And when I at last grew bored with her, when that insolent fire at last flickered and died, the switch would make for a most gratifying coup de grace.
I would so cherish the look in Hailey’s eyes when everything she’d struggled for, been tormented for, lay in ruin around her. The flawless mirror in which I could at last admire and revel in my supreme mastery.
Oh yes. This role of hers promised such delicious possibilities. I could hardly wait to begin.