Dangerous Thought and Unsavory Dreams
Myles avoided Clemente’s persuasive questions about why he had “imprisoned”
Roy Burnett though she had completely agreed on not calling the police to deal with it. In her mind the police again calling to Rockford House could complicate her mission, it was a hard task for her to compose herself at the thought of the fat arrogant rapist lurking in the house yet she could do little but agree to Myles’s plans who made it certain that his “ justice”was the correct action. She was finding out more and more that he wasn’t a “normal” man.
He may have caressed her bare leg but he didn’t want to show anymore than this charade of showing her affection.
“Why didn’t he want intimacy in the house was puzzling. If she was actually into Myles she’d have been upset at the lack of want of her. Outside the house though Myles would be all over her, fumbling at his buttons and tearing off her underwear, taking her with urgent lust under the bare tree branches in a lay-by, one of many in the endless maze of English country lanes.
She didn’t love him but she did enjoy the sex, most of the targets she had to sleep with were not of her type. Old business men of many nationalities, one a Congolese Diamond merchant who had his white trophy woman up to eight times in one night that nearly broke her physically and mentally, yet she always fulfilled her mission. Her weapon was between her legs and though it wasn’t official code of practice from the Agency, it was an unwritten expectation even to the male agents.
Many secrets can slip between the bed covers, unfortunately for her in this task, Myles was reluctant to get her between those covers and between her legs within the boundaries of Rockford’s walls. Outside he took her with that heat that made her want him to a degree and just his body and maybe even his love but there was little pillow talk. He just done things his way and that was that.
His strength and sexual prowess was on high scale, a level she could barely handle yet once he had fulfilled his needs he was done talking and it was back to his house to carry on with this strange way of life that he seemed to relish in.
She thought of Faye and though she had taken to the woman as a much needed female companion in the murky bittersweet surroundings, she now felt she couldn’t trust her, more so that she had not only betrayed her man Heath. She had Chris and though Clemente saw Chris as a skirt chaser on the best of days, she felt that Faye had crossed an invisible line and thought about how to deal with her. She liked her, she liked her spirit and bubbly attitude but she had now become a pill to swallow. Though in her plotting mind trying to get Chris down to Rockford House would be harder now if Heath or anyone else found out him and Faye had a fumble.
So she decided to keep it to herself but would make it clear to Faye that she tasted Chris her once and only time and Clemente as much as her womanhood was a powerful weapon also had another power aspect of making people “disappear” once they burned that bridge.
She thought of the Congolese Diamond merchant getting ambushed by the Congo military, a few days after his fun with her. He wanted to show his white British beauty the jungle. Except he never returned. He lay, along with his burley bodyguards dead on the side of the road while Clemente was whisked back in large strong African arms to her reward of promotion and several unclaimed untraced diamonds she picked up for herself.
However it was the box she wanted, or rather Head Office in London wanted. Why it was so important wasn’t explained to her very well, but it was needed, it had powers she was told if she believed them, it was tracked by many prominent British families in the past, offered for vast amounts of money by international art and antique dealers over the years, even the Nazis sent an agent during the 1940s war to retrieve it thinking it could win Hitler the war. All classified information. Since it was last seen in the 1950s by a priest who tried to exorcise it that claimed his own sanity, it was lost to the decades but not forgotten by the UK government. The government had over the years found a reason to access the property and had searched the house only to find dead ends but only for one person who let it slip during his police questioning was the son of Robert Thornton, Nathan, who spoke about the box and this was backed up by Indra the Lithuanian cleaner who was present the day of Robert’s murder. They both told of a box in a glass case yet they could not tell the police exactly where it was. The room they said it was displayed didn’t exist and Clemente could confirm that herself. Though when she arrived at the house with Myles once he saw her as more than a girl who wanted to buy his car, she saw the box , the box that was an urban legend underneath the wheelchair of Dawn, Myles’s ex girlfriend who strangely took a dramatic mental downfall since her father and mother’s death, and even more stranger still had a place in this house. Myles said he owned the house and it was even in his diary that he bought it off the bank for an undisclosed amount that he inherited but Clemente knew the truth. She owned the house, Dawn Thornton did, left to her by her father by default of her mother’s death as eldest of the Thornton siblings. and Myles was her power of attorney. Though why he had to make it in paper by fakery that he owned Rockford House was anyone’s guess but anyone that knew basic banking and inheritances knew that these things took time and it was mystery that it was all signed and sealed at the very outset, weeks after the funerals of Robert and Martina Thornton.
She saw how Myles confronted her for touching the box and she didn’t feel it had any “power”, but he protected it and now news to her and from weeks of searching for cameras. She now knew there was one that directly had Dawn’s room door in full frontal view but where was it?
“I hear that your “friend” Chris was snooping about” Myles’s voice brought her back to reality.
“What do you mean?” Clemente asked Myles trying to slip her hand into his. He nudged it away.
“He was looking at Dawn’s room, Heath caught him, he didn’t give a reason to why he was there” Myles sounded cold.
“I’m sure he just got lost, it’s a big house” Clemente sounded reassuring.
“Yes but why stop at that room, why the fascination with that room? All that’s there is a very sick lady who needs a lot of help” Myles sounded sad and forlorn.
“I don’t know I’ll ask him” Clemente suggested cheerfully though not without a hint of mockery.
“I’m sure you will, under the bedsheets perhaps” Myles growled.
“Oh Myles, there is nothing between Chris and I, we’ve been over this, can’t we not have friends of the opposite sex?” Clemente gave a laugh and tried to rub his bare back, but he shoved her away. The force of his arms was beyond words.
“Don’t mock me, if you say there is nothing between you and him then you can give me proof!” He snapped.
Clemente looked at him puzzled.
“Yeah proof, you’ll bring him here and he can work for the house” Myles studied her reaction.
Clemente thought it was a trap and remained composed.
“He works for the Ballards though, he’s Portia’s personal trainer, and why would you keep someone you clearly don’t like here, especially as you see him as a threat?” Clemente sounded convincing
Myles laughed.
“You’re a fool if you think he’s a threat to me, but you’ll get to prove to me that you are faithful, and besides I like to keep my enemies close. Why do you think I allow Summer Thornton here from time to time.?Clemente, I thought you were a smart woman” he jibed.
“What will be do here? Besides I can’t guarantee he’ll leave his job with the Ballards. He does have a girlfriend down there too” Clemente added.
“If you could guarantee he’d leave working in White Moss House to come here at your command, then you’d have already answered my question about you two, but you can try and talk him into it, I’m sure things are quite awkward now at the Ballard’s residence and besides he can be my personal trainer, yours and maybe even get Dawn on her feet again” he gave her an arrow like glance.Clemente couldn’t help herself.
“Oh it’s all for Dawn isn’t it” she sniped at Myles.
“Well he was so interested in her room, and I’ll keep my eyes on him, and you, plus he’ll be busy with Faye” he dropped that last bit like a bomb to Clemente.
“Wh…..what about Faye?” Clemente pretended not to know.
“Don’t lie to me Clemente, you know what I’m talking about, your precious university sweetheart got more than an eyeful of her.” Myles laughed at her confusion.
“I…..I” Clemente stammered.
“I…..I need to shut up and in future tell my Myles everything” Myles’s voice almost pushed her back on bed.
“How did you know? , I…..I caught her more or less at it, but how did you know?” She asked.
Myles laid back. “Never you mind, but she’s another one I’ll keep an eye on, I should tell Heath he’s my friend but then it was kind of my fault” Myles looked at his hand and chuckled .
“How?” Clemente asked him.
Myles hushed her with his finger that traced her lips and she felt whatever it was in the house touch her then.
“I can figure out wonders on the weak minded but you are strong and I can see not everyone can be ‘worked out’ “ He said mysteriously. Clemente said nothing but for the first time she was actually afraid of the man.
“So tomorrow after we get shot of our guests, we have tea with with Davenports to tie up loose ends, you can join me or not, up to you and then…..” He paused and gave her a lustful look.
“We shall go for a drive and you’ll wear something nice for me won’t you,?
Something that will require my hands to remove, and then you’ll be happy seeing as that’s all you seem to care about, I’ll give you a good seeing to and that should keep you going for a few days” He might as well have been talking about refueling his car rather than intimacy between him and Clemente.
Clemente was about to speak but Myles cut her out.
“Just do as your told and that’s that goodnight see you in the morning” He fell back into the sheets and turned over leaving her confused and speechless.
Every mission had its price.
Downstairs Olivia lay in her bed with troubled thoughts. The night had turned out to be a nightmare for two women and the predator was still at large even though apprehended by her brother. She thought many times of just calling the police but it was only out of respect for the stricken house keeper Sue that she didn’t and not her brother’s adamance of not doing so.
What was more disturbing to her was what she witnessed. Myles was talking to someone but there was no one else there and no voice answering him she could hear. What had she seen in the study?, Her brother was taunting Robert Thornton who had been murdered in cold blood only half a year ago.
Myles was never a superstitious man, he was never one to even come across as unhinged but the whole Dawn/Summer debacle had taken it’s toll on him not to mention the death of their beloved father and their mother’s fall into wine infused depression.
He was going mad, the silver hair, the mannerism, obsession in power, the coldness to his mother, who just wanted her son to be safe. The unconventional way of dealing with Roy Burnett not to mention what he done with the Ballards and keeping Dawn the way he did, despite the fact she needed far more care than what was provided in this dark castle.
The last straw was the callous talking to unseen people.
Olivia knew the house had its ways and she couldn’t feel it at that point but her brother needed to be taken away from Rockford. He was clearly losing his mind and his folly for Rockford House would be the downfall of the once prominent family the Knights of Mayfair. She thought of her father and what he’d say if he could see Myles and her eyes filled with tears.
There was one more person who was locked in troubled thoughts though she didn’t see it. She was once again her world, of happiness and joy from her past that was about to pulled from under her like it was every night. Dawn had seen the rape of Sue but she was so far gone taking in what she saw that she may as well been looking at paint drying. However as she slept, she awoke once again oblivious to the fact her body was a like frozen rusty vehicle. This time she woke up to merriment back in her parents house in Ascot. Unknown to her that her parents were now dead, she did wake to a cloud in her life that loomed every time she woke after the event two years prior to that.
She remembered being raped that night at the house party and since it happened it was there every morning she opened her eyes.
There was laughing and cheerful talking downstairs and the smell of a traditional English breakfast being cooked. It was a special day as both her mother and father had shown their disliked of fried food many times in the morning but on occasion, it was allowed. It came back to her as she seemed to wipe her eyes from a bad dream that was really the real life of what was happening to her but in reverse.
The rape two years previous was real. She would never shake that off, but the dark bleak dream of that ghostly house and it’s dwellers was the worst nightmare she’d ever have had to that point.
“Ugh” she curled up for a moment. “Thank goodness it was just a dream” Dawn quietly said to herself. At least there was no panic attack as she’d had many of them the last two years.
She got up and heard a loud shout “Dawn, come on, get up” From her father downstairs.
She heard her younger sister Summer talking about a present she got someone and then “Happy 18th birthday Nathan!”
It was Nathan, her younger brother’s birthday. He was 18 and of course the Thornton household would be having a parade akin to the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee as like her younger sister Summer, Nathan was like a god in his parent’s eyes.
Dawn put on her black dressing gown and walked downstairs with a small bag and card under her arm. She always was keen on black as a color but wore it more these days.
She walked into a family of wholesome happiness and then her very presence cast a shadow on the celebration.
Her mother looked at the large kitchen clock. “Drinking last night again I suppose” She sniped.
“Of course she was” Summer chirped.
Her father Robert Thornton just stared with disgust at his daughter.
Nathan smiled at her. “She only had a few bottles of wine” He said casually . He was handsome and just had everything going for him. Much like Summer was getting. Dawn gave him a hug, his card and a wrapped present.
“He opened them and was moved by the card. “Oh wow, Dawn you made this yourself, it was a hand painted portrait of a horse and polo player. He winked at her. “Is that me?” He asked.
“If you want it to be” Dawn smiled as she was handed a plate of sausage bacon, and egg and her mug of tea from her scornful mother. It was the rare occasion she painted anything since art college. That was her dream and it was shattered all in one terrible night.
“Oh please Mum I can’t” she pushed it away. Summer tutted at her. Dawn gave her sister a nasty look.
“When will you ever learn?” Martina her mother sighed as she took the food away.
“It’s ok and thank you for the Hugo Boss” Nathan smiled.
“Wow that must have cost you half your wages “ Summer said with a giggle.
“And what did you get him? I suppose one of those crappy mugs you always get people” Dawn sneered.
“No actually Summer got me this jacket” Nathan pulled out a rather smart leather jacket that looked expensive. Summer beamed at Nathan’s approval at the gift
“Yeah but that’s not you is it Nathan, some men can wear leather some can’t, and you I’m afraid can’t” She sipped her tea.
“Says the woman who can barely wear clothes at all.” Robert had enough of Dawn’s parade raining.
Summer laughed. “Good one Father”
“Oh get lost you little wretch” Dawn threw buttery toast across the room and it hit Summer square in the face.
That turned into a shriek of dismay by Summer, woeful chiding by her mother. Silent disappointment by her brother and a royal earful from her father who berated her until she had to mumble an apology to Summer.
“I’ll get spots now” Summer said indigently.
“Probably and serves you right” Dawn said under her breath.
She stormed off and got changed into her cut off jeans and a black top. She went for a walk and the day passed like a dream would and she came to, when she was advised by her mother to wear a beige pleated dress that her mother bought her for Nathan’s birthday party.
It was nice dress but it wasn’t her and what 22 year old woman had her mother pick out her clothes?.
“No negotiation dear” Martina said.
“We all remember what you wore for Paloma’s 18th and we’ll never be able to forget it…..never” She sighed. “It was my fault I trusted you to get ready and to arrive in your own time but how bloody wrong I was” She sighed again. Dawn remembered the asymmetrical cut out black bodycon dress she wore for it and also remembered upstaging Paloma on the dance floor on her 18th. That was a happy time a few months before……” She came back to reality.
“There was nothing wrong with that dress” Dawn said with a rare cheeky grin. . “It was just the style of the time ok”
Martina snorted.
“Style! Style! For a Las Vegas showgirl perhaps. We can’t have you showing us up again” Martina scolded her.
“Fine I’ll wear your stupid dress ok” Dawn said picking up the garment and making a face at it.
“It’s yours I bought it for you” Martina said looking hurt.
“Ok I’m sorry Mum” Dawn gave her a hug.
“Want me to do your hair?” She asked Martina but her mother shook her head. “It’s fine just sort yourself out and I mean that in so many ways Dawn, I love you so much but sort yourself out please. The constant wine drinking, the putting on weight, the dropping out of life, the attitude, the aggression to Summer…. It breaks my heart you know that” Martina was really laying on her mother’s guilt.
Dawn just nodded. She didn’t want to get into it. Her mother didn’t know why she had gone that way, why she’d never be the same, and what it was like to be at an abortion clinic waiting for them to take away a rapist’s baby. She didn’t know anything and only cared about what was best for the family in her own mind that she shared with Robert.
The dinner went uneventfully. Some of Nathan’s friends joined him afterwards for drinks and a band was hired at the Mills Inn pub that their father Robert had insisted on. He co owned it with his brother George though Goerge ran the place. All the family were there bar her favorite cousin Paloma who was away on her gap year travels but had sent Nathan an interesting Skype message surrounded by rocky beaches of Phuket in Thailand.
Summer invited her “bestie” Simone and the two of them recited a poem that Simone wrote about coming of age. Dawn enjoyed the confused glances the family gave to each other and the sniggering by her cousin Rowena who was the same age as Dawn. It was rather bizarre but because Simone was Summer’s friend she was allowed to be ridiculous.
From her Uncle Henry’s rabbiting on about the incoming Brexit referendum, to one of Nathan’s friends Ashley hitting on Dawn which resulted in a beer tasting sloppy snog, not much else happened.
It was after the party when everyone was back at home, Dawn drank down a glass of water to help the inevitable hangover the next day. She went upstairs to her room passing Nathan’s. He was half asleep on his bed his phone and wallet and clothes flung across the room. Dawn stood at the door and stared at her brother. Then she slowly closed the door as she walked to her room, except she closed it from the inside. She crept across the floor taking off her heels as she did. She then stood closer to Nathan’s bed and smelt his alcohol filled breath.
“Happy birthday Nathan” she leant down and kisses his cheek.
Something about this was far from ok, in any world. Nathan’s hazy eyes looked up at her.
“Dawn?” He mumbled. She hushed him and then got into the bed beside him. “It’s ok Nathan, I guess you wanted a better present from me” her hands slipped around his naked chest.
“Dawn what are you doing?” He mumbled in a confused way. She smelt his neck.
“Oh you are wearing my aftershave…….thank you!” She kissed his neck and tasted the aftershave’s bitterness.
“Dawn……” Nathan mumbled but he didn’t push her away but tensed up as her hand went into his boxer shorts.
“Dawn what are you doing” He said louder as she felt his erection building.
“Quiet Nathan……this is for you” She rubbed his hardness quicker under his underwear.
He began to pant.
“Dawn this isn’t right, Dawn…….” His breath heaved as she took out his member and released it from his clothed shield and stroking it ferociously she kissed his protesting mouth.
“Dawn you are my sister…….” He was cut off by her invading tongue. She pushed him back on the bed and she realized her knickers were already off, and there she straddled his body putting her shapely legs each side of his with the dress her mother bought her up around he waist, she guided him into her moist tingling heat . Dawn heaved a soft moan as she felt her brother enter her.
“Dawn no…..no…..don’t make me…..no!” Spluttered Nathan as he tensed up and she felt him come to an explosion inside her making her cry out a victorious moan at the sloppy sticky but filling sensation.
She looked down at her brother with devilish eyes and then she realized he wasn’t Nathan. It was a man she’d never seen before but with black cold dead eyes and an malicious exerted grin.
He laughed at her and she felt his body shaking with his amusement at her face.
“Who are you?” Dawn screamed and then realized she was back in the bedroom of Rockford House as the cold dead looking man laughed with many unseen faces at her misery and shock.
“Sick…….just sick…….” A silver haired woman dressed in a long cream dress stood out. Her face was of a cold heartless wintery smirk.
“Who are you and where am I? That never happened! I never…….did that?” She screamed at the strange realization of what happened in Nathan’s bedroom rather than the fact she was in a strange room with unknown entities to her.
“Didn’t you?” The woman shook her head with condemnation. In the background behind many shadowy faces stood her mother and father, the look of disapproval were across their faces, only more intense than Robert’s face ever could be at his daughter and her mothers withered glance at her more distasteful than it was at the bad outfit.
She was once again stuck in hell and forced to carry on her sex act against the growling entity below her who moaned with undead ecstasy as he pulled her up and down on his hardness that filled her with a strange heat but the same invading used feeling she remembered from her rape. As the ghosts of Rockford watched.