Lessons for Alice

The two men smiled at him, "We have made no threatening -"

"Removing." Luc picked one up by the shirt front and tossed him backwards off the verandah. He'd had a lawyer teach him the nitty gritty of the castle doctrine when Sophie had gone through her hell. So long as you didn't continue once the people were out of the way, there was actually a fair amount of tolerance for violence in the law.

He slammed the door before the other suit could react.

Then Luca turned and sprinted back to the lounge, he looked around, and cursed the fact that he parked on the street and didn't have a garage. "Alice... There's a suitcase at the back of my wardrobe. Throw all your new clothes and stuff into it, right now."

She stared at him, "Wh-what? Who was that? Are you kicking me out!?"

"The cult. And your Father Thomas is out on bail." Luc replied without thinking.

His cousin's eyes went wide as saucers and she jammed two fists upside her head, and started shaking, "N-no, n-no, n-no... B-but... But why... M-me? I'm n-nobody... I'm nobody. Why would he... Why me? Why would...?"

"Crap." Luc winced, "I'm sorry. But... I need you to focus. Pack your things, even though you have nothing. I'll get some other stuff as well. I need to make a couple calls."

She nodded, despite crying, and ran from the room.

His first call was to the police station. They agreed with his course of action, but couldn't do anything but advise a patrol car to occasionally go by the house.

The threat of Father Thomas visiting wasn't something that they could do anything about, either. There was no protective order in place.

His second call was to his parents.

"So, basically, we need somewhere to crash the night, before we can sort out something to keep the cult away from her." Luc finished explaining.

His father gave a long and deep sigh, "That's fine. However, I really wish you'd called earlier. I got the call from Alice, too, and said that I couldn't protect her."

"She called you?" He said in surprise, "And you turned her down?"

"Not because I didn't want to help, Luc." His father replied with a hint of anger, "It's because... My brother's cult... There's a member of it that wasn't in good enough graces to live at the compound, yet. That's for their higher members. This one is new, only a few months. I haven't convinced her it's a terrible idea, yet, but she might do something stupid to increase her standing. Like telling them where Alice is."

Luca felt his stomach sinking, "Please, no. Tell me it isn't."

"It's Sophie."

He flinched, "So it's my fault they found her. Fuck."

"Go to a hotel. I'll send you some cash to help." His father stated, "I don't really know what you should do tomorrow, son. Cults... Go to war. They destroy what they can't control. Restraining orders won't be enough."

"Thanks... I... Yeah. This isn't going to be fun."

"You're a braver man than I. Or just a dumb shit." His father tried to half-heartily offer the joke they always shared.

"Young and dumb. Stay safe, Dad."

The doorbell went as he was hanging up. This time, Luca checked the peephole. It was the pizza delivery, which he gratefully accepted, so that he could see what was happening outside. The two cult members were sitting in a car, positioned right behind his own.

They wouldn't be getting to a car without being tailed.

Luc's guess that the Father had been trying to break Alice, so he could turn her into either a plaything or another one of his wives, seemed like it might be hitting the nail on the head.

Of course, cults were ridiculous, and they might just be coming for Alice because she hadn't gone back to them. They might be spending all of the effort on her just because she represented a traitor to their system. There was no real way to guess which it was.

The fact of the matter was that Luca was now completely out of his depth, in severe need of legal advice and protection, but they wouldn't be able to get that until at least tomorrow. For now, they were going to be stalked no matter where they went or what they did.

At least in a hotel it wouldn't feel like someone was about to launch a brick through a window or plant a horse's head.

Alice dragged the suitcase into the kitchen, as Luca walked in. She looked at him desperately, "W-was that the actual... Dinner?"

"It was." He displayed the boxes, putting them down on the kitchen table and still trying to figure out what he was going to do. "We'll talk once we're on the road, but... I have bad news. Again."

"Can... Can you not tell me?" She whispered, "I... I trust you. You want to protect me. Want it. So... Please? Things are bad enough, as they are."

Luca shook his head, "It's something I need to tell you. But, for now... Eat a slice whilst I try and think of a way to get you to the car without being seen. No need to confirm you're really here..."

If this were a movie, he would have paid the delivery driver for their jacket or something. Or have access to a group of hooligan friends to come mess around the car to let the two of them sneak out. But reality isn't that nice.

Hollywood also got it wrong that the cult would tail at a distance and try and stay out of sight. That wasn't the behaviour of a real stalker, not one looking to intimidate. Their freedom to follow you was part of the point. That you weren't in control of them. They'd keep a distance, but stay visible.

His sister had traded one monster, for a hundred, by joining. Once hurt, always vulnerable to the lies.

Like Alice, in some ways. His cousin just wanted him to protect her, because she didn't know how to trust herself. She'd lost her ability to feel like she was in control of anything, so she externalised it. She latched onto him, because she needed something to trust in.

He needed to make sure he didn't violate that trust. Didn't encourage it, either. It would be too easy to become what she imagined. He needed to find a way to balance it. Protect her, but not exploit her inherent trust in him. He wouldn't even realise it was happening unless he paid attention.

"Sophie." He said in surprise, recalling a vague statement from his sister that morning that she'd wanted to hurt the same man she had just turned Alice over to.

His sister might get suckered into the protective and comforting family of people who believed absolutely that they were making a better world, and the loving embrace that they offered, but not so much that she would believe in one asshole enough to risk everything for him.

"Your sister?" Alice asked with a bit of a panic, through a mouthful of cheese.

Luc pulled out his phone again, and called his sister.

She answered after a couple of rings, "Aw. Is he already out of his depth?"

"Sort of. Your dumb big brother isn't quite sure what to do when two people park in a car out the front of the house so that they can watch it." Luc said slowly.

"Oh." Sophie whispered.

He sighed heavily, "Soph... I'm trying not to judge. But... How exactly do you reconcile doing that, with saying you would have liked to hurt Father Thomas?"

Alice's eyes flashed in front of him, "Your sister told them!?"

"It's not what you think! Luc. Please!" Sophie said quickly, but he missed the rest of her explanation as his cousin snatched the phone and put it to her ear.

Alice paced back and forth, nodding slowly, and her jaw tightening. He was immediately reminded by the way she had been facing his sister when he got home from work. Her timidity was still there, hanging around the edges, but the anger was taking control.

Luca felt no desire whatsoever to take his phone back. He did think he probably should, and hear his sister's explanation for her actions without it being relayed... But he also got the feeling that Alice might not forgive him if he tried.

"Huh." Alice said into the phone, "So basically, you're a straight-up, no-good, forked-tongue viper! The mouth speaks what the heart is full of. I think I never want to see you again. And I think it would be just your thing, to ask Luca to forgive you. Because you don't deserve it. You don't deserve God's forgiveness, you trollop!"

With that little tirade, his cousin held out his phone to him.

Luc took it hesitantly, and put it back up to his ear, "Uh... You still there, Soph?"

"I think... I think I'm insulted." Sophie said slowly, "Did... Did Alice just call me the Devil?"

"Maybe?"

His sister groaned, "Fine. She's kinda right. I was a bitch. A dumb, short-sighted bitch. I can't believe the Father actually gives a personal shit about her. I thought she was in the bad books."

"Yeah. Why do you think some guy with a bunch of wives might want an excuse to punish one girl, in particular?" Luc replied sarcastically.

"I was dumb!" Sophie snapped.

Luca sighed, "No chance you can get the stalkers away from the front of the house, is there?"

"I've got no standing with the church. Not sure I want it, when you put it this way." Sophie muttered, "So... Fine. I'll come back and annoy them, and you two sprint off. Ride off into the sunset, because you're the damn hero, Luc."

He looked at his cousin and her chomping angrily down on her pizza, "Pretty sure that's not a label that has been applied to me. Never fear. No one is going to treat me with undue awe."

"Give me ten." Sophie replied tiredly, and hung up.

Luca put his phone away slowly, "So... Did... Did she have a good excuse?"

"Mmm." Alice nodded wordlessly.

He blinked, "Really? It... Didn't sound that way."

"It can be a good excuse, and still deserving of hate." Alice grumbled around her mouthful, putting a hand to her mouth politely. His cousin paused and winced, swallowing painfully. "I... I am allowed to hate. I wanna be allowed to hate."

Luca sighed, "If it helps, I'm furious with her."

"Not really." Alice shook her head and picked up another piece of pizza, "She's... She's like me. A victim. She just hasn't... Worked it out, yet."

He nodded slowly, "Pretty sure, she has. Thanks to you."

"I don't hate people." Alice mumbled, and sat down on top of her suitcase. She shrugged glumly, "I wish I could, sometimes. But I can't. I either pity them, or I excuse them, but I don't have any idea how to actually hate someone."

Luc smiled sadly, "As someone... Who hates quite a lot... You're better off."

"Hating yourself doesn't count." Alice said pointedly.

He nodded slowly, and then turned as he heard a car arriving in the street. "Sophie is going to try and make it up to you, by distracting your old friends. Run for my car? I'll grab your case. And hopefully we can get another place for you to sleep, that they won't find so easily."

"Family. They were my family." Alice said sadly.

---

"No, Luca! I can't!"

He chuckled as he half-pushed Alice into the hotel room, so that the door could shut behind them and he could stop panicking that they'd been followed. Not that the two in the car had been doing much but cringing with his sister screaming bloody murder at them.

He didn't think those two had even noticed his car leaving, they had been so busy trying to appease the angry woman standing at their window.

Like Alice had said.

Most people in the cult were victims. They really were people who thought that they were doing good in the world, and that Father Thomas was so innocent in his concern for Alice.

Maybe the old man really did think he was spreading something good in the world. Maybe he was as gross as Luc's cynicism thought he was. Either way, his cousin was safe from that, for at least another night.

She'd walked over to the window, and was staring out at the city lights, one hand up against the glass. Her braid hanging down behind her and just barely touching the ground. In the hollow blue light of the nightscape, she looked angelic, glowing.

Luc slid her case to the end of the bed, and then dropped backwards onto it, "I... Uh... Hope you don't mind the sleeping arrangements."

"An excuse to get the same as last night, guilt-free? I'm happy." Alice said, turning around and grinning.

He frowned, "Hopefully not quite... The same, same."

"Huh...?" She said in confusion, then her eyes widened and she went bright red. "No! Not like that! I... I think I'm too worried for that to come up. No need to worry about that!"

"You'd be surprised." Luc chuckled at her, "Fear and anxiety can bring out the horny, like little else. But... I won't bring it up, again. If you're okay... I'm going to take a quick shower, before bed. And then maybe some TV?"

She frowned, looking at him carefully, "Um... You didn't... Pack a bag?"

"Mmm. Forgot." Luca shrugged, "Guess you'll have to deal with me wearing my suit pants to bed."

Alice stepped over lightly, deliberately. His cousin looked at him with concern, and then she sat down ever so slowly. Right up against him, and leaning into his shoulder.

"Well, that makes it hard to go shower." Luc said slowly, "So how is the strongest woman in the world feeling?"

"Small." She whispered.

Luca put his arm around her shoulder and squeezed, pulling her into a hug. A couple days ago, he wouldn't have dared to touch her. She was a complete stranger to him. Yet, though he hadn't spent that much time with her since, he felt like a lifetime had gone by.

Alice tilted her head down, and whispered. He didn't quite manage to catch it, but he had a feeling that it was the thing she'd admitted to, that he was terrified of accidentally exploiting. The connection between them, that was not as unrequited as it should have been.

"So... Ignoring the crap. What was the best part about today? Did you do anything... Fun...? With Soph?" He asked tiredly. "The ear rings?"

She sighed into his chest, "I got pads. And your sister called me a throwback that was an insult to all women... And... And... And she worked... It... Out."

"It?"

Alice sighed and put a hand against his shirt, idly playing with one of his buttons, "That... That I wish that... I could... Be your wife."

"So that's why she was so aggressive about that." Luc acknowledged, feeling like he was standing on eggshells, and that they were starting to crack. And might contain hungry baby dragons.

She nodded and pushed in tighter against him, "I... What I wanted, before... Before tonight... Was to... Convince you to let me stay. Be your housewife. It... It's as good as I can get."

"I'm really going to have to convince you to let me cook for you, sometime." Luc mused, "You're too cute."

Alice looked at him flatly, "The only thing I've been able to do for you is make some terrible porridge. Please, just let me be your housewife."

"What about uni?" Luca asked curiously, "HECS means that you don't really need to care too much about the costs of that, unless you get a full time job, and then they'll just take the debt out of your earnings. So... Wanna study something?"

She pulled her knees up, "Umm... The lost art of sleep through the ages?"

"I'm not getting my shower, am I?" Luc sighed, lying back on the bed, and pulling his cousin with him.

She sat back up immediately, and started unwinding her hair. "It'll take me a few minutes. Can't sleep with my hair done. Not a mistake to make more than once. So... A quick one?"

---

Luca wasn't sure how or when he got to sleep. Alice was as beautiful and stunning as ever, and his rather naked cousin was having no less effect on him than when he first saw her.

He woke up sometime early, the sun wasn't even on the horizon yet.

He was lying on his side with an arm draped over Alice, and her buttcrack nestled back against his morning wood. Most of her incredible blanket of hair was pulled forward so that his bare chest was against her bare back.

At first, Luc thought Alice might be cold, or might be crying. She was shaking, just a little. Like she was shivering, despite the two of them lying beneath the sheets and doona.

Then he heard her whispering somewhat familiar words to herself. "I'm such a bad girl... Mmm... Luca..."

She very slowly, but very deliberately, seemed to lift and lower her butt. Grinding back against him. His cousin's breathing measured and controlled, but ragged around the edges. The blonde bombshell working away at herself, lost in her own fantasy.

"Sh-show me." She whispered, "Show me I'm... Mmm... Worth something. Your bad girl."

That was a sudden dip into darkness. He had to figure out something, anything, to bolster her self-esteem. Alice's opinion of herself was deeply ingrained, and about as far from it should be, as it could be.

"C-come on... Sstupid..." She groaned, and then scared him by letting out an irritated scream, and sitting up. Luca held his breath, but she wasn't paying attention to him.

Alice slid out of the bed, her golden river following quickly as she stomped around to the other side of the bed. "Where is... There."

He heard her yank his phone off the charger, and then let out an irritated moan, "Oh, darn it! Darn, damn, double cursed damn!"

He guessed it was his lockscreen that was her immediate frustration, and her greater frustration was that she was having trouble relieving her tension, again.

Luc pushed himself up in the bed, causing Alice to squeal and fall over. She guiltily held out his phone towards him and looked away, "I wasn't stealing it!"

"Erotica or porn?" He asked, taking the phone to bring up the web browser.

She flushed bright red, "I-it's not like... That..."

"Right. And I'm not going to bring one up, give you back the phone, and then go take a nice long, hot and relaxing shower where I can't hear anything." Luca said with as little emotion as he could.

Alice sighed and shook her head, moving to sit on the edge of the bed beside him. "Okay. That was a lie. You're right. But... I don't... I don't think it'll work. I... I can't... I can't... Finish. I don't think... Okay. Uncomfortable. You talk."

Luca sighed heavily, "I think... You're having issues... Relaxing."

"I know that." She said in exasperation, "That's why I'm... Things! Doing things!"

A fleeting thought crossed his mind, looking up at her frustrated green eyes, and trying desperately not to let his gaze drift downwards to her small breasts, that seemed slightly bigger than he remembered. Pink and perky little tits, that he really wanted to feel in his hands. Wanted to see if they were just big enough to slide in-between.

Alice wasn't the only sexually frustrated one.

The thought that arrived was wrong on almost every level. He was more experienced than her. Might have the fingering skill necessary to break through her wall. Even just being someone else might mean he could do for her, what she could not do for herself.

He pictured calming her in the hot water of the shower, before leaning into her and thumbing at her nub. Imagining the sounds that his cousin would make, echoing off the walls around them.

She was still traumatised, brainwashed into thinking she was pathetic and that her highest aspiration in life was to be a good little wife for some jerk. Even just thinking about her, Luc was coming close to crossing a line that could never be crossed.

He would hurt her, permanently, if he ever stepped over it. Alice didn't have the ability to tell him to back down.

"Luca?" She asked curiously.

He shook his head, "Sorry. Just... Thinking."

"About... Me?" She said hopefully.

"I don't think I should answer that." He stood up, putting a little distance between them. He peeked into the bathroom as an excuse, "We've got until midday to check out. They've got a spa bath. Why don't you have a nice massaging bubble bath? It could be relaxing. And if it fails... The jets could have other uses. I'll organise breakfast."

Alice gave a small pout, "You're running from me."

"Yes." He admitted.

"I dreamt about us." Alice began subconsciously braiding her hair, watching for his reaction. "Can... Can I tell you about it?"