Entangled (Vice Games)

by Cooper, Alice

  ‘This is your last chance to accept,’ he said in a low voice. It made my heart weak but my senses got the better of me. Accepting the job would mean that I would become responsible for a life. Taking care of an unstable teen was not my thing. Besides, Anna is much too old to have a nanny and I’m much too young to mother her.

  ‘Thank you, but no,’ I found myself answering.

  ‘Very well,’ he said. Tristan Vice paused and my eyes became hooked by his pools of blue jewels. I felt my ears grow hot and quickly broke the unnecessary prolonged gaze.

  Without a word Tristan Vice left. I did not walk him to the door and I heard it close behind him. The drip-drip of the kitchen ceiling reminded me of who I am and it was a prompt that advised me not to be silly. Tristan Vice probably lived in some uptown house and his sister somewhere with their parents. Or perhaps he has his own house and his sister lives with him. There were only three numbers on the phone. I didn’t know anything about his family and it is best that I don’t.

  Chapter 3 – Housing a runaway

  A loud knocking against my door woke me up. I checked my clock and found that it was quarter to three in the morning. At first, I thought it was a dream but the knocking persisted. I dragged myself out of bed and down the dark corridor. I turned on the lights and peered through the security hole in the door. What I saw confused and shocked me. Anna stood on the other side, her face covered in tears and she looked as if she had just waded through a pond. I instantly threw back the door and she wrapped her arms around me.

  ‘Please don’t make me go back to the Main House,’ she sobbed.

  ‘Good lord, what happened?’

  Anna was incoherent. There was something about drugs and pills and doctors trying to kill her. She was distressed and there was a cut on her left cheek. I took her in and sat her down on the couch.

  ‘Hey, hey, slow down and breathe.’

  Anna’s lungs were sporadic as her sobs mingled with her attempt to talk. I noticed that around her left wrist was a hospital tag.

  ‘Please don’t me away.’

  ‘I won’t.’ I knelt down in front of her and she peered down with confused blue eyes. They were the same shade as her brother’s. Anna tugged at her tag and her inability to get it off made her panic. She began to cry violently and I ran into the kitchen to grab a pair of scissors.

  ‘Here,’ I told her as I took hold of her dainty wrists and snipped the plastic bracelet. It fell to the ground and I placed the scissors on the table behind me. Better keep sharp objects away from this girl. ‘It’s gone now,’ I told her. ‘See, it’s gone.’

  It calmed Anna and I wrapped my arms around her. There were bits of rocks and dirt in her hair as she lifted her legs off the ground and curled up against me.

  ‘Please don’t leave me,’ she whispered. ‘Tristan’s already gone. I have no one else.’

  ‘What do you mean he’s gone?’ I asked, confused by what she meant.

  ‘He’s proposed to that bitch. She wants to put me in an insane asylum.’

  I blinked. So Tristan is getting married? I felt saddened by the news but shook the silly feeling away. Why should I feel sad? It’s not like I know him. Sure he’s a good looking guy but it’s not like I have claim over him. And besides, I could see why his fiancée would want Anna in an insane asylum.

  ‘I’m not crazy,’ said Anna, ‘they just have me on too many things. This isn’t me. They’re trying to kill me.’

  ‘How many pills are you on?’ I asked.

  ‘Fluoxentine, strattera, clomipramine, zolpidem, eszopiclone, xanax, valium and that stuff they just injected me. Please don’t make me go back.’

  Oh god. No wonder Anna’s going mad. Although I didn’t know what each of the listed drugs are for, it was clear that no one should be subjected to so many things.

  ‘I won’t,’ I told her. ‘But if you’re going to stay here, you’ll need to clean up.’

  Anna nodded like a terrified child. I helped her to the bathroom where I washed the dirt off her hair and gave her my pajamas to wear. It turned out that she escaped from the hospital by jumping out of the window and into the pond below. She could have died, it was the third floor, but the fish pond broke her fall. It must have been a really deep pond. I was amazed by the story as she told me. But I could also hear it in her voice that it wasn’t another suicide attempt. She didn’t want to die. The doctors had given her something and it caused her to freak and run.

  ‘So you walked all the way here from the hospital?’

  Anna nodded.

  ‘But that’s miles away,’ I uttered with surprise.

  They would probably have the police after her. The sensible thing for me to do is to notify the authorities, but I knew that it would not do Anna any good. She specifically came to me and by doing that she would trust no one else; and that can be more dangerous than letting her stay at my little rundown flat.

  I thought over about what I could do. There was the option of calling her brother but Anna didn’t have her phone on her. And seeing that she’s distressed over his marriage proposal to his girlfriend, I didn’t want to risk mentioning his name, just not yet.

  The drugs prevented Anna from sleeping and I stayed awake to be with her. We ended up playing cards on my bed and I taught her how to play poker. Her mood stabilized with each game and I did not press her to speak about any particular topic. When it was six in the morning, I called worked and asked for an emergency day off. Roger, the manager, was not happy but I risked my chances of getting fired.

  ‘You have a leaky roof,’ said Anna as she sat at the round kitchen table while I stood over the stove top with eggs cracked into the pan.

  ‘Yeah. The landlord won’t get it fixed.’

  ‘Don’t you have a roommate?’

  Anna had calm down enough to hold a conversation.

  ‘I used to but she moved out to be with her boyfriend,’ I told her.

  ‘Where is she now?’

  ‘In the city. Eric got a job as a salesman for a computer store. Alison moved in with him so that they can be together.’

  ‘Do you have a boyfriend?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘No one’s asked.’

  ‘You’re lying,’ she said.

  ‘No, really. No one’s asked.’

  ‘But you’re so young and beautiful.’

  I laughed as I scrambled the eggs. My hair was like a bird’s nest and dressed in my sloppy but comfortable 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?’

  She 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 girl. 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.’

  Chapter 4 – A new employment

  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 phon
e in my hand down on the counter and edged 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 delighted 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 door 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.