The following week passed as uneventfully as it could when I knew the life I'd managed to build for myself was under jeopardy because my cousin simply couldn't accept I'd moved on after all the horrors she'd committed. The hotel staff didn't talk to me at all, and while they did keep the room up to snuff and made sure I had food, their silence implied I was better off starving, or being thrown on the streets. I said not a word to them in return, figuring it wouldn't do to try and plead innocence when Pearl had so cleverly engineered things to ensure I took the fall for her crimes. Not that any of the staff would have responded to me had I spoken to them anyway, but I did make sure to thank each man and woman who came to the room to do whatever needed to be done at the time. Politeness never killed anyone, I told myself.
People-watching lost its appeal after only a few days, and I could begin to understand a little of the frustration Pearl felt on a daily basis. Of course, I immediately shoved that thought down; she deserved everything she got for killing so many people, and for kidnapping an innocent baby with the intent to raise the poor thing as her own. Being imprisoned for the rest of her life was more than she deserved, in my opinion. But as the week went on, I found myself wondering if perhaps she had been the wronged party all along, and though I tried desperately to remind myself she was a criminal, that became harder as the days passed by in monotonous succession, with each day starting and ending the same way as the day before. It didn't help that Pearl was out there living my life and setting me up for failure when she let me go; her sphere of influence had, I'd discovered, been expanded to include every corner of the globe. I'd be reviled wherever I went, and no man, woman, child or beast would accept me, no matter how much I tried to protest that I was innocent of whatever wrongdoings she pinned on me in her twisted quest for revenge. 140Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkSzBCW44kv
Then the end of the week came, and Pearl came with it, a simmering storm of pure rage that struck the moment she slammed the door closed behind her. Her punch caught me on the jaw and sent me flying across the room. I saw stars as I slammed into the opposite wall, but when my sight cleared, Pearl was on the floor, sobbing as she cradled her jaw. It took me a moment to register that I'd felt only a mild smack; Pearl's jaw seemed to have broken, and as she knelt there, crying in helpless pain, I saw a flash of what had happened, and I felt both relieved and ill. Pearl had done all she could to make sure I never had a friend this side of the hereafter, but while everyone she'd come into contact had accepted her on the surface, deep down, they'd never trusted her completely, knowing at the core that she wasn't me, as the real me would never do and say the things she'd done and said.
I rubbed my jaw as I walked over to my broken cousin. "Game over," I said, feeling both relieved and hollow.
Pearl glared up at me through her tears. "This isn't over," she said thickly. "I don't know what the hell you did, but I will never rest until I see you ground into the dirt!"
I rolled my eyes. "Give it a rest," I said. "You were the one who failed through overconfidence. That's what happens when spite turns on itself; it grows twisted and ugly, and just when you least expect it, it backfires in the most painful way possible." With contemptuous ease, I snapped the geas holding our fates in its hands, and Pearl gasped when she felt her face return. "And don't try to break free again," I added. "Your geas is now bound to you, heart and soul. You won't be able to get out without karma catching up and kicking you in the arse."
Pearl's glare returned, but the fight had drained out of her, and she made no move to do or say anything as I called for staff to come and take her to hospital. They were stunned to see her on the floor, still in tremendous amounts of pain, but when I explained what had happened, they let the matter go and got to work. In no time at all, Pearl was off to the hospital, where she'd be under police guard until UK authorities picked her up. After that, she was looking at having her sentence doubled, but as I left the hotel, free once more, I knew she wouldn't dare to escape again. I had no idea how the geas would act, but I didn't care.
Pearl would finally serve her sentence, and I was free to live out my life as I wished, without the shadow of a psychotic cousin hanging over me. That was all the reward I desired.
140Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMUGb0TJBM2
END
ns 15.158.61.21da2
