CHAPTER 47
A scream coming from Dawn woke me up. I tried to look at her to find out what was wrong, but my head seemed hot and heavy. It felt as if my head was stuck inside a metal cage that had been sitting in the sun too long. Fear spread throughout my body as I realized Dawn’s finger was pointed at me.
At this point, Will and Connor had also jumped out of bed and came over to see what was causing the commotion. Connor had a look of morbid fascination on his face, while Will had one of horror. I heard him mutter under his breath, “Oh, God.”
“What’s wrong with me?” I screamed, as my nose started to pick up a strange smell as well. My hand went to touch my head, but Will stopped me. “What did she do?” I knew it was Grandmother, I knew I had been on the receiving end of her punishment. A million images of what she could have done to me were flashing before my eyes. The most prominent image was one from the movie ‘Saw’ where a character in the film had a large metal torture device locked on her head. Although rationally I knew it wasn’t as bad as that, the look of terror on Dawn’s face along with her hysterical crying had me in a panicked frenzy.
“Calm down, Elizabeth. Connor, get me a knife off the table.” Will sat down next to me and held onto my shoulders, in order to stop my distressed squirming.
“What did she do, Will?” I whispered my earlier question as tears streamed down my face. The burning sensation on my scalp and the horrific odor started to overpower my senses.
As Connor handed a knife to Will, he answered my question. “She’s put something in your hair. I think it’s tar. I’ll get it out, but you need to stay still, Bethy.” He started to scrape the knife along the pillow, trying to free the strands that were stuck to the pillowcase. I tried hard to control my breathing in order to calm my shaking body so he could do what he needed to help me.
“What if she comes back?” Dawn shrieked in a trembling voice. “What if she comes back to do something to all of us?” Frightened at the thought, she shrunk back against Connor who brought an arm up around her shoulders in a comforting gesture though it was obvious by his wide eyes and quivering lower lip that he was terrified of the possibility as well.
Will shook his head at her question. “She’s not coming back. If she was going to do something else to the rest of us, she would have done it last night,” Will answered, confident that he knew the methods of Dru’s madness. “Bring breakfast upstairs and stay up there. I’ll come get you both later.”
Having believed Will’s words that she was safe from Grandmother, Dawn’s focus shifted to concern for me as she grabbed a hold of my hand for support. “I want to help. I want to make sure Elizabeth is ok.”
“You are helping by going upstairs. I’ll take good care of her, Dawn. I promise I’m going to fix this. Leave us be for a bit and I’ll let you know if you can do anything later. Please, Dawn.” He didn’t look at her while he pleaded with her to go, still working intently on my hair. I gave her hand a gentle squeeze letting her know it was okay to leave me. I saw her nod reluctantly, and then she grabbed the bowl of cereal Grandmother had left behind before heading to the attic with Connor.
“She must have come in very early. I didn’t even hear her,” Will said, remarking on the breakfast set up on the table despite it being well before 9:00AM.
“I knew she was going to do something. I knew it was too good to be true that she didn’t punish us,” I started crying uncontrollably again now that it was just me and Will. All of the overwhelming emotions that I was feeling tumbled from my mouth in rapid fire. “It hurts, Will. My scalp is burning.” The physical pain was agonizing. It reminded me of when I used to accidentally burn myself with my curling iron, only constant heat and ten times more powerful. “What if I have permanent scars? And my hair, what’s going to happen to it? It’s ruined!” I saw myself with mangled stringy hair, and then a picture of me completely bald popped into my head. “Will, I may not even have any hair after this! Oh God, why did she do this? I didn’t even do anything! I only tried to stop what was happening. How could she do this to me? Why does she hate me so much, Will?” Another huge sob escaped me as I stopped to catch my breath.
“I’m sorry, Elizabeth,” Will said so quietly that I almost couldn’t hear him above my blubbering. “You know she’s not punishing you, she’s punishing me.” He stared fixedly at his blackened hands laboring at the tar as tears began to form in his eyes. “I’m so sorry.” His hands stopped moving as he hung his head in remorse. I could see his shoulders start to shake, a sure sign that he was now all out crying.
As soon as Will started to bear the guilt for the events of the morning, my own pity party came to a crashing halt as I realized what was really important - sticking by each other in order for all of us to escape this house. Knowing that no one was to blame except for Grandmother, I needed to get myself together for him. Taking some deep breaths to control my crying, I tried to reassure him. “Stop it, Will. It’s not your fault that she’s a bitch.”
“It is my fault, Elizabeth. If she didn’t find me with my nose in your hair, she wouldn’t have done this to you.”
Putting my hand on his arm to get his attention, he looked up at me in anguish. “She would have just done something else, Will. To me, to you, to one of the twins. It’s not your fault. She’s the one to blame, Will, not you.” I gave him a small comforting smile to let him know I did not want him feeling guilty for any of this and then tried to lighten the mood. “This stuff really stinks. I can’t believe we didn’t smell it.”
He placed a shaky smile on his lips at my observation and wiped his tears away against his sleeve. “Yeah, it really does stink something awful. Maybe she slipped us something in last night’s meal to make us sleep heavier, especially since you didn’t feel it happening. I wouldn’t put it past her.” Will had finally dislodged my head from the pillowcase. “Let’s get you into the bath. We’ll have better luck getting it out that way.”
Will easily scooped me up and carried me into the bathroom. I tried to glance at my reflection in the mirror so I could see the full extent of Grandmother’s horror, but Will blocked me. “Please don’t look in the mirror, Bethy. It’s better if you can’t see it.” After gently depositing me in the bath tub, he locked the door and returned to remove the clothes from my body. Once I was naked, he turned on the bath taps as hot as they could go. “Let me know if it’s too hot, but I think the heat will work better in removing the tar.”
As Will rummaged through my basket of bath products for something that might help in getting rid of the sticky substance, I leaned back against the tub to concentrate on the hot water running over my skin. With the rest of my body submerged in the blistering water, my brain could focus on other areas besides my blazing scalp. My thoughts went back to wondering if there would be scarring or if I would be bald for the rest of my life. I supposed I should be grateful Drusilla didn’t do something that would permanently disfigure my face - assuming her point was to make me less attractive for Will to look at. At least if there was permanent damage with this punishment, I could still wear a wig or a scarf to hide my defects.
And I prayed that Will was right when he told Dawn that Dru wasn’t coming back. I didn’t want her to take anything out on the twins, and Will had already been brutally beaten once before. I wasn’t looking forward to a repeat performance for any of us with that particular brand of Dru’s torture, and I was willing to make this sacrifice if it meant no one else would get hurt.
“Dunk your head under, get it all wet.” Will broke into my thoughts as he shut off the taps. “I think I got some stuff that will work.” He knelt besides the tub and waited for me to resurface. “You have some Tea Tree oil, some Eucalyptus oil and the different massage oils. I remember when we had the driveway repaved a few years ago, the foreman asked me if we had any cooking oil when one of his men accidentally got some of the tar on his skin. Took it right off. I figure this oil should do the same thing.”
Removing his shirt so it wouldn’t get wet, he placed the vanity stool behind the tub and dumped some of the Tea Tree oil onto a section of my hair close to the skin. Slowly, he rubbed the oil into the strands with his fingers, making sure not to apply too much pressure to my sensitive scalp. “It’s working,” he said after a few minutes of massaging my blackened follicles. “The tar is loosening, but this is going to be a slow process, Elizabeth.”
I nodded my head in understanding, remembering back when I had to clean his cuts from Grandmother’s whip and how painstakingly slow it all went. “I don’t care how long it takes, just get it out.” I tilted my head up to look at him. “She’s not going to break us, Will. We’re going to get out of here no matter what she does to us.” If Grandmother thought her punishments were going to intimidate us into submission, she was grossly mistaken because I was more determined now than ever before to escape from her prison.
Over the next few hours, Will meticulously worked at getting the tar out of my hair with the oils, his fingers and a small comb. My skin was pruned because of how long I had been in the tub, and my ears were waterlogged from dunking under the water so often. Will had refilled the tub several times whenever the water got too cold for it to be useful in removing the tar. Each time the tub was drained, I would have to stand up in order for him to clean the tub of blackness and remove the larger chunks of tar that wouldn’t fit down the drain. He would also run an oil-soaked cloth over my body in order to remove any tar that ended up stuck on my skin. After working in mostly silence for some time, Will finally spoke. “I’m going to have to cut some of it.”
“Will, no! I like my hair long like this.” I was completely panicked. Since moving to Rayne Manor, I hadn’t cut my hair once and it was now long, flowing and luxurious. Not only did I like it, I knew how much Will loved my hair. He was always burrowing his nose and laying soft kisses into it. Which is exactly what started this whole mess to begin with, I thought.
“I’m sorry, Bethy, but I’ve already gone through the bottles of Tea Tree, the Eucalyptus and a bottle and a half of the massage oil. Even if I use the other two bottles of massage oil, I’m not sure if it’s enough to get it all out. Besides, I’d rather save those for other things.” His voice got soft when he mentioned saving the massage oil.
Although I couldn’t necessarily disagree with his reasoning for wanting to keep some of the massage oil since I knew he wanted it for our sexual exploits in the attic, I let him know of my insecurities anyway. “What if you cut it and you hate it? What if you think it makes me look hideous.”
“Don’t be stupid, I would never think that. You’re my sweet girl.” As the words spoken by my mysterious lover in my dream all those weeks ago echoed in my head, Will kissed me chastely on the forehead. “I’d love you no matter what you looked like. It’s not your physical appearance, Bethy, it’s your heart, and it’s your strength. It has nothing to do with how long your hair is.”
I decided to assume that his talk of love was meant in a sisterly way since he wasn’t allowed to love me otherwise. Despite what we did together alone in the attic, I knew we were still brother and sister. Our physical relationship was purely a hormonal product of the horrible situation we were in. There couldn’t be any emotions involved, period. Pushing all thoughts of our other relationship aside, I let out a frustrated groan, knowing that my formerly perfect hair was going to lose this battle.
“Tell you what,” he said upon hearing my dissatisfaction with this outcome. “If you let me cut your hair, I’ll let you cut mine. You said months ago that I needed a trim. Here’s your chance; you can do whatever you want with it.”
Now, this was interesting. “Whatever I want?”
“Yep, anything you want.”
“Grr, fine, but please be careful. Don’t make it lop-sided or anything.”
He laughed at my vanity. “I promise, baby. Don’t you trust me?”
He had to go and throw out that question. Will knew I did. I trusted him with my life. I guess that was his point. “Go ahead and cut it.” I said, giving in, albeit grudgingly.
*************************************************************
Once Will was done fixing my hair, I stood wrapped in a fluffy towel in front of the bathroom mirror, staring at my shorn hair while he cleaned the black remnants from the tub and his skin. My hair was shorter than I could ever remember it being. It fell right above my shoulders, and as he promised, it was all one length around. Because of all the oil he used and the constant brushing to get the tar out, the texture of my hair was much finer, softer and shinier. My scalp was still tender, so I reached for the First Aid kit to put some ointment on the exposed skin there.
“Here,” Will said, coming over to stand behind me and taking the ointment from my hands. “Let me do that. It will be easier.” He gently rubbed the balm on my scalp with a soothing massaging technique. I closed my eyes at his tender touch. “So what do you think? Is it okay?”
My eyes opened to meet his in the mirror. “It will take some getting used to, but it’s not completely terrible.”
He smiled at my response. “Well, I think you look beautiful, Buffy.” His hands left my head to reach for the top of the towel. As it fell away, he began to knead my breasts and tug at my nipples, quickly bringing them to hardened peaks. While staring at me in the mirror, he continued with a feral grin. “Now, I have easy access to this luscious neck of yours.” Bringing his head down, he nuzzled at my neck, kissing and licking the newly exposed area causing my head to stretch to the side in order to give him full access. When he bit down firmly at the crook, I moaned in pleasure, grabbing at the sink to steady my shaky legs.
One of his hands traveled from my breasts to between my legs, and he began to stroke between my silken folds. Whimpering from his touch, I widened my stance a bit as my head fell back against his shoulder and my eyes closed in ecstasy. “No,” he said roughly, as he quickly inserted two fingers into my hungry pussy. “Open your eyes. Look at yourself, look at what I do to you.”
My eyes opened to gaze at the picture we made in the mirror. My already heated skin was now flush with excitement and arousal as his lust-filled eyes raked over my naked form. His one hand palmed vigorously at my tit, while the other worked in a steady fluid motion between my thighs. “You’re gorgeous. Doesn’t matter what your hair looks like, could be bald for all I care.” His voice was forceful, which caused my breath to hitch in my throat. “I want you, always.”
He took his hand away from my breast and grabbed the back of my neck, shoving my upper body forward over the sink. He removed his hand from my pussy and pushed his shorts down his legs. His erection sprang free, hitting my bare bottom. Grabbing me around the waist to move me back a bit, he forced my legs apart with one of his knees. Lining up his hardened cock with my sodden entrance, he stared deeply into my eyes in the mirror just before he slammed his hips forward, entering me in one solid plunge. I cried out as his hardness began to thrust into me over and over again as I watched his face filled with desire. “Your pussy’s so wet and hot and fits around my cock so perfectly tight. It’s like you were made for me, Buffy. Don’t ever think I wouldn’t want you. It will never happen.”
At his words, he yanked my body up against his chest, his fingers finding my clit to stroke at it. His mouth returned to lavish its affections on my neck and I brought my arm up to hold his head in place to keep the glorious sensations running through my body. Grabbing me tighter around the waist, he lifted me up slightly, moving us away from the sink.
“Oh, God,” I grunted as my body crashed fully against the wall, his hand firmly pressed between the wall and my hardened nub, his fingers picking up the pace and applying more pressure. I clawed frantically at the walls, trying to grab onto something to brace myself, but Will was clearly in control. He was completely dominating my body with a command he had never used before. It was exhilarating.
“You’re mine, Buffy,” he asserted with authority. “You’ll always be mine.”
To prove his claim, he bit down hard at my neck, breaking the skin and sending electric shocks down my spine. “Yes, yes, yes,” I whimpered as an earth-shattering orgasm ripped through my body at his possessiveness.
He growled at my accepting words and pulled out, sliding his cock between my ass cheeks. Plunging two fingers to fill the vacancy that his cock left, he matched the rhythm of his fingers with the pumping of his hips at my backside. At the continuous stimulation of his fingers both on my clit and inside me, I cried out as another orgasm washed over me. “Spike!”
Unlatching his teeth from my flesh, he grunted as his hot seed spilled between our bodies onto my back and his stomach. Slowing his movements, he settled my feet back on the floor and we both slid bonelessly down to the tiled bathroom floor. Breathing hard, we laid besides each other staring at the ceiling.
“Fuck that was good.” Will broke the silence, turning his head to look at me smiling brilliantly.
I turned to meet his eyes, giggling as the bliss induced fog cleared my brain and I registered his simple statement. “Maybe I should get my hair cut more often.”
***************************************************************
A/N: For those of you who have read the book, I was going to try to think up something different for a punishment, but I ended up going with the tar since it sets up something that will happen in the next chapter nicely. I couldn't bring myself to use the same method of removing it as they did in the book so I researched some other way to remove tar. According to many internet sites, cooking oil, tea tree oil etc does in fact remove tar from skin and hair. Just a little helpful household tip for you.
[Reviews - 1099]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | 
Chapter or Story
Has been viewed 3787 times
- Text Size +
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | Chapter or Story - Text Size +
Author's Chapter Notes:
See, I'm getting a bit better. I only made you wait two weeks for this update rather than a month. Again, I apologize for the wait and hope to be back to regular weekly updates soon. Thanks so much to my betas, Andrea and especially Megan, who helped to make this chapter so much better. Thanks also to those who reviewed - you make my day!