Fifty Shades of War

Ana stood on her tiptoes to kiss him long and deep, thrusting her tongue down his throat as she pressed her still firm body against him, grinding on his bare flesh in her barely there evening gown. She reached down to grab his cock and pump it to life before pulling away to whisper, "No." Turning her back to her suffering husband, she jumped off the platform and crossed to the door. "You don't deserve to keep breathing and I was a fool to think that I could change you. Good-bye, Mr. Grey." Opening the black door, she walked through with her head held high, her soul intact, and her inner goddess cheering her on telling her to pack her things and go. This nightmare was over.

Ares looked to Alena, "What do you think?"

"I think he's all yours, my darling," she raised herself on tiptoes to kiss his whiskered cheek, "I'll take care of her. You do what you want with him."

II

The door closed again as Ares bent over to pick the whip and face the hanging man with the hot poker up his ass.

"Who are you?"

Ares nodded, waved a hand down his long strong body and the black suit disappeared only to be replaced by studded black leather from his biker boots, to his pants, to the thick vest covering his broad chest. "Please, allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste," with a flick of his wrist the whip cracked so loudly it made Grey jump in his chains. "My name is Ares."

As hard as it was to believe that Aristotle Papathanassiou was Ares God of War there really was no denying it. For one fleeting second, Grey thought he'd found a kindred soul, after all the God of War no one to be trifled with just like himself and the God of War didn't have the best mother in the world either, "You understand, I know you do, you understand why I'm this way. Why I'm so incredibly dominant."

Ares threw his head back and laughed so hard the room shook, "No, Mr. Grey, I am dominant, I am the alpha-male. You? You're just a domineering little shit who cannot tell the difference. You're no Alpha but I'll show you the meaning of Omega." Whip in one hand and the beard on his chin in the other, Ares sized up the crying man wondering how best to proceed. Having him arrested was an option; his name would plastered in headlines all over the world. The scandal would be delicious and Grey Enterprises would collapse under its weight. Ares wondered how many victims would come forward to testify against Grey at his trial. He thought the number would be considerable. The American Justice System was fickle they might let him off on some technicality or call him 'insane' and unable to stand trial. They might let him go or send him to an asylum. He could just kill the man outright and when his stench became so foul have the maintenance crew of the luxury apartment building find him rotting away here in his little playroom. But that might come back on sweet little Ana making her a suspect in Grey's demise. So, in the end, none of those sat right with Ares. "I'll tell you what, Mr. Grey; I'm going to let you out of those chains."

"Oh, thank God!" Grey praised.

"You're welcome," Ares returned with a sneer. Pointing to the cuffs on Grey's wrists and feet, they opened. The man fell to the platform butt first shoving the iron rod from his colon, ripping through his bowels, upward through his stomach until the tip pierced his left lung. Writhing in pain and already on the verge of death as the poison leaked into his frame, his limp battered body rolled into the opening to lie atop the corpses of so many women. Grey let out a girlish scream as he scrambled to get off them even as he struggled to pull the metal rod from his body. But the deep wounds on his knees and feet made it difficult and he kept falling back down. "Good night, Mr. Grey," Ares crooned waving his hand for the last time that night and watching the top of the platform slide over him entombing him with his victims. Only his very keen ears could hear the man screaming inside the two-ton box. Grey yelled like a banshee under the heavy marble. Ares stood there and listened until the screams of rage became the lunatic cries of the madman Grey truly was and then, finally, to the pleading sobs of the little boy he used to be. Grey gasped for breath in the stench of decomposing corpses.

It took the pathetic little man about forty-five minutes to expire. When all was silent, Grey was dead, suffocated in a makeshift mausoleum of his own making, surrounded by his own hideous work, Ares thought Justice, Lawful and Poetic had been done, he took his leave of the disgusting Red Suite of Pain.

Out in the hall a familiar but unexpected guest waited for him, "What did you do?"

"Raven," Ares smiled, "how good to see you." He hitched his head toward the closed door of Apartment 1408, "Is he...."

"In Dis? Oh yeah, and he's already making a fucking stink about it. What the hell?"

Ares patted his son, the God of the Damned, on his sinewy shoulder, "He's your problem now show him no mercy for he gave none in life."

Raven had no pity for Christian Grey his dirty deeds were well-known in the Underworld there was only one question rolling around in his young powerful mind, "Why? Why did you kill him? Why not let Ana do it, it was her place."

Perhaps it was or should have been, "My soul is already tarnished, when I cease to exist in this world I will take my place next to Mr. Grey in Dis, but Ana's is clean and so is your mother's, I want them to stay that way so they can spend eternity in the Fields."

"She had the right to kill him."

"But not the stomach for it," Ares advised turning Raven away from the door and toward the empty hall.

"How long do you think it will take them to find him?"

Ares pondered the question with a smirk, "If someone keeps paying the rent on that place, who knows, it could be decades."

In the meantime, Ana would take over Grey Enterprises where undoubtedly there would be a big change in the employee/employer dynamic with dozens of pretty but stupid women collecting unemployment checks. Ana, in her husband's absence, would have it all; the company, the properties, the money, cars, planes, yachts, all of it. Ana Steel-Grey just became the richest and most eligible woman on the planet.

"Come on, Raven, there's a lovely young woman I want you to meet." Chapter Ten
The Flame

Ares and Raven walked through the wall of the penthouse to find Ana crying in Alena's arms. Alena looked up to see the two of them and smiled with relief when she saw her son. "Is it over? Is he...?"

"Quite," Ares intoned, "he'll never bother you again, Ana, or any other woman."

With tear stained eyes Ana looked up at her company, "Then why I do feel so horrible? Why do I feel I should have saved him? Why do I miss him already?"

Alena brushed Ana's dark hair away from her shoulder, "It's only temporary, my dear, believe me after a good cry you'll feel nothing but relief. You'll feel better than you have in the last nine years, I promise."

While her ears did not want to listen to what the silver-haired woman was saying, Ana's inner goddess began to sing an aria of mournful delight. Her watery eyes turned to the handsome young man with the wide gray streak in his midnight hair and something she thought long dead began to stir. "Hello. I'm Ana."

His father was right she was lovely and cute, "Raven," he said as he held out his hand and took her trembling one in his soft firm grasp. "You'll be alright. With just a little time, you'll be fine."

"A whole new world has opened for you, Ana," Ares advised, "it's the same world upon which Christian Grey slammed the door, its waiting for you it always has been." He held his big arm out to his side and waited but a moment for Alena to come to him and nestle at his flank before closing it protectively around her. "I think we should take our leave of you now."

Raven looked at his parents and then back to Ana who was still holding his hand, "Mind if I stay awhile?"

To the delight of her inner goddess but mostly importantly to her outer one Ana found herself saying, "Not at all." Epilogue
Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves

Two Years Later

Ares and Alena took another vacation to the Mortal World but decided to leave Seattle off their itinerary. Yet it was of no surprise when, while browsing around a bookstore, Alena came across a jewel and held it up for Ares to see the cover. The book was entitled MASTERLESS and the author was Ana Steel-Grey. He opened the cover to read the dedication: To Ari and Alena Wherever You Are. On the back cover was the picture of an older, wiser, and very happy Ana smiling with her heart for the camera.

"I think she's doing alright, don't you?"

"Better than when we found her," Ares agreed and put the book back on the shelf.

A woman walked up to them, "You should read that," she insisted, "it's a very good book, very inspiring and empowering. It's incredibly well-written, she's very talented."

"Well then," Ares plucked it back off the shelf and handed it to his wife, "perhaps we should read it."

"Maybe they'll make a movie out of it," Alena replied.

"Yes, well, let's just hope it's a good one."

"You won't be sorry," the woman told them happy to see the couple decided to give the book a shot, "its life changing."

As she walked away, Ares and Alena knew the woman not only spoke the truth but from her own experience. Perhaps they had changed more than one life the night Christian Grey died. Perhaps they set off a ripple effect that reached shores far and wide. Taking the book to the register the young woman there fawned over it, she had nothing but the highest of praise for MASTERLESS and its author telling them how Ana was the head of Grey Enterprises, which was now just as profitable as it was charitable. Ana Steel-Grey started many organizations to help under privileged women and children by providing them with food, shelter, and education along with transportation and job placement with some of the world's top companies, including Grey Enterprises. The young clerk told of how Ana started A&A Steel Publishing, which specialized in women's literature and non-fiction bringing some of the hottest, newest, most talented female writers to the world stage.

"And she did all of that in the midst of her husband's disappearance, she's quite strong don't you think?"

"Yes," Alena agreed as she handed over the twenty-dollar bill in return for Ana's book.

"Did they ever find him?" Ares inquired trying to sound casual.

"No," she told them as she handed Alena the book, "they never did."

The End
Ebony Clarke a/k/a Lisa Beth Darling
February 14, 2015-February 22, 2015 About This Story

In my very humble opinion there is nothing to like, let alone laude, about the "Fifty Shades of Grey" trilogy. My reasoning is numerous but I'm going to stick with just one of them for right now.

In any other book, 'Christian Grey' would have the serial killer. The rapist. The really bad guy that makes you cringe and close your eyes on something like Criminal Minds or SVU. No heart of gold. None. He is not a 'dominant man' in the BDSM sense he's simply a psychopathic little prick. The best ending for "Fifty Shades of Grey" and the truest ending to that first book would have been if 'Christian Grey' kept going until he killed 'Ana Steel'. Then, he'd quietly and possibly a little reverently wrap her up in a linen sheet, carry her limp body down the hall, stuff her into his helicopter, take off, dump her into the Pacific and then fly off to find his next innocent, naive, unsuspecting victim. He does it all with a sly grin proud of himself for how easily he took her in and made her his little bitch.

It is my strongest assertion that 'Christian Grey' is the man we continuously warn our daughters about all through their growing-up. The ones of whom we tell our precious girls; You can't save him. Stay away from him.

To have that type of man held up as some type of romantic lead is truly sickening. It's not empowering women in the least. It's insulting and it should make you angry not turn you on. Men like this, although they may not be rich or necessarily handsome, are a dime a dozen. There's nothing special about them and their poor crappy childhoods that they use to bait you into feeling sorry for them luring you closer to them, not so they can be miraculously healed by the 'love of a good woman willing to debase herself to any level for him' but so they can prey upon you and your love.

Careful of the 'Christian Grey's' of the world for they will suck you in and then suck you dry....not in a good way. Be thankful this one is only a character in a book.