The Dark Side of Chocolate

The brunette woman walked over to the tall Black man who held a hysterical Latina and extended her microphone. She pursued her lips in false sympathy.

"Mr. DeaMoire, I understand this must be a tremendously difficult time for you right now. Could you please tell us what's going through you mind?"

"Get that shit out of my fucking face!" he growled, his own eyes red and streaming. The woman held onto him for dear life and he turned his back on the reporter, his voice breaking.

"Just...leave us alone you vultures."

The woman looked visibly frazzled and cleared her throat before sidestepping to hide them from the focus.

"Marco, the administrator of her estate and coworker is currently awaiting the arrival of her parents who assure us that they will be suing for negligence as well as pain and suffering."

A series of three pictures, one from childhood, teen years and current day took over the screen.

"Miss Rose graduated from NYU with top honors and worked at the WYS Multimedia News station. The WYS was actually shut down for the day because of the gravity of the office's mourning. The owner of WYS Ms. Janine Ranger revealed that she has plans to honor Miss Rose with a special column as well as put a journalism scholarship in her name. She said and I quote, "Audrey was one of the most dedicated and promising employees and people I have ever met. She lit up the room." This bright young star will be sorely missed."

Several different channels did variations of the feed, but Audrey's face was on every news station, newspaper, and talk show. The only way to kill with someone whom had connections to people who would know they were missing was to make their death public.

Silas watched the television screen with concentrated interest. It seemed to have gone off without a hitch. Lucky for him in America tragedies were common. The city would mourn for Audrey for maybe a week and then a school would blow up, or a man would die saving a bus full of orphans and Audrey would be forgotten. He was back in his hotel room; the small white walled single bed space made for economic purposes not aesthetics. He sighed leaning back in his chair. He had such a huge headache thanks to everything that had happened, but he'd be damned if he didn't keep his eyes open.

Audrey felt comfortable.

A sense of peace filled her, peace she had never felt before. Maybe death wouldn't be so bad after all. There was a veil over her. Through lidded eyes she could feel its warmth, the inviting light that was hers to feel. Stretching her fingers she pushed at the veil and slowly flipped it away with reserved excitement.

Shock was not the first emotion that came to her. It was something much stronger.

Heaven looked a lot like a hotel room.

Looking at the thin crème curtains and the small black television she somehow missed the largest part of the equation.

"Sleep well?"

She slowly turned her neck to the end of the bed. There, fully dressed, leaning on his hand with an unreadable expression on his face was Silas.

"Where I am?" she asked trying to understand what the hell was happening.

"You're in my hotel room."

It was extremely simple and low key, two things she never expected of him with his type of cash flow.

"Why am I here?"

"Because I brought you here."

She felt like the pulses in her brain synapses weren't fully zapping all the info she needed.

Looking at him with dread she thought the worst. Did he kill himself too? Were they stuck in limbo or something? Was this God in a disguise to test to see if she was heaven worthy? What was a good excuse for giving in to her temptation?

"Is this...like a crossroad to heaven or something? Are you an angel in Silas' form?"

The Silas before her held back a laugh and smirked at her.

"No Audrey you're still on earth."

Then that meant she was alive. "I thought I was supposed to be dead."

"You are dead."

"What?" Before she could scream he clicked on the television to the side of him.

"...Audrey Rose, who at 24 died last night in..." he changed the channel, "...mourning the loss of someone so young..." and did it again, "...the apartment's explosion..." and again, "...will be sorely missed."

Then he turned the television off and turned to her once more. "In the eyes of the world, the woman named Audrey Rose died last night from a boiler accident in her apartment."

She wasn't sure what to say.

"You blew up my apartment!?"

"Yes," he agreed. "And you were in it."

Was this some cruel dream? If she woke up would he be easing that needle into her veins?

"I can see that you're having problems coming to terms with this," he said unable to repress a chuckle. Her face was just so darn funny.

"Why am I still alive?" she asked finally.

Silence clung in the air until he stood up and started walking towards her. She then realized that she was still naked, in fact her boobs had been on display for the last five minutes.

Yanking the covers up and around her she was unable to finish as he sat on the sheets beside her. Holding the covers up with a hand she froze when he put her chin in his hand and traced her lips with his thumb.

"I decided to keep you," he whispered softly. "I took a shower and inside it, I realized I couldn't do it."

She wanted to say something but was too stunned to move.

"I knew you weren't lying to me last night. You didn't expect me to spare you. Lucky for you this played a key role in my decision."

She swallowed hard blinking and looking away from him.

"So...are you going to give me a new identity and set me loose in like...Italy?"

"No," he said shaking his head as though she had said something highly ridiculous. "You might get several new identities, but you Audrey are staying with me."

"Why?" she shouted angrily. The stun had worn off and now she realized she really had slept with a psychopath.

"I spared your life which means I now own it. You did say that as part of the deal I asshole could do whatever I want to do with you."

He leaned into her with mischief in his eyes.

"And I want to keep you."

He pulled the covers from her body, exposing her breasts which she shrieked at in response and hit him. He laughed good-naturedly, standing up and walking around the bed.

"You can't keep me!" she yelled angrily. "Are you out of your fucking mind? I'm not a pet!"

"Sure I can," he said waving a hand dismissively. "Women like to be kept. Trophy wives, royal wives, girls with sugar daddies. I have more resources than you'll ever see and more money than you'll ever make. I could keep fifty of you easily."

"Why?" she yelled exasperated. "Why me?"

He paused, and for the first time actually looking at her seriously. "I think I'm in love with you."

"But we just met!"

"You were right Audrey, I was just as dead as you, but you? You make me feel alive. You interest me and I don't know why. I intend to find out why, even if it takes the rest of our lives."

"And when you find out what then? I get ix nay-ed at your earliest convenience?"

"You'll find I have an endless supply of inquiries."

He ignored her horrified face and grabbed his key card off the side table. "I have a good feeling about all of this. I'll go out a pick you up some breakfast. Go take a shower, I'll have clothes for you when you get out."

Opening the door he left, the door slamming behind him. She sat there for a moment in disbelief. Then she jumped up and looked around. There were three duffel bags in the bathroom. The first one made her sob. It was just guns. Guns and death.

She looked away. The next one had clothes, good. Pulling out his things roughly she found a wife beater and made it into a bra and put a flannel shirt over it. It was obviously big, but it could pass. Pants were harder. Finding a pair of shorts she looked around the room and saw that he had brought her shoes and dress. Running to the bathroom she looked underneath in the cabinet and saw spare garbage bags.

Perfect.

She ripped one, making a makeshift belt which was hidden by the length of the shirt. Then getting another one, she slipped the dress inside, took the heels and ran barefoot out of the room. Sticking close to the wall she found the stairs and found they were on the 12th floor. Seeing there was a roof part she went up one more flight.

The wind whipped her messy hair around, the sun beating on her in accusation. To her right was the fire escape. She took her time and slowly edged off it. Adrenaline made her move fast and soon she was on the ground. She slipped on her shoes and jogged as fast as she could down the block. She did draw some questioning glances but no one looked at her really. She was somewhere downtown.

Seeing a rundown looking subway opening she dove into it and saw it had no security. Perfect once again. She jumped the turn style and caught the first train that arrived in the station not caring its direction. Once she settled her nerves she would figure out how to fence the diamonds in the dress.

Budapest here I come.

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Silas entered the room and sat down the bottle of orange juice and muffin he had procured from the café across the street. He had also gone into a clothing store and managed to find a pair of jeans and a shirt he believed she could find little offense in. Hearing the quietness of the room he shoved open the bathroom door.

Gone.

That shady bitch was gone.

He saw she had gone through his equipment but left everything. His clothes were strewn all over the bathroom floor. Spying the side chair he saw her dress and shoes were gone. Instead of anger he was filled with a predatory thrill.

So she decided to run?

He knew her enough to know she had no intentions to bring herself to life. Her only objective had been to get away from him. Now the question would be where would she go? With a laugh he sat down and grabbed his phone. Dialing a number he waited for the person to pick up.

"Hello?" a female voice said cautiously.

He smirked at her fear. "It's me. I'm calling in a favor."

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"Did you really think I wouldn't find you?"

Shit.

Audrey felt the weight of the elegantly constructed hand that now rested on her tensed shoulder. She was in a train terminal about to buy her ticket to the edge of Pennsylvania.

From there she'd catch a series of buses and trains to Florida in which she could illegally hail some kind of ride to Europe. It was a perfect plan, until he showed up.

"Maam?" the airport clerk asked, considering she had stopped mid sentence.

"What is your destination?"

"Yes dear, where are we going?" Silas said cheerfully, and wrapping an arm around her waist.

She looked absolutely terrified but Silas in his distracting fashion excused them from the line and pulled her gently to the side.

"So tell me Miss Rose..." he looked down at her and tilted her chin up. "Where did you think you would go?"

She looked up at him and tried to remain calm. Trying hard to not let him know she was freaking out. To be honest, what bothered her more than him possibly killing her was the fact that she had slept with him. His proximity reminded her of something had she died, would have given her no regrets. Now...she wasn't so sure.

She told him everything.

"It was smart," he commented tucking a piece of her hair behind her ear. "Fencing the diamonds before you sold the dress. Of course that was your downfall. Finding you through that one of a kind dress was child's play. Literally, you've been gone 5 hours."

She sighed and held her head in her hands.

"It's Valentine's Day," he said.

"What?"

"I said, it's Valentines Day."

Silas smiled at her and kissed her cheek.

"Where do you want to go love?"

He was nuts, absolutely crazy.

"Anywhere?"

"Anywhere."

"...Paris."

"I have a good feeling about Paris."

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Happy Valentine's Day from me to you! Please send me comments!

Love, S.D.