one way out . fernando

[Anna gully]

Hours. Days. Weeks. Month-- plural? No. One, exactly. One month said he had spoken a full sentence to her. One month since the new girl was introduced. Anna was being torn apart, by him, by herself. She was the perpetrator but he was the driving force. Anna was being replaced, she could feel it. It made her vomit at night, made her melancholy during the day, made her weaker. Jealously? Fear. Envy? Uselessness. If she was nothing now, what was her point of existence? Fernando was keeping her, yet Anna had not yet found the answer as to why. She was his maid-- she barely spoke to him, barely saw him. Old strings of her heart were being pulled on, the fantasies she had as a young girl flashing back into her head more now than ever. They would grow up together, she would make him proud. He would make her his equal. He would-- …. No. It had always been ridiculous.  Trace your fingers on the marble. Love her? He would love her? Impossible. She was a toy. She had served her use, her bruises had healed. Anna is now nothing more than walking, rotting meat, waiting to be taken to the garbage. She can feel her mind in a frenzy. She's lost weight, her skin has lightened. Anna's mental illness is affecting her physically, and she only gets away with it because she is no longer in frequent contact with the master. Now, though? This moment? She's shaking, excited in the worst way possible. Slide your hand on the handle of the blade. The kitchen at midday had always been an empty place. Nobody was around. Everybody was busy-- but her. Her missions, her tasks, were pointless, fruitless, and Anna was left to wander the city until her eyes became tired. She is only alive, not living. Then again, has she ever been alive? Fernando's equal. She craved that spot so badly. She took him whenever she could, whenever he would have her. Through the years she learned, she grew. She thought she was making progress, but he was just shoving her deeper into slavehood. She only grew away from the spot she craved with her life. Anna views herself as even less than she ever was. Ignore the tears that slide down your skin. It would be so easy to end it. So easy to escape. To run, like the coward she is. Run to freedom. Life has decided that it is not compatible for Anna. It is a mutual feeling. Slide the knife from its hold, pull your shirt aside. Feel the ice of the blade. It feels just like his touch. Should that bring her comfort, or resentment? Anna is broken, and this is the only way she knows how to fix herself. Her mark of possession, given to her by Fernando's father, glares at the room, the crossing scars a symbol of her status. Anna has endured hell only to end herself. She feels her heart beat. It's slow. Mellow. She would be at peace with this.  The knife is sharp, it pricks her skin as she lines it with her heart, taking her last breath before she will drive it into herself.

[FERNANDO SILPH]

"They will not bow to a rich man who wishes to use them solely for their bodies." Just how despicable is it for someone to grow into the very person they despise. It's been a long time since Fernando's fallen into the rabbit hole and only now has he released the depth of his abyss. No amount of clawing and self loathing will release him from his prison. His fate is sealed; Fernando is nothing more than a carbon copy of his father. The man's raised him well, exactly as he promised he would. But what disturbs Fernando the most isn't the end result but how indifferent he is toward it. He likes how he is, who he's become. He likes being a Silph. Other don't agree with him. Most find him absolutely repulsive, a lecherous man whose only merit is his name. Anna's one of them. Fernando notices the way she cringes when he touches her, the way she tries to weasel her way out of his hold when he embraces her. Unfortunately, she has no choice but to submit; Fernando is relentless. But those movements, no matter how small, don't go unnoticed. There's no empathy for her. It goes on, ignored, but never forgotten. He makes meticulous notes about it, a distinctive quirk fostered by his father, one that serves him well in analyzing others. "If people don't want it then make them need it. Everything comes down to basic supply and demand." Funny how the rules of business applied to people too. It's an odd subject-- human behavior-- that goes undiscovered thanks to the current political status of the world. People are more concerned with simply living, making it by with every scrap they have. But Fernando isn't one of them. He'd never stoop as low to being a mere plebeian. He has time, resources, and a consciousness that has no problem with submitting to his inner curiousity. The same curiosity that's propelled him to pick up Addison, his latest toy, to gauge the different between positive and negative reinforcement. They're not too far apart, Addison and Anna, children of their respective environments and the people they surround themselves with. Where in Addison found mercy, Anna could only find despair. It's the reason why Fernando is so gentle with the unaccustomed girl. The relationship he has with Anna is a foreign idea, something that very few can understand. But what's to come out of a love hate relationship. The maid who has no intention to pamper her master is one reserved for cleaning the barren mansion. It's the best Fernando can offer her and for a time she seems content. Whether it's his inability to read her mixed signals or Anna's indecision on what she wants, both find themselves slowly drifting apart. Anymore and they might become nothing more than strangers. But, that's no excuse. No matter what happens, Anna will always be his. Maybe not her heart, nor her loyalty, but her body will always belong to him. Anna Gully is no longer a person. She is his property. Therefore, human rights don't apply to someone as lowly as herself. She's nothing more than an extension of Fernando's immense wealth, another asset that he claims as his most valuable. Humans don't come cheap, and Anna is anything but. What right does she have, as property, to take from him? Her life is not her own and until he deems otherwise, so it will be. So what right does she have to end her life? To do so would be to take away Fernando's most prized possession, something he had no intention to allow slip through his fingers. His only choice is to wrap them around her, to grasp on for dear life. If he doesn't, then he'll lose one. Fernando will not let that happen. But nothing can stop the warm scarlet that drips against the cold blade. The knife has found flesh. It's a greedy tool and eats at the skin with a gluttonious joy. The sharp edge runs against the smooth flesh and sears through it perfectly, a precise wound as per its weilder's request. But it's not Anna's blood that's spilling onto the kitchen floor. No, her hold is being contested. Fernando's fingers are firmly wrapped around the very blade she's trying to impale herself with, cutting themselves open as he tries to wrestle it from her grip. Every second stings. The pain is unreal. It hurts. He can feel himself being sliced open as the kitchen knife continues to dig. It's getting dangerously close to bone. He has no choice. It's the only way for him to gain enough traction to overpower her. It's the only way to minimize his losses. What is a hand compared to human life? Compared to Anna? He may lose a limb but Anna will live. She will live forever in his debt, forever by his side. What she cost him will be repaid. If he loses the hand then she'll become his new right hand. If he loses his reach then she'll become his extension. She has no choice. "Stop." There's no pain in his voice. No anger either. Only an authoritative calmness that shows no weakness. It's cold, reflective of the knife that's causing him to spill his precious blood. It's an order. One that she cannot refuse.

[Anna gully]

Anna likes to pretend she has a choice. She likes to pretend she's human. She likes to pretend that she's a human among other humans, living her life to the best of her ability. It's a shame that she failed in that life. A shame that all she plans to do is end it. End the miserable hell that she can no longer stand. Previously she had a reason to be alive-- to serve. To be the woman who Fernando relied on to relieve his stress, to be the one to take his frustrations. At least he looked at her. At least he spoke to her. Now she was left to be what her mother had signed her up as-- a maid, a slave to work around the house. It killed her inside, even if she had already been dead years ago. Anna craved any emotion besides anguish. She craved happiness, she craved importance. Love? Trivial. Perhaps attention, never love. She was unlovable. A machine made to work for one man. A machine that had broken in Akiro. Her body can only cry now, but her soul dried out long ago. Yet, even moments from her inevitable destruction Anna feels no remorse. She does not feel sadness, only relief. She's excited for the future she will escape. However, Anna Gully never gets what she wants. Her want is irrelevant. She expects pain, but feels nothing. Her grip on the knife does not relax, but it does not push forward as it did before. She's confused-- her eyes are closed, but she is still breathing in her own essence of life. She doesn't recognize his intervention until her eyes fall on the the drops of crimson near her feet. Stop. Anna feels her eyes widen, her mouth agape as she looks up to stare at her master, her creator, her... saviour? Her damnation. Her face is blank, not with panic, just with shock. Upon looking down her eyes are greeted with blood, and she releases the knife, hands shaking, too surprised to not follow a command. That's what she is made for, isn't it? Following commands? She cannot look him in the eye. Instead Anna stares straight ahead. For a moment she had forgotten about her failed attempt. Fernando bled to keep her from doing the same. She could feel the heart that she was about to rip apart pounding in her chest, louder than ever. She feels dizzy, unstable. She feels ill. She feels anger. It is the last emotion she is allowed to have, but Anna can't help but feel it flow through her veins, shocked gaze turning into a glare in a matter of seconds. Her shoulders heave with each breath, her vision falters. "The one think I have ever fucking wanted, Fernando." She speaks out. Oh god, she speaks out. Anna is slowly being devoured by herself-- thoughts that should have remained silent bubble to the surface, guaranteeing her misery in the future. "The ONE goddamned thing!" Her shouts will do nothing for either of them, though she follows instinct anyway. Exhaustion makes her knees falter, makes her want to drop, to cover her face with her hands and stay there until the end of her days. It is only now that she can feel here eyes begin to well with those damned tears again, the only things that keep her human. "You might as well have done it yourself by now." Anna does what her body tells her-- she lets her knees give, crumpling down into herself. She plants herself and regrets it she second she does-- it would have been better to leave, to exit the room and hide her face until she could face him. It was too late now, but then again. It's always too late.

[FERNANDO SILPH]

He doesn't trust her. Not one bit. Whatever insanity this is that has possessed her has left her irrational, careless-- strange. There's no hesitation in his movement. The moment Fernando feels the slack in her grip he tears the knife away from her. It's easy enough since the blade is well anchored into his fingers. Blood spills everywhere, left for Anna to clean up once this is all over. It'll be over soon. Fernando has no time to entertain Anna's new found lunacy. This whole scenario is absolutely absurd. For Anna to have some sort of temper tantrum isn't unreasonable but to take it this far-- it's unacceptable. Fernando can feel his temper rise from beneath his coolness. Anna will not turn this on him. He will not take her blame. She cannot attempt to draw her own blood and scream at him when it's his that spills. He'll have none of it. "Stop being a selfish brat." There is no sympathy for Anna's desires. Her wants are irrelevant. Shouting about it will do nothing, screaming only proves his point. Anna has no right to demand anything from her master. She is nothing but a low, worthless slave. One who is incapable of living up to her task, to give to him everything she can, life included. The very life she had just tried to throw away. If she had been still standing Fernando would have slapped her, smacked some sense into that thick, immature skull of hers. It would've been the first time he administered corporal punishment, but, considering the circumstances, it was well deserved. If Anna wanted to hurt herself so badly then Fernando would be the one to do it. Fernando, and Fernando alone, would be the only person allowed to hit her. Because, in the end, Fernando's the only person willing to save her.

[Anna gully]

She hasn't eaten in days. Food offered had been consumed but never digested-- it always came back up when Anna was left to her own devices. The exhaustion makes her head spin, makes his words bounce around her skull in a flurry of echoes. The anger makes her blind, the depression makes her deaf. The hunger leaves her empty, though she has been empty long before she started refusing to eat. Anna cannot picture any decent future for herself. Her mind has been corrupted by insanity, some small hint of macabre that has appeared mysteriously and would not seem to vanish. Perhaps it was her lack of diet and rest, or maybe she was on her final legs. A creature made to serve was intended to do its job to perfection, and negative reinforcement assured she never found satisfaction in anything she did. Anna Gully is a child, feeding off negative emotions and strict words. Being tossed into the corner has left her lost. She is given assignments but never hears anything of them. Why would the head of the home keep her presence amongst him if she meant absolutely nothing? It was pointless to turn those thoughts into words, even if she was capable of complex speech. Anna is locked inside of her head, and she can only stare at the blood on the tiles as the feels the scorn from her master. Her thoughts wander on cleaning up his mess-- she finds no desire to do such, and Anna cannot help but wonder what would happen if she were to just sit idly, ignoring his commands. Perhaps he would kill her, or perhaps she would be beaten. The first would fulfill a wish he would not allow her to carry out on her own, while the second would serve as the negative reinforcement she was powered by. Perhaps such would only lead to a future, more violent demise, and she's left to wonder whether beatings would force her to carry out her tasks or simply affect her until they killed her. The jealously that she had previously been overcome by had torn her apart, left her to rot right in front of him. As if he cared. "You only keep me around for your sake. You achieve everything you desire. You take without remorse, without return. And yet, in the end, I am the one that is selfish." It's a mumble, something mindless. Her voice is monotone, her body lacks enthusiasm. Of course, it was his born right to be able to get away with murder. He was cursed with greed and power, while she was cursed to be a bottom-feeding disaster. "I loved you, once." It comes from nowhere, her lips purse as she pauses as soon as Anna realizes it has escaped. The words make her stomach churn, and she can feel her stomach heave in a vomit reaction-- only to come forth with nothing. Her body was empty, she was only left to briefly convulse, coughing as the episode faded. Anna has nothing left to say, even if she would like to continue. She does not feel strong enough to get up, so she stays sitting, left to ponder what would become of her when this day finally ended.

[FERNANDO SILPH]

"I know." There was never any question as to who was the smarter of the two. Anna could never hope to match Fernando's education much less his raw affinity for talent. Whatever secrets she hopes to hide prove fruitless as privacy is not a luxury Anna can afford. Nothing goes on without Fernando catching wind of it; every move, what she eats, how she feels-- nothing. Time has shackled herself into remaining honest, even if she doesn't know it. "Once." Anna is well beyond lost now, tucked away from any voice of reason. There's almost no point in responding, Fernando half tempted to allow the subject to spill over. Unfortunately, he can't let such a slight go, unable to pass up a chance to reprimand her for being wrong. No possible concoction of emotion can excuse her words. She spews them without thought, earnestly trying to pry and tug at his feelings. And once again she falls short, unable to bother Fernando with what he already knows. "I wanted you, once. So I indulged even though you pushed me away. Eventually I caved and I gave you your space, your time. And now what?" It's about time for Fernando to address hi swound, holding himself by the wrist while the blood refuses to relent. Each puncture into his finger is deeper than something he can simply shrug off. He'll acquire medical attention but nothing some stitches and Slowking can't fix. In the end it's nothing more than a flesh wound, something that will close with time. Fernando can't say the same for Anna's dying heart. "I can't give you what you want if you don't know what you want."