A light bulb flicked to life overhead illuminating thick wavy hair. Travis lifted his groggy head and groaned. The light found his scrunched up face as he tried to hide from it, with mouth pulled in a frown coming to view. He felt a presence at his back and on instinct tried to turn but felt held. Glancing down, purple strings like spider webs held his body to the chair. A hand, delicate and tender, glided through his shoulder blade and his body erupted in gossebumps.The hand slid absently from his right shoulder blade, to his neck, down to his left shoulder. He knew it was her even before she walked into the light. Her yellow gown which swept the floor moved with her until her full delicate features came into view. She walked and sat at the other end, a long wooden table between them.
Seconds ticked by.
"What's your name?" she asked.
Travis looked at the woman hardly. "I've mentioned it before."
"And what was it?"
He exhaled. "Travis."
"Your full name?"
"I go only by Travis."
"Your full name!"
A fly buzzed about the overhead bulb.
He shifted his weight on the chair. "Travis Isaiah Lute."
The electric bulb glow became dull, until it gave out only a feeble urine glow, before darkness took over the room. It was for the briefest moment. It flickered back on and she was right there, right in his face. Travis shrieked and tried to no avail to back further away and perhaps bolt for his dear life.
As Travis struggled in his distress, Jovic studied him. As one does a mathematical equation. Trying to decide if it's worth solving or closing the page and the book hitherto.
He was enchanted all right, but of what kind? Jovic peered closely at this man, her sense of his personal space non-existent. His expression priceless at the moment. His darting eyes and fidgeting, bared resemblance to that of a thief caught in between a raging mob. The man was enchanted all right; all the telltale signs were there and her magic radiated in signals from him. But this one couldn't be her's? Had she unconsciously made a mistake? For it was a rule of hers not to enchant attractive men and sitting right here was pretty.
"Where do you frequently go to?" Jovic asked, leaning back against the table.
"What?"
She sighed, rubbing away imaginary lines on her forehead. "I asked where do you normally wallow away your miserable life at?"
"I don't wallow."
"Yes you do. Everyone I'd enchant wallows, that why the interest."
"I don't."
"Just answer the question!" Jovic seethed.
"You mean which bar I normally go to, right?"
"Yes, goddamnit!"
"Ohh." Travis looked at her in thought before biting out, "Is that where you get all your victims?"
Jovic smirked. Burning eyes looking down on Travis. "You think you have any power here. No! Because I made it so! I ask the questions here."
Silence stretched through the room. What seemed like a hour before he responded.
"I go to Chasers."
"Chasers?"
Travis tried to keep a steady gaze on her. He was faltering. But his thoughts were filled with rage, his body emnanted rage; that he was powerless again, that he could no matter how he tried, get out of this place. He wanted his eyes to mirror what'd filled him up to the brim. His eyes burned but it was nothing compared to her's. "Why...Why did you do this to me? What do you have against me?"
Jovic laughed. Dark and with a bit of crazy like the room they were in. "Are you trying to intimidate me?"
"What do you have against me?"
"Nothing."
He jerked forward. "Nothing!"
"Nothing," Jovic repeated, "I don't know you and have never met you."
"So help me understand, why me?" He questioned further. "Do you have a thing against men? Like did a man perform a great diservice to you or your fucking ancestors?"
"No..."
"So do you have a thing for pale white handsome men?"
"No." Jovic oddly found herself on the defensive.
"So you're into women?"
"No. Maybe. What do you mean?"
"Are you a lesbian?"
"I don't think so. I don't know. No."
"So why only men? Because the batch I just saw earlier were only men."
Jovic's eyes widened a fraction. "Hmm, interesting." Her finger circled round her lips. "I never really thought about that. But, if you look at it closely, women are more careful. You won't find much drinking alcohol as camel does water, unlike you. And you ask a lot of questions. I am the questionn..."
"Am I? You are taking my life away from me without any reason and you are the one complaining."
Jovic stood up straight. "Shut up."
"You shut up!"
"Shut up!" Jovic shouted, her eyeballs giving out a tingle of purple. The bulb flickering off and on. "You think your life isn't worthless. Here I am, generous Jovic, trying to give it meaning. To make sure you live for something greater than you and die for something even greater, and you question me. In case you haven't noticed, you don't do that here. Don't let me show you the meaning of pain. So, now, I ask the questions, again."
Travis wanted to bit back a reply. There she stood, arrogantly claiming right to this situation. He opened his mouth and felt it sewn shut. His body shook. He tried to work out what was happening and panic seized at him. He began frantically jerking about in his chair. His mouth moving up and down. Travis tried to scream but his voice only exploded inside his brain. He looked at Jovic trying to communicate his distress however, she watched him amusedly.
When his commotion started to subside and the shock has taken hold of him, Jovic walked back to her chair. "Now I ask, you just answer. None of that talking back nonsense." She sat down, posture straight. "Now, when did this start?"
"Yesterday."
"What happened yesterday?"
"You should know."
Jovic waited.
Travis exhaled. "It started with me feeling extreme dizziness. I thought I was going to be sick. It kept me in bed all day. All day long. And when I gathered strength to brush my teeth, I noticed that my canines were a bit black. I thought at that moment is was due to some bad hygiene, until..."
Jovic leaned forward. Gesturing with her hands, she urged him to continue.
"Until, until at the end of the day, it was black all through. My eyes red. And...And...and then this voice whispered to me! I thought I was going mad!" Travis began struggling again against the hold on him, his face showing the type of craze that mental institution nurses derive joy working down on. He continued talking but it was all screams. "I thought I was mad! The first time I heard the voice. You did me this! Why? Just for some sport or to cure your boredom!"
"So did this voice resemble mine?"
"Are you not listening to me?"
Jovic waited.
"Yes. It was icy and heartless from the onset. Just like the owner."
Jovic nodded, satisfied. "I think that will be all. For now."
"What? Wait. Free me," He begged.
"Say please and I might consider it."
"Please. Please free me."
Jovic stood and walked up to him. Leaning down until they were merely a length away, her eyes glittering crazy, her mouth curved into a twisted smile and she whispered, "No."
Travis shoulders sagged and he nodded in understanding. Suddenly, he pulled forward colliding both their head together. Jovic yelped, falling butt first to the floor. Travis boasted with adrenaline began using his strength to tear at the strings holding him. It was almost done, he was almost there, and then, she stood up. Her glare, akin to a boiling volcano about to burst forth, sucking out the little oxygen from the room and ensured that he put a stop to whatever he was attempting before.
She appeared in front of him like a spectre, gauging the extent of his actions, before smacking him right across the face. She delivered another punch to the side of his head and Travis sloshed back heavily against his chair and marvelled at the galaxies and stars that passed through his eyes in slow motion.
"You shouldn't have done that. Now, am going to smash your handsome face like a cheap mirror."
"Oh she thinks am handsome?" Travis replied. His words in a long drawl that took forever to be heard. "In your evil at least you recognize beauty."
"I was hoping you said the wrong things and do the wrong things. Not that I need an excuse. Cobly, come in."
The door swung in and a shadow plastered itself against the entrance.
"Cobly, I have a job for you."