Welcome to Monday - Redux
Chapter Two
© 2009.05.18 ChaoticWorks.com

Livina could not believe this was happening. It had to be a nightmare, and all she had to do was wake up. There was no way that Phaeton was walking arm in arm with her, a knife pressed to her side and her young son was holding onto her hand on the other side of her crying softly. What had started out as a night out, had gone horribly wrong. She'd thought him to be long ago dead, or at least committed to a life sentence inside the walled up city with all of the other criminals and degenerates. What cruel twist of fate had not only allowed him to survive all of these years, but then to have him cross her path again. Him, of all people. Her guts just wouldn't stop shaking, and the fear for her safety and that of her young child was overwhelming. Little scenarios of escaping him, and running off with Trago flickered in her mind, but she was too scared to act on them.

She knew how well he tracked, even blind, through forest and city, and they fact that he had just run them down so easily, in the rain, spoke of how lethal he still was, and how futile it would be to run unless she could lead him in front of a bus. She was so lost in thought she stumbled over a loose piece of cement in the sidewalk, and it was Phaeton who gripped her to keep her from falling. "Easy, easy..." he growled, "Don't want anything happening to you, yet." he laughed. Livina shivered and continued on for several more blocks, and turns until they reached their building. She paused outside of it, and glanced down at her son. He looked very worried that not only was this scary man with them still, but that he was going home with them.

"Mama?" he started to ask, and she gave him the bravest smile she could muster and reached a hand out to ruffle the hair on his head. "It's OK baby. We are home, and I promise, we will go back to the Water Garden really soon." This caused him to smile a bit, but the smile did not reach all the way to his eyes. He like her had a feeling that probably wouldn't happen any time soon.

"Awww... Did I interrupt a field trip?" Phaeton chuckled. "Too bad. Maybe another day." he said, and when they paused, he lifted his head slightly and sniffed the air around them. "Nice smelling neighborhood. No shit, no garbage, nothing bad... How quaint." he said and gave a tug on Livina's arm toward the building ahead of them. "Let's go. I'm tired of this fucking rain."

Livina gave another encouraging look to her son, and then stepped forward, and up the steps into the old brown brick building. It had once been a school for the blind, ironically enough, so there were railings on both sides of the stairs, and Braille markings on the right side of each door. She smiled to imagine Phaeton trying to learn that language. She new he would rather depend on smell and sound, and most likely her, to get him around. They ascended the fifteen stairs up to the front door, and after she'd found her key, she unlocked the door to the building and let Trago slip by them and go in first, then with Phaeton still clutching onto her arm, they followed the boy inside. After shutting and relocking the door, they continued down a hall to another staircase at the back of the building.

"Our apartment is on the third floor, and the elevators don't work yet." she explained as they started up the stairs. Trago's bounding steps ahead of them echoed in the stairwell as they followed at a much slower pace.

"That explains the lack of fat on your ass." he chuckled and she felt his body brush against hers from behind as he swapped sides for the climb up the stairs. Perhaps he sensed a possible threat on being on the inside of the stairs and preferred to be against the wall as they went up. Perhaps he was just paranoid and crazy. Either was likely. Thought now that she thought about it and looked down the cement stairs above and below them as they climbed, it could be a quick solution to a new problem.

She wouldn't however, for many reasons. For one, with her luck, he would grab hold of her, they would both go down the hole and where would that leave her son? Orphaned.

"Don't even think of it..." came a rank smelling hiss from Phaeton near her ear. He clutched tighter on her arm, so hard it hurt.

It worried how he'd read her thoughts, or perhaps again, he was that aware of just how badly people wanted to exterminate him. "Don't worry. I'm not you Phaeton, I'm no killer." she said back to him in a low voice. Phaeton choked out a dark laugh, "No, you aren't."

After they reached the apartment, a two room one that was pleasant as far as the current standards were then. She closed the door, redid the triple locks and sent Trago to his room. He didn't want to go and protested but she left Phaeton alone in the living room long enough to set him up in his room with some books and music until she returned later.

When Livina returned to the living room Phaeton was sitting on the couch with his arms draped on the back looking around slowly. Livina walked slowly over to him and sat down next to him on the couch. Phaeton of course knew she was there but he continued to look slowly around. She wondered what he could see with his poor vision, if anything.

"It's warm in here." he rasped a moment later and turned to look at her through the grimy hair hanging down in his eyes. "The colors are warm." he added, then reached a hand over to grip onto her arm again. "I want my bath." he said in a way that seemed to indicate that this strange and short casual conversation was over.

"Alright, follow me." she said as she stood up and led him to the bathroom. He sat down on the closed toilet lid and looked around slowly as she started to run the water and pull towels out of the cupboard. After setting them on the counter next to the sink she turned to him and looked over the remnants of clothing he was wearing. She had a feeling that removing them from his dirt encrusted body would destroy them beyond wearability. As she approached him, he turned his face up to look at her, or her shadowy image anyway.

"What are you waiting for? I know you want to see me naked.... again." he said with a twisted grin and that raspy laugh of his, that this time, went into a nasty sounding cough. He nearly doubled over as he brought a fist to his mouth until the hacking ended. When he looked up, Livina was pressing a glass of water into his hand. "Here, sip this, then we'll get you into the tub."

Phaeton looked at her, his eyes squinted nearly shut as he sipped at the water. It helped. He handed the glass back to her and slowly rose up to his feet and looked down at her. His expression was calm, and at the same time, still had that cold cold look of a predator. "What are you waiting for?" he asked in a whisper. "Do it."

Livina looked away from that cold gaze of his and started to remove the layers of clothes or what was left of them piece by piece, and dropped them into a stinking pile on the floor. Slowly, material and grime gave way to skin and grime. There were more scars on his body than the last time she'd seen him undressed and that didn't surprise her. She was sure his life after her escape wasn't some bed of roses. No ones was for that matter. She started to remove the belts and scraps of material holding up the well worn and badly patched leather pants he had on, and when she realized he was going to just stand there and let her undress him like a mannequin. She looked up at him as she sunk down to her knees in front of him. His arms were folded across his chest and he was staring out straight ahead.

She didn't know why, but she was expecting an attack, a strike from his hand, something. He had been the cruelest of the cruel of her captors those many years ago, and she had no reason to hope he'd changed in any way. He was just older, and probably more practiced in his methods of torment. She kept her eyes up on him as she pulled down the pants and revealed his lower half. He was still all male and there was some new tattoos gracing his outer thighs that she didn't recall being there before.

She didn't focus on those, or anything in detail as she pulled down the pants, and he stepped out of them one leg at a time. She added them to the pile, then turned and tested the water temperature with her hand. "The water's perfect. It's how I like it anyway." she said and turned to look at him. She let out a startled cry when she did. He was crouched right behind her, his nose not more than six inches from hers

"Ah!!" she cried, heart now pounding and fear washing over her like a cold wave of water. Phaeton laughed. "Did I scare you?" he whispered and leaned in closer to her. She nodded. "Good. Now get undressed."

#########

There was barely room for one adult in the tub, much less two, but they made it work. Livina sat facing Phaeton, and he facing her with their legs bent at the knees making two overlapping sets of arches. Not long after they sat down in the water and she began washing down his chest and arms first, she realized this is a job that would have been better suited with a hose outside. The water started to turn brownish grey almost as soon as he sat down in it. The smell coming off of him combined with the steaminess of the hot water made the bathroom smell like someone was burning a wet, dead dog. Livina coughed a couple of times when her gag reflex was triggered.

Phaeton didn't say much of anything, he seemed to be in some sort of mental fugue again. His head was tilted up and he was looking around the room. She wondered what he saw, if there were any distinct images, or if it was all just blurs and shades of color or black and white.

"We need to let this water out and change it. It's like mud." she said finally when it was pointless to try to wash him off with water almost as filthy as he was.

"Right." he said and slowly pushed himself up to his feet and stood at the opposite end of the tub, leaning against the tile with his arms folded over his chest while the tub drained, and was refilled. She splashed water on herself from the faucet while the tub was draining, trying to get the grime off of her skin that seems to want to cling to her. Gross did not begin to cover it.

When the tub was refilled, she instructed him to sit down with his back to her so she could wash his back. "Why... So you can stick a knife in there?" he growled in response to the instructions.

"Phaeton. I'm not about to stab you, for so many reasons." she said wearily and waited for him to either sit down as she'd asked, or not.

"Name three."

Livina sighed and rolled her eyes in obvious frustration. "One. I do not keep large knives, or any knives in my bathroom. Two, You are much stronger than me, and I've seen you fight, I would get gutted before you can say Merry Christmas."

Phaeton laughed and again the laugh became a raspy cough. "And three?" he gasped when the coughing fit subsided.

"I don't want to clean up THAT mess as well."

Phaeton laughed and using his hand on the wall of the bathing alcove slid slowly down until he was again sitting in the water with his back to her. Stab him? Sure she thought about it, but also knew anyone attacking him that didn't kill him with the first strike would surely end up dead. She'd seen it too many times to even think about trying an assassination.

Livina again sat down in the water, and once she was seated, Phaeton slid slowly backwards until he was cradled between her thighs. Dark laughter came from him as he reached his right hand back to slide up the side of her thigh, then down the lower part of her leg. "You're missed this. Me between your legs. Look how quickly you let me get back there." he muttered. Livina again felt bile rise up into her throat. "Sure Phaeton." she replied quietly unable to keep the sarcasm out of her voice as she lathered up a wash cloth and started washing off his back. Under the dirt there were rashes and lots of irritated skin. She did her best to not scrub too hard on these parts but most of his back was like that. Once most of the first layer of dirt was removed, she noticed a set of long scars on his back that ran down both sides from shoulder to spine at criss cross angles. She frowned. Those she did not recall ever seeing before, but they looked very old and long ago healed over.

When she reached out a fingertip to trace the length of one, he let out a violent hiss and turned to glare at her. "What are you doing?" he growled. "Both hands not busy enough? Let me help you out." he said menacingly and reached around with his left hand and felt around until he found her left wrist and gripped it painfully.

"Ow! Phaeton, I'm sorry." she whimpered as he pulled her hand around down in front of him, plunged it under the water and then between his thighs. He manipulated her hand around until her fingers and palm were wrapped around his cock. He closed his hand over hers then, and laughed softly. "That one stays there. The other washes." he whispered and slowly started their hands up and down his length in a slow motion. He kept his hand on hers until both of her hands were moving, taking care of him. When she resumed scrubbing down his back, he seemed to relax again and took his hand off of hers and let her continue with the dual tasks at hand now.

It was hard to keep the two hands moving in different directions, doing different tasks, but she managed somehow to get his back, sides and the back of his neck clean while giving him a handjob.

"Ahhhhh.... so nice...." he said in that chilling purr of his as she finished washing, but continued on with the other hand motions.

"When you're.... done... we can change the water again, and I can wash your hair, and your legs, probably your legs first." she said in a soft voice.

"I'm done now." he said and knocked her hand away and stood up in the grimy water and again leaned against the wall while she stood and drained the tub and started the water again. He wondered why he hadn't had her finish the deed before changing the water, then a thought made her shiver even though she wasn't cold. He had other plans for her to achieve his gratification.

"OK. What ever you want."

"Oh yes. How quickly you recall." he said in a low soft tone that carried easily to her ears. There were times back then, and again now when she could swear he used some sort of ventriloquism to cast his voice in strange ways. She shivered and focused on refilling the tub for a third time, and while it did that, she got onto her knees and soaped up the cloth again, and began to wash his thighs and legs while he stood there as casually as if he was waiting for a bus. She was expecting, and ready for him to have her perform some other act on him while she was down in this vulnerable position, but he didn't. He was looking off into the air of the room, as if trying to see something on a far horizon only he could sense.

When his legs were done, she stood up with a groan and looked him over. He was definitely much, much cleaner than he had been when they started, but another bath would surely help removed the very last of the grunge. She was worn out now however, and wouldn't suggest that, only that they do his hair next and then... She wasn't sure, and she didn't want to think about it.

"How do you feel now?" she asked as she reached for the shampoo, and a small pitcher she kept by the sink for cleaning or watering plants. "Just your hair to do now, and we are done."

"Ummmm...." he hummed, and she waited for something else to be said, but that was all he offered.

"OK. If you sit back down in the water, I will wash your hair."

"Yes." he said in that sort of distracted tone of voice then sat back down in the water. He felt around with his hands alongside of himself and behind. "Where are you?" he growled.

"I'm next to the tub. I can't reach you good from inside the tub, being on the side works better. It's how I wash Trago's hair." she explained in a weary tone of voice.

"Ahhhh... Well, don't get soap in my eyes, you'll make me go blind." he said lightly as a warning, but she wasn't sure if he was being serious or not. Wasn't he already practically there anyway?

"Of course not." she answered, and started to scoop up jug fulls of the water and poured it slowly over his head. She could only wonder what creatures and horrors were living in that tangled black mane of his. Phaeton gave a contented sigh as the warm water poured over him and again, he went into that silent, calm state or trance that made Livina far more nervous than when he was loud, and threatening. Perhaps he sensed this, and that was why he was doing it. He was either the most sick and clever predator out there, or he was just mentally not all there. She was certain he was that way many years ago. She couldn't put her finger on it, but something was very different about him. He'd never had this many facets to his emotions before.

She was surprised that his hair while dirty and tangled, was far less the horror she thought it would be. It seemed oily mostly if anything, and once shampooed and rinsed out twice then conditioner added, she was able to comb it out with little resistance. When she would hit a snag, he would tense, and give a hiss, but not do anything else.

Finally it was all combed out, and laying flat and damp, it fell to the lower part of his back. The edges and ends were all rough, and he was in bad need of a trim. "Phaeton, we are all done, you could use a trim off of the back, and...." she leaned around to look at his face, with was covered with black shaggy hair down to the top of his upper lip. "The front. I could get some scissors, and just trim it so the front is to your nose... Trim the back so it's not so ragged?" she offered cautiously, then added, "If you want me to."

He was silent for a long moment, then shrugged. "Sure. I don't care." he said quietly, and sniffled. Livina blinked in surprise. Was this a trick? A way to get him a weapon to do God knows what with, or... was he testing her, giving her the chance to try to attack him so he could finally unleash his usual cruelty upon her. She thought about it for a moment, then got up from the floor where she'd been sitting, and went to the medicine cabinet. She dug around and found a pair of scissors and inspected them. They weren't the sharpest ones in the world, but they would do.

"I won't take too much off, just enough to clean it up a bit." she said and carefully got back into the tub behind him, and combed the back of his hair until it laid flat on his back. "OK, here we go..." she said, waiting just a beat before she began, and he did, or said nothing. He just sat there as passive and quiet as could be. She cut along the back first, taking about six inches off of the bottom to even the ragged ends and that left it falling to just below his shoulder blades. She lifted it up and let it fall down a few times and smiled with how well it had come out. "OK. That wasn't so bad, was it?" she asked. "Now the front." she said and got out of the tub, walked around to where she was able to sit down in the tub again, this time facing him.

He was sitting there still as calm as can be, slightly hunched forward with his hands resting in his lap. She looked at him curiously. "Phaeton? Are you OK?" She asked and put a hand on his knee under the water to see what was up with him.

Phaeton slowly leaned his head to the side, and lifted up a dripping wet hand to move his bangs out of the way of his eyes, and for the first time in years, she saw clearly those oddly colored teal green eyes of his. His eyebrows were furrowed and his mouth twisted into a cruel sneer. "What are you waiting for? Do you need a slap up aside your idiot head to finish the job?" he growled at her, then moved his hand and let the damp hair fall back down and his hand slowly returned to resting on his thigh.

When he talked like that to her, it made her shiver. Memories, bad memories came drifting back to her when he was in that mood. "Yes Phaeton." she said submissively, and repeated the process with his bangs. She combed them out, and carefully trimmed them in a rounded way so that instead of going down to his lip, they fell just to the bridge of his nose again. His eyes were still shielded from the light of day, or night, but he would be able to eat without chewing on his own hair.

"There. All done." she said with a smile, and was rather proud of how well it had gone. She dropped the scissors onto the floor next to the tub, and picked up the wash rag once again and rinsed him off and rinsed the hair off of his chest. She looked down at herself, and realized now how bad she needed a bath of her own now.

"If you want, you can get out now, or... better yet. Stand up and I will rinse you off of the hair." she said with a hopeful smile.

Phaeton cleared his throat and stood up slowly. He lifted his hands up to ruffle at his hair, and to check the length of the back. He made a grunting sound that sounded like one of approval, or at least non-anger, and then stood there relaxed as she rinsed him off with fresh water, then herself, then reached for towels. She wrapped one around his shoulders, then wrapped a second one around his waist and tucked it in on his hip. She was about to dry herself off, when she noticed he was just standing there, waiting to be dried off apparently. Livina gave a quiet sigh, and took the first towel and began rubbing him down on his shoulders, chest and back. When that was done, she tossed the towel aside, and started on his lower half. He stood there patiently, not making a move or comment as she carefully dried him off to his knees, then he stepped out of the tub and onto the rug next to it.

Livina followed him out of the tub, and dried the rest of him off quickly. When she was done, she dropped the towel onto the floor and grabbed a dry one to do herself with. As she did so, she wondered what clothes she could put him in. Robe? Pants? A T-shirt? She was mentally running through the possibilities when suddenly he was behind her, touching her from hip to ankle with his own body.

Livina froze as she felt him place his hands on her hips, then run them slowly up, across her belly, then up to her ribs where he gripped hold of her tightly. "Well done. Now I shall reward you." he said in a low growl, then came that laugh that brought her to tears. "Phaeton, please...."

"Um hm...." he said and leaned forward and bit down on her right collarbone. She let out a soft cry at the sharp and unexpected pain, and he gave her a push forward. "Out. Bedroom." he said in that deadly serious voice that could only be interpreted as obey, or be in pain.

"OK." she said and started to walk out of the bathroom. When she opened the door, she nearly tripped over the crouched form of her son, Trago. He'd been at the door listening the whole time.

"Trago!" she exclaimed, and stopped walking to try to bend down and help him up to his feet.

Phaeton snarled and lifted up his foot and shoved Trago out of the way and tumbling to the floor. "Get away." he growled, and pushed Livina forward. "Mommy is going to play the Mommy and Daddy game with me now. GO TO BED!" he screamed at the boy, and continued to push Livina forward while she led him toward her bedroom.

"MOMMY!" Trago called after her, terrified.

"Go to bed!" she turned to call over her shoulder at him. "It will be OK." Phaeton laughed in her ear as he leaned close to her. "And maybe not...."

Trago got up and ran after the pair, and when Phaeton felt him trying to grab hold of his mother he reached down a hand and grabbed hold of a fist of Trago's shirt. Livina turned at the same time and gripped hold of Phaeton's arm. "Don't! Don't hurt him." She pleaded with him.

Phaeton lifted the boy up off of the ground by his jacket and laughed. "If you don't go to bed, I will hurt your Mommy, then I will come and hurt you." he growled.

Trago continued to struggle and started to cry louder. "Mommy! Mommy!"

"Phaeton! Let him go! You can have me! Just let him go. Let him go!" she screamed in his ear, and then slowly he turned toward her again. She could feel that mad gaze on her, even though his eyes were hidden by his hair. "What....." he hissed and let go of Trago, letting him fall to the floor in a sobbing heap.

"Go then, now!" he shouted at her, and gave her a shove forward and then glanced back at the terrified child left behind hysterical in the hallway. Phaeton laughed. "Good night." he called to him as he disappeared into the bedroom at the end of the hallway and kicked the door shut with a loud slam.

Trago continued to cry in the hallway, unsure of what to do, what to think. He'd never encountered anything like this before, and he was shell shocked. He wanted to run and hide, he wanted to run for help, he wanted to get something and attack The Monster himself. His mind was spinning, and finally, he chose to run to the safety of his room. He slammed the door shut and pushed everything he could against it, then grabbed a blanket and hid under his bed. He pulled the blanket around himself, and over his head. He didn't know what he didn't want to see, or hear, but he knew it was something bad.

As soon as the door to her bedroom slammed shut, Livina turned to face Phaeton, rage clearly showing on her face. "How dare you put your hands on my child like that, you have no right!"

"Shuddup bitch!" He snarled back and delivered a back handed slap so accurate to the side of her face you would think he had the eyesight of a hawk. "Daddy's home, time to serve." he said and before she could react, shoved her backwards onto the bed, and followed close behind, there were no clothes to remove so that saved time and effort on everyone's part as far as he was concerned.

She was crying, he was used to that, even if it had been many years since the last dance. She always cried when they fucked. It was part of the routine. Up this close to her he could see a bit better, she was still attractive, pity he was out of the slaving trade he could make money that way. "You still look nice." he growled as he followed her up onto the bed and laid out on top of her. He felt around until he found her arms, one than both and held them up over her head with one hand, tightly wrapped around her wrists.

She didn't respond, and that was how he liked it. He'd taught her well, only his name was allowed to be screamed.

His other hand slid down along the outside of her thigh as he wedged himself in between them, and then rolled slightly onto his side and spit into his palm before moving that hand down between their bodies. Slicked up, targeted, and a quick injection of his fingers to set the opening, and in he went without any other preamble. She cried out next to his ear at the painful penetration, and then laid there passively as he thrust in an out of her. Phaeton had one speed, hard and fast.

She grunted under him, holding back more crying. She wouldn't give him that pleasure. She laid there quiet, and tensed, not giving anything back. She winced when she felt his mouth on her collarbone, he nipped, bit down, hard, and nipped again. He only elicited a few whimpers from her, and that seemed to be enough to get him off this time. In under five minutes, it was all over and he rolled off of her and with a soft moan, stretched out on the bed beside her with his back to her.

Livina rolled over in the opposite direction and curled up in a fetal position as she felt around for a blanket in the dark and pulled it over her. She was shivering, but not from the cold. Touching Phaeton, or being touched by him had always been a chilling experience. She'd seen him kill in the middle of sex, she'd seen him kill before and after. There was no guarantee that surrendering to him would ensure living to tell the tale. She honestly wasn't sure why she'd survived as many encounters over the years as she had. She didn't delude herself it was because of something he felt for her. Phaeton felt for no one, not even himself.

"Cover me up too." he muttered, breaking her out of her thoughts, and she felt him turn over and spoon up behind her. His arm draped around her middle like any normal lover might, and his palm rested on the lower part of her belly.

"OK." she said quickly and rose up enough to spread covers over the both of them and then laid back down. Just moving that bit was enough to send his poisoned seed running down her thigh. Bile rose up in her throat, but she laid there, waiting. There was nothing else she could do. Survival again was the only thing she though tabout. There was no use in planning or thinking about anything else when Phaeton Slay was in the driver's seat.