Chapter 9

Vanessa was scared!

She was currently making her way home and trying to do it without anyone seeing her.

She took an extended vacation right before Rayne showed up in the city so if by some remote chance anyone saw Rayne, in the slavers quarter, they wouldn't think she had anything to do with it. The plan was to create some deniability in case anyone tried to link her to Rayne's disappearance.

But when she came back and went to the guild office later that night to get her share of Rayne's sale price, she found the area barricaded and a pit in the ground where the slavers quarter warehouses should have been!

IT WAS ALL GONE! COMPLETELY GONE!

There wasn't anything to be seen where the buildings used to be! And most of the surrounding building would have to be torn down and rebuilt as well.

Vanessa got scared and ran. She just knew Rayne had something to do with the missing buildings and all that destruction!

After they put out the fire in the room Rayne was in the night they took her, Rayne appeared unharmed as they carried her out unconscious and that always really bothered Vanessa. She really hoped she would die in the fire, but she didn't! Some how she set the entire room on fire, but managed to avoid the bed she was on.

But what if Rayne did that again while she was under the drugs? What if she had somehow killed everyone in the building and blew it up? Did Rayne survive and talk? Would the city guard be after her now too? She couldn't take that chance. She avoided everyone she could until she got home. It was time for her to leave Galicia forever!

Her hands were shaking badly as she tried to quickly open the door and headed into her house before anyone saw her. She needed to bolt the door, pack her things, and leave before anyone knew she was back.

Still shaking, she quickly entered the house as fast as she could and then double dead bolted the door. As she walked into her living room, threw her coat across the nearest chair, she then felt around on a table until she found a lamp and turned on the lights.

It was then at that moment that Vanessa's heart completely stopped.

As she was staring in wide eyed shock she saw sitting across the room facing her in a chair was Rayne with her legs crossed and a naked sword across her lap.

"Come in, take a seat. In fact I INSIST on it," said Rayne dangerously.

Vanessa's first thought was about bolting, and was now weighing her chances at getting the door open and getting out of the house before Rayne got to her.

Rayne was watching Vanessa's eyes and saw her trying to figure out her best chance at escape.

"Trust me when I say I'll kill you before you take two steps. The only reason I'm still letting you breathe is because I want to talk to you. But if you screw with me right now ... I'll just end you," said Rayne quietly with a surprising amount of malice.

"Ra ... Ra ... Ra ... Rayne, how ni ... ni ... nice to see you," stuttered Vanessa nervously still in wide eyed shock as she collapsed into the nearest chair by her. She was convinced that she was now seeing her final moments.

"Really? And here I thought I was going to surprise you. I mean the last time I saw you, you were gloating about selling me to the slavers. Now tell me again why that was?" asked Rayne airily, while nonchalantly waving one of her hands. "Something about you finally getting even with me or something?"

"Ray, you know how us girls talk, it wasn't anything serious. I was just fooling around with you," said Vanessa nervously.

"Oh really? So were you also fooling around when you had my daughter sold? Where she was almost forced to screw some sweaty old man, where she was also going to be forcibly raped repeatedly for her first time, against her will mind you. Was that also just fooling around to you?" asked Rayne slowly and softly, while leaning forward smiling an evil smile as she placed a hand on her sword hilt.

Vanessa suddenly broke out into a cold sweat.

She tried to talk, trying hard to think of anything she might say, could say, that just might somehow convince Rayne not to kill her and possibly save her own life. But nothing would come to mind. No matter how hard she tried nothing came out of her mouth.

She looked like a fish with her mouth just opening and closing on her.

"P ... p ... p ... please d ... don't," said Vanessa suddenly and softly.

P ... p ... please d ... don't kill me. P ... please?" begged Vanessa with wide eyes in a small quiet voice, with her bottom lip now quivering.

Rayne was surprised at how quiet and pitiful she now sounded.

Vanessa was so scared that she was now visibly shaking hard. She now looked like she was in the middle of having a severe epileptic seizure.

But she knew that her life was now hanging by an extremely small thin thread. It felt to her as if at any moment Rayne would suddenly leap to her feet to take her revenge and end her life.

And as she sat there staring at Rayne she could actually feel the seconds she had left to live quickly ticking away.

"Tell me one reason why I shouldn't," said Rayne slowly leaning back in her chair, taking her hand off her sword hilt.

In realizing the fact of how close she was now to her death, it was at that moment that Vanessa broke down. She was too scared to even think of anything but the fact that Rayne was now soon going to kill her and she was forced to sit there and watch until it happened.

Suddenly without warning she started weeping while continuing to stare at Rayne with wide eyes. Her mind just could no longer take the terror of waiting for the death that she knew was coming and it was now slowly shutting down.

"You already have the two things I wanted more than anything in the world. You have Matt and his child. I meanwhile was left with nothing. You took them both from me," said Vanessa quietly while still weeping, but now looking down at her hands in her lap.

"I didn't take them from you, you gave them away!" said Rayne suddenly and harshly.

"I never came between you and Matt once, you did that. You had his heart long before I ever met either of you. And even though I hated it, I was willing to stand in the background while you two made a life together. But that wasn't good enough for you was it? You just had to have it all and meanwhile everyone laughing at Matt, and he never knew it! He never knew it because he was blinded by his love for you!

"You already had him in a way that I couldn't and I realized that I had no claim on him. You knew each other for seasons and were comfortable with each other, but you weren't satisfied with that. You just had to have more, didn't you? He just wasn't enough for you was he?" said Rayne savagely.

"But it was never me it was you! Can't you see that? If you had not been here he would have forgiven me eventually and taken me back. Once I saw how what I did hurt him so, I would have changed for him and he would have accepted it. I didn't do any of it to hurt him," said Vanessa as she continued weeping, but now with her face in her hands.