Hell Hath No Fury
Title: Hell Hath No Fury
Author: aikaterini
Fandom: Fifty Shades of Grey/Original Series
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1,983
Inspiration: Fifty Shades of Grey, Chapter 19
Warnings: Mentions of violence, blood
Author's Note: Alexandros is a character from an original story that I'm working on and he belongs to me.
Summary: As Christian is rushing Ana to the boathouse to ‘punish her,’ they run into an unexpected stranger who has come all the way from Greece to pay Christian a visit...
===
Ana squeezed her eyes shut. Why was he so angry? What had she done wrong?
Suddenly, Christian stopped short, nearly dropping Ana. She gave a frightened squeak and he slapped her behind again.
“I told you to shut up,” he said through gritted teeth. Ana craned her neck to see what had caught his attention and gasped. A small, green serpent slithered right into her field of vision, leaving a faint ripple through the crisply cut grass.
“Is-is that a snake?” she said in a quivering voice.
Christian grunted. “Looks like it. Don’t know what it’s doing here. I’ll tell my mother to call the gardener and -”
“Excuse me, Mr. Grey, but I think she can walk.”
Ana’s cheeks burned with mortification and she buried her face in Christian’s shoulder. Oh, jeez, someone had actually caught them? What if he told Christian’s parents? Or Kate?
“Her ankle doesn’t look broken to me,” the voice continued. Ana meekly looked up to see a young man peering at her feet with an amused smile. He looked to be around her age and was moderately tanned with cool green eyes and sleek dark hair. Ana bit her lip to suppress a blush as she realized that he was really quite attractive. Her thoughts were instantly halted, however, by Christian’s tightening grip on her back.
“Yes, her ankles look fine,” the stranger said, his English fluid but heavily accented. “And even if they weren’t, wouldn’t it be more comfortable for her if you held her in your arms instead?” The young man’s smile widened. “What are you going to do, tie her to the train tracks?”
Christian’s fingers dug deeper into Ana’s flesh and she pressed her lips firmly together to avoid yelping in pain. “Look,” Christian spat, “this is private property and you’re trespassing. Forget what you saw and get out of here, and I won’t call…” His voice trailed off.
Ana blinked. Why had Christian gone quiet all of a sudden? Her eyes widened when she heard him hoarsely say, “You…your - your hair. It’s - what the…” Christian stepped back. “You - your face! What the hell is wrong with your face?”
Huh? Ana looked at the young man who stood before Christian, still smiling. What on earth was Christian talking about? It was a very handsome face, or at least she thought so.
“Who…what the hell are you?”
The young man shrugged. “Just somebody who took a flight all the way from Athens just to see you.” He grinned, his sharp teeth glinting. “Doesn’t that make you feel special, Christian?”
Before Ana could gape in shock, she felt herself being unceremoniously tossed off Christian’s shoulder. She landed in an ungraceful heap on the ground and dimly heard the rapid footfalls of Christian as he rushed away. A smooth, cool hand slid around her arm and gently pulled her to her feet. Ana stared after Christian in disbelief as she watched him run back to the mansion.
“Well, that was rude,” the stranger said.
**
Christian burst into the mansion, panting. He had no idea what that - that thing was that had appeared in his yard, but he knew that he had never seen anything like it. One moment he was looking at a normal kid, the next he was staring into the hideous canine face of a monster with snakes spiraling from his hair and giant, grotesque bats’ wings sprouting from his back.
He must have had too much to drink, Christian decided. Trying to regain his breath, Christian approached the dining room where Kate Kavanaugh and his family still chatted amongst themselves. He took a deep breath and sauntered inside.
And promptly stopped dead in his tracks.
There, sitting across from his mother, was the woman that Ana had dubbed ‘Mrs. Robinson.’ She was laughing loudly, her large earrings swinging from side to side. The earrings that had caused her to savagely beat him within an inch of his life when he had accidentally lost them.
“What are you doing here?”
Everyone at the table swerved to look at Christian. Kate was smirking, his mother looked stricken, and the rest all regarded him with horror. The woman beamed up at Christian. “Oh, there you are, darling! I was just telling your lovely mother all about our fun times together -”
“Why?” Christian’s hands clenched into fists. “Why would you do that? We agreed -”
“Oh, come now, Christian, don’t be such a child!” The woman laughed. “Why shouldn’t your family know about us? After all, I was a life-saver for you. Isn’t that what you told your new girlfriend? Ana, is it? You told her that I was good for you, remember?”
“You were,” he whispered. “You were good for me…”
The woman smoothed back a few stray hairs. “So, what’s the problem?” Her eyes glittered. “You’re not ashamed of me, are you?”
Christian shuffled his feet, feeling like he was a teenager again. “No…” he muttered. “No, of course not.”
His mother looked appalled. “Christian, why didn’t you tell us about what this woman did to you?”
“All these years and you never told us," his father said quietly, "you never said anything…”
Christian’s voice cracked. “Because I knew that you wouldn’t understand! You’d think she hurt me, you’d call the police! You wouldn’t believe me when I said that she was helping me!”
“Helping you?” Kate laughed derisively. “So, that’s what they call it these days?”
The woman crossed one of her long, bare legs over the other. “Oh, I helped him all right.” Her eyes slid over to her right. “Didn’t I, Leila?”
Christian froze. "Leila?"
There, sitting in Ana’s chair, was his ex-sub, looking as broken and wretched as she had when he had last seen her. She was still trussed up in that starched straightjacket that the mental institution had stuffed her into and her brown hair lay lank and limp over her shoulders. Her cracked lips parted into a painful attempt at a smile. “Hello, Christian.”
“How - how did you get out?”
“I managed.”
“No.” Christian shook his head wildly. “No, it's not possible.” He swallowed hard and then abruptly straightened himself, steeling his gaze into a glare. “Get out of my house, Leila.”
Leila’s eyes were dull and empty. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Get out of my house!” Christian shouted. He glared at the woman who was placidly sipping her wine. “Both of you - get out!”
Leila slowly rose, leaning against the back of her chair for support. “You think that you can just lock me away? You think that you can just forget about me?”
“Or me?”
Christian spun around. In the corner of the room was a dark-haired woman whose left arm rested in a sling. As she approached him, he could see the deep welts on her face and throat. He backed away. “Claire?”
“Or me?”
Christian turned again, only to see another dark-haired woman stagger over to him. Her face was streaked with blood and she wore a tattered dress. He didn’t remember her name.
“Or me?”
Christian backed against the wall, paralyzed with terror as one by one, the rest of the thirteen emerged. All of them were bloodstained and battered, and they swarmed around the dinner table, trapping the occupants in their seats
No… Christian sank against the wall. Claire tottered towards him, her right hand outstretched and grasping. With a savage cry, he slapped her hand away and seized her by the throat. His moment of triumph was short-lived, however, as he saw that his hands were dripping with fresh blood.
Instantly, he released Claire and tried to wipe his hands on his shirt, but the blood wouldn’t come off. He looked down and, with a start, saw that his feet were smearing a trail of blood all over the floor. He rubbed his hands against his clothes faster, faster…
He desperately looked back at his family, all of whom looked revolted beyond measure. “It’s not true!” he pleaded. “It’s all lies! I didn’t do anything!” His mother started sobbing. “It wasn’t my fault! She - she made me do it!” He pointed at the woman, who still calmly sat at the table. “It’s her fault! She - no, it’s all of you!” he screamed. “You all deserved it! Filthy parasites, just like my crack addict of a mother! If I want to beat you, then I will! If I want to screw you, then I will! I’m your master! I own you! I -”
Something smashed into his head and he collapsed to the floor, senseless.
**
Kate stared down at Christian, the broken remainder of the plate still warm in her hand. She’d always suspected that something was not quite right about Christian Grey, but she never imagined that he’d be this crazy. Bursting into the dining room like a bat out of hell, babbling to himself, ranting to some woman named Leila, and trying to strangle his own sister? Oh, yes, he’d definitely lost it.
As his horrified family members encircled Christian’s prone body, Kate looked up to see the blonde maid from earlier timidly enter the room. Their eyes met and Kate nodded. The maid scurried away, no doubt to make a phone call to the nearest hospital.
Or mental ward, Kate thought scornfully. Which reminded her…where on earth was Ana?
**
Ana didn’t know what had terrified Christian so much. This young man - Alexandros, he’d said his name was - seemed so nice. He was most sympathetic when she told him how scared she’d been when Christian had tossed her over his shoulder.
“I thought only cavemen did that,” he’d said, and she had giggled.
Yes, he was very nice - and handsome, too. He talked a lot and his accent was a bit funny, but she could overlook that. Maybe she could - no. She was dating Christian. She was bound to him. And he’d be very angry if he knew that she was alone with Alexandros. With a sigh, Ana prepared to head back to the mansion.
“Well, I’d better get going. Thank you, Alexi-Alexa -”
“Alexandros,” he corrected with a smile.
Ana blushed. “Uh, yeah. Thanks for keeping me company. But I’d better go; my…my boyfriend will be upset if I stay out for too long.”
Alexandros shook his head. “Miss, can I ask you something?”
Ana nervously twisted her fingers together. “Uh…sure.”
“Why are you with him?”
Ana blinked. “Wh-what do you mean?”
“He hurts you, he lies to you, he frightens you…why do you want to be with him?”
Ana stood there with her mouth open for a while, before she finally found her voice. Her words spilled out of her mouth before she could stop herself. She tried to explain that Christian didn’t mean it, that he was just punishing her because he was her Dom, that it was BDSM, that he’d grow to love her if she’d hold out long enough, that he knew what he was doing, that she’d never find anyone as handsome and rich and amazing as him, that she’d become a crazy cat lady if she’d let this one go…
“ - And he’s only doing this because he loves you, he’s the only man who will ever love you because it’s not like there are millions of other men who live on this planet and blah, blah, blah.” Alexandros rolled his eyes. “You know how many times I’ve heard this from abused women and men? It’s always the same thing. No, he doesn’t hurt you because he loves you. He hurts you because he hates women. That’s it.”
Ana shook her head. “No.” Her voice quivered. “That’s not true. He’ll love me. He will.”
Sudden screams shattered the air. Shocked, Ana spun around. The sound of something breaking followed suit.
“Yes, well…” Alexandros glanced nonchalantly at the mansion. “Good luck with that.”
Once Ana’s back was turned, he vanished.