Mal Meets the Rebel

Chapter 115: Reflection and Humiliation

She suddenly turned her face away, but not fast enough. Mal had seen it. He caught onto the pained expression and the tears forming in her eyes before she looked away.

She quickly withdrew herself away from him to a safe distance as Mal pulled himself up to a sitting position.

In a muffled tone of voice that he barely caught, Roxanne murmured, "Just leave."

Caught between still feeling angry with her and now feeling shitty for being the one who hurt her like that in the first place, Mal said nothing as he got up to his feet and left without looking back.

All of this played continuously over in Mal's mind. Her words. Her face. The cold, upset look in her eyes. His anger and the shock he felt from having the rug yanked out from under him. All of it repeated itself like a broken record over and over as he stood there under the shower head with a blank, dead stare in his eyes while the hot water drizzled down over him in dull silence. It was real. All of it. And it was really happening. Aside from the background noise of loud voices echoing off the walls and a rowdier group of guys close by going about with their business, Mal didn't notice or even hear them. Not really.

At first he was hesitant to step into the shower, only out of fear of being electrocuted by the confounded collar around his neck, but surprisingly enough he soon discovered to his relief that he wasn't. Nevertheless, in his case he wasn't sure if he should feel surprised by it or just plain lucky, which he wasn't certain. However that soon past, his mind didn't dwell on it for long, it was quickly replaced and preoccupied with other concerns at the moment.

He was now dealing with his raw, bottled-up emotions and the current situation at hand he would soon be facing. Confused now with how he should feel because on one hand he was angry for million reasons it seems. The main one that was eating at him the most at the moment was him letting his rage and jealousy drive a wedge between himself and Roxanne. On the inside, he knew even though he didn't want to admit when he was wrong, that it was all his fault. He knew he should have treated her better. He knew that, but he also knew if he started acting 'soft' in front of the other guys like himself, it would spell out trouble for him later. Mal had been stuck between a rock and a hard-place for quite a while.

He wasn't even sure for how long anymore. All he knew was that it all started around the time he began to develop feelings for her, and because of that his iron-fist rule over this place- his sweet, little setup was starting to crumble under his feet due to it. He was having a difficult time keeping up his evil presence and cruel dealings, and all it took was one look at her, those eyes and he wanted to melt like a silly little school girl having her first crush. It was sickening, and it was enough to drive him bat-shit crazy. He was so use to being the one in charge and running the place, making everyone shrink away in terror of his mere presence, but now that she came along, everything ironically enough was in more disorder and chaos than what he was accustom to dealing with. The type of chaos and mayhem she brought was bringing down everything he worked so hard to achieve here. And for a time, it infuriated him beyond words until suddenly things only started to spiral more out of control than what he could handle now that he actually cared about how his actions affected her.

Even so he was also angry due to her cold and distant behavior she's been exhibiting towards him all day that started the very night before all of this. He still couldn't understand what set her off that night or why she was suddenly so ticked off with him. All he knew was Bailey was involved with it and he was still bent on making her pay for it, but for the time being it would have to wait. He had other problems to deal with first. Like the collar for example and some how finding a way to remove it and sweet talking Roxanne into taking it off was out of the question. She wasn't as dense or as clueless as Zoey was, so he knew whatever he was going to do or say it would have to be believable or he'd be further screwed if he failed. The collar had to come off, no questions asked. That was another thing, Mal was actually more surprised than angry that she willingly had the fire to try and force him into being her slave. He never actually agreed to it nor disagreed to it. The reason being was the same reason he was standing here now with this feeling of being void of all emotions except the one he saw in her eyes before he left.