Chapter 267: The Bad Controversy

Nancy and Crystal stood at the window facing the tarmac, and for a while, they were silent. One plane took off, and then another. Crystal sighed, and in a voice that was barely audible, she said, “This is bullshit….”

“You think?” Nancy growled sarcastically. “Who the hell does he think he is? And what gives him the right to fuck with my life like this?”

Crystal shrugged. She knew that nothing she could say would help improve her friend’s disposition, so she said nothing.

“What are we going to do?” Nancy asked.

“We’re not without options,” Crystal replied. “If we took a direct flight to any of Washington’s neighboring states, once we landed, we would have a plethora of options.”

“That is a good idea,” Nancy admitted. “I can’t believe that I didn’t think about it first...”

They walked over to the flight board, and as they scanned the list for options, they were both thinking the same thing. They were trying to figure out why Paul had gone to such trouble to keep them on the island.

Once they figured out where they would go, they returned to the clerk. When they told her their destination, though, she said, “I am sorry, but every flight leaving the island over the next 48 hours is booked.”

“Every flight?” Crystal scoffed. She could not believe what she was hearing.

“This can’t be,” Nancy grumbled. “I don’t believe it.” She looked the clerk in the eyes and said, “I have been put on a’ No Fly’ list, haven’t I?”

The clerk’s cheeks turned red, but she fervently denied Nancy’s accusation.

“Tell me the truth,” Nancy growled.

Crystal pulled at her arm and said, “Nancy, calm down. We will figure this out. Don’t do anything you will regret later.”

“I am calm!” Nancy snapped. Obviously, she wasn’t. “I just don’t understand why he is doing this to me. I just want to see my father!” A moment passed, and then she said, “Why don’t you call Eric?”

Crystal nodded and pulled out her phone.

After explaining what was going on, though, he apologized to her and said, “There is nothing I can do. Everything in Kuerto is outside of my sphere of influence.”

“Cut the crap!” Crystal shouted. “This is urgent, and I know what you are capable of when you set your mind to it. Now, can you please set your mind to this?”

“Hmmm.” Eric chuckled and said, “I think we can work something out if you agree to fulfill your duties as my wife... If you agreed to my terms, Nancy would be allowed to go, but you would stay here with me.”

When Crystal heard this, her ire began to rise. “Y-Y-You b-bastard,” she stuttered angrily.

“That is not the only requirement,” Eric continued. “If Nancy wants to leave the island, she must beg Paul for permission. He is here with me, so I can give him the phone when she’s ready.”

Crystal was confused. “Are the two of you in cahoots?” she asked.

“We are friends,” Eric replied. “There is a difference.”

“This is too much,” Crystal croaked. “Nancy. will never beg Paul for anything!”

Suddenly, the line went dead, and Crystal looked at Nancy in disbelief. “He hung up on me...”

“Let’s go to the train station,” Nancy suggested. “We could take a train to another city and try to get a flight out of there.”

****

Unfortunately, when Nancy and Crystal arrived at the station, they discovered that Paul had been two steps ahead of them. As a result, not only were they denied passage, but the attendant confiscated their ID cards and kicked them out of the building.

For a while after that, they just stood there. They were like shell-shocked soldiers returning from war. Their minds were mostly blank, and when they tried to think about what they should do next, they found it extremely difficult to concentrate.

Suddenly, one of the men on the boardwalk that surrounded the station looked up from his paper, and when he saw Nancy, his eyes practically bulged out of his skull. He pointed to her and shouted, “Look, everyone! It’s the slut from the cover of the newspapers!” And to emphasize his point, he closed his newspaper and held it up so that everyone could read the caption on the front page: AND THE AWARD FOR THE MOST UNFAITHFUL WOMAN OF THE YEAR GOES TO: “Oh. My. God.” Nancy groaned. “Not this again...”

Crystal grasped her hand and said, “Ignore them. They have no right to do this to you. You were a victim of ra*e, but they don’t know that, so you cannot blame them. If you don’t make a scene, this will all go away. I promise.”

“Don’t worry.” Nancy turned, looked her in the eye, and said, “I don’t blame them. This is all on Paul. He was the one who ra*ed me. He secretly recorded it, and then he made it public. So, I will not make a scene here. When I see Paul again, he is going to wish that he had never been born.”

“That’s a good girl.” Crystal smiled and picked Nancy up. And as she carried her towards the car, she said, “Now, let’s get out of here.”

Not knowing where else to go, Crystal took Nancy back to the castle.

****

That night, Crystal could not sleep. Whenever she closed her eyes, she saw images of Nathan on the back of her eyes, and he seemed to be calling to her.

In the middle of the night, a storm rolled in, and that did not help. Every time she started to fall asleep, lightning lit up the room, and the thunder was so loud that it shook the castle to its core.

“Nathan, Nathan, Nathan,” she muttered. “Where art thou, Nathan. “Compared to Paul and Eric, Nathan was a saint. And she felt a longing for him in her loins that was undeniable.

Once upon a time, he held her tenderly and whispered sweet words in her ears. She remembered a time when he had cared for her and what it had been like to share a bed with him and have him inside her. He had been forceful, but he had never left her unsatisfied.

Crystal bit her lower lip as she tried to force these thoughts out of her mind. When that didn’t work, she tried to dwell on all of the times he had hurt her, but her mind insisted on minimizing the events.