Crazy Bitch (Bitches and Queens) (18 page)

Just then, Willow started
pounding on the door and screamed, “HAN-NAH! Please just open the door!”

Hannah buried her face in Kate’s
dress and started trembling so hard she nearly brought them both to the ground.

“Hannah, no one wants to hurt
you,” Kate whispered.

“Please don’t open the door,”
Hannah cried. “If she sees this, she will kill me. I promised not to do it
again, but I couldn’t stop myself. Make her go away.”

“Hannah…” Kate faltered, not
certain how to reason with someone who had clearly lost her mind. “Sam and
Willow are out there, and they are here to help you.”

“New mommy is with them. She
has been out there all night,” Hannah denied.

“No,” Kate insisted. “It’s just
Sam and Willow.”

“She can’t see me like this.
She will kill me,” Hannah declared.

Kate silently thought that it
wouldn’t be a good idea for anyone to see her like this—especially Sam and
Willow. Hannah was almost as unrecognizable as her room. Smeared with filth,
several long chunks of her hair were missing as well. Kate could only assume
she had been trying to cut out the excrement.

“I’ll help you clean up. Then
we will go outside and you can see for yourself that is it only Sam and Willow,”
Kate offered.

When Hannah released her tight
hold around Kate’s waist, she noticed a pistol dangling loosely between her
fingers. Growing instantly afraid, Kate tried to remain calm, “But first you
need to put the gun down.”

“If she comes in…” Hannah
rushed.

“If she comes in, I won’t let
her hurt you,” Kate promised.

Hannah wordlessly nodded and
placed the gun beside her knee, but the pounding started again. She started to
reach for it, but Kate leaned down and grabbed her hand. “Just ignore it—I’ll
tell them to go away. Stay right here.”

Walking determinedly towards
the door, Kate called out through the closed door, “Sam.”

“Kate?” Sam answered, sounding
baffled.

“Sam, I’m in here with Hannah.
We will be out in a few minutes.”

“Kate, open this door,” Sam
demanded.

“Ma’am, are you all right? Is
she holding you hostage?” a strange voice called out.

“I’m fine,” Kate answered. “I’m
here on my own accord.”

“Kate, how did you get in
there?” Sam questioned heatedly.

“Ma’am, I need you to open the
door. This is potentially a very dangerous situation. There were reports of
shots fired. Is she holding the weapon?” the police officer questioned.

“No,” Kate answered and then
bit her lip. Lying to the police was a serious offense, but if Kate told the
truth, Hannah could get arrested and the whole thing could be dragged out in
the courts for months. She really didn’t want to start her marriage by starring
on Court TV. Besides, Hannah hadn’t actually been shooting at them, but instead
was trying to kill her mother that had been dead for over a decade. Clearly,
she was a little confused. “I don’t see any weapons, but several large pieces
of furniture have been upended. Maybe that is what they heard? If you give me
just a few more minutes alone with her, she promised to come out on her own.”

While the officers chatted
among themselves, Kate called out, “Sam, I need you to find me some clean
clothes.”

“For Hannah?” he asked.

“For both of us actually,” Kate
answered.

“Kate, what in the hell are you
doing in there?” Sam groaned.

“I was trying to save our
reception,” Kate snapped. “And Sam,” she whispered quietly, “you need to find a
hospital for Hannah. Maybe something long-term?”

“Jesus Christ,” Sam grumbled.

On their way to the bathroom,
Kate used one of Hannah’s discarded shirts and picked up the pistol. She placed
it inside the top drawer of the medicine cabinet. If the police officers wanted
to be thorough, they would find it. And if they wanted to be all official and
send it off to ballistics, they could prove that it had been fired, but at
least she had done what she could to avoid making an ugly situation even
nastier.

 While Kate was helping Hannah
undress, she tried to remain discreet, but there were certain truths about her
that were quite shocking. The very last thing she expected to see in between
Hannah’s legs was
that
. Kate’s eyes quickly flew up to Hannah’s face—where
they remained.

 Obviously, Kate had bigger,
more important things to consider than Hannah’s cock, but she couldn’t help but
wonder—why hadn’t Sam ever told her? He knew she had always been a little
insecure about their relationship. Yet, instead of telling her the truth, he always
insisted they were only friends. Obviously, he hadn’t been lying about that.
Sam was many things, he was no doubt the kinkiest person she had ever known,
but he wasn’t gay. In fact, he very well might be the straightest transvestite
that ever walked the face of this earth. Why hadn’t he just said, ‘No, I’m not
nor ever have been attracted to Hannah because she is a…’ Well—Kate wasn’t
entirely certain what Hannah was, but whatever she was, she wasn’t Sam’s type.

That simple conversation would
have alleviated months of needless anxiety. So, why hadn’t he told her the
truth, unless he didn’t know? It would have to wait for another day. She had
already burst one too many of his bubbles today. Yes, some people do wait to
have sex until they are married, and your best friend is a man…or something
very close.

Hannah stood trembling, helpless
under the warm spray. In her current state of mind, she couldn’t seem to
comprehend even the simplest of directions, so Kate had to do most of the
actual washing. Once the filth was removed from her hair and skin, Kate used a
small brush to work on the caked-on smears trapped under her nail beds.

After several minutes, she
looked somewhat more presentable. Kate helped her dry off with a fresh towel
she found in the linen closet. Wrapping the towel around Hannah, Kate told her
sit on the toilet while she looked for a hairbrush. Kate tried to be gentle as
she combed through the tangled mess, but soon realized that nothing she could
do would make it look decent. There were just too many uneven sections and
missing chunks.

Kate stepped back and said, “Hannah,
I need to cut your hair.”

Hannah reached up anxiously. “Mommy
likes it long,” she whimpered.

“Your mother will never hurt
you again. I promise,” Kate answered.

Hannah nodded wordlessly and
returned her fixed gaze towards the door. Watching and listening so intently,
she appeared to be both defenseless yet ready to strike at a moment’s notice.

While Kate worked on Hannah’s
hair, she wished Sam could be in here to help but that was impossible. For
starters, there was no telling how Hannah might react if he stepped inside the
domain of her private hell. Secondly, Sam wasn’t emotionally equipped to handle
seeing the deterioration, the downfall.

All Kate’s knowledge of human
psychology came secondhand by way of her various counseling sessions and
therapists, but at least she had a reference point. She could see the reason
behind the madness. For that reason alone, she, the person who undoubtedly
cared the least, was the best person to handle the situation. Probably not the best
hairstylist in the joint, but Kate felt reasonably confident that she could
convince Hannah to open the door without her causing bodily injury to anybody
nearby.

Hannah waited in the bathroom
while Kate retrieved the clean clothes. Using her body to block the room’s
interior, she took the garments from Sam’s hands without a word and then closed
the door behind her.

Finally, Hannah was ready to
leave. Although she wasn’t kicking and screaming, Kate did have to practically
drag her across the room. When Kate opened the door, only Sam and Willow stood
on the other side. The armed police officers remained out of sight further down
the hall. Yet instead of looking relieved, Hannah appeared to be more confused
and troubled than before. For several long moments, she stared blankly at
Willow and then finally whispered, “You sound so much like her.”

“Who?” Willow questioned
frantically. “Who do I sound like, Hannah?”

Hannah stroked her freshly
trimmed hair self-consciously. “I should go now. I have things I have to do.”

Willow fought back the tears
until Hannah was situated inside the ambulance. Everything about her was so
changed—the way she walked, the way she sounded, even the light in her eyes had
been snuffed. Having spent the last few hours not knowing whether she was dead
or alive, Willow had been more than relieved when she finally opened the door,
but now Willow wasn’t so certain. Perhaps she hadn’t killed herself, but some
part of her was missing. Why hadn’t she stayed last night? Willow had cursed
herself over and over all day long. Why hadn’t she told her she loved her
before it was too late?

Willow followed Sam and Kate
back inside the house. Sam had to deal with the police and various emergency
workers that were scattered throughout the house. He moved swiftly, seemingly
unaware of her presence.

“Where are you taking her?”
Willow questioned.

Sam spun around on his heels
and eyed her with a deadly heat. “You don’t need to worry about that,” he
grunted.

“Sam, I want to help,” Willow
pleaded.

“Want to help?” Sam mocked
sarcastically. “Where was your fucking generous spirit last night? She reached
out for help, and you had goddamn better things to do. So, why don’t you just go
do them?”

“I’m a part of her life too!”
Willow shouted defiantly.

Kate looked on powerlessly as
the switch inside Sam flipped. It wasn’t so much his stance, but his entire
essence transformed. It was about to get ugly, very ugly. As much as she loved
him, there was very little she could do when he got like this. In fact, the
only person who could handle Sam at his very worst was on her way to the psyche
ward.

“Sam, please,” Kate whispered.

“NO!” Sam suddenly roared. “I
won’t fucking stay quiet, Kate! I’ve been saying this would happen for weeks!”
He turned back around towards Willow. He had only ever hit one woman in his
entire life, and that was because she had been kicking his ass at the time, but
damn if Willow wouldn’t make the perfect number two.

“You are nothing but a
gold-digging whore! You have no part in Hannah’s life! The only thing you care
about is your fucking reference. Well, here—give this to the dean…” Sam paused as
he began rummaging through the cabinets and drawers until he found a piece of
paper and a pen. He hurriedly scrawled his two-word reference, crumbled the
paper into a ball, and then walked back over and tossed it in Willow’s face.

Willow opened the note and read
Sam’s message—
FUCK YOU!

“And tell the dean he can suck
my cock while you’re at it!” Sam shouted.

“You can’t do this,” Willow
cried out. She didn’t give a damn about his ridiculous reference. Right now,
the very last thing on her mind was school. She was solely focused on Hannah
and seeing her get healthy again, and Willow somehow knew it wouldn’t happen if
she were shut out of her life.

“Just watch me, bitch,” Sam
yelled.

“Willow, you should go,” Kate
declared firmly. Once Sam had his back turned, she silently mouthed, “I’m
sorry.”

Unfortunately, expediency
overrode discretion. Considering Sam had bailed when Kate had very nearly died,
bailed on their wedding, and bailed on the reception too, he was certain that
if he missed the honeymoon, there wouldn’t be a marriage to come back to. And
if that happened, he was going to have to check himself in alongside Hannah in
the psyche ward. They could be roomies. It would be a blast.

Even if he had all the time in
the world, he couldn’t keep the story from breaking. His lawyers, who in
conjunction with Hannah’s publicist, one of the best in the industry, had been
working around the clock, but they couldn’t prevent the media firestorm. It
wasn’t just a breakdown; it was
the
breakdown—a decade long in the
making, and Sam had been there from the very start.

When Hannah first left for New
York all those years ago, he had had mixed emotions. Obviously, he was happy
that she had escaped. From what, he was never entirely certain, as she had
carefully guarded the secrets of what occurred behind the closed doors of the
house of horrors. Even as a young child, Sam knew that whatever happened inside
that dungeon she called home wasn’t good, wasn’t right.

It was only after she had left
that he began to realize how much he had depended upon her. Back then, Sam had
been caught up in a tailwind of addiction. He approached his drug use like he did
most things in his life—with exuberance and enthusiasm. After all, he didn’t
need to worry because Hannah was his safety net. No matter how trashed he got,
she would always find him, take him home, get him to bed, and on most nights,
have his homework completed and waiting on his bedside table.

Then she was gone. The first
morning he woke up inside a stranger’s pool house had terrified him. It
happened just a few weeks before the summer of his seventeenth year. A few days
later, he received a package from New York—inside was the magazine with Hannah’s
first cover shot. The funny thing was that he had actually seen that same
magazine several times hanging on the front rack of a convenient store he
frequented, and he had no idea that it was her. The transformation was nothing
short of miraculous.