Advocate for the Devil

“Mother...”

Reigh groaned, going over the text on her laptop screen again.

“...fucker”, she finished her sentence. “Motherfucker.”

The address that had been used to send the email was a dummy, but for once she didn’t need sender details to figure out who it had come from.

I don’t want to do this, but if you refuse to come home and you won’t let me come get you, I will be left with no other choice. Return, or I’ll release this to the internet.

With a swipe and a click of her finger she opened the attachment, allowing her mind a moment to process what it was seeing.

This was low even for Thomas.

The blame was on her for taking that stupid picture in the first place, of course, but she had send that in confidence. It stemmed from a time when she and him were still an actual, loving couple; a phase of their lives they’d moved well past by now.

Reigh’s hand reached for her glass of wine as she pondered her options, her eyes skimming the text again.

Secretly, she’d hoped he’d deem her sudden disappearance good riddance. He hadn’t made leaving easy on her, but at the same time she knew he hadn’t actually wanted her to stay either. He just didn’t want to lose control of her - lose control of what she could tell the world.

Well, he had nothing to fear from her on that front. She’d seen enough to know that when it came to Thomas Picard, snitches would indeed need stitches.

For a moment Reigh’s fingers hovered over the keyboard, her brain wrecking itself on what would be the best approach here.

Do make sure to mention it’s La Perla I’m wearing. It’s not everyday they get such great free publicity. ;)

She pressed send with one hand as she took a large gulp of Chardonnay with the other, washing the taste of doubt from her mouth. The second it was done she pushed herself up from her seat and away from the breakfast bar where her laptop stood.

There, she mentally praised herself, fighting the urge to turn around and press delete before the sending process was complete. If he wanted to expose her body to the world when it was clad in nothing but purple lace, she'd just have to let him. It couldn’t be worse than going back.

A yawn forced it’s way out of Reigh’s mouth as she tossed what was left of her wine in the sink, trading the glass for a coffee mug. She had to get her shit together and start getting her ass ready for work if she didn’t want to be late again.

Coffee in hand she moved towards the bedroom, taking a stance in front of the closet.

Her dark waves were easily fixed by tossing them up into a ponytail, but her face was a matter less easily resolved. While beauty might have come natural to her once, a lack of sleep, in combination with a copious amount of stress - and perhaps a bit too much alcohol - did not do wonders for her appearance. There was only so much concealer could hide, and while lipstick was great for pulling attention away from the eyes she had yet to find a shade that could distract from those bags.

Finally deciding to just slap on some mascara and call it a look, Reigh wrapped things up in the bedroom and pulled her coat with her on her way outside.

The weather here wasn’t as nice as it had been down south, but the evening air was pleasant enough as she walked out of the foyer of her apartment building and onto the streets. Housing blocks were soon traded for boulevards, and occasionally Reigh smiled to someone who also seemed to be heading out to work the evening in the city.

Her mind registered preciously little of it, though. All it kept wandering back to was that stupid picture; the one she should have never given Thomas the pleasure of seeing in the first place.

Truth was there was no saying whether he would actually go through with posting it online.

On the one hand she did not doubt for a second that he was willing to go to those lengths to spite her, but on the other hand uploading it could cause him just as much problems - if not more - than it would her.

He was still trying to get her to come back. Harming her reputation would harm his, and the ‘oh so famous CFO of Picard Cruises’ couldn’t have something staining his otherwise flawless public image. Shouldn’t that be enough to keep him from posting it?

More importantly: even if it wasn’t, would that really be the end of Reigh?

She picked up in pace, feeling the need to work out some of the pent up anxiety that was clawing at her insides.

Realistically speaking, what did she have to lose? Her friends? She only had Cathy and Dan here, and they wouldn’t give a damn. Her job? She was a barmaid, a position she’d miss about as much as the goldfish that’d died when she was 8. Her apartment? Ha, the landlord would probably lower her rent if anything.

Pathetic as it was, there really wasn’t much going on in her life that a little revenge porn could ruin. Starting over had given her that much, at least.

Reigh had reached the city center, a little calmer now that she’d managed to convince herself of her own only slightly farfetched reasoning.

Busy shopping streets and bars were starting to surround her, and slowly but surely the streets were starting to get busier. There were people all around her, most of them seemingly not even noticing that night had begun to fall.

It had been a sense of comfort to her many times to be surrounded by so many, but ever since she had moved back here to get away from Thomas she had found the feeling to be strangling. Always having people around was a good thing when you were a blissfully unaware college student, but it was a little less great when you were a young woman on the run...

She could feel the gazes passerby’s follow her every movement as she continued down the street; glaring at her, taking her in. Almost automatically her legs picked up in pace.

Perhaps it was just her imagination toying with her, but if she was going to be honest with herself she’d experienced this same feeling the day before, and the day before that. She couldn’t quite describe it, but it manifested itself in a shiver running down her back.

It was as if there was one specific set of eyes here that just didn’t belong. She knew it sounded stupid, but whenever she’d look away she could feel those eyes burning a hole in the back of her head. It wasn’t even that she felt like she was being followed, per se, it was just that it felt as if the city itself had eyes. Like the birds were keeping an eye on her or something.

If ever there was a sign that she was going crazy, this was probably it.

Reigh had almost reached the club she worked at, her legs practically speed walking right now. Even with the club’s sign in vison she didn’t dare stop to take a long good look around.

It was only when her hand touched the large glass doors that she noticed there had been footsteps behind her that had stopped at the exact same moment as well. Slowly Reigh turned her head, unsure whether she actually wanted to find out.

There was not a single soul behind her that looked like it didn’t belong. Everyone was just going about their day, dragging shopping bags towards their car, making phone calls as they hauled a taxi to get them home safely from work...

Maybe she was just getting a little paranoid indeed.