[A/N]: Bonus Chapter. A peek into Tamara Watson's mind.
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Deep loathing swirled in Tammy's heart, like a vortex filled with gunk and rubble. She cursed her fate, feeling nothing but disgust and regret for her "choice" of company. Even now, her stomach turned at her situation.
She clung to Alec's arm—her "boyfriend"—and pressed her side into it like some innocent, love-stricken girl. Under his control, she was made to laugh at every joke, flirt at any opportunity, and fawn over him as if smitten to her very core.
This was made worse by the fact that some people smiled or cooed seeing her act with Alec like that.
After all, why not? They looked like the perfect couple. Tammy was a cute and soft little thing. Fluffy pink hair, cottony pastel clothes, all bundled up under the protection of her boyfriend's fur-lined jacket. Alec, meanwhile, was a tall and dashing young man. Wealth and class were evident in his finely-pressed clothing—a button-up shirt and slacks, topped off with understated jewelry.
Tammy's skin crawled underneath the jacket wrapped around her. The sensation was comparable to how she imagined it would be like, to have maggots wriggling around just beneath her skin. His scent, too, was overbearing to her. Logically, it wasn't. He was smart and conservative in nearly everything he did, yet Tammy's throat mucked up and her stomach turned with every breath she took. Even his voice sounded disgusting to her, dripping into her ear like fat grease.
She wanted nothing more than for her body to rebel against the control and hurl up the luxurious dinner he'd fed her. Maybe she would hack hard enough to choke on her vomit and die.
Her lamentations over all of these things were interrupted. Just as Alec was peeling his jacket off her shoulders, the world exploded around her. Her senses were dulled by Alec's control, allowed only to perceive him. Yet, the destruction was palpable all the same. Then, soon enough, his grip on her mind went and loosened, cracked and fractured and frayed at the edges.
This was it. Tammy might just break free. All it would take was more, just another push, just another crack in the collar.
It never came.
The only consequence of the damage to Alec's control, was that she was no longer forced to keep up the act. She was under no illusion that this was permanent—he could likely just reassert his control with a touch like he had at the beginning. Right now, she was just a brainless, emotionless doll for him to reclaim when the dust settled.
She didn't dare to think about what might happen if another person gained control over her.
Still... there was the fighting all around. Were any of them using guns? If she was lucky, maybe a bullet would hit her in the head. What a release that would be.
Sadly, as expected, she wasn't granted even freedom in death. No, instead, she's picked up by a pair of strong yet oddly unforceful hands, whisked away from the fighting.
Fear overwhelmed her for a moment. Her blood ran cold, skin glacial in stark contrast to the bubbling, crawling heat that she had been suffering under Alec's embrace. She was trapped under her own skin, bound tight by the very muscles underneath that refused to cooperate.
Then, as quickly as her fear came, it vanished.
She was stunned now, as this unknown person set her body down somewhere presumably safe. Her body moved on its own, righting its stance, and she freaked out for a moment.
She had never acted without Alec's say-so since her first date with him. She briefly feared that she would attack this person, whoever they were, assuming that her body received a command that her mind failed to register.
Instead, she stayed still, standing like some living mannequin.
Soon enough, as she bided her time with no sense of knowing nor acting, the fighting ended.
A new voice spoke to her then. It broke through the haze that had clouded her senses since Alec took control. Her sight also cleared up somewhat, and her vision was filled with the fuzzy shape of a man clad in black, wearing a white mask over the lower half of his face.
She only knew that it was a man because of his voice.
Hm... his voice. She quite liked it. He sounded sharp and soft at the same time. It reminded her of the security of carrying a pocket knife with her. A weapon that was on her side, and not anybody else's.
To her surprise, her hand twitched. She had instinctively wanted to reach for the pocket knife in her... well, pocket. It was a gift from her girlfriend.
Ex-girlfriend, really.
She'd broken things off with Maxie when Alec assumed control over her mind.
Before she could wonder how her Sweet Sundae was doing, the masked man spoke again. "Time to see if you're actually in the state I think you are," he mumbled.
Tammy would never have heard him before, but again, Alec's control had loosened. She could perceive this one voice quite well now, and she latched onto it with every ounce of willpower that she had. To her great relief... her body registered him as her new... "master," to reluctantly borrow Alec's words.
"Follow me," he ordered.
He sounded authoritative, but... after so much time spent listening to Alec's arrogant voice, Tammy caught the awkward edge in it. This man must have been forcing himself to take on that sort of role under the assumption that it was necessary. It was kind of cute... Tammy wished she had control then, because it really made her want to smile.
Regardless, her body obeyed, and she basked in her newfound safety. Even if it didn't last... well, at least she got to choose who controlled her for once.
'My hero,' she thought. 'My knight in soft, fuzzy, cuddly armor ♥'
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[A/N]: Y'all, I was been wanting to get this chapter out since Ch.10: Saved, but I just could never be satisfied with what I wrote... until today. Now I can put this chapter out. Thanks for bein' here to see this, y'all.