Chapter Seven
Camila woke up early in the morning, and got out of bed. It was light enough for her to see, but it still looked damn early, and she wondered how long it would be before Adrien woke up. Somehow, she had to get him to stop locking her in the room, or she might get in trouble. If he passed out because he was too sick while she was locked up, it would be inconvenient for her.
It was a long time before she heard the steps outside her door, and she froze. She didn’t try to hide this time, staying standing in the middle of the room as Adrien unlocked the door. It did surprise her when he didn’t open it before walking away.
She hesitated. What was this? Every time, he would open the door after unlocking it to check up on her, even when he thought she still had a highly contagious flu.
Is he planning something?
There was no more noise from outside. After a while, she cautiously moved forward and opened the door for herself, then stepped out. She didn’t see Adrien.
Camila hesitated. She was through with the passive behavior from before, but that didn’t mean she should act stupid all of a sudden. If she did something risky, it might ruin everything. Sneaking around while Adrien was awake was a bad idea, so after a while, she headed toward the living room.
“Adrien?” she called tentatively.
She heard a grunt coming from the couch. She found Adrien sitting down with a couple bottles of alcohol. So, they weren’t all gone after all. She was surprised how much stock of the stuff Tansy had in her place, or if Adrien had come with some of his own. Surely no one just kept all this alcohol lying around collecting dust, right?
“You should have fucking dug the hole, Camila,” Adrien grumbled.
He was glaring at her, but she didn’t have it in her to be frightened. Instead, she was confused. She didn’t get was he was talking about immediately.
Then, out of nowhere, a rank smell hit her nose that made her double over, an arm curling around her stomach as her other hand slapped over her mouth. She gagged for a little bit, but the urge to vomit pulled back. She was eating a lot less because Adrien had given up on being the ‘dutiful husband’ and hadn’t brought up any more of the canned goods to replace what they’d eaten. Now she knew why. The body in the basement was rank and made her gag, but she didn’t have much to throw up, anyway. She hadn’t eaten in more than a day, and even though she’d been hungry earlier, she wasn’t now.
“What,” Adrien muttered. “Are you still sick?”
She nodded her head quickly, not looking up. “I’m sorry.”
He clicked his tongue. “I don’t need you to be fucking sorry. Get me food from the kitchen, I don’t wanna move.”
Camila shot him a look of surprise. He could actually eat something? With that smell? She would take whatever solitude she could get her hands on, but the idea of food actually made her feel a little bit sick.
She understood his statement, now, though, about digging the hole. Tansy’s dead body in the basement was decaying and odiferous. She kind of regretted not digging the hole herself, but the ground had been too hard and frozen for her to get the shovel in it deep enough to bury the body.
Tansy’s body must have been decomposing the entire time in the warmer basement, but while Camila had hoped to forget about her being down there, she hadn’t actually forgotten about it. She was surprised it took this long before she noticed the smell though. Or maybe it was just stronger now that Adrien had gone back down in the basement to retrieve more alcohol. The smell was hitting her really hard today and she almost couldn’t stand it.
Adrien took a swig of alcohol, and then shot her a look of impatience. “Now, Camila.”
That had her moving, and she walked as far from the door to the basement as she could crossing the living room to get to the kitchen.
She noticed the food stocks had been replenished too. She knew there was a storage room somewhere in the basement where Adrien got the food. There must be a freezer down there too, because there was now more meat in the kitchen freezer too. Since she’d had no chances to explore with him watching her movements like a hawk most of the time, and she wouldn’t have gone down in the basement anyway, she had no idea what was in the storage room down there. She was glad to have the food though.
Since the produce in the house had been eaten up quickly within the first few days, she was happy to have the canned goods and the meat. For now, Camila picked a can off the pantry shelf, and she didn’t bother to check what was in it as she picked up a clean spoon, and the can opener, which she’d found in one of the drawers. She opened the can and scooped the contents into a bowl. It looked like baked beans. There hadn’t been a label on the can, so she was guessing. She popped the bowl in the microwave and when it was done heating, she took the bowl to where Adrien was seated on the couch in the living room.
The smell from the basement was heavier in the living room, and it didn’t help her nausea. Neither did Adrien’s constant indulging in alcohol. She wondered if he’d woken up and started drinking before he even opened her door for her, because when she got too close to him, she could smell the alcohol on him like he’d doused himself in the stuff.
Quickly, she backed away, once again holding a hand to her mouth and holding back the vomit. She was a little frustrated with herself, because she’d thought this had passed. Though with the nasty smells in the room, it wasn’t much of a surprise.
“Cut that the fuck out,” Adrien said with a wrinkle of his nose as he shooed her off with a hand. “Didn’t you say you were feeling fine before?”
“That was before,” she muttered.
She walked over to the windows and pushed them open, breathing in the fresh air as she leaned her head out the window. It was cold, but she didn’t care. The clean air was definitely an improvement.
“If you don’t get well and stop being sickly, I’ll stop feeding you altogether,” he threatened. “You’ll starve either way, but if you’re just going to puke up the food you eat, there’s no reason I have to starve with you.”
You’re barely allowing me enough food as it is,she thought sarcastically to herself. And is this how far your ‘husband and wife’ play is going to go? What a heartless husband.
Out loud, she pointed out, “That’s not really logical, Adrien. I thought I was getting better, too, so it’s not like I’m doing this on purpose.”