Rule and Ruin

five; the birthday gift

chapter five.

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"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Selene," Dino grinned.

She smiled and let him gather her in his arms.

"You grow more beautiful with each passing year," Dino said. "If only your father could see you now."

Selene wanted to push out of Dino's long embrace, but she stood patiently until he was finally satisfied and moved his sweaty body away. He ran his eyes down her wine colored cocktail dress.

"I have watched you grow up over the last twelve years. You are like a daughter to me," Dino said. "Anything you want in this world, and it is yours."

"I know," she smiled with practice. "Thank you."

"Enjoy the party," he said with a sweep of his arm.

Selene's birthday had never felt like hers. Each year, Dino threw a grand party in her name, but it was really just another excuse for him and his cronies to get drunk and wreck havoc. She never really enjoyed these parties and tried to disappear after the stupid gift-giving ceremony, which was really just a bunch of losers kissing Dino's ass.

There was a game of darts going on. Except instead of a dart board, some prisoner of Dino's was chained to the wall.

Selene had no patience for these tasteless party tricks, but according to Dino, it wasn't a real party if blood wasn't spilled.

As usual, the space was beautiful. It seemed to be some kind of underground showroom, its structures old yet grand. Selene wandered the hallways, admiring the glow of the painted pillars and swinging chandeliers. Her eyes skimmed the labels of each closed room: A Nymph's Parlor, The Siren Lounge, The Goddess Inn.

She walked down the hallway, letting the party noises drift away into the distance. Her heels clicked against the marble floors and she welcomed the distraction to her ears.

Happy Birthday, everyone said to her that today.

She was nineteen now, and yet she felt no different. She felt like her life was on pause. Like time was hesitating around her. Like she had never grown up.

She shook her head, hating how useless thoughts like that were.

"Hello, dear," Wang's voice appeared beside her. She nearly jumped out of her skin.

"Hello," she said, trying to maintain her composure. She glanced down the empty hallway and noticed how dark it was.

"Happiest of birthdays to you," he grinned.

"Thank you."

"Twelve years since your father passed and that man took you in," he said thoughtfully. "Twelve years."

"Yes."

"You are like a daughter to him."

"Yes."

"Ironic, isn't it?"

"Pardon?" Selene was just about to lose her patience.

"Nothing, nothing," he waved his own words away. "Just thinking about it makes me laugh."

"Thinking about what?"

Wang just gave her another one of his wicked smiles as he reached out a hand to touch her hair.

Selene didn't want to think about Wang and his cruel smiles and his ominous sayings. She jerked out of his reach and held his poisonous stare with one of her own. "Enjoy the party, Wang."

She left him with a curt nod.

Back in the main room, Selene's eyes swept over the disgusting scene of drunk men. In one corner, they challenged each other to pointless physical matches. In the other, they thrust their tongues down the throats of unwilling women.

It was like this every year. Selene spent the night watching a party meant to celebrate her become a party celebrating sick desires and cruel cravings.

Sometimes she imagined what it would be like if the entire building collapsed on all of them. It was at times like this that Selene thought about her father. It wasn't because she particularly missed him, but more so that she was curious about him. Was he truly as cruel as everyone said he was? Did he host awful parties like this as well?

Was she really beautiful like him? Powerful like him?

Would you be who you are now if it weren't for your father?

Selene scowled as Nix's words entered her mind.

Grabbing a glass of champagne, she decided it was time to make her escape. If she had to endure another second of this god awful music, she was actually going to set something on fire.

"A toast!" Dino drunkenly announced suddenly from across the room. "To my daughter."

Selene's lips twitched.

He stood up and raised his glass, silencing the rest of the room. "For always being by my side. The most beautiful and most powerful woman here. What can I say? She takes after me."

The men cheered and Selene smiled her shining smile.

And when everyone went back to destroying their youth, she slipped away before they could destroy hers.

When she finally got back home, Selene closed the door with a sigh. Her room, tucked in the corner of Dino's disgusting mansion, was perhaps her only place of solace. No one, not even Dino, was allowed in here.

She stepped out of her heels and was about to prepare for a shower when she noticed something odd on her bed. She instinctively spun in her spot to search for intruders, but found her room as empty and lonely as it had always been. Except someone had been here. Someone left her this.

She approached her bed cautiously and inspected the new items.

A simple white card lay on top of a blue folder.

Selene looked around her room once again for good measure before carefully picking up the card. 

Happy Birthday. My gift to you. -NIX.

She crumpled the card in her fist. What could he possibly want from her again? The memories of her humiliation in the file room made her want to scream. She wanted to set everything in there on fire, but of course, cursed curiosity got the best of her.

Reluctantly, Selene opened the file and immediately, she wished she hadn't.