i love you for always driving me insane Who: Daisy When: Afternoon Where: Her and Joseph's house
Sleep. That was all she wanted: to be able to shut her eyes and completely disappear from reality. Daisy felt exhausted in every sense of the word, but there was no way that she could sleep just yet. If she had had her way, she would have curled up on the couch after that tramp left the house last night, but Joseph had made it clear that when he decided to go to bed, he expected her to join him there. How could she refuse him now? After everything that she had put him through, how could she possibly tell him no? Even though the thought of lying on the sheets, where she had been, made her skin crawl. Even though she was convinced that she would never be able to be near that bed again without memories, terrible sounds, flooding her mind. Daisy had lain there all night long, counting the minutes as they passed until she could finally get up and take yet another shower. If only it were as simple as the morning light bringing with it her reprieve. Joseph had promised that after last night everything would go back to normal, and that meant that there would be no more moping and, most certainly, no more crying. Before yesterday, she would have been all too content to curl into Joseph and stay there until he finally decided to get up and start his day. This morning, she could have sworn that he lingered a bit longer than normal there with her, but then again, it was easy to lose track of time when minutes felt like hours.
Eventually Joseph did get up and drifted out through the house, seeming, as usual, not to care what she did with herself. It would have been too easy then to crawl into the floor and cry, which was all she felt capable of doing, had it not been for Bandit. Normally she had to plead with the familiar to spend time with her, if she didn’t trap him in her company, but today, she couldn’t shake the raccoon. Everywhere she went, Daisy could feel his eyes on her, watching her carefully for any disobedience that he could report back to Joseph. For once since she had met the familiar, she was thankful that Bandit was not able to read her thoughts. If he could, then he would have seen the great extent to which she was not forgetting about everything like she should have been. Bandit would have known that when she took her morning shower, that only lasted ten minutes, she didn’t truly feel clean and wasn’t sure that she ever would again. He would have known that when she dressed herself in her typical whimsical clothing that she felt like the whore Joseph had called her.
Daisy went about her day as any other, but the motions had never felt more hollow. She remembered feeling something similar to this before. The nurses had had so much trouble with her those days after Joseph put her in the hospital, at least before he came to visit. She didn’t want to eat; she could barely even sleep. Without the certainty that their life would return to the way it once was, it was hard for her to find the point to anything. At least then she had had the luxury of putting herself back together without the pressure of having her every motion watched and questioned – then again, Daisy couldn’t say that she didn’t deserve some kind of punishment, if not the worst. It would help to know I wouldn’t have to sleep in that bed again. No sooner had she thought the words did inspiration strike her. She may not have been able to get rid of the slut who had desecrated the mattress, but she could get rid of the object that would always remind her of last night.
She picked up the phone, staring silently at her shadow as she dialed 4-1-1. “Yes, I need the number for the nearest mattress store in the area.” Her face gave away no expression and though she couldn’t read Bandit either, she had no doubt that he was wondering what she was up to. She tapped her foot as she waited to be connected, growing impatient with each ring.
“Bob’s Mattress Mart! This is Adam, how can I help you today?”
Daisy actually cringed at the cheeriness in his voice. “I need a new mattress. Do you deliver?”
“We do have a service that offers next day delivery on any purchase made. Have you already ordered your mattress?”
“No. And tomorrow isn’t going to work. I need it now.” She wasn’t the type to lash out at someone who had done nothing to provoke her, though, had she been asked, Daisy would have said that Adam’s disposition was enough to illicit her shortness; that it was eerily similar to the one she normally had was a fact that went ignored. Twenty painful minutes later, she finally got off the phone with the (obviously mental to be that happy) sales clerk; after she had agreed to pay twice what it was worth, the store promised to deliver a new mattress within the next few hours. So long as Joseph had somewhere to sleep tonight, she couldn’t have cared less when they arrived.
Daisy crossed her arms as she stared down at the bed, which she had intentionally left unmade this morning. If she could snap her fingers and set fire to it, all the while keeping the flames from spreading to the house, her mission would be incredibly easy, but she had already resigned herself to the fact that this would not be the case. She grabbed a corner, giving it a firm tug until it gave way and slid off the box spring. A short push to and down the stairs and a grunt-filled drag through the house later, Daisy finally managed to maneuver the mattress to the backyard. She caught sight of Bandit on her way back into the house to borrow some of Joseph’s lighter fluid and a lighter from his stock pile of flammables. “You can stay and watch or go tattle. I don’t care.” It was the truth, and she couldn’t believe that Joseph would actually care either.
As Daisy watched the flames eat through the cotton and insulation, she imagined the blonde, bound and unable to free herself from the fire, but the image didn’t hold. It was hard to feel any kind of satisfaction when she knew that what Joseph had done was her fault. All mine. She reached out to the fire, not flinching when it licked her hand and burned it. Daisy stood motionless, eyes filling with tears once again, until the pain was too much for her to bear. She whispered a curse as she looked down to her red and blistered skin. Her hand throbbed and ached, and she imagined what it would feel like to have the sensation all over her body. That’s what I deserve. Joseph should have lit her up on the spot. She stood there until the doorbell announced the arrival of the new mattress, watching the fire until only embers remained and wondering why he hadn't.