COMPLACENCY. (continued).

And the darkness flooded the living room. I went in there to find Edith for her messages carried a huge buildup of what she desperately wanted to tell me. The suspense was killing me, literally killing me.

My afternoon felt so uneasy that I pondered the idea that everything would soon be over after being tagged as a sort of monster from the underworld who did nothing to prey on the innocent and drink their youth away like some pricey wine. Oh, but Edith wasn´t just any ordinary wine; her sole presence infused me and fulfilled me. Her eyes, her thin lips that seemed drawn with a fine paintbrush and a heavenly body that made me feel just like a child. Then it was when I realized that if I grew too attached to her she would become protective and dominant and eventually control me...yes, she did have a dark side, a terrible, castrating dark side like the tarantula she dreamed about once.

"Please don´t hate me, Adrian," she began, " I really don´t want to be the villain here, but I did some thinking, God! very heavy thinking and I...I admit I was sort of selfish because I wanted you all to myself like any girl would...but then I was also suffocating you and not letting you be harboring and contaminating you with this insecurity that I´ve been nesting all these years."

"Can I say something?" I asked. "Why would you think I use people to get where I want? That´s exactly what I´m supposed to do, you know, meet people who know people, that´s all."

"Adrian! I am aware of that, " she interrupted, "I´m sorry if I labeled you as some kind of sleazy manipulator, I guess I misjudged you."

"Wait, misjudge? It sounds like you barely know me," I said somewhat upset.

"You can never stop knowing someone, and especially someone like you."

"So can we pretend this never actually happened?"

"Um, no, but...I have learned from you."

"I thought it was the other way around..."

"No, I mean you've taught me how to live, while I have made you see the darkest corners of your mind, so you could at least do me a great big favor in putting a little bit of more effort into, you know, certain habits."

"OK, I get it. So does that mean that this feud is over."

"Mmm, no, not quite. You see, you have to do something for me first."

Oh, now what?

"Listen, you always told me that art is so incredibly sincere that is easily communicates what you're most afraid of without saying a word. Well, I want you to draw your biggest fears."

"I'm sorry, didn't I make it clear with the last pieces I showed you?" She began to creep me out.

"Fine, you don't wanna do it then I'll make you to go to a specialist and believe me it's no going to be pretty..."
She grasped my hands and looked directly into my eyes; "You can do it, you can beat that demon of yours that´s keeping us apart..." She kissed me gently and embraced me so tightly but there was something different about it, so motherly...and yet at the same time how much she needed me.