144 Faul

Juan never knew that she'd get to see this day, that she'd finally be able to look past the large gates that had trapped her in hell. Her face stretched into a smile. She was about to be freed. She felt amazing. 

Mrs. Cloud looked at Juan for a moment, her violet eyes finally calm, the storm in them slowing to a stop. She bent down and picked up a stone and then turned back to Juan. 

"Hey!" Mrs. Cloud called out to the woman.

Juan froze, fear reaching her mind as time slowed to a stop around her. She could feel her behind her, but she didn't want to turn. Rather, her feet wouldn't move. They were stuck in place in the mud, called to freedom but held back by a demon.

"I said to turn around and face me when I talk to you, did I not?" Mrs. Cloud asked, her eyes narrowing. 

Juan immediately turned around, her eyes placed on the ground and her shoulders slouched. 'Was she going to take it back? Say that I couldn't leave afterall? That I didn't deserve to leave? That I don't deserve to see my daughter? Is she going to drag me back in there after having a hearty laugh at the joke she had said when she said to open the gates for me?' Juan thought to herself. 

Tears formed at the edge of her face. She had never felt so desperate, she had never looked so pitiful to onlookers, she had never looked so pathetic in Mrs. Cloud's eyes. She fell to her knees, her body bending forward to Mrs. Cloud's foot and her head slamming into the cemented floor. 

"I beg you," Juan begged, tears falling down her face. "Please let me be able to leave this place."

Mrs. Cloud looked down on Juan's body, a prideful, rather strong woman with a strong desire to do what she wanted, was bowed at her feet. She was grabbing her foot as tears ran down her face, begging to be saved, begging to be let out. ���What a mess,' Mrs. Cloud thought to herself, 'is this what this had to get to? Her begging me from freedom when it's right in her face? Does she think that I'm going to take it back from her?'

Mrs. Cloud peered down at Juan's back, the lines of her spine being shown on the shirt. Mrs. Cloud smirked. She liked this view from below. The view of someone below her bowing below her feet and begging for mercy. 'Gosh Juan… don't you know that this does the exact opposite to me?' Mrs. Cloud thought to herself as she let out a sigh. 'This only makes me want to keep you in this hell for longer to watch you suffer.'

The secretary watched from a distance, chills traveling down her back as she watched Mrs. Cloud. Not in the past years had she ever seen this kind of expression, this kind of scene being played out in front of her. The sight was quite chilling. It was terrifying. 

She had never seen her superior's aura being lashed out of her and actually being translated into a scene. She never got to experience how well Mrs. Cloud looked with that killing intent and dangerous aura swirling around her. She never got to see the power pyramid being laid out before her. It was horrible, how real this moment was. 

How this could be her in the future. Crawling at her feet begging for forgiveness.

Mrs. Cloud pursed her lips and clenched her fist, the pieces of wood in her hand diving deeper into her flesh. "Stand up."

Juan flinched, her word being silenced immediately. 

She rose up from the ground, her head held low as Mrs. Cloud peered at her. 

"Hands up," Mrs. Cloud called out. 

Juan looked at her for a moment, fear shining in her eyes. Mrs. Cloud saw it. She didn't care.

"I said put your hands up," Mrs. Cloud asked again. 

Juan immediately followed her order. She was terrified. 'Is she going to drag me back to my jail cell? Chop off my hands while they're being held in the air?' Juan thought to herself. She was forming endless theories as to how she could die at this very moment. It was such a terrifying feeling. The feeling of being helpless, of having no way out, and your entire future being laid in one hand. One bloody, slick but powerful hand of a powerful woman who towered above you.

Mrs. Cloud bent down to pick up a stone. She stepped back away from Juan, her eyes locked on one position on Juan. Her left waist. She winded her hands backward and then hurled the stone at her. It swished right past Juan's waist at first looking like it made no contact but then seconds later, blood began to flow out of her waist. The stone had gotten a deep cut into her body. 

Juan twisted, the pain from the cut stinging her side in consistent throbs as blood rushed out. 

"Sorry about that…" Mrs. Cloud smiled, "I just have a policy to never let anyone out of these gates unwounded. Mentally and psychically."

Juan trembled. Was she only hearing it now? The low rasp that was always underneath her voice. 

Mrs. Cloud cleared her throat and began to speak again. "You were probably injured already, yes. Maybe a few broken bones but… I needed something I could see. Something with blood." The rasp was gone. She just needed to clear her throat.

"Now to address something you said earlier that I replied to," Mrs. Cloud smiled. "You said this was all our fault right? That we did this to you, we made you suffer, we made you want to crumble up and cry, we separated you from your family and dragged you to hell. We made you the horrible person that you are now." Mrs. Cloud walked closer to Juan and bent over underneath her head and looked up, forcibly locking eyes with Juan. "right?"

Juan didn't know how to answer. She didn't even want to answer even though her answer would have been the same as before. 'It was their fault. My family, my daughter, and my mother, my father. Everyone was outside the gates and the ones that were keeping me from them is you,' Juan thought to herself. 

Mrs. Cloud's eyes searched in Juan's for a moment, a smirk forming on her face. "Ha…. is that so?" she muttered. She could see the answer in Juan's eyes. They were ever so transparent. They showed all the answers that she needed without her even needing to answer. It was hilarious how see-through people were. 

"The only thing is love," Mrs. Cloud smiled, her finger traveling under Juan's chin and lifting it up. "It was your fault. Now ours."

Juan clenched her jaw. "N-no it is n-not," she replied. 

"Oh so you actually had a mouth to speak through," Mrs. Cloud smiled. "You should have just done that from the beginning, love, makes it so much easier to talk to you when you actually say something back, you know?" 

Juan trembled. "Sorry."

"Gee… it's not like I'm going to eat you, you guys act so terrified of something that you don't even need to," Mrs. Cloud chuckled. Slowly, her composure was being pieced together. Her anger and disappointment running out her mind like the blood on Juan's side. 

"Anyways, it isn't our fault. None of this was our fault. We've been here from the beginning, always working always helping people, you were the one that joined late which would normally imply that whatever mistake you did, was what brought you here," Mrs. Cloud smiled. "You weren't thinking of the consequences when you killed your husband were you?"

Juan flinched. 

"We're simply keeping your deranged mind in this building for as long as it needs to be to heal. If that is called being the fault for all the issues that happened to you then I guess feeding a cat on the road would be killing it," Mrs. Cloud smiled, "it was all your fault Juan. You were the one who stabbed him, you were the one who stabbed his mistress, you were the one who set the house on fire. Yet you dare to say it's our fault that you were trapped in here?"

Juan couldn't utter a word. It was the feeling of oppression again, Mrs. Cloud's violet eyes peering down at her with such a piercing gaze that it was threatening her. 'I dare you to mutter a word in protest,' the gaze seemed to be saying. 

"We're only abiding by how many years you need to be thrown in prison and keeping you in here for that long," Mrs. Cloud frowned, "what makes you think that gives you the right to blame all of the shit you did on us?"