#Odette Hollows | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

pacifymebby · 7 months

Text

t r o u b l e/ chapter twenty five

Sylvie

"Two..." said Alfie, arms folded, an eye roll cast in Isaiahs direction, letting me know that they were both only humouring me. That they were letting the girl have her moment before they agreed how to sideline me in a moments time.

I closed my eyes, slipped delicately into first position and waited to move on, "one."

I didn't have to worry about whether he was watching me because from the moment I'd slipped those earphones into his ears we'd both known he wouldn't be able to take his eyes off me. Even if I wasn't Sonya, I was the next best thing. Even if I didn't have the dainty innocence of Odette, I'd danced the routine plenty of times as an understudy and I knew every step by heart. I didn't need the music to drift and flutter my way through the motions of the dance, only had to count as I stepped, manipulating my body through gentle fluctuations.

The held the room from the most delicate of threads, both men watching me in silence, their eyes following me from the tip of my arabesque into my tragic fluttering on the floor as I became the swan dying on the lake, wounded, trembling, all heartache and helpless so that I could feel the blood where it ought to have stained my t-shirt, the life slipping from me as I began to quiver and then still.

And when I fell still I waited in the quiet, body bent like an aching willow. I felt hollow, the hard wood floor beneath my tailbone made me conscious of my legs pressed to the beams. I waited and I listened, breaths shallow so as not to disturb the quiet I'd woven in the gangsters office.

And then it was broken, a slow clap which echoed with a woodish reverb as Alfie brought his hands together, clasping them closed on the the fourth. The rings on his fingers catching the light with a goodish glimmer as his fingers locked together.

"Well," he said with a small smirk, "that was truly somethin..." he said letting his voice trail just as his eyes trailed the length of me when I stood up. "Not really sure what I did to deserve blessin with such a delicate spectacle mind you but I reckon you're about to tell me?"

He was watching me, his expression hard to read. He looked thoughtful, he looked like he was trying his best not to look touched. It was hard to tell what the emotion which glinted in his eyes was, only that it was there. That whatever he felt he felt it too strongly to keep it swallowed down.

I was wavering a little, doing my best to keep my balance as I stood and my legs began to tremble. I hadn't eaten for almost twenty four hours and though I couldn't feel the ache of hunger for the numb chill which had taken over my body, I could feel the sudden shiver which ran through me because I hadn't really had the energy to do what I'd just done.

I looked back at him peacefully, certain that if I remained quiet for a moment longer he'd work it out for himself. If he was half as clever as I believed him to be he'd know exactly what I wanted from him.

"Well... go on then little gypsy girl you gonna tell me or not?" He narrowed his eyes, leaning forward this with his arms resting atop his desk, his concentration, all his cunning, all his thin temper directed toward me. And yet still I remained quiet.

He had things he wanted to say to me and I wasn't going to say a word until I knew he had no more secrets up his sleeve. I was going to keep my lips sealed in that tranquil smirk until he'd confessed to everything.

"She usually this quiet or what Peaky Boy? Didn't anyone ever teach you about manners little gypsy?" He said with a cracked crooked grin, his amusement simply for show as I riled his temper...

"Sylvie what the fuck girl.." whispered Isaiah beside me, his low voice edged with nerves, not unlike my own would have been had I spoken then. Just another reason not to say a word.

Why I let us linger in a painful dragging silence, once which simmered with anxiety. Mine. Isaiah's. Alfie's.

"Right... alright so you don't wanna talk right?"

The two men watched me and I felt their eyes on my skin, felt the warmth of being watched like that. Of having a captive audience. If I gasped suddenly they would both flinch, their hearts would jump. If I coughed, if I laughed or turned sharply and suddenly towards one or the other, the effect would be the same because they were entranced.

"So you don't wanna talk, well alright little gypsy girl, that's alright cause I don't think I really need you to tell me just what you've come here for... nah," he said with a certainty, drumming his fingers slowly over his knuckles, "alright," he said again, his eyes wandering down and then back up the length of my body with a quick flicker, locking with my eyes once again, a softer sort of brown by the time they reached mine. "

"See I happen to know right... that your big brothers rowed his merry little way up shit creek yeah, and I happen to have it on good authority that he's just very recently, dropped his paddle yeah... you understand what I'm sayin yeah?" He said his thick brow furrowing as he spoke slowly, another meandering speech he was hoping would leave me trembling and speechless.

"And I know that that when your big brother finds himself in trouble as it were yeah, well he gets a bit spooked don't he... calls all the kiddiewinks home to the nest... which means right, which means yeah, either your big brother Tommy, my very good and close friend right... who knows me very well yeah, has sent his baby sister into the clutches of my perilous jaws... or you ain't supposed to be here..." He said, uncurling those locked fingers to point an accusing finger to my chest.

I stood, my smirk never faltering, my placidity infuriating so that he struggled not to show it, struggled to mute the growl, the grumble of irritation when he flexed his ringed fingers and scrunched his fist. He hit it against the desk gently, one tap and then two when he shook his head. Still I remained quiet.

"Nah little gypsy girl, I don't think even a soulless cunt..." He stopped himself then, blinking back his surprise, wincing and raising a hand, "sorry poppet," he said, "yeah sorry treacle see I make it a policy of mine right, never to swear in front of women and children and well, you almost fall into both of those categories don't ya, even if you are a Shelby..."

I wanted to snipe at him then, to grit my teeth and threaten him. But I didn't try to tell him that I wasnt a child, that I was a fuckin Shelby just like any of the rest of my siblings, but I had the feeling he was saying all these things on purpose. A demon trying to tempt me.

"So I'm sorry yeah? Apology accepted?"

"Apology accepted," I said glowering back at him.

"Good," he hummed, "good that's very good... right where was I?"

"You were calling my brother a c..."

"Ah ah ah... now we won't have none of that poppet, not from you right... nah, not from you... Nah, even the soulless Thomas Shelby wouldnt send his little baby sister on a severely mislead suicide mission such as the one you appear to be on right this very moment... what dya reckon? Nah? Nah..." he shook his head again, "nah... even he ain't that bad..."

When still I said nothing, did nothing, he shook his head again.

"Kids these days, nah manners that's the problem... tsk tsk little gypsy girl, y'know even the most reasonable man yeah, the most patient... balanced man would be beginning to tire of such... such insolence right... and I don't know what you've heard about me little gypsy girl but I know one thing for certain right... you ain't heard anythin about me being a reasonable, balanced or patient man yeah cause everyone an their institutionalised grandmother knows that I ain't any of them things yeah... not one of em..."

"Alfie..." started Isaiah shutting his mouth seconds later when in one quick movement Alfie was holding his gun, pointing it straight at Isaiah, lined up perfectly so that one shot would blow his head off. A fatal threat looming over us. Starring us down.

But I was looking at him too. At Alfie. My eyes glazed and certain. My smirk unflinching as I held his gaze.

"I know what you want little gypsy girl... see your little dance what you just performed especially for yours truly yeah... your little dance was fucki... sorry poppet, my apologies, your little dance was beautiful... truly mesmerising... I know it, you know it... even your little pet here f... even he knows it," as he spoke his voice grew louder, quicker, a madness building. That spool of sanity I'd been warned about unwinding quicker and quicker before me as Alfie waves his gun in Isaiah's direction again. He wasn't even looking at the lad, he was looking at me. The two of us ignoring the man being used as a threat and an assurance, used like a prop, like some secondary product. The Sylvie of yesterday morning would have cared about that, would have felt guilty.

The Sylvie I was in that moment, flipped switch, numb fingers, didn't feel anything.

"Let's cut to the chase shall we treacle... your big brothers keepin you and your sister locked away up north, two princesses in the tower and he's the evil step mother right... an he says - and of course you don't believe him because you are very young and so consequently and through no fault of your own, you are very stupid... - he says he's doing it to protect you... but of course if the darling little Sonya Gray is locked away in her tower she can't dance Odette with the Royal Ballet and of course if she don't dance Odette with the Royal Ballet now, she won't never do it right... cause that's how the ballet world works... cut throat and ruthless as it may be..."

I watched him intently, hoping the heat I felt in my cheeks hadn't shown through. Hoping I didn't wear a humiliated rosy flush that would give my true feelings away. Show him how it hurt to be called stupid, to be called young... naive.

"And you think yeah... cause you're very young and consequently still very sweet right... which is good yeah poppet, a very good thing indeed right because it means the world ain't really sunk it's teeth into you yet... and when the world sinks it's teeth into you..." he paused, shuddered for impact, a grimace crossing his face, wiping away his frown but only for a second, "it hurts right..." he said, "you think because I'm your brother's friend... I'll help you yeah? You want me to offer my services, to protect your sister here in London so that she can grace the stage with her ethereal nature once more... that's what you thinks gonna happen now right? That's what you want..."

Still I didn't say a word, still I kept my eyes locked on him and not on his gun, not on Isaiah who stood forced to stare it down in stoic silence.

"You think yeah..." he was almost shouting now, his voice just about controlled, still it shook through me, shook the silence in the little office, "you think you can show up here without an appointment, do a pretty little pirouette on my Persian rug and I'll reveal myself a fu... a soft touch yeah? Just cause you look pretty when you dance?"

I didn't say a word, not because it wasn't true but because it was.

Because I knew Alfie Solomons better than most strangers did. Because I had seen him lurking in the hallways of the opera house. Because I'd watered the many bouquets he left for the starlets, always anonymously, never wanting anything from them other than to watch them dancing on that stage every night.

"Well poppet? Gonna give me an answer now little gypsy girl... gonna tell me what delectable thoughts are buzzzzing in that pretty little head of yours? Or should I carry on? Want me to keep talkin girl cause let me warn you right.. you might not like what I've got to say..."

"You can carry on..." I shrugged nonchalantly, lips set in an unbothered thin line. Voice steady. Eyes locked with his.

He laughed then, couldn't help the grin which split across his face and interrupted his scowl, lit him up for just a moment so that his storm cloud set expression grew softer. His smile genuine enough to still the rush of my heart in my chest, warm enough to leave it wavering for a different reason altogether.

I watched him lower his gun for a moment. Heard Isaiahs breath shivery beside me.

"You here that Peaky Boy? She says I can carry on... oh god is truly smiling down on me today ain't he..." and then just as quickly as he had lit up did the storm cloud return to his face. He raised that gun once again and left us all suspended in a bristling silence, the moment pinched and tight. "She says I can carry on..."

He glared at me then, stroking his beard with his thumb and finger, eyes dark and troubled, a molten threat swirling.

"Right," he said looking down his nose at me, his elbows resting on the arms of his chair, his frown undeniable, "right let me get this straight yeah cause I'm not sure yeah, I'm not sure this ain't all a bit fucking insane..." I could tell he was stalling now, could tell that everything he was saying, these things he kept repeating, were intended to loosen my temperament, to unsettle me. Knowing that made it easier to keep quiet. To keep watching him, waiting patiently for my turn.

"You right, you have come all the way down south yeah, all the way here to this... This shit hole..." He stopped, pinched his nose all melodramatic and wincing. "There I go again... sorry poppet... how can I expect you to learn when I set such a shameful example..."

I bit my lip to hold my tongue growing tired of his trailing, of his procrastinating. I could sense Isaiah's irritation behind me, the tension bristling there. The stiffness with which he stood staring down the barrel of that gun knowing there was nothing he could do but wait and hope that today was not one of those days.

"So Sylvia my poppet, let's see, you've come all the way down here from Birmingham, an you've dragged this lout with you... On behalf of your big brother Tommy Shelby who is coincidentally a very old friend of mine and who could, if he'd so wished, called me up on the telephone...if he'd so wished... To ask me to do somethin that Tommy Shelby don't actually want me to fuckin do... that right?" Alfie said looking at me over the frame of his glasses. He was waiting for me to crack, to avert my gaze, to show a sign of weakness he could exploit. So even though with every second he held my gaze the less confident I felt about everything I had planned, I determined to hold down his cold stare with one of my own. Stubborn to a fault and perhaps to the end.

"Yeah," he said when I didn't offer any defence, "yeah," he folded his arms across his chest, leant back in his chair and pressed the side of his closed fist to his lips. "As I thought... All a bit fuckin insane ain't it poppet..."

He scratched his beard as he looked me up and down, watched me as I stood still, chest rising and falling slow and even because I was concentrating on making sure that it remained rising slow and even.

He sighed. Shook his gun to emphasize.

"So what I'm sayin yeah is this right... if I were to shoot your little friend right now yeah, shoot him dead like..." he said opening the drawer in his desk slowly, never once taking his eyes off me as he did. That ringed index finger still pointing to me as he moved his hand like a composer through his speech, "dead right... just like that, poof... gone... and I kept you here right, nice and safe by my side me own personal bargaining chip yeah... then you'd have to admit right, and be honest with me here little gypsy girl because I reckon I'm right yeah, you would have to admit that your big brother would fu... sorry poppet I mean, your big brother would deserve it wouldn't he... sending you down here with that lump... to see the fuckin.. phantom of Camden town..."

I stood gazing back at him, pristine despite the nerves he was twisting and winding like a thread inside me. He was looking me dead in the eyes, his gleaming with a mean certainty. But I could look at him too, I could show him that I was just the same.

So I breathed a steady 1, 2, 3 and let him talk.

"Especially since yeah... If I did shoot your little pet dead and then locked you up in one of me vaults yeah, down in the chambers beneath the lock right... that's be more mercy than I've ever show any other wannabe drug dealer who's trespassed round my ends... tried to start workin my roots on the sly yeah? Don't suppose you'd know anyone stupid enough to try that now would you little gypsy girl?"

I smirked, relieved to see he'd finally circled round to it. Relieved we were no longer skirting around the unavoidable truth.

That I'd committed a crime which usually held a death penalty. That even Alfie Solomons wasn't crazy enough to think he could kill a Shelby princess without consequences... even if she had broken the laws of a family to family pact.

"Wouldn't it poppet..." he said carefully, his lips a tight line, his brows knitted into a foreboding threat.

I gazed back at him with empty cloudy eyes. Let him keep waving that gun at Isaiah who stood still. Who swallowed a lump in his throat doing his best to hide the trembling of his hand by his side.

"So... what dyou think eh? Should I do it? Will shooting your thick skulled little friend teach you a lesson or do you need somethin else?"

I thought about giving in then, when I saw his finger move over the trigger, when I heard the click of the safety... I thought about saying I was sorry, even if I didn't really mean it. But I didn't mean it so I didn't say it. Didn't say a word even when Isaiah shook behind me. Even when I heard his voice quiet and rushed and urgent.

"Syl what the fuck are you doing say somethin for fuck sake..."

"See this is what I'm talking about right... this is what I'm talking about! The insolence! The youth of today don't stand a cat in hells chance do they... know what I reckon Sylvie? Know what I think you really need?"

I waited, expecting him to finish his sentence without caring what I did next. Without caring whether I was listening, whether I wanted to know. Instead he lowered his gun slowly. Instead he kept his eyes on me and waited, patiently for a moment, the quiet a soft hush between us, Isaiah forgotten about As we held eachothers gaze, waited one another out.

"Come on now poppet speak when you're spoken to yeah, remember your manners..." he said, his voice lower, more gentle than it had been before.

"What do you think I really need Alfie?"

When I spoke he smiled as if my voice had touched his heart. As if I'd warmed his coldest corners.

And then his eyes lit up and that mania revealed itself once more as a he threw his hands up, so pleased with the joke on the tip of his tongue.

"A fackin father figure petal, that's what!"

I scowled then, unable to keep the insult from my eyes.

"See, now look at that pout yeah, look at them sulky sulky eyes... look at you treacle... you just ain't used to hearin no are you, just ain't used to bein told no..."

"If you're not going to help her Solomons I'll find someone else.." I said, not bothering to hide the glower in my eyes. Gritting my teeth to keep myself still... in truth I wasn't sure I would be able to find someone else... not that I could trust. If Alfie turned me away I was probably fucked.

"Oh yeah?" He smirked, "that what you think is it treacle? Think there's ten of me knockin about this grotty city? Think you can walk out of here and you'll find another one?"

"I'd rather not but..."I shrugged my shoulders, head cocked to one side as I examined my nails and then looked back up at him with a smirk. "I'll do what I have to."

He chuckled, his low laugh warmer than it ought to have been as he leant back in his chair, hands behind his head.

"Nah treacle," he said catching his tongue between his teeth, "nah you won't poppet, cause see you yeah... you're here now ain't you treacle, so you, yeah... you ain't goin anywhere..."

Behind me I felt Isaiah shift, felt a movement so sudden and sharp that I flinched, hated myself for flinching and showing my fear. The anxiety which had been tugging at my sleeve since we'd entered that room.

"Oh for facks sake peaky boy put it down!" Groaned Alfie waving his gun at Isaiah, waving his other hand at me as he begged my forgiveness for his having sworn once again. "Go on boy what goods that gonna do eh? I mean look at it would ya mate... it's pathetic... that's what you bring with you to protect a Shelby princess? It don't even look real mate, feel like I'm being threatened by a bloody child..."

I dared turn my head just slightly then, wanting to see Isaiah, wanting to check he wasn't about to lose his shit or start a fight we wouldn't win. But he remained, barely restraining himself but hanging on by a thread. I could see the tension in his jaw, the muscles rippled and taut beneath the long black sleeves of his t-shirt.

"Saiah..." I started, voice quiet and cool but he shook his head.

"Ain't lettin him threaten you Syl..." he grunted glaring at Alfie, the two of them trying to stare the other down.

"I'd do as you're told if I were you boy," hummed Alfie with a smug smirk, "reckon I'd do it nice an quick too if I were you..."

"Saiah.. " I said again, trying to keep the urgency out of my voice, trying not to shake.

Alfie wasn't the kind of man you messed with. You didn't threaten him unless you knew you could win. And we couldn't. If Isaiah shot Alfie Alfie would shoot him, perhaps quicker than he could take his shot. Either way I'd be alone. Either way I'd be standing at the center of a bloody scene I hadn't bargained for.

"Saiah..." I said softer still, "please..." I whispered, letting him see the whites of my eyes, forcing a little humanity, trying for Bambi, trying to remind him of the damsel in distress he'd thought I was when I'd first come home.

"Put down the gun Alfie..."

"Mate," chuckled the older man, refusing to back down but raising his hand in surrender as he stood up slowly. "Mate with all due respect right... and that ain't exactly a lot so I'd hold onto that yeah..." he said stepping around his desk, approaching me slowly, carefully and yet not really carefully at all because he knew Isaiah wasn't going to do anything. He knew Isaiah wouldn't shoot first. "With all due respect right... you're in my fackin house... sorry poppet," he added patting my cheek with the palm of his hand, stooping slightly to look me in the eyes.

He held my cheeks between his thumb and forefinger, eyes locked with mine, so close to me that I could smell the woodish musk, the rum on his breath, cigarette smoke a comfort to me. Reminded me of home, of the backstage door at the opera house, the windows in the roof we all gathered to smoke out of.

"Yeah," mused Alfie after a moments reflection, "yeah, just as I thought..." he seemed to soften when he looked at me then, a sorrow lingering in the shadows of his irises. And when he offered me a small smile I thought I saw sympathy, thought for a moment I saw understanding.

"Now then treacle," he said a little softer, "you're gonna have to wait outside now alright poppet, cause Alfie's got an important phone call to make yeah and he don't want no one, no cunnin little nymphs eavesdropping on him yeah?" He said, asking this time rather than just telling.

I sucked in my cheek, fixed him with a glare which didn't seem to piss him off the way I'd expected.

"You're gonna call my brother?" I asked, disappointed, the shock of it sitting dull and heavy in my ribs.

"Yeah sweetheart," he said, "yeah I am right cause I have it on very good authority right, that your big brothers very worried about you..."

Tags:

@elina-777

@zablife

@call-sign-shark

@jomarch-wannabe

@itsghostgirlyo

@marwwfairy

@toddlerbodybag

@everysage

@liliac-dreamer

@impossibleheartflower

@inalovesrabbits-blog

#trouble #peaky blinders fanfiction #peaky blinders ff #peaky blinders fanfic #peaky blinders modern au #shelby sister #peaky blinders x oc

6 notes · View notes