What, what did he just say?

Ambrosia stood frozen, watching Elias with glassy eyes of disbelief.

"Elias, it's me, it's Ambrosia," she wavered and Elias only stared down at her blankly letting himself move away from her as Dante popped his face into view and grabbed Ambrosia by the waist to pull her back.

"Sorry buddy, some bitches get a little too attached!"

Ambrosia whipped around and shoved Dante away from her struggling to contain her absolute hatred for him. A poisonous hatred that struck her underbelly and built from all the deaths of her family.

"Don't fucking touch me—Elias, please you have to believe me, I love you!" Ambrosia proclaimed with a strong determination in her voice sounding our words she hadn't been sure of before was a soulful believer now. Dante grabbed her by the back of her neck and drew her back forcibly once again.

"I'm sorry, I don't remember you, Miss Ambrosia," Elias murmured while shoving his hands in his jacket pockets and watching with large eyes.

"I can't remember anything really before Dante found me in the woods."

Dante chuckled and nodded, "Ahh yes, Elias had been injured pretty badly on his right shoulder and was practically drowning while trying to cross a river. He ended up sadly slipping and busting his head on a rock, luckily I was there just in time to save him. when I woke him up he was pretty traumatized, switched around crying for a bit, and then suddenly he was calm."

Something wasn't right.

Elias' eyes seem so disconnected as he spoke, they flickered around the room and landed on Ambrosia time and time again. He rubbed his head in irritation where the bandage had been placed.

"All he needs to do is take his pills," Dante said pulling out a baggy of off-colored blue pills and patting it on Elias' chest, "and he will be just fine with full memory recovery."

Ambrosia watched her mindless lover take two pills straight out of the bag and rest them in his mouth to swallow.

"Although, his condition looks pretty grim, can't make any promises," Dante snickered and squeezed her neck before forcing her head up to pin her eyes to his.

"Dante, maybe she can tell me more about my past, she seems to have had close ties with-"

"What did I talk to you about in the car Elias, she's just a hooker that you had one too many flings with, she got attached, that's all."

"Oh...yeah."

Ambrosia opened her mouth to protest and Dante jabbed his fingers into a certain nerve causing her to squirm and let out an abrupt gasp in pain.

"Go to your room Elias, I'll call you when the guys are here," Dante ordered flipping his hand to the stairs before releasing Ambrosia.

Ambrosia collapsed on the ground and held her neck, she peered through the curtain of hair that had fallen over her eyes to the direction where Elias was walking in and she scrambled up to run for him.

"Elias!"

Daniel emerged from the next room and grabbed Ambrosia leading her to the back of the house. "Elias, it's your flower, your flower!"

There was no response.

The two rushed through a few doors and Ambrosia was quickly pushed into a large guest room, Daniel looked down at his watch and pointed a warning finger at Ambrosia.

"Listen, the weapon dealer's ambassador is coming soon, get yourself together and be ready, alright?" Ambrosia collapsed her heavy body onto a lounging sofa and nodded before hugging her knees.

"Yes."

Daniel slammed the door and that noise shocked a realization of her crippling loneliness. Ambrosia took up her purse and peered at the gun inside. Her slender fingers stroked the cold black metal.

The fantasy of Elias saving her from this dreadful house had been shattered, she was truly alone. No one to remember her and no one to forget her, maybe death was truly inevitable for her in this situation. The possibilities of what Ambrosia could do in that short amount of time grew slimmer and slimmer until the door creaked open in the fresh occurrence of a new hour.

A dark-haired man, strongly tanned, wearing a navy suit with a brown overcoat stepped into the room followed by Daniel. They both looked at Ambrosia who has stiffened on the couch and stared as they turned to whisper about something. The newcomer nodded and scratched his chin before looking over his shoulder and scanning Ambrosia's body.

"Fair, Dante, and Avril will speak to me after, yes?" he questioned smoothly, and with that Daniel gave a firm nod. They shook hands and Daniel had left.

The man, who was to be the ambassador for illegal arms traffickers, turned to Ambrosia and removed his coat, his hand's dove into one of the pockets and he took out two cigarettes and a lighter. Ambrosia dropped her purse to the floor and under a small footstool as the man proceeded to look around the room gazing under things and looking in the corners.

Eventually, after close examination of the room, he lit his cigarette and sat on the other end of the couch. Ambrosia gazed at his profile her eyebrows twitched in confusion as he just sat there staring up at the ceiling and running a hand down his slick black hair. His eyes were small and upturned, a small patch of hair curled on his upper lip.

The man turned his face towards her and held up another cigarette.

"I don't smoke," she whispered and the man raised his eyebrows with a little laugh. He placed the extra cig behind his ear and blew out a large cloud of smoke.

"What's your name, princess?"

Ambrosia swallowed hard as she watched him rub the cushion next to him welcoming her to move closer and she obliged.

"Ivy," she lied and bit her tongue realizing who's name she had claimed. The weapon ambassador touched her shoulder with his finger and dragged his hands up to her mouth.

"And do you just sit and silence and stare at all your customers like this, Ivy?"

Ambrosia's eyes darted to the floor, where her purse lay dormant. A quick snap brought her eyes back to the tanned man and he pulled her suddenly by her arm. Ambrosia, lost in a fearful daze, found herself between his legs both hands on each thigh. She peeked up at him as he smoked one brown eye open and watching her touch him. Ambrosia wanted to scream, she wanted to curse him out and pull her gun out on his temple. However, she refrained from it all because it didn't escalate farther than pleasing him.

She worked on him as if she was enjoying it, playing only a role, and making him believe that he was special. For the sake of her life, she let him do whatever he had to do to make himself feel accomplished with her and her body, but luckily he never entered her.

Their time was fairly short in the guest room, Ambrosia lay in the bed in her lace underwear as she watched with the man with a cold gaze pull his clothes back on. He opened the door in one moment and the next he was gone. Ambrosia got up from the bed and walked to the bathroom grabbing her dress. She leaned on the bathroom sink and opened the water to splash her face.

Ambrosia looked into the mirror and saw the skewed reflection of her sister staring back at her. She understood what this sick house was breaking her down to be, she was so mentally stressed she has used her sister's name in place of her own.

Was it out of fear, was out of shame?

No, that the thing about Ivy...it's poisonous, causes a flare-up, and releases a rash that spreads throughout from the slightest touch. Ivy was the weed to many gardens ad the neglect from Ambrosia caused her to grow too quickly. The remnants of her purpose for Avril and Dante were rubbing onto Ambrosia...this was how she knew to cope with the allergic reaction.

Ambrosia put her dress back on and grabbed her shoes in on hand and her purse in the other. She rummaged through drawers of the guest room for paper and found a small blank postcard. Ambrosia took her lipstick out of her purse and began writing on the card.

Meet me tonight at midnight in the garden, be prompt. Whatever you've been told is a lie and I'm more than a prostitute to you Elias, I trust you won't tell Dante. Please, this is my only request for you.

Your flower,

Ambrosia

Quietly she crept out of the room, her heart thumping dangerously in her chest and warning her of the risk she was about to venture in just to find Elias.

She tip-toed down the long hallway and turned away from the mumbling voices of the dealers making their exchange. Ambrosia went through the kitchen and warned the maid to be quiet as she linked through and went the long way around to the stairs.

Swiftly and cautiously Ambrosia ascended up the stairs and continued to follow up into a third story. These were the room of the drug associates and Ambrosia went through pressing her ear against the door of each room. The likely hood of her finding Elias' room in silence was low and she then had the idea to hide behind a decorative pillar at the end of the hall to wait for Dante to call for him.

That time had come soon, and Elias had exited the second to last door when she hat turned down the left hallway. She watched him, pressing her things onto herself, as he walked by and then down the stairs. As soon as he was out of earshot Ambrosia lightly jogged to his room and opened the door, she looked inside and saw that nothing had been really touched except his bed.

She set the note down on the dresser near a bottle of water he had placed and she lingered in the room. Similar to a ghost haunting a soul-tied location, Ambrosia drifted around the room. Touching his clothes, his bedsheets, and noticing the small flower pots that were arranged on his window sill. She did this all in a way that echoed the infatuated nature of Elias early on in their relationship, she wished to steal one of his articles of clothing but knew that was too risky.

Ambrosia had surpassed her visiting time and reluctantly floated out of the room with a lone tear kissing her cheek as she closed the door and crept back down a floor to go to her room. In her beautiful prison room, Ambrosia took up her Grandmother's radio and tuned it into some old jazz.

Ambrosia needed to forget that this day ever happened for just a sliver of time, she had no drugs available to get her high so music was her only remedy to numb the insecurity. She bobbed her head and began to sway her hips to the powerful voice of Etta James.

Ambrosia stepped slowly over to her mirror and twirled resting her hand on her stomach.

Ambrosia was sprawled on her bed staring up at the ceiling as the song came to a close, she let the radio play on and on until the light that appeared through her boarded window grew smaller and vanished entirely. Ambrosia got up to turn on the lamp on the bedside and kicked something that was underneath her bed, she clicked the lamp on and looked down quizzically.

Going on her hands and knees, Ambrosia groped around in the darkness underneath her bed and felt a slim folder. She picked it up and sat within the mess of her bedsheets.

It was the file Avril had gave them in relation to Elias and his mother, Mrs. Henway. Ambrosia quickly leafed through the pages until she found Elias' notes.

She curiously read through is summary and noticed something that had jumped out at her when she first read it.

Medical history states he was identified to have borderline personality disorder from the age of 5, is prone to blackouts and gaps in memory when switching through "personas", doctor authorized pills have been prescribed to keep unstable moods down.

"The pills," Ambrosia muttered recalling the shady plastic bag Dante supplied Elias.

He has to be given him something unauthorized.

Ambrosia bit the nail of her thumb and thought, she would have to abandon her plan of meeting up with Elias and instead to go into his room to grab the pills while he hopefully had followed her notes instructions.

A knock on the door surprised Ambrosia and the file returned back underneath her bed. Daniel's face greeted her in its usual calmness and he gathered her for dinner.

It was just the two of them again tonight and Ambrosia sat silently chewing on a bread roll while Daniel finished off a turkey leg. Ambrosia's eyes wandered to the kitchen drawer where she knew the silverware was kept there. She needed a knife so she could pick the locked door when Daniel shut her up for the night.

He took a sip of his wine and leaned back in his chair sucking his teeth and grabbing Ambrosia's attention.

"So how was it, with the ambassador?"

Ambrosia looked down at her plate and stabbed a string bean with her fork.

"Fine," she said flatly.

"You're okay?"

"Yes."

"The baby is okay—"

"Daniel," Ambrosia sighed dropped her fork onto the table, "why do you even care?" Her eyes were dull as they bored into his face watching him shift awkwardly.

"I can't worry about you?"

No.

Ambrosia stood up and grabbed her glass and plate heading over to the sink without a word. She placed them down. She felt the looming figure of Daniel behind her and she turned slowly sucking in her lips and eyeing the drawer on the other side of the sink.

"Look at me, Ambrosia," he huffed tilting her face. Ambrosia looked at him, his eyes were glistening with something deep within his soul.

"When I was seventeen, I was stupid and selfish," Daniel began looking out at the window behind them, Ambrosia decided to take this time to slowly walk towards him one hand opening the drawer from behind.

"I got a girl pregnant, didn't even like her that much, and...her father was a politician and her mother was ruthlessly hard on her."

Ambrosia's hand slipped into the drawer, "Mhmm," she hummed to assure him of her attention while keeping her eyes on his. Her finger felt along for the smooth edge of a butter knife.

"When she told me about the baby, I didn't care, I didn't want to be tied down to my own foolish mistake...so I stopped answering her calls."

Daniel leaned back on the kitchen island and Ambrosia leaned behind after grabbing a knife and keeping her hand behind her leg to close the drawer and then leaned forward. She placed her other hand on Daniel's chest and felt his heart.

Was his heart beating as fast as her own, as she schemed? Daniel smiled sadly and touched Ambrosia's face. It was.

"Two days later, she's dead on the news, hung herself in her bedroom."

Daniel sighed and rubbed his face, "I could have prevented it, there was something beautiful in the life she was giving." Ambrosia's almost loosened on the knife and she shook her head watching him intently.

"I'm sorry for your loss-"

"That's why I care, Ambrosia," Daniel hissed.

"I'm not your old girlfriend, Daniel, you can't save her through me," Ambrosia spat without a second thought.

"I'm trying to help you through this, regardless of her!"

Daniel's face scrunched in irritation and he grabbed her lower arms. Ambrosia's heart shot up like a rising flame into her throat. She swung her arms around his neck and forced her body up along his, her nose brushing him. Hastily in the adrenaline-induced fear of being caught she pressed her lips against his.

Daniel firmly held her waist and worked his mouth against her own in his own questionable sexual frustration. Hot air blew between their mouth as they attacked each other for two very different reasons.

Ambrosia worked tirelessly to distract him and moved her knife bearing hand to her back to slip the knife into her pants. She then pulled back as Daniel bit her lower lips pleading for her to return. Ambrosia panted softly and turned away from him noticing the shocked maid that had entered the kitchen.

Daniel cleared his throat and let Ambrosia walk back to her room alone, her hand placed over her heart that thumped in record-breaking speed.

Ambrosia stayed up that night and waited for the click of her door outside indicating it had been locked. Letting a couple of minutes pass by, Ambrosia prepared to quickly leave her room. Her hair was tied up and she dressed in her normal baggy night time attire to keep her warm.

It was 11:56, Ambrosia turned off all the lights in her room, and went up to the door with only the dim moonlight to illuminate her target. She began working the lock with the knife and tried to pry the inside with an added bobby pin.

Ambrosia let out a breath of success and slowly opened the door, the house was deathly quiet and she knew there had to be someone patrolling the downstairs front entrance. Her wariness was critical at this point.

Ambrosia linked through the darkness barefoot and made her way to the third floor, she went behind the same pillar as before and waited to count as the next minute passed by. That was when Elias emerged from his room and quietly closed the door walking out in a simple hood. Ambrosia held her breath as he walked passed and then don't he stairs as she had reversed in her head.

There was something warm that flowed within her heart, knowing that Elias trusted her even in his lack of memory.

Ambrosia tip-toed to the door of Elias' room and opened it, she was then inside and weight had called from her shoulders. She only had a few minutes of gateway time to find the pills and get out before Elias came back up.

Ambrosia carefully looked through his lampstand drawers, then the top of his dresser, then those drawers, the closet floor, his jacket pockets, and the bathroom.

Nothing.

Ambrosia looked over to the window sill where the flowers were and crept towards them, she moved some around and saw the small glossy bag. Ambrosia hastily took it and sped out of the room. She shut the door and bounded softly to the second floor. Ambrosia smiled to herself as she felt the plastic between her fingers but it fell immediately when she realized the door to her room was open and light seeped from the inside out to the hallway.

Ambrosia stopped in the hallway and heard shuffling in her room for a moment and a feather of hope tickled her.

Is it Elias?

She walked towards the doorway and stepped inside her room not seeing her intruder and got the revelation of her bedroom floor covered in her things. The door was slammed behind her and she jumped spinning around.

Daniel held his gun in one hand and tapped it with the stolen butter knife that was resting lazily between his fingers. He dropped the knife aside and snatched up the bag from her hand.

"Where did you go?"

Ambrosia couldn't breast in this whirlwind of surprise.

"I-I'm sorry."

"What the fuck were you doing?!"

"Daniel," Ambrosia hiccuped.

"Fuck Ambrosia if you don't answer my goddamn question..."