Chapter 25 The Phoenix
Chapter twenty-five
The Phoenix
Blood coated my hands, dripping from my fingers and into the puddle forming around me. The knife remained clutched tightly in my grip, my hands steady as I took in the carnage around me. I had done this, my hands had caused the macabre scene that lay at my feet, and yet I didn’t regret it.
With a start, I woke suddenly. The room was pitch black.
But I didn’t need light to see that there was no blood on my hands.
It had been yet another dream. A side effect of the anxiety meds my psychiatrist had me on was supposed to be drowsiness, which had been helping me sleep.
Ever since the photographs came in the mail, other than a few hours early in the night, I hadn’t managed to stay asleep.
I groaned audibly. If I couldn’t sort out a way to sleep through the night, I was going to have to see if Dr. Regeal could up my dose.
At least the evening portion of my medication until this mess with Craig gets sorted out.
The added stress from not knowing where he was didn’t help.
In my heart, I knew his threats were genuine, and the inability to control the situation made my mind race with all the possibilities that could happen.
My instincts told me that he was responsible for the death of his mother and sister.
The timing of their slaughter was too coincidental for me to believe there was any chance that he was innocent.
What I wouldn’t give to see him again, to be able to treat him the way he deserved after the years of manipulation and abuse he put me through.
No amount of physical torture would ever compare to the hell he put me through by making me think I was crazy.
Tonight, I didn’t even bother with tossing and turning in my bed in the hopes of falling back asleep.
Last night I lay in bed for hours before falling asleep just in time to be woken up again to go to breakfast. Not caring if I got in trouble, I got up out of bed.
Kendi had told me she sometimes has trouble sleeping and will doodle while lying in bed during those nights, so the risk was worth it to possibly gain some company tonight.
I’d risk getting in trouble if it meant I might not have to be alone for several hours in the middle of a dreary night.
The light from the moon couldn’t even penetrate through the amount of clouds blocking out the stars, and the darkness outside the windows was overwhelming the environment.
Being trapped in this institution, I didn’t bother keeping up with the weather, but I didn’t need my local weather app to tell me it was going to rain later, with how thick the clouds had covered the constellations.
Slowly opening my door, I peered out to see if the night nurse was patrolling the halls.
Even though they were supposed to do a head count every quarter of an hour, it didn’t take long to notice that not all the night nurses followed that protocol; some nights came with fewer head checks.
I wouldn’t complain about it, though. The first night, it was almost impossible to get any sleep with the door opening every fifteen minutes.
No noise came from the nurses’ station, but I didn’t dare go check to see if anyone was sitting in the cubicle. Making sure my nightgown was pulled down to my thighs, I snuck quietly out into the hallway and made my way down toward Kendi's room.
The silence in our wing sent shivers down my spine as I crept down the hall. I was so used to even the most mundane noise throughout the day that the lack of it was unsettling. So when I heard a muffled grunt coming from the door next to Kendi’s, it made me pause before passing it.
Brandon’s room was where the noise had originated.
Curiosity got the better of me, bolstered by confidence that his room was locked unless Thomas was escorting him somewhere fueled the flame.
I crept slowly up to the edge of the small window in his door.
Every door had one—a slim shatterproof window about a foot and a half tall and no more than six inches wide.
I never paid much attention to it since I made it a habit to change my clothes in the bathroom away from prying eyes.
His window was impossible not to ignore right now.
I kept my eyes low, letting the dim light from the hallway cascade over my head and into his room, where I found it strangely empty.
Another muffled grunt reached my ears, so muffled that if I hadn’t had my face nearly pressed to the door, I probably wouldn’t have heard it.
Brandon was a psycho, so I should probably just ignore it and continue to Kendi’s room.
Unfortunately for my sanity, I wasn’t in my making the right choice era at the moment.
Hesitantly, I placed my hand on the door handle, shocked that it wasn’t locked.
It wasn’t too late to turn back and let the night nurse know that the pedophile's door wasn’t locked, but I was too curious for my own good.
Maybe fucking around with Daxton both loosened me up on a sexual level and killed a few of my common sense brain cells as well.
No sound came from the door as I opened it just enough to squeeze inside.
The fucker was probably lying in wait and was going to hurt me once he saw me.
Maybe I wasn’t out of my mind; maybe I was looking for something to take my frustration out on since the main source was currently a missing person.
It would be so nice to have the supper hand on a weaselly man who liked to touch little girls until I was able to face who I really wanted to hurt.
Besides, all I’d have to do is scream, and the nurse down the hall would hear me.
What I saw when I closed the door and peeked in his bathroom wasn’t anywhere near what I had expected to find.
Brandon was slumped on the floor in front of the shower with a sheet tied in a noose around his neck, and Daxton was standing over the pedophile.
Daxton pulled on the other end, his back muscles flexing through his shirt as he heaved Brandon up enough so his upper body was dead weight while he started tying the sheet off on the shower rod.
No rise and fall of Brandon's chest was evident as his dead weight dangled like a puppet to whatever means Daxton was trying to accomplish.
Daxton didn’t hear me enter, too focused on the task at hand to pay me any attention.
A normal person might be fixated on the corpse in the room, horrified that someone was dead at the hands of a professional whose job was to help his patients.
Not turned on by the bulging biceps of the killer messing with the body.
The white t-shirt he wore stretched over his shoulders as he tugged on the sheet for what I assumed was to test its strength.
A normal person would probably run out into the hall to get help and alert someone to what was obviously a crime being committed.
I had never considered myself to be normal; the deepening arousal I felt was evidence of that.
I recalled every lude thing Brandon had ever uttered to me and every detail the other patients had said about why he ended up here.
Knowing that a man who cared so much about those who couldn’t defend themselves was taking it upon himself to exterminate someone as vile as a child murdering pedophile made my very core clench.
“Is this what you do to relax?” I asked, not exactly sure what to say as Daxton finished tying the knot, leaving Brandon's body weight dangling from the metal shower rod.
He spun around quickly, shocked that someone had stumbled upon him. I honestly wasn’t sure what to think. The worst thought I had when I entered the room was that the pervert was jerking himself off; never did I expect to find him dead at the hands of my therapist.
“Raelynn, what the hell are you doing in here?” He demanded as he stalked toward me, anger flashing across his features. He was moving quickly, stalking toward me, his large body taking up what little personal space I had in the confined room.
On instinct, I started to back up until my back hit the bathroom door, closing it with a soft click. Not that it did much good, since it was only a saloon-style door, it only managed to stop my hasty retreat.
“I heard a noise,” I said simply, my eyes glancing between the dead body and Daxton, noting the tension in his shoulders.
“You heard a noise from a dangerous deviants room and you decided to come see for yourself? What would you have done if you were in here alone with him instead?” He half laughed but I held my chin high.
“I couldn’t sleep and was on my way to Kendi’s room, I’m sorry I didn’t realize my therapist was in here committing a felony.
” I had to fight the urge to place my hands on his arms when they caged me in.
I should have been repulsed by this turn of events, instead I found myself clenching my thighs together at the thought of his near vigilante justice.
“I hadn’t thought that far ahead as to what might happen after I opened the door.
As a mental health professional I’m surprised you haven’t realized that I have a few impulse control issues. ”
“Do you really think it’s wise to get smart with a man who just killed someone?” He whispered, bringing his mouth against my ear, the stubble from his jaw grazing against me gently as he pressed a lingering kiss to my flesh.
“I hadn’t put much thought into it yet,” my words were breathy as he continued the trail up my neck, each kiss against my skin sending sparks of electricity through my body to the point the tips of my fingers began to tingle.
“Do you really think it’s wise to start this next to a dead body?
” I challenged as he pressed a firm kiss against my mouth.