2. A Little Unhinged
CHAPTER TWO
A Little Unhinged
Deja looked down at Esme, who was sitting on her knees with her ear to Deja's stomach, and sighed. "Esme… I literally just found out I'm pregnant. There's nothing to hear."
"What? But I felt a kick!"
"You did not feel a kick!"
"Oh, never mind. Your stomach is just grumbling. Are you hungry? Did you eat? Why are you starving yourself and your baby?" Esme asked, standing up.
Deja rolled her eyes as Esme grabbed her groceries and headed for the kitchen. "Esme, please promise me you won't say anything to anyone," Deja said, following her.
"What do pregnant women eat when they've got a demon growing inside of them? Cow's blood and bat hearts?" Esme asked, looking through the fridge.
"Esme-"
"And who's the father? Jax? Ian? Oh dear Roselyn, I hope it's not Keith." Esme turned on Deja. "If it's Keith's, you need to abort that little shit now ."
" Esme !" Deja blurted. "Please promise me you won't tell anyone!"
Esme leaned back against the counter, folding her arms across her chest. "See… if you were just fucking me , you wouldn't have to worry about birthing the antichrist."
"Esme..." Deja groaned.
Esme twisted her mouth. "...are you keeping it?"
Deja averted her gaze. "...I don't know..."
"...is that why you killed Jax?"
Deja's jaw twisted. "...he haunts me… I close my eyes, and I see him. I open them… and sometimes he's still there. I hear his voice in my head. Sometimes, I can still feel him… It's like he has this… omniscient presence… I can't escape him."
"It's just your conscience. It goes away around your 13th kill," Esme shrugged.
Deja looked at her, horrified. "I don't plan on killing anyone ever again! I didn't even want to kill Jax!"
Esme shrugged and turned on the faucet. Deja looked at her perturbed. "I thought you'd be upset. Wasn't Jax your friend?"
Esme paused, watching the water run. "...yeah… Jax is like… a big brother to me..."
"Then-"
"I'm thinking Deja," Esme said abruptly. Turning around, Esme looked at Deja seriously. "...you have to abort that baby."
Deja's eyes widened. "I haven't even-"
"Deja, if you don't get rid of it… any chance you have of freeing yourself from them is gone .
You might as well lock a ball and chain to your ankle and brand yourself with a mark that says Owned by the Donovans because that baby is not yours…
it's theirs . Doesn't matter who the fuck the father is.
You've got a Donovan in you, sweetheart.
And that… that's a sentence worse than death. "
Deja swallowed hard, considering Esme's words. "...I'm not ready to make that decision yet..."
"Then, what the fuck do you plan on doing, Deja? Because I can't think of a shittier situation for a woman trying to escape one of the most dangerous families on the planet," Esme snorted.
Deja shook her head. "...I don't know yet, Esme. Everything happened so fast. I just… need time to figure this out..." Deja looked at Esme again. "...but I need you to promise me… promise you won't say anything to anyone..."
Esme snorted. "I actually like you, Deja. Of course, I won't..."
Deja smiled gratefully. "Thank you… Now, I just need to figure out where I'm going to live..."
"You could stay with me," Esme said quickly. Deja looked at her, startled. "I've got a penthouse condominium and a king-size bed I like to share with the right pretty face..." Esme smirked.
"Oh..." Deja said, surprised, her cheeks warming over. "Thanks, Esme. But… I'm trying to avoid living with serial killers."
Esme rolled her eyes. "Oh come on, Deja.
I only kill on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays.
Fridays, if I'm feeling up for it. But I've started this new knitting club, and I actually like it.
And I'm not loud- well...I'm not that loud.
And I have the best cleaners in the business.
Dead bodies don't stay for longer than a few hours when I'm done with them, so you won't smell a thing," she shrugged.
Deja blinked at her.
"What?" Esme asked. "What part turned you off?"
"Um… all of it?" Deja muttered.
Esme sighed. "Fine… But if you change your mind-"
"You'll be the first I call," Deja smiled.
"Deja… look at me, baby..."
Deja tightly clutched the sheets as her body writhed beneath her comforter. His deep voice. His sandalwood scent. She swore she could feel his rough touch against her skin.
"You miss me, don't you, beautiful… You miss Daddy..."
"...Leave… leave me alone," she whimpered in her sleep. His face was so vivid in her mind. As if she had seen him just hours ago. The dimples in his cheeks, the rough hair that framed his sharp chin. Those piercing blue eyes.
His fingers dripped a crimson liquid, the blood of another victim.
Her mind flashed to the pile of corpses building up in their bedroom.
Deja gagged at the stench of rotting human flesh.
So thick it clogged her throat. She could feel his bloodstained fingers wrap around her waist as he leaned into her, whispering in her ear.
"You'll never be rid of me, Deja...You're mine. You'll always. Be. Mine. "
" No !" Deja shot up awake, screaming at the top of her lungs. Breathing heavily, she felt the damp bedsheets that she had completely sweated through. Her bonnet was halfway across the room, and her hair had shrunk from all the perspiration. "Dammit..."
Throwing the sheets off, she pulled her sweaty nightshirt over her head and grabbed a towel. It was 2 AM, but she needed to wash off the sweat.
And that awful dream...
Walking past her sleeping kitten, she stopped when she saw that her puppy was missing.
She called for him, but… nothing. "The hell.
.." Deja instinctively grabbed the baseball bat she had recently bought online and stepped outside her bedroom.
She froze when she spotted the trail of blood leading to her bathroom.
Fear gripped her heart.
She had locked all her doors and windows.
How the hell did anyone get in? Cautiously, she stalked to the bathroom and quietly pushed the door open.
Her heart pounded fast in her chest at the shadow behind the shower curtain.
Raising her bat, she grabbed the curtain and yanked it back, prepared to strike, when she screamed, immediately dropping the bat.
Deja gagged at the sight of her landlord's mutilated body in her bathtub. "Mr. Barr!" she shrieked with tears in her eyes. "Oh my god!" She quickly ran out of the bathroom to find her phone.
But she instantly froze… staring at the menacing shadow standing in her dark living room.
Deja panicked.
She ran back to the bathroom to grab the bat.
But when she turned around, the masked man was standing at the bathroom door, holding her puppy.
The puppy playfully licked the man's bloody mask before the man set him down.
Deja swallowed hard, staring at the bloody machete in his hand. Her eyes squinted. "...K-Keith?"
Pulling his mask off, Keith tossed his bloody mask into the sink. His eyes were sunken as if he hadn't slept in days. His blue irises dark and haunting. Deja's face lost color. "Wh-what… why-"
"...I heard he was kicking you out," Keith said suddenly.
Deja looked at him in disbelief. "S-so you killed him ?!"
"He's not dead," Keith shrugged. "...well…
yet ..." Keith looked at her seriously. "I kept him alive to make sure he lets you stay.
I mean… it's not like you'll move in with me, so I have to consider…
other alternatives. Like hacking him to pieces until he gets how dire the situation is.
And if he says ‘no’, then I'll saw off his limbs before I take off his head so he can truly…
understand how dissatisfied I am with his decision. "
Deja had never seen Keith look so unhinged. Holding the towel to her chest, she backed up as he stepped into the bathroom, his tall frame taking up space.
"I know, I know, breaking and entering, right?
" he said, waving around the bloody machete.
"It's a bad habit, but probably not worse than watching you sleep- You are so…
fucking gorgeous when you're having a nightmare, you know that?
Like… the way you grab at the sheets and writhe like you need to cum…
so fucking badly… I swear that shit gets me-"
"Y-you've been- you've been watching me sleep?!" Deja blurted. "How the hell are you-"
"Don't be so dramatic, baby girl. It's not like I'm leaving you body parts as gifts.
I stopped that back in high school. You seem like a woman who prefers flowers anyway.
" Keith looked at the landlord's mutilated body in the tub.
"Honestly… I just feel obligated to torment you a little bit, you know?
Because of how much I fucking hate you..
." Keith glared at her. "In case you forgot. "
Deja backed into the wall as Keith cornered her.
"You've got me in a bind, baby girl. Because normally I'm this funny, happy, sexy-as-shit badass that doesn't give a fuck, you know what I mean?
But now? Now, I'm just… angry . I'm so fucking angry all the time.
Because of you! I should be getting stoned right now, not-not chopping up the landlord of the woman dominating my dreams- And fuck you, for upsetting my girl!
" Keith snapped at the unconscious landlord randomly. "Can't you see she's fucking stressed!"
She moved her head as Keith pointed his machete at her again. "It's like the more I want you, the more I just wanna… tear people apart… by the tendons, you know? Just rip flesh from bone like a fucking BBQ," he cackled. "I might be a little fucked up."
"K-Keith-" Deja stammered, trying to calm him.