Chapter 50
CHAPTER FIFTY
brAUM
I wake to the sound of someone screaming.
My body tenses before my eyes have a chance to fly open. It takes a couple blinks for the padded room to come into focus. I frown, confused. Am I in solitary confinement? I’ve never been thrown into a padded room before. Usually, it’s me and Rowan throwing people in here.
Mentally, I take inventory of my body. My head is throbbing and my stomach feels like I’m one deep breath away from all the contents spewing out. The rest of me feels worn out and weak, like I’ve run a marathon without any training.
Note to self, the next orgy we participate in, I’ll make sure we have electrolytes within reach and a hot bath on standby.
I close my eyes, willing the wave of nausea and the clammy chill washing over me to subside.
When I try to open them again, they feel weighted and unresponsive.
Even though I know it’s no use, I pause to listen for the whispers of The Universe to clue me in as to what’s happening.
The last thing I remember is cumming all over Everly’s cum.
It didn't even feel good when I found my release.
I was so drained by that time I only had a few drops left to spare.
There were voices, shouting, and then I was being tackled. After that… nothing.
Another chilling scream, so close I can feel the air vibrate, helps my eyelids shoot upward. I move to push myself upright but find my arms pinned to my sides. Looking down, I see I’m wrapped in a straitjacket.
What. The. Fuck.
With a grunt, I force myself upright. It’s difficult with no hands and even harder when I feel like I might puke, but I make it to my knees eventually. Careful of the way the room sways, I turn my head to look around.
My gaze moves about six inches to the right before freezing on the man standing there, staring back at me.
His perfectly tailored, crisp black suit, pants, and shoes scream money, as do the simple golden hoof cufflinks sticking out of the sleeves of his jacket.
His beard looks freshly groomed, as does the short black hair on top of his head.
The look he pins me with is a blend of disappointment and contempt.
Any lingering fog in my head vanishes in an instant.
“ Dad ?” I rasp.
“You’re awake, good,” he declares, his voice icy cold. “I wanted to have a word with you before I’m summoned.”
Seeing him here is bittersweet. I haven’t seen him in months.
He doesn’t write and we don’t talk. When I signed myself into Serenity Falls, it was to get closer to him and the White Stag.
I knew he came here often to host meetings in the chapel.
I attended the few he gave the first couple of months I was here, but after that—he didn’t come around.
I thought he’d be proud of me for going all in.
If he was, he never said a word about it.
Growing up, he wasn’t around a lot—coming here was my chance to bond with him.
I wanted to prove I was worthy of becoming the next High Priest. Instead, I was left to flounder around Serenity Falls.
I now know The Universe’s true purpose for urging me to come here, but up until recently, I truly thought I was here to become someone great just like Dad.
Looking at him now, at the way he’s glaring down at me, I don’t know why I ever thought I could please him.
I don’t even really know him. How did I think I could make my dad proud of me when I know so little about him?
What I do know is I might be his son, but blood ties mean nothing to the man standing before me.
His entire life is centered around pleasing, serving, and advising the seven leaders that make up the White Stag.
Their orders and his duty to them come first. His own welfare comes second.
Everything else takes a backseat, including me.
I turn my head away to find Rowan sitting up sporting his own straitjacket. He looks exhausted.
“You’re telling me this asshole overseeing this other guy’s torture is your dad, Braum?” Rowan says with a thick slur. He shakes his head slowly. “What the hell is happening right now? Why is he here?”
Beside him, Vick looks half-dead as he lies on his side. He gives a heavy-lidded blink, the only real sign of life.
Another scream startles me. I jerk my head away from them to look around the rest of the room.
On the far side are two men donned in blood-splattered doctor’s coats.
Their faces are covered by black humanoid masks, and in one’s hand is a bloody hacksaw.
They stand over a sobbing, dazed man. Blood pours from his wrists where his hands have been amputated.
Both extremities lay haphazardly on the floor.
I blink a few times, trying to process what I’m seeing.
Or rather who I’m seeing. I’ve only run into him once before, and only in passing.
At the time, he hadn’t even looked my way.
But sometimes a face just sticks.
James Woodrow doesn’t look so confident now. His suit is splattered in what I can only assume is his own blood and sweat soaks the rest. I didn’t see them at first, but my eyes travel over the metal shackles around his ankles which keep him from running away.
Ignoring the gruesome scene, I twist around searching for the one person that actually matters. I’m quick to realize Everly isn’t here.
The soul-chilling terror causes me to tense.
According to what The Universe said earlier, there were two outcomes that could’ve unfolded tonight. Whether she believes she actually heard The Universe in her head or not, Everly had spoken of our fate. The four of us would survive together, or we would die.
“ It’s a fifty-fifty split ,” she’d said.
My stomach drops as a frigid chill cools the blood in my veins.
The stale air, tainted with the coppery tang of blood, grows thin, and my world is rapidly beginning to implode.
Is this what the end will look like? Are we next, once those doctors are through with Everly’s father?
Denial rings loudly in my head. This can’t be how it ends. I have to do something to save us.
“Dad…” I start, my heart climbing up into my throat. “Listen to me, this is a mistake. We aren’t supposed to?—”
“A mistake ?” My dad cuts off sharply just as James starts to scream again. “No, this is much more serious than a mistake, Braum.”
He walks over to me, his stride confident, his expression one of barely contained rage.
When he comes to a stop, I expect him to start yelling.
Instead, Dad crouches down so he’s at my eye level.
Dancing in the depth of his irises are flecks of color—similar to the ones that dance along Everly’s skin.
Unlike Everly’s, though, the colorful evidence of The Universe is muted, as if diluted somehow.
Maybe it is. Maybe my dad’s involvement with the corruption of an evil organization has diminished his connection to the blessed gift.
Before I can comment on it, his palm slams against my cheek.
The slap is so unexpected and hard I’m thrown sideways and end up back down on my side.
I groan as I work to get back up onto my knees.
“I had high hopes for you, Braum,” Dad says, his voice dripping with disappointment and contempt. “When you were younger, you had such devotion to the cause, a strong connection to The Universe, and you were so damn moldable.”
The back of his hand strikes me just as hard as his previous slap had.
The only difference this time is I saw it coming and braced myself for it.
The strike knocks my head to the side, but I don’t drop like the last time.
The copper tang of blood fills my mouth, and when I spit, all that blood lands in a blob between us.
“But then you let yourself get swept up in the power blessed to our family,” Dad continues, his voice deepening.
His eyes spark with rage as he stands. “You became addicted to the whispers of The Universe and allowed your mind to become unstable. I watched you spiral into madness from the shadows, Braum. I prayed you’d snap out of it, but alas, it was in vain.
I knew you wouldn’t be any good at serving the White Stag. ”
Fury bubbles up in my gut at his revelation.
He’d been here, watching me, this whole time?
All I wanted was to be in his proximity, to learn from him, and he simply stood back and watched me.
While he’s not wrong that I’d allowed myself to get wrapped up in my own head, in the end it saved me.
The Universe led me right here, to right now.
My eyes are open to reality and unveiled the truth about the Children of the White Stag.
“So you signed off on the lobotomy to get rid of me,” I hiss, glaring right back at him. “How fatherly of you.”
The surprise in Dad’s eyes is there and gone in the blink of an eye. I guess The Universe didn’t tell him I knew about that.
“Yes. Unfortunately, your mother’s procedure didn’t pan out properly, but the doctors have come a long way to perfecting the dead art,” he drawls coldly. “Don’t worry, when it’s your turn you won’t feel a thing. Or if you do, you won’t remember it.”
My mouth falls open in surprise. “I thought… I thought Mom died in a car accident?”
“The White Stag pulled some strings for our family to make it look like a car accident,” he sighs as if this conversation is tedious for him. “It helped to explain her absence in our lives.”
The revelation is a sucker punch. My gasp is drowned out by James’ screaming, which suddenly becomes a disgusting, bubbling gurgle. It’s not until it’s cut off abruptly as half his neck is severed from his body that it falls silent in the room.
“You taught me the Children of the White Stag was created to make the world a better place,” I whisper in horror. “How is erasing me or any of this—” I use my head to gesture around the room. “—for the greater good?”