Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Lena slept with her back toward me, curled up on the mattress. I was just happy she’d finally calmed down enough to sleep at all.
The room was cool and dark. It had grown quiet as the others had either gone away or shut themselves in their rooms for the night.
All except Emery who was sitting by and guarding us just like the night before.
I told them everything I could remember about Severfalls, tried to give every little detail I could remember that might help. About the inner workings, the staff, the security, the grounds, everything. Even the patients. The women I left behind and now regretted leaving. Women whose unborn children were being pumped with a drug that would change them forever, and likely kill the mother.
It was even harder to accept another terrible thought. Something I didn’t want to even fathom.
Why had I been there with them?
I closed my eyes and touched my stomach. I was late, I’d known that since I escaped, but that didn’t mean I was pregnant. I’d been late before in the past. Something brought on by stress and other factors. With everything that had happened, it was no surprise the trauma would affect my body in that way. None of the doctors had made me take a test, and when I first arrived, it would have been too early to know.
But then I remembered the “nightmares” of being held down and something being injected into me. Nightmares that felt all too real. Why would that happen? Why did they watch me so closely? And I remembered it had been Nurse Jackie who’d suggested I get to know the other women and that was when I started sitting with them in the sunroom.
No, it couldn’t be true.
I closed that door in my mind, but I knew I couldn’t keep it that way forever. I didn’t mention the nightmares, or what I saw happen to Jonsei and Adrien, or about my phantom. I just told them what they needed to know the most. About the gate at the back of the grounds and how the chain could probably be cut. How there were several ways in, including a staff entrance to one side. How the guards switched out every eight hours and at what times. Funny how my paranoia had allowed me to not only take notice but to remember those things.
Micheal revealed what they planned to do in return.
Save those women and any other victims inside, destroy everything, end the experiments for good.
And get revenge.
I didn’t need them to elaborate on that part. Knowing now what I knew, I didn’t feel sorry for what might happen to those who caused such terror and pain.
After we talked over everything and went through the plans, it was time for Andrea to take Lena out and make her calls.
“My sister is going to be pissed more than anyone,” Lena said, sitting in the backseat of Andrea’s SUV as I stood by her door. Lez was putting her chair away in one corner of the garage while Andrea was talking briefly to Micheal and Emery. “Marcus will probably be freaked out too. And some of my roommates… and my dad since I’m sure my sister mentioned I hadn’t gotten back to her.” She sighed. “What a shitshow.”
“I could come with you, if it will help,” I said.
“It’s all right,” she said, shifting in her seat. “I have a feeling Emery wouldn’t want to be separated from you. And since Mr. Stabby is already tagging along to make sure I don’t go blabbing”—she glanced at Leslie with a frown before turning back to me—“it’s going to be a little crowded.”
I took her hand, and she clasped mine without hesitating. “You’ll be okay,” I said.
She nodded. “I’m not saying I trust any of them still, but…I don’t feel in danger anymore, so I guess that’s an improvement.” She bowed her head, chewing on her lip. “I still don’t trust Emery, either, Eve. Not after what he did to you. But…now that I know everything. What your dad did to them. It’s so fucked. I can see that level of revenge, of rage. I just wish it hadn’t been your family.”
“I know,” I said.
“I don’t trust him, but I want to trust you. Even if I can never understand what you two got. Honestly, I don’t ever want to.”
I couldn’t blame her. Ever since I’d gotten to know Emery in St. Agnes I had wished every day we had met in some other way. Anything but this.
Andrea ended her conversation and moved into the driver seat. “We shouldn’t be too long. We’ll keep the calls short,” she said, shutting her door, then putting her key in the ignition.
Lez went around to the other side of the car, opening the door opposite to Lena and sliding in next to her. Lena grimaced before scooting as far from him as she could as he shut his door.
Andrea glanced back at him. “Be nice, Leslie.”
He leaned back in the seat, placing his arms over the tops of them. “I am being nice.”
“You know what I mean. Don’t make her uncomfortable.”
He made a little noise as if appalled, shaking his head as he looked out his window. “What if she makes me uncomfortable? Anyone ever thought of that? I might be putting myself in danger here. Who knows if she swiped a knife when I wasn’t looking.”
Lena rolled her eyes. “Give me a fucking break.”
“See? She’s already getting aggressive with her words, really uncalled for.”
“Leslie,” Andrea warned.
“Or she might come after you, stab you in the back, and I have to protect you.” When she shook her head, he laughed. “Nah, maybe not. “He turned his body toward Lena, staring her down. “But someone has to snatch her phone away in case she decides to change her mind.”
Lena scoffed. “Dom will cut me off since he’ll be listening.”
He pointed at her. “One wrong word and the phone meets water.”
Lena tried to turn her back on him, but only managed to twist her torso toward me. “Anyway, I shouldn’t be long. You’ll be okay too?”
I fixed her with a smile. “Yeah, I think so. If you talk to Jamie, you’ll tell him I’m alright too, won’t you?”
“Of course,” she said. “I’ll tell him your phone died. I’ve already made up a bullshit story, something about my phone stopped working and we got a little too tipsy so we stayed with a friend in the city and we were up all night and slept all day. Bad decisions all around.”
Sounded like a full-proof plan to me.
I shut her door and stepped away as Andrea backed out, turning out of the garage.
We then prepared dinner. Or rather Micheal cooked and Emery helped. Dom would have helped too, but he needed to listen in on Lena’s conversation. Cassidy didn’t come out of her room. I offered to help as well but Emery refused and told me to let him take care of me. I didn’t feel like arguing so I found a space on the couch, using the cold press Andrea had offered me while watching Dom at his station, waiting to see if at any moment he’d cut Lena off.
Thankfully, he never had to. And by the time dinner was ready, Andrea was driving back.
We ate together, and for the first time in this crazy situation, things felt at least a little normal. Even Cassidy came out and was polite enough to keep quiet as we sat around one of the tables, passing each other plates of chicken, potatoes and carrots. Micheal was the most normal of the bunch, keeping the conversation light and away from all the awful dark talks we had all day. Lez sometimes said idiotic things and some of us even laughed.
Emery sat beside me, his arm across the back of my chair, keeping me close as I took bites of the chicken.
He trailed his fingers across my back, and I clenched my fork tight, forcing myself to stay in the moment.
A band of misfits, who only had each other. It was hard to believe they had found one another, but it was good they had.
I helped clean up after, feeling the hairs on my back stand up, knowing Emery was watching me, still hungry for his little rabbit. My heart pounded, knowing what he was thinking. The memory of when we reunited returned to the forefront of my mind. How badly he wanted to continue where we left off.
How badly I liked that too.
Once everything was put away, however, Micheal had other plans.
“One last meeting without the girls. I have a few more things I want to go over before the day ends.”
I wanted to argue, but Lena was perfectly fine with that.
“I’m down to go to bed early. I’m exhausted,” she said. “Since I was too scared shitless to sleep last night.” Then she pulled me close and whispered, “I’ll keep my eyes open long enough to fill you in on what everyone said when I called, okay?”
I looked at Emery and caught the disappointment on his face before it vanished quickly. “I’ll be right by.”
He pulled me into a hug, his lips against my hair. I felt eyes watching us. The others still didn’t understand. I wasn’t usually one to give a fuck in that regard, but I didn’t feel like listening to another argument from outside the room if I could help it. So I followed Lena, bidding good night to others.
Now that everyone was asleep, I lay awake knowing he was just outside. I knew he wasn’t sleeping either.
A clock on the wall above us read midnight. I lowered my eyes to Lena, listening to her steady breathing. Slowly, I rose from the mattress and slipped off the side, careful not to wake her.
Quietly, I took off the spare pajama pants and shirt Andrea had given us and slipped back into my dress before creeping toward the door.
I reached for the knob and turned it, cracking the door open just enough to see the dark hallway. The only light came from a source within the main room, making shadows play on the walls. The biggest shadow reclined in a seat only a couple feet away.
I opened the door more and the shadow stirred. Emery’s head turned toward me and I could almost see the glow of his eyes.
“Evee…” he said softly, straightening in his seat, closing the book he had in his lap. “Everything okay?”
I stepped out into the hall, shutting the door behind me. I hugged myself, wincing as I clutched my bad arm.
Emery placed his book on the ground and stood, now a towering shadow before me. “Are you cold?”
I didn’t know what to say at first so I nodded, even though the hall wasn’t too cold. They had heaters in most of the rooms including ours and a large one in the main room.
Emery picked up the jacket from his seat. One he must have swiped from someone else, but I didn’t ask who. He put it around me, letting me slip my good arm into the one sleeve while keeping the other out for now. The jacket was heavy and definitely too big for me, but it was warm and smelled like him. He adjusted it around me, wrapping it close while taking my hair and carefully setting it out of the jacket, over my shoulder. My heart fluttered as his fingers trailed through the ends of my hair. As he rubbed a lock, the heat of his gaze made me shiver.
“I couldn’t sleep…”
“Yeah?”
I chewed on my bottom lip. “Yeah.”
He smirked, as an ache settled between my thighs. He slipped by me and picked my shoes by the door. “Go on and sit.”
I did as he asked, plopping in his seat. He then kneeled before me and slipped my shoes on my feet.
“Are we going somewhere?” I asked, my pulse quickening.
“Not far. Just a little walk.”
He tilted his head to the side, the way he always did when he heard his sister’s voice. Then, just as quickly, he straightened. It struck me that it was the first time I’d seen him do that since I’d arrived here.
I wondered what she might be saying to him now, but I had no desire to bring her up if I could avoid it.
He tied my laces and straightened up. Without hesitation, I took the hand he offered, letting him pull me to my feet to stand beside him.
“Stay close,” he said.
“Are we going somewhere dangerous?” I asked.
“Maybe.”
I gave him a look and his slightly wicked laugh made my damn knees weak.
“Nothing too dangerous,” he said gruffly. “Remember you’re safe, you just have to watch your step.” With my hand still clasped in his, he led me down the hall, away from the main room. When we reached the end, we turned right. There, I saw a dark wooden double door. Emery stopped before it. “Ah, we also might need to watch for any intruders.”
“What do you mean, intruders?”
“You know, people trying to find shelter? We are in a desolate area, but we’re still close enough to the city. Sometimes, we find squatters.”
A sudden chill went down my back. “S-squatters?”
I heard something behind me in the dark and glanced over my shoulder. There was an image of a girl with a sunken face and pleading eyes in the dark. Behind her, just above her head, was a skull face.
For a second, I was sure my heart had stopped.
“They usually get scared off just seeing me,” Emery said, not noticing my sudden terror. “But just in case.” He showed me the blade on his belt.
I wanted to hug the jacket closer but couldn’t. Instead, I inched myself closer to him. “Where did you get that?” I asked, trying to shake the vision.
“Swiped it from Leslie. Motherfucker has more than enough to share. He’ll notice it’s gone eventually. Not that I care. Come on.”
He unlatched the lock and then shoved the double doors open.
Beyond was a stone-laid staircase. On the first step was a flashlight. Emery took it and clicked it on as we made our way upward. I could see the cracks in the stone and even along the walls. Some of the steps that were crumbling he carefully maneuvered me around. When we got up to the landing, he swung the light across. There, I froze, peering around with wonder.
I’d assumed he was taking me to the church. What I didn’t expect to find was a smaller version of a gothic cathedral. In disarray. Abandoned.
Rows of pews took up either side of the center aisle. Some broken in half, others burned or graffitied. The altar at the back had a bent leg and was covered in dust and debris. The long, stained glass window above it had a web-like crack stretching from one corner to the next, some of the glass blackened from what I could only guess was a fire. Light from the street outside broke in through the red glass that was still intact, giving the chapel an eerie red glow. In one corner there was a statue of a saint. At their feet someone had lit candles. Seven in total. The tiny flames danced silently in little glass holders.
Emery cast his light to the ground where I could see chunks of the roof and more debris. He led me down the aisle, making sure to tread carefully, glass and stone crunching under our feet. At the altar, he turned right, taking me toward a door to one side, built into an alcove.
“Usually, the reason anyone finds their way in is from here,” Emery said. “Someone either forgets to lock it or leaves it open on purpose.” He grabbed on the brass handle and pushed, and the door swung open with ease.
Emery stepped aside, giving me a clear view outside. Beyond the door was a path leading into what looked like a small garden—or what had once been a garden, now overgrown and wild. A few small trees stood scattered around a dried-up fountain, and beyond that was a wrought iron gate.
I couldn’t make out much more until Emery aimed his light into the darkness. That’s when I noticed a couple of statues and a path winding around a small field dotted with trees. Among them, I caught the faint shapes of headstones.
A tall iron fence surrounded what I knew now to be a graveyard, ending at the gate where the fence shortened slightly to encircle the garden.
Like the church, it was also eerie but strangely beautiful. I could imagine it had been well-kept when there was someone to attend to it. Now, there were weeds growing all along the fence and tall grass in the graveyard. Without Emery’s flashlight, only a single streetlight on a narrow road on the other side of the fence showed anything at all.
“Sometimes I take a walk around at night,” he said, searching the area with his light. “I’ll find Cassidy out here too.”
“You think she’s leaving it open for people?” I asked, stepping in as Emery shut the door and locked it.
He shook his head. “Andrea, I think,” he said. “I have a feeling she doesn’t like the idea of a church being closed off. Unfortunately, she’s too trusting and doesn’t realize most people don’t come here to pray. It’s just another place to get high. Or vandalize. Or steal. Either way, can’t afford to have someone realize we’re here.”
As he took me down the central aisle, I noticed some more graffiti along the walls, one of a creepy grinning face, another that read in large letters: “The devil was here.”
No...that wasn’t right. Emery’s light shifted away, then back again, and I found myself staring at the words once more. It read, “Drake was here.” But for a moment, I could have sworn it said something else.
I moved to keep up with him. There were more faces and shapes, plus a couple of detailed drawings and tags. But nothing like those words.
He led me to the front of the church, to another set of doors. “This was the only part of the church that got the least damaged in the fire. Or so Andrea said. Micheal bought it a year ago and renovated parts of it.”
“Like downstairs,” I said.
He tried one door. Locked.
He took two small metal tools out of his back pocket. “Not just there.” He kneeled to the door handle, setting the flashlight beside him, then started picking the lock.
I stared at his back. “Won’t he get pissed if you go into places he doesn’t want us to?”
I knew he had to be smirking as he focused on his work. “That’s the fun part. I like pissing him off. Andrea mentioned he’s done some work on the front and the upstairs. Figure we can look around and see what he’s hiding.”
I let out a quiet, nervous laugh. “Trespassing in an abandoned church,” I mumbled. “Can’t believe I’m actually here. I don’t think I’ve urbexed since I was a kid.”
“Urbexed?” he asked.
“Urban exploring. Went with a couple of friends once. Some creepy old hospital. One of my friends swore she saw a ghost.”
“Did you believe her?”
“Back then, no. I didn’t believe in them back then.” I hugged myself with my good arm as Emery twisted his tools around in the lock. With one swift move, something clicked, and Emery turned the knob, pushing the door open.
Beyond was the same murky darkness. Emery looked in. He bowed his head and whispered something I couldn’t hear. I wasn’t sure if he was talking to me or someone else. Swiftly, he picked up his flashlight and stood, putting his tools back in his pocket. He took my hand and we slipped inside.
There was a marble bowl on top of a stand in the center of the room. Beyond that was the front doors which were locked. To the right was a short hallway leading to a set of bathrooms. A metal gate was kept partially open to the left.
Emery slid it aside. On the other end was a staircase and short hallway. We checked the rooms along the hall first and only found an office with nothing but a bare desk and a couple of book shelves. Another room had a couple boxes and an antique wooden cabinet with a beautifully carved set of doors shaped like spades and daggers.
We moved on to the staircase, Emery going up first while I clutched at his belt from behind. It was obvious some work had been done in this section of the church, parts of the walls and ceiling painted over with new plaster, no debris or dust on the steps. There was a single door at the top locked like the last.
“Hold on,” Emery said. He placed one hand on the banister and another against the wall, bracing himself. I let go of his belt just as he swung his foot up and kicked the door. The wood splintered and pieces flew.
One more push with his foot and the door flew open, slamming against the back wall.
I flinched at the noise. “Hope no one heard that.”
“If they do, they can tattle on me all they want. If they try to stop me, I’ll put a boot in their face like I did this door.”
I tried to stifle my laughter as he pulled me inside. “Micheal is going to kill you.”
“Like I said, boot to face. Honestly, I think I can take him.”
We laughed like a couple of teenagers as we turned down a passage.
There were several doors on either side so we tried one on the right first. Inside we found a study, with bookshelves lining one wall and a desk in the center stacked with files. On the other wall was a bulletin board with several pictures. As we maneuvered into the room, Emery went over to a lamp and clicked it on. Surprisingly, it worked, shining low light around the room.
My eyes drew to the pictures on the board first. Most were the faces of people. And children. Some of them, I recognized.
I edged closer to the photo of Emery beside his sister. Beside her name, the word “Deceased” was scrawled in bold letters.
There were several other photos like it, each marked with “Deceased.” A few were labeled “Missing,” and others read “Institutionalized.”
“Micheal had been searching for everyone for a long time,” I said. “He’d been keeping track.” Just like I had wanted to do when I first learned about the warehouse. Micheal had already been two steps ahead.
“He was the one who found me in the hospital and brought me here,” Emery said as he came to stand behind me. “He’d known about me being in St. Agnes for some time…he thought I might be too far gone. Too fucked up, a lost cause. Till I did get out and he brought me here after I got pulled from the river. Probably thinking a dangerous nutjob like me would at least make a good revenge warrior. He wasn’t wrong.”
I turned from the board and looked over at the files on the desk. I turned one over and saw it was a record on Dom and Leslie. Information from the foster care system, piling how they were sold to the Martel company and where they ended up after. Hospitals, juvenile detentions centers, brief stays at foster homes, the streets, then into a life of crime and gangs. Criminals for hire to mafias and corporations, while heading an organization of car thieving, weapon trafficking, and hacking.
I slid their file aside and found Cassidy’s. According to her record and several dates, she was the first one Micheal found. She too ended up in an institution after the Martel company was done with her. She had a bad stint of drug addiction and street-walking until she went to rehab, likely with Micheal’s help. Then she went to school and into the police academy.
There were more records on the others, even Emery. It was all here. Only they accounted for the before and after side of Project Redbird. Not the during. Not like the records I’d found in my father’s safe.
Together, they gave all the details one needed for their story.
They just needed someone to finish it.
As I shut one of the files, I heard Emery open another door behind the desk. He grunted as if impressed. I turned and saw the door lead out to a balcony that overlooked the church below.
“Nice view,” I said as I craned to see.
“Not a bad place…” Emery mumbled. I gave him a curious look as he shut the doors.
We left the room and checked the next one at the end of the hall, only finding a small kitchen with a little window. Emery appeared uninterested and went for a door across the hall. Dim red light broke into the passage as he opened the door and poked his head in.
“Here we are.” He pushed open the door, stepping aside so I could enter.
I arched a brow at him as I slipped past. When I turned to look around the room, my eyes widened.
Like the community room downstairs, Micheal had also renovated this side, turning the space into a private apartment.
A bed sat all the way to the left wall, neatly made with a dresser and small end table on either side of it. A black couch and a few seats were positioned in the center of the room stationed in front of a large, circular stained-glass window. Heavy curtains were hooked to a metal bar above the window to give one privacy. On our end was a table and a couple of chairs next to a three-way dressing mirror which took up the right wall.
I moved further inside, noticing the high ceiling and single light hanging above. There was also another doorway beside the mirror leading into a bathroom. On the opposite side of the circular window was a fireplace, with a TV above it. The place was mostly bare, with nothing on the smooth stone walls and a single red and black rug on the floor. It appeared clean at least, but it didn’t look like anyone had been inside in a while.
“Micheal has good taste,” I said, moving toward the window. Outside, I could see the narrow street below with a couple abandoned houses across the way. Beyond them were small patches of woods and more houses. Way out in the distance, I could just make out the city. “It’s beautiful,” I whispered, letting my fingers trail over the glass. “I wonder if he plans to restore the rest. Or he could make it into something new…”
Emery hadn’t said a word. I noticed it had grown darker, and realized the white light from his flashlight no longer pierced the room. I peered over and saw him standing by the door, now closed with him blocking it. I hadn’t heard him shut it. And something told me it was also locked. His face was the only thing I could see, bathed in red, the rest of him lay in shadow, his eyes glowing in the dark.
“It’s perfect,” he said.
I turned to face him, pressing my back against the glass as his intense gaze kept me in place. He was so still, I could feel the tension that now filled the room.
“Perfect?” I repeated softly. I knew that look he gave me. I felt the heat rise up my throat and face from that look, my heart fluttering.
“Why don’t you be a good girl and bend over that table for me?”
His voice was rough, hungry. It made me shiver while also making me burn hotter. I raised my brows, shocked at his bluntness. My eyes drifted to the table near the mirror before turning back to him. “What if I don’t want to be good?”
“That’s okay,” he said, low and grating. “I can work with that too. Either way, you’re getting put on that table. And that couch, and the bed, maybe the floor too, we’ll figure out the order as we go.”
I bit my lip trying to hide the little smile growing on my face. “You’ll have to catch me first.”
His laughter made my heart leap to my throat. It was so wicked as was the smile he gave me. “Oh, Evee, baby, we both know that won’t be an issue.”
He took a step toward me, and I slid to the other side of the window. “You’ve waited for this.”
“More than anything,” he said. “I’ve prayed for this every night. And now I might actually believe in a god.”
I inched across the wall, “I think I at least deserve a head start,” I said.
He laughed again. “Sure. Go ahead and hide. I know you’re really good at that. But I will find you quicker this time. I think a thirty-second head start is enough, don’t you?”
I nodded, then gave him a devious little smile of my own. “You want this…” I shrugged off the jacket, letting it fall to the ground. I curled my fingers under the skirt of my dress and lifted it up, revealing nothing else underneath. “You’ll have to find me.”
His expression changed into something I could hardly describe, but it left me breathless and terrified at its intensity.
“When I find you, I’m going to tear that dress in half and make you scream for me, Evee.”
It sounded like a promise.
He turned away, putting his back to me. “Thirty seconds.”
I dropped my skirt and unlatched from the wall, watching him while I snuck around the couch. There was another door leading out to the hallway next to the bed. I didn’t think he locked that one yet, but I couldn’t be sure.
I didn’t let my eyes off him as I made for the door and tried the knob. The door opened as I turned it and, with one last glance at him, I slipped out into the hallway.
Standing there, I realized there were few places to hide. Not unless I wanted to go back downstairs. Before I decided on that, I tried another door beside the one I’d exited.
Just a closet.
I went for the stairs. As I grabbed the splintered door, I stopped and noticed behind it was another door hiding at the other end of the passage. Thinking quickly, I pulled the broken door aside and tried the new one.
In the faint light, I spotted another set of stairs leading upward. Without hesitation, I propped the splintered door back in place to conceal the staircase. Slipping through, I climbed the first step and carefully closed the door behind me.
There was no lock, but I knew that wouldn’t keep Emery out anyway. It didn’t matter. I hurried up the stairs, flight after flight, until I reached a room at the very top.
It was a narrow attic, with a row of slender, arched windows lining the left side.
Someone was standing by one of these windows.
I almost screamed. I slapped a hand across my mouth to stifle what little did come out, gulping the rest down.
The figure didn’t move. I stared at them, waiting to see them move. Only when I looked closer did I see the wings at their back and the stone-like skin.
I sighed with relief.
A statue, just a statue.
I looked down the stairs, my pulse pounding in my ears. Shit, how long had it been already? I might only have seconds left.
I beelined into the room and searched around. There were several things I could hide behind up here. Crates, old furniture, bookshelves.
I heard a creak downstairs and nearly jumped out of my skin.
Where to hide?
I looked across, thinking to just skirt under a table with a sheet over it when my gaze stopped on a large wooden cabinet at the far end of the room.
It wasn’t anything like my father’s gin cabinet but it would do.
I quietly opened one of the doors and slipped inside. Third time's a charm, right? I slid down and curled into a corner, trying desperately to quiet my panting so I could listen.
I didn’t have to wait that long before I heard doors opening and then closing. I shut my eyes and noticed how much slower he searched this time, less desperate, biding his time.
Still, in the darkness of the cabinet, it felt like the earth was shifting around me. For one crazy moment, I was back in my old house, hiding and waiting for the bad man to find me. The memory was so vivid I swore I saw the flicker of fire through the crack of the door and smelled the acrid smoke of the burning tablecloth.
Fear surged through me, but this time, it wasn’t the fear of death. It was the fear of being caught.
I peeked through the crack of the door and froze. There was the dining table, there was the knife in the birthday cake. But no bodies. No blood on the carpet or dripping from the table.
I was so creeped out by what I was seeing I almost missed the groan of heavy boots on the stairs.
I tensed, putting my hand over my mouth to try and quiet my breathing. A moment later I saw a shadow pass by. I heard things being moved around, heard him walking from one side to the other.
Eventually his shadow stopped pacing, and he blocked out the light entirely. The cabinet shook and the door flung open.
I let out a yelp and looked up to see Emery staring down at me. In a red skull mask. Where had he found it? Or was this just part of the memory?
“Found you, little rabbit,” he said, sounding all too ecstatic.
He lifted me out of the cabinet. I didn’t fight, not sure if it was because I didn’t want to or because I was afraid to.
The attic returned as he carried me. He took me downstairs, and I could see nothing as I clung to him in the dark, hearing him stomping his way back to the room. When he kicked it open, I looked around and saw my old dining room again, only there was a mirror at the end of the table that wasn’t there before. In fact, most of the room looked off, some things from my memory and some not. Like how above the mirror hung a streamer that said happy birthday and how dad’s cabinet was gone and there was the stained-glass window instead.
I had to be having a break in reality. But I was too speechless to say anything. Emery didn’t notice as he carried me inside and set me down on the edge of the table.
As he leaned over me, I stared at him in shock, at the mask I had become all too familiar with.
“So that’s where you hid?” he said, tilting his head. “I know you can do better than that. Too bad, you're mine now, Evee.”
He took out the knife on his belt, then grabbed a hold of my dress. “Say goodbye to this.”
I sucked in my breath as he slid the blade between my breasts. He ripped down the dress, cutting it in half like he promised.
Before I even had a chance to react, he was tearing the rest until I was naked and laid out before him.
“P-please,” I pleaded.
“Oh, beg some more. I like that.” He turned the knife over so that the handle faced me. He slid his other hand down my thigh, spreading my legs apart. I felt his fingers brush against my center, first stroking and then circling around my clit once then twice, before slipping two fingers inside.
I gasped, arching my back, goosebumps trailing over my skin as he slid in and out, until I was so wet I could feel my arousal dripping down my thighs, could hear the smacking sounds of his hand hitting against my pussy. I clenched around him as the heat pooled deep in my core. Then, his fingers slipped out, replaced by something smoother. I glanced down and saw the hilt of the knife slide in slowly, feeling the smooth bumps of the handle dip deep almost to the blade.
I trembled as he slowly brought it back out. “That’s it, that’s my girl. Don’t worry, I just wanted to get it a little wet. Here, you can hold on to it for me now.” He took hold of my jaw. I opened my mouth obediently, and he set the hilt between my teeth. I could taste myself on the blade as my tongue grazed against it. I nearly dropped it but Emery set it back in place.
“You keep that there, don’t drop it.”
I didn’t dare move as Emery took a hold of my hips and forced me onto my knees. There I could see myself in the mirror, on one elbow with my bad arm cradled under me. I locked eyes with him behind me, his skull mask smiling, his eyes taunting. He rubbed at my bad shoulder. “I’ll be careful of this,” he whispered. His concern didn’t match the heat in his gaze. He must have read the worry on my face because then he said, “I swore I’d never hurt you, Evee, and I meant it. But for tonight, it’s going to seem like a lie. I’ll be rough, but I won’t take what you can’t give. Understand?”
I nodded my head.
He spread me out a little more. “Good. Now watch me worship you like I’ve been dying to do since I first saw you.”
He brought up a chair behind me. He took a seat and, when I blinked, his mask disappeared. His hands gripped my hips and he breathed on me, making me tremble.
I felt his tongue graze against my clit, and I nearly dropped the knife. My face twisted in the mirror, a low moan escaping my throat, muffled by the hilt. He slid his tongue along me, swirling and sucking against my clit like he was starving for it. My body tensed and throbbed, the heat coiling in me, making the ache unbearable.
I whimpered as he held on to me, my hand under me clenched in a fist, while the other clawed at the table as if trying to pull away, but he pulled me right back. I looked as if I was in pain in the mirror but I was far from it. I moved my hips against him, silently begging him not to stop.
Then his tongue dipped inside me—once, then twice—and I shattered. I came, shuddering, a cry tearing up my throat. The blade clattered to the table and I let the cry out that turned to a scream as the orgasm heightened.
He shoved the chair back to stand and unzipped his pants. Already rock-hard, he rubbed his cock along me before plunging inside.
“Oh, fuck, I can feel you, baby. I can feel you coming.” He groaned, immediately starting to pound into me, thrusting hard and fast, unable to hold off. He paused only briefly to reach over me and take the knife, stabbing the blade into the wood. “Take it,” he demanded.
I reached out and grabbed it, holding it tight.
My cheek, pressed to the wood, rubbed against it as my body shifted along the tabletop to Emery’s thrusts, his hips hitting my ass. I clenched my teeth as I couldn’t stop the moans and whimpering cries that burst out of me. Emery didn’t yield as the table shook. He took a hold of my hair, twisting it in his fist, his hand lifting me so I could watch him fucking me.
He thrusted several more times until finally spilling inside me, a guttural noise coming from him as he leaned over me, his breath on my back.
“Evee…Evee. God, you feel like…heaven,” he said between breaths as he slowed. He kissed my back, his teeth grazing my skin. I let go of the knife as he let go of my hair. We stayed like that for a moment, just breathing in unison, until he lifted off me and I brought myself up on my elbow.
I lifted my head to catch his gaze in the mirror once more, to see his face, to see him smile so that I could smile back.
When I looked up, I froze, my blood going cold as I was met staring at my skull-faced phantom instead.
He smiled at me, tilting his head, holding the blade. “Happy birthday, baby,” he hissed. And I saw skeletons sitting around us, around the dining table with the streamer above splattered with blood.
I let out a cry, twisting around, swinging my arm up in terror, to defend against the blade. I hit Emery’s chest, and he grunted more in surprise than in pain.
The vision dissolved and the dark settled back in. I was in the room within the church again and above me Emery looked like himself.
“Eve?”
My lip trembled. Sweat formed along my breasts and temples, dampening my hair. I must have looked scared because he placed his hands on either side of my face, his expression growing concerned. “Shh, it’s okay, baby, what happened?”
“I-I saw…” With a trembling hand, I pointed to the mirror.
“You saw… the other me again?”
I nodded.
His thumbs traced along my skin. “It’s okay.” He pulled me up to sit on the edge of the table. “Hey, look at me.” I met his gaze and could see how serious he was now. “I’m not him. I’m right here. He’s not real.”
“Like your sister?”
She had such a hold on him for so long. And now I understood what he had been going through. I only started to regret the words when I worried I might trigger an episode in him.
He shut his eyes and I knew she was talking to him by the way he tilted his head. Fuck, why did I have to say that? I should have known better.
He shook his head. When he opened his eyes, I could tell he saw me clearly, no trace of anger or panic, or his demons rising.
“That’s right. Like my sister.”
I fixed him with a sad expression. “Emery, I’m sorry.”
“No. You're right. Even if it’s been hard to accept. Because you see a version of me even though I’m alive. Besides, she hasn’t been like my sister in a long while.” He pressed his forehead to mine. “We will fight our ghosts together. Ghosts that aren’t ghosts. Just bad shit in our heads.”
I took a deep breath and lifted my hand, tracing the scar across his mouth. Leaning in, I kissed the scar, then his lips.
Against them, he whispered, “Together.”