Chapter 9 Delilah
DELILAH
I’m fucking stupid for believing her. That’s my last thought as Helene’s guard, covered in blood after killing the person who found Kane, chases me. She said the other islanders sought shelter from the storm, then the dead man found Kane when he was going to meet them.
I need to stay alive to help him.
Please let me live so I can help him.
When we were running through the forest, he ran in zig-zags to stop them catching us, so I do too. Weight barrels into my legs, swiping out from under me as the guard climbs over me, pressing my cheek against the sand. I’m forced to look at the side of the cliff Helene allowed me to leave through.
The bitch is there, watching with a fucking smile.
“No!” I cry. “You said I could help him!”
She doesn’t respond as her sick minion cuts a slit through my dress.
“Please, let me help him!” I punch backwards, trying to dislodge them off my back as I continue screaming, “He’s your grandson! Don’t let him die!”
The guard’s hands are like iron bands burning into my wrists as he pins them above my head. Holding them together in one hand, he forces my legs apart. I have no energy or control to fight him as I continue begging, “Please, let me go. I’ll come back, just don’t make me lose Kane. Not again.”
My tears soak into the sand, but there’s no invasion of my body as the guard stills above me. Their hands loosen on my wrists as Helene turns, walking away without a single care about what’s going to happen to me or Kane.
“Please let me go.” I try to rationalize with the monster’s hired hand. “You can do whatever you want afterwards, I promise. I don’t care anymore, just don’t let him die.”
They don’t move, unzip, or even breathe.
“Please, I won’t fight you. As soon as he’s safe, you can kill me. Whatever you want.”
The waves usually pick up after midday. They’ll carry the body away. I need them to let me go now so I can search for anything to tell me where Kane is. But they don’t move and their entire weight is on me, stopping me from being able to get up.
“He can’t die.” My lip trembles. “He’s too good. Better than me, everyone.” More weight is applied to my back as I sob loudly. “No, please.”
Stretching over me, the guard grabs my hand and places it on their wrist. The blood on their mask sticks my hair as they nuzzle into the crook of my neck while I snatch my hand back.
“Please, I’ll hold your hand after.”
They roughly shake their head, placing my hand back on their wrist. They’re more forceful this time so I keep my fingers against their blood-soaked, long-sleeved t-shirt. They nod. Then pick up my other hand to put on their other wrist.
“Tell me what I need to do for you to let me go.”
Another head shake, more erratic this time, knocking into the side of my head.
“I need him to be okay. I don’t know if you’ve ever loved someone before, but I’d give anything—my life, my sanity—for him to be okay.” They flex their arms, shaking them as I cry. “I don’t know what you want me to do.”
Another shake of their arms, dragging them closer to my face.
“The tide is going to wash the body away. The man knew where he was. He found him. No one else knows where he is. Please let me go.”
I’m flipped onto my back, the harsh movements knocking the air out of me as the guard flattens over me.
Their knees are pressed either side of my thighs, painfully digging in, but they don’t pull my legs apart.
The mascara Helene told me to wear so the tourist didn’t think I’d spent however long being tortured is stained down my face and my eyes are raw.
“You don’t have to listen to her,” I whisper. “You can escape with Kane. He’ll make sure no one comes after you.”
He stills.
“She lies to everyone. She did it to us too. We’ll help you. Whatever she’s done to you, I’ll make sure she experiences worse. Kane and I found the truth out, so we can help you do it too. Just please let me find him.”
There’s no fucking response.
“I’m not the type of person who would beg, not after what my father did. I promised myself I’d fight, but he is worth me begging. Please, I am fucking begging you to let me go.”
The mirrored mask gets closer. Closer. Closer.
Until it brushes my lips where their lips would be, then my forehead, then each of my cheeks.
It’s so close I can only see my own eyes as they drag my hand to their wrist again, curling my fingers around it and squeezing, then doing the same to the other.
Only one person kissed my face like that and told me to hold his wrists.
“Kane?” I whisper in fear.
He nods as I cry, deflating against the sand.
“You’re alive, you’re alive, thank God you’re alive.”
I twist my hands, threading them between our bodies to wrap them around him, feeling him breathing.
“She lied, you’re alive.”
I savor the feeling of him one last time before I sniffle, pulling my tears back. “There’s no one else on this island, but you might be able to swim to another country. We’re off the coast of England. You were always good at knowing random places in the world. So run. Don’t let her win.”
His rage comes back as he grabs me by my hair, dragging me with him as he stands. The sand sticks to the cuts on my feet, little shells opening the parts that managed to scab over, but he doesn’t stop even though I’m limping to keep the weight off my swollen ankle.
When I see Helene standing at the bottom of the cliff again, I don’t try to fight him. She made me think he was dying then sent him after me, the psychotic bitch. Who the fuck thinks of manipulating someone in that way?
The smug, twisted bitch looks down at my torn dress and trembling legs. There’s something deeply wrong with her when she’s bolstered by the thought of her grandson raping his wife. It’s not the type of wrong which can be fixed, unless it’s with fire like Asher.
Kane drags me through the open door as I meet her eyes, smiling. “Do you want to know what Asher smelt like when he was burning?”
She whips her hand up, striking my cheek with her stick but I laugh. “I take that as a no?”
I’ve got Kane back, she can’t take him away or use him anymore, so fuck her. I’ll keep being a thorn in her side in any way I can, then like my mother, she’ll realize she’s run out of options. All of her cards are gone now that I have the stability of my memories to rely on.
“Do whatever you want to me, Helene. I’m not afraid of you and it hurts you, doesn’t it?
” I widen my eyes, refusing to back down as Kane remains still.
“None of this means shit if you’re not in control.
Guess what, you old, ugly bitch? I was in control at seventeen when I took your precious reflection away.
Oh, the mighty Helene is nothing when a dumb teenage whore dismantled her perverted empire. ”
Her stick comes up again.
I’m dragged backwards, out of her reach as she rages, “Get out of my sight!”
“Close your eyes then.” I lean forward, taunting her. “Or I could take them out of your head.”
I stretch my arms forward to grab her, but Kane drags me back. He doesn’t stop as we go up a flight of stairs. We enter the kitchen I fucking hate, and he keeps walking, through the double doors, then up the spiral staircase. He doesn’t stop until we’re in the room we were in last time.
Slamming the door behind him, he lets go of my hair.
“I was so scared when I couldn’t find you.” I wrap my arms around his middle.
With the heel of his palms, he pushes against my shoulders.
“Please, can you take the mask off?” I whisper, staring up at him. “It reminds me of the room they kept me in.”
He cocks his head to the side then shakes his head.
“Kane, I remember everything.”
He shakes his head again as he storms past me, into the bathroom.
The shards of glass from when he was punching the tiles are still on the sink, which he uses to cut through the leather at the back of the mask.
Blood drips through his gloves and he ends up cutting his hair, but he doesn’t stop until he’s removed it.
When he does, there’s dried blood at the corner of his lips.
His voice is rough, broken, as he snaps, “Fuck you.”
“No.” I step forward. “You do not get to speak to me like shit again. Not now, when we’re all we have.”
“All we have?” He laughs, running the water to wash the blood off his face. “I never fucking had you. Not when you opened your legs for anyone who could get it up.” He roughly pulls his gloves off. “Stupid fucking me. Obviously if you were cheating on Asher, why would I be different?”
“I never cheated on you.” I limp forward.
He looks at me over his shoulder in angered disbelief.
“I didn’t,” I repeat. “I never wanted Asher to touch me and…” How do I voice all the fucked up shit my parents did?
“And?” he says.
I close the door then run all the faucets. He stares at me with a crease between his brows as I hold my finger over my lips. Gently holding his wrist, I lead him into the shower, so we’re surrounded by the sound of the water to give him the same warnings he gave me.
“The room is bugged, remember? They can see and hear everything we do. Please don’t do this again. Don’t hate me when I know everything.”
“Well, I fucking saw it. I saw you.”
“It’s not what you think.”
I know he’s seen the same clips I saw, because his family have an obsession with recording people, but they don’t show how wide my pupils are or the fact I have no memory of what happened.
He pushes me away. I try to hug him again, so I force the truth out through clenched teeth as I close my eyes, balling my fists.
“It was—”
He abruptly turns, refusing to listen to me as he leaves the bathroom. I follow him, watching him do what everyone else has done. They never listened to me or treated me like a person. He’s worse. I expected him to stay, but instead he storms out.