Epilogue Three
Ash
Six months of domestic bliss later…
I’m always attracted to the one place in the world where I’m not supposed to go.
My father, Jonas Kelly, is sitting on the opposite side of a table in a visiting room at a high security men’s prison about an hour outside of Springfield. He’s wearing black sunglasses and holding a cane, a perturbed smile on his face that I force myself to stare at.
Jonas is a warning about believing blindly in yourself, in behaving dishonestly and attracting other dishonest people to you.
I will always strive to do the opposite of what he or Aspen would do in any given situation.
“Do you know why I’m here?” I ask, Scarlett seated in a chair on my right.
Bohnes, Widow, and Alexei are standing behind us in a row of muscle and threat.
My best friends, as willing to die for me as they are for our wife.
I’ve never been so happy or so content. It’s the reason I agreed to come today.
The realization that I’m safe and fulfilled, that I’m loved, it’ll slowly eat away at Jonas until he loses his mind.
That is, if he doesn’t go insane from spending so much time in solitary confinement.
Somehow, whenever my father is released to the general public, things go very, very badly for him.
We’ve infested every corner of this prison with our contacts, flushed out the rats with our money and our threats.
Paid off the guards to ensure he can never commit suicide and escape his fate.
Stealing his power and his control. Unleashing his suffering.
“Do you think that I care?” Jonas replies, as calmly as if he’s still the mayor of Springfield, standing at a podium and telling all his lies. “Perhaps to unveil the depths of your depravity? Do you like it, son, when those big men standing behind you hold you down and have their way with you?”
I laugh at that, lifting a hand to stop Widow from strangling Jonas in plain view of the cameras.
“Are you sure you don’t want to just walk out of here?
” Scarlett asks, tapping her manicured nails on the table.
“We know he’s going to ‘the hole’ as soon as we leave.
If he doesn’t, he’s going to lose that little stub of a penis I left on when I stabbed him in the groin.
Do you ever get phantom pain in your tiny nubby, Dad?
I can call you Dad, right?” She leans forward, sensing blood in the water.
It’s a beautiful thing to see, watching her act so cruelly towards a man that deserves it more than most. “The other boys might not hold your son down and fuck him in the ass, but I sure do. And he loves it.”
“Even if you don’t care, let us explain why we’re here.
You’ll want to know this.” Alexei adjusts his gloves, snapping the latex in a way that makes Jonas flinch.
Alexei is looking right at him, proving that the noises he’s making aren’t unintentional.
He’s tormenting Jonas with sound since the man now lacks sight.
“Uncle Burt has decided that seven years is about what you deserve behind bars.”
Jonas goes stiff in his chair, the smell of fear wafting around him like a fog.
Oh God, yes. I’ve got him. I lick my lips.
“The way you’re feeling right now, Jonas, is the way you used to make me and Aspen feel, when we were young.
It’s how I felt when you beat me. It’s how I felt when you raped women in front of me while I cried.
It’s how I felt when you stole my seed and my kidney.
” I slam my palms on the table, but he doesn’t react.
I close my eyes, breathing in the acrid terror that he can’t hide.
“Smells so good,” I whisper, like I’m scenting a fine perfume. Reminds me of my mother, of how sweet she always behaved and how wonderful she smelled. Looking back, I think I don’t give her enough credit. She was a victim of Jonas’, too, and he was not an easy foe to beat.
“What happens after seven years?” Bohnes asks, feigning curiosity. “Whatever could you mean, Mr. Borisov? Are you trying to say that Mr. Kelly will be a free man again?”
“Yes,” Alexei says with a joyous laugh, spreading his arms wide and looking up at the ceiling in rapture. “Ash, your father is going to be paroled in only seven years! Isn’t that glorious? God is good.”
“God is great.” Scarlett flips Jonas off with her upside-down cross finger, grinning wildly at him. “You have seven years to repent. That’s better than you deserve.”
“When you get out, we’ll come and bring you tofu.” Bohnes walks around the edge of the table, putting a huge hand on Jonas’ shoulder and squeezing until my father grunts. “Our friend told us that’s a fun tradition back home in Korea. What do you think? Freedom, in only seven years. Incredible.”
“I brought you a copy of the Bible in braille.” I set the item down on the table between us, smiling through happy tears.
He can’t hurt me anymore, I think, spotting a new ghost in the corner. It’s a young Aspen, staring back at me for the final time. I didn’t just do right by me, I did right by my twin, too.
“You’re going to regret letting me out,” Jonas threatens, acting as if he might hit Bohnes with his cane. Kellin kicks it aside like it’s nothing, sending the item scattering across the floor and slamming against the far wall with a horrible clatter.
“When you get out, I’ll be coming to see you, just to check on that kidney.” Widow hits Jonas in the back of the head, knocking his glasses off and revealing the scarred sockets of his eyes. Ah, art from the tip of my wife’s knife. “I’m done here. Let’s go.”
Widow grabs me by the arm and drags me up from the chair, tugging me along with him and refusing to stop until we’re outside again. It’s sunny today, beautiful. The grass out front of the prison has been freshly mowed and, despite the bleak surroundings, it smells good out here.
I close my eyes and lean my head back, reveling in the heat against my skin.
“I’m going to get your kidney back,” Widow says to me, but I just laugh at him.
“It’s tainted now. I don’t want it back.” I open my eyes and drop my chin, finding Scarlett waiting in front of me with her hands on her hips. She’s studying me with a critical eye, like she expects me to be more traumatized than I am.
Being operated on while awake.
Having my seed stolen while my father bragged about his future conquest of my children.
“Does it feel good to see him suffer?” she asks me honestly, tilting her head to one side. “It does, doesn’t it? Isn’t it ironic that he didn’t kill you straight off because he wanted to play with you first, like a cat? And now we’re doing the same, toying with our prey and all.”
“I’ll be happiest when he’s gone forever,” I admit, glancing back to look at the towering gray walls of the prison. My lips flatten into a thin line and my thoughts drift.
I expected to die. The mob says I should live like I’m dead, but it’s better than actually being dead. If the world is unaware that I belong to Scarlett, what does it matter? We know, this little family of ours.
“Next time he goes back to gen pop, I’m having one of my guys pull out his teeth.
” Widow smiles and pats my shoulder as he passes by, heading for the newest edition to our garage: a 1969 Corvette Stingray.
It’s nearly identical to the one that crashed at P-Trip.
When he bought it, I jokingly accused him of being fungible.
“Are you sure? I thought I paid a guy to waterboard him in the toilet?” Bohnes asks, tapping his finger against his chin as he saunters off in the direction of the Chevelle, shiny and black and menacing on a cheerful spring day.
“All of the above?” Alexei suggests, studying the freshly restored ‘69 Lambo Miura that my wife dragged out of the river with a crane. He runs his gloved hand over the orange roof with a sigh, pausing beside the driver’s door.
“It’s also possible that I encouraged a member of the kitchen staff to put laxatives into his food. ”
“I gave his cellmate porn, so that Jonas will have to listen to the man fapping the dick he doesn’t have.
” Scarlett grins and puts her hands on either side of my face, pulling me down for mouth to mouth resuscitation.
I can smell the cherries and chocolate of her scent, can feel the way she curves forward like she wants me.
“You like to hold me down, do you?” I whisper, snatching Scarlett’s wrists and forcing them behind her back.
She resists me, but I’m stronger, and we both know that.
I smile at her, a wicked promise in the twist of my lips.
“Why don’t we go home and make it fair: first one to pin the other gets to be the person who does the fucking tonight? ”
“You sure that’s a game you want to play?” Bohnes teases, sliding into his car with a laugh and slamming the door behind him.
I take a step back from Scarlett, putting a mask over the lower half of my face.
It has the teeth of a grinning demon’s maw on it, and I love it.
I mean, I’d rather not wear a mask at all, but when I have to, this is the one.
From my pocket, I pull out a folded black ball cap and yank it over my hair as Scarlett sighs.
“You know that even if the world is ignorant about us, that doesn’t mean I love you any less.” She backs up toward her Pantera, swinging the keys on her finger and watching with a careful eye. She’s always watching, protective over me in the same way that I’m protective over her.
“I’m still going to pin you down when we get home,” I reply curtly, opening the door to my brand-new ‘69 Shelby Cobra. It was too funny. I saw it at a car show, and I couldn’t resist. I just had to have it. Aspen would’ve hated to see me driving it.
With a laugh, I climb in, shut the door, and turn the key to start the engine.
I’m freer as a dead man than I ever was as a living one.
It’s sad, but true. I can’t live as either Ash or Aspen Kelly.
But I can die as Ash Force, the happiest corpse in all of Prescott.
When I get home, I’m baking a red velvet cake, just because.
So, when I get home, I do exactly that.