Chapter Twenty-One
ERABELLA - ELEVEN YEARS AGO
“Ihave a plan,” Mabel whispered.
Vera stilled, her brows tightening. “What is it?”
I drew a bracing breath, and nothing could’ve prepared me for the words that followed. “We kill him.”
I gasped softly, and Vera gaped at our sister for several moments. “Are you out of your mind?” she hissed, nervously glancing at the bedroom door as if someone would hear.
“She will never get better with him here. I can’t take this abuse anymore.” Mabel’s eyes filled with tears. “I don’t know how you can.”
Vera’s shoulders tensed as she searched the ground for answers. “What’s your idea?” she asked quietly after a beat.
My eyes bulged. “Wait,” I whispered. “Are we actually considering this?!”
Mabel disregarded my comment. “When you have him…preoccupied…I will stab him.”
My stomach lurched, my panicked gaze bouncing between my sisters. Vera’s lip wobbled, tears spilling down her cheeks.
Mabel’s face crumpled. “We never talk about it. But I know what he does to you. He doesn’t deserve to live, Vera.”
“And what if we fail? What then? That will make things so much worse,” Vera pressed, wiping her face with the back of her hand. “And what would we do with his body?”
“Your abuse should be proof enough that it was self-defense.”
Vera spoke in a broken whisper. “And you think Mother would actually defend me?”
Mabel’s gaze hardened, her voice unwavering as she said confidently, “If she doesn’t, we kill her too.”
My chest lifted and sank, but no words came out of my mouth.
Were we really going to kill our parents?
Mabel’s eyes narrowed at me. “If this is too difficult for you, Era, you hide. But you will not try to stop us.”
“I’m not hiding,” I insisted. “I-I will help.”
“Era,” Vera said softly, rubbing my back. “We do not expect you to do this.”
“I need to help,” I clarified. “It’s the least I can do.”
And so, over several hours, we formed our plan.
Six days later…
My heart drummed against my ribs every moment of class that day. The day we'd kill our stepfather. Vera stayed home “sick” to plant a weapon for our attack after school.
Tomorrow, Lord Achard was coming to sweep Vera away. This was our one chance to keep her from him.
Mabel and I hurried home, knowing just how our parents’ schedules went. Ragnall would be arriving from his work duties around now, which was the same time Mother would be getting high in the basement.
Quietly, we shuffled into our brick home, placing our crossbodies carefully on the ground. Our mother was passing through our living area, heading toward the basement with a pipe in her hand. Right on schedule.
Mabel and I said nothing, and then her glassy gaze slowly slid over. “Don’t go upstairs,” was all she said before she shut the basement door behind her.
Mabel’s wide gaze shifted to mine, brows drawing together.
That meant Ragnall was home already.
Noises could be heard from upstairs. “Fuck, we need to do this now!” Mabel exclaimed.
We went up the staircase as quickly as we could without alerting our mother to our disobedience. The sickening sounds grew louder with every step we took toward Ragnall’s room.
Mabel and I were shaking by the time we entered her room, and adrenaline coursed through me as she grabbed the dagger she’d hidden under her mattress.
“We can do this, Era,” Mabel whispered, and I nodded quickly, tears filling my eyes.
With cautious steps, we approached Ragnall’s bedroom. Mabel took a bracing breath, her back against the hallway wall, and then she gave me a rushed nod.
It was time.
I’d be the distraction so Mabel could do what needed to be done. I clutched the cold knob and slowly cracked open the door to peek inside.
And then I froze.
As I took in what was happening before me, a wave of nausea hit so hard my knees nearly gave out.
It wasn’t just Vera and Ragnall in this room.
No, it was far worse.
I couldn’t register the sight—couldn’t accept that my sister was being raped in front of a group of men, all of whom were touching themselves. Those who watched were adults, but the boy raping her…he was about her age. His skin was flushed, tears running down his cheeks, his eyes squeezed shut.
I wanted to look away, but I couldn’t. My eyes remained on Vera, on her face. I was in shock, bile rising in my throat, tears burning in my eyes.
“Era!” Mabel hissed from the hallway, not yet seeing what was happening to our sister.
I knew that it was sick. That it was wrong. That it was irredeemable.
My mother.
She allowed this.
Supported this.
“Don’t go upstairs.”
Her own daughter. Her own flesh and blood.
When Mabel finally rushed over, her eyes widened, blinded quickly by rage. We’d wanted to save Mother from Ragnall…and yet she’d happily volunteered her daughter’s body to not only him but the group of elites he worked with. By the look on the boy’s face, he didn’t wish to be there, either.
My stomach twisted with something fierce as I continued staring into Vera’s broken eyes. You’d have expected a crumpled face, sobbing and thrashing to free herself from her fate.
No…it was an empty, vacant look, as if she’d gone elsewhere. As if she couldn’t even see me.
“V-Vera?” Mabel barely got out.
The boy’s eyes shot open, a look of deep shame, of despair, written across his features when he saw us in the doorway.
No…he certainly did not wish to be there either.
Ragnall’s attention whirled, and in a rage, he rushed to the door, slamming it shut.
I felt dizzy, like I was going to fall, like the floor beneath me was collapsing. “W-we were supposed to—”
Not a moment passed before Mabel ran, ran to where our mother would undoubtedly be. The basement.
My first steps felt heavy, like being stuck in quicksand, knowing my helpless sister was trapped behind that door. But then I followed Mabel.
The plan had fallen apart. What would happen now?
Mabel’s fist was trembling around the knife as she sprinted down the steps.
“What are you doing?” I hissed as we neared the entry to the basement.
Mabel didn’t answer me, just shoved the door open with her shoulder and bolted down the steps a beat later.
The air was thick with the stench of mildew, wet stone, and burnt chemicals. I’d avoided coming down here knowing that we’d be punished for it. As we entered, I could understand why.
Several glass vials were filled with light green crystals—thiloxal—along with various equipment I’d never seen before.
Our parents weren’t just using it…they were making it.
“You allowed it!” Mabel shouted, her face crumpling, her head shaking as she took in the surroundings.
“I thought maybe you hadn’t had a choice.
That, in some way, you were just as stuck as we were.
Made EXCUSES for you while your own daughter was raped by your husband.
Over and over and OVER!” She crept down the stairs.
“Vera had insisted. Mother loves us, she’d say.
” Her voice broke as she roared, “BUT YOU ALLOWED IT!”
Mother blinked slowly, zoned out on a crack in the wall. “What are you going on about?”
Snot dripped from Mabel’s nose as she cried. “Your own child,” she uttered in a broken whisper, Mother’s zoned-out face twisting to look at her. “How can you live with yourself?”
At Mother’s indifferent expression, Mabel rushed forward, slicing her arm with the dagger. Mother fell back, hitting the wooden table against the wall, knocking over a vial filled with the hellish crystals. Mother’s eyes went wild as she screeched, “YOU BITCH!”
She threw my sister to the ground, Mabel’s head hitting the corner of the wall with a loud thud.
The weapon clattered onto the ground.
Mother’s furious blue eyes landed on me, and a sickening, evil laugh bubbled in her chest. Her voice lowered, sounding almost demonic.
“You two came down here to, what, kill me? To avenge poor, little Vera?” She shook her head, her eyes going to Mabel, whose hand clutched her bleeding skull.
Mother tsked, her displeased gaze finding mine.
“You fail everyone you love, Erabella. You know that, don’t you?
You’re just a pathetic, unintelligent girl, fit for nothing but the closet.
Not worth the energy it would take to beat you or good enough to be fucked. ”
Her twisted words caused my body to recoil.
“I’ve seen your diary—your little notes. You wish for a prince to come save you.” Another wicked, cruel laugh. “Fairytales, that’s what they are, Era. You’ll never break free from here.”
“You’re just a pathetic, unintelligent girl, fit for nothing but the closet.”
Images flashed in my mind as Mother prowled toward Mabel, clutching my sister’s hair so roughly that a whimper escaped her.
“Not worth the energy it would take to beat you or good enough to be fucked.”
The many lashings, Mabel’s constant bruises. The two people I called parents nodding off on the couches, those sickening sounds. The whimpers.
“Fairytales, that’s what they are, Era. You’ll never break free from here.”
But it was the thought of Vera’s eyes, the vacancy as she was violated, that had me running to the dagger.
“You fail everyone you love, Erabella.”
No more.
No more.
NO.
MORE.
In a rush of adrenaline, my feet moved. Mother was too focused on attacking Mabel that she didn’t notice my hand grasp around the cool metal.
Didn’t notice me behind her until I thrust the knife forward. Right in her lower back.
She made a horrific sound, not quite a choke nor a scream, as the blade punctured her flesh. Her grip on Mabel’s brown hair relaxed, and I used all my strength to withdraw the blade from her body, crimson pouring out of the wound.
Tears spilled down my cheeks, and Mother’s eyes widened as she slowly turned, her face morphing into a nightmarish expression.
I screamed as she lunged for me, cried out as our bodies hit the floor, the weapon falling from my clutch. Mother’s hands wrapped around my throat, squeezing tightly as she crushed my windpipe.