Chapter 15
SABLE
River water rushes over my tongue, as if it’s been lodged inside me since my father brought me to the bottom of that river.
My time has come so many times now that I wonder what superhuman stubbornness is keeping me alive.
My vision comes in and out, panic taking over as I search for my point of attack.
My panties shred beneath his hands, and I’m bare to him.
Goose bumps cover my skin, a visceral fear unlike anything I’ve ever felt.
He shows his teeth like an animal as he leans back, preparing to shove himself inside me. This is my very last chance, and his eyes are wide open, unlike his balls.
Lunging forward, I shriek as loud and hard as I can, using his surprise as another weapon against him.
The hand with the shoe shoots forward, the heel digging into his cheek just below his eyes as I shove.
Fuck, I missed. He grunts in pain, eyes closing reflexively as he blindly tries to get a hold of the shoe.
He grabs my arms, forcing me into a grapple.
This time, he’s left his balls undefended.
My knee swings again, the contact square on.
A pitiful grunt leaves him as he crumples forward.
As he falls, I swing with all my might, sharp little heel pointed at him.
It doesn’t matter where it lands, I won’t stop fighting.
The heel catches in the wet flesh at the corner of his eye.
A sense of bloodlust I’ve never felt takes over as he screams. Rather than swinging again, I shove with all my might, throwing my body weight behind it.
Battle cries spill out of me as our leverage changes, and we’re upright, another shove, and then suddenly I’m over him.
He swings with his free arms, punches, landing, but lacking the strength it would take to stop me in this state.
It’s him or me and I’m past the sensation of pain.
He gives up on fighting me off to prevent the damage to his face.
He struggles beneath me, body moving far more than my own did when our positions were reversed.
His strength outmatches mine, but the pain serves as a serious distraction.
My advantage over him is a thinner margin than I would ever choose to bet on.
My heart is in my mouth, and my life is on the line as I push harder than I ever have in my life.
“Fuck, you fucking bitch!” he shouts, and I answer with a grunt as I gain another inch. Uncle Carl screams a sound so frightening that my stomach turns, and I nearly lose my nerve. “Please, Sable!”
A wet shluck and a popping sensation vibrate through the shoe and deep into my bones.
Suddenly, the struggle ends, and everything is quiet.
My hands don’t relax, shoving and shoving, as tears pour down my face.
My eyes refuse to make sense of what’s happened until hot, wet blood spills over my hands.
My uncle lies beneath me, both of our genitals exposed, but thank God they’re not touching.
Blood oozes out of the corner of his still open eye, showing no signs of slowing.
The other pupil points in a slightly different direction, but it still stares at me.
The hand around the shoe still hasn’t let go, and it’s either pulling it back out or loosening my fingers, yet I don’t move. What have I done?
The breath that rushes out of me breaks into a wet sob.
Finally, after hours, my fingers give up the shoe.
The ache in my joints is unlike anything I’ve ever felt, and I hold my hand like a claw as I wait for it to move again.
The shaking fingers of my non-dominant hand touch his neck, searching for a pulse.
His skin already feels a little too chilly, and when I find the artery at his neck, there’s nothing but stillness.
Managing to unlock my body, I climb off him, every inch of me revolted with the proximity to his nudity.
My bare ass hits the mattress beside him, and I cringe at the thought of running through the woods in any of the options in the closet.
At least I can leave in the morning. What’s one night in the house with his body?
The pointy heel pierces deep into the corner of his eye, the sole of the shoe floating just above his cheek.
I thought choosing myself over my father and leaving him at the bottom of that river was going to be the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but life has other plans in store for me.
I killed Uncle Carl.
His cock is still out, but there’s no way to cover it without touching him, and there’s no way in hell I’ll do that.
The indignity of the situation haunts me as much as my actions.
Everything is wrong, and I’m not sure how I got here.
Bellthorn and the boys pop into my mind as the blood warms the mattress.
Would I have wound up here without them or did Uncle Carl always have this type of escalation in store?
My body refuses to move even when the blood soaks into my thigh.
The heat is gone faster than I’d expect, and it chills me as it touches me.
I beg my limbs to move, to run, but they disobey me.
My watch over my uncle’s body reminds me of a vulture, jaw set and eyes dead.
Carl was a terrible man, and I’m glad he’s gone, but dammit this feels wrong too.
My heart breaks at the utter loneliness.
I got into that damn car with him. I left Bellthorn, and it’s hard to ignore how every choice I make seems to lead to one less Briarwick in the world.
Perhaps the Briarwick curse is a mantle you inherit, and now it simply resides in me.
“Sable?” A voice interrupts the scene, but my eyes and body stay locked tight.
Silence fills the room for a long moment, but I can feel I’m no longer alone.
A human soul feels different from just a body, I know that now that I’ve spent time with my uncle’s corpse.
Warm hands close over my arms, gently tugging me away from the scene of my crimes and my uncle’s still exposed body.
My eyes pin the fingers digging into my skin, then climb a chest to find the beautiful face of the man who owns them.
“Sable, please. Come with me, baby,” Hadrian’s voice itself is a music I never thought I’d hear again. My uncle’s blood is still coating my thigh. There’s no way, he can’t really be here.
“Say something, please,” he insists, and I’m not sure what to say when nothing around me seems real.
Hadrian’s face is too beautiful, and his voice.
It’s all an illusion. Am I dead? Alarm bells ring in my head.
Did I actually lose the fight with my uncle?
Rationally, that makes more sense. He was bigger and stronger than me.
My sense of self shatters as I can’t decide what’s real anymore.
I’m a hairsbreadth from giving in to the madness growing around the edges of my brain.
“Shit, Sable. What did you do?” My voice drops as a voice I never thought I would hear again fills the room.
My old best friend, Liliana. I laugh despite the fact I still haven’t said a word to any of them, but is there really a need to be polite to hallucinations, especially ones you hate?
She is one person who was invited here willingly, though, so I guess her sudden appearance makes more sense than Uncle Carl’s.
I laugh at my own joke, the sound ripping out of me until it changes into sobs.
My eyes close, and I lose consciousness for the second time today, positively sure that none of this is real. If I’m lucky, maybe I didn’t even really kill my uncle.