Chapter 17
Chapter Seventeen
Hennessy: What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.
We locked eyes. I felt like her validation was all I needed to know that it wasn’t just in my mind and that I was being hunted.
“When I saw the Graves Academy, I ran there first.”
“And?”
“I ran into the building that Luna warned me against.”
She stood, pacing a little, although she made it appear as if she were simply putting away her first-aid kit. I was already standing where she left me when she walked back into her bedroom.
I blurted, “He was already there waiting for me.”
We locked eyes again, and she sucked in her bottom lip. “Who?”
“He wore a black cloak with a mask. I couldn’t see him at all. At least not his facial features or skin.”
Her eyebrows pinched together for a second, nodding to my wound. “Is that his handiwork?”
I shook my head. “No, I told you, I got that at the museum trying to break in. This was already done, but that didn’t stop him from what he did once he had his hands on me.”
She cocked her head to the side with intrigue and worry.
“He sliced his hand open with a dagger, Deja, like it was nothing. He left it behind, along with his belt, which of course I took both belongings with me.”
Her stare went wide.
“He smeared our blood together.”
She jerked back, surprised. “Did he say anything to you when he did that? Did he say anything at all?”
“Nothing, or maybe he did, and I just didn’t hear him. I’m not entirely sure. I was scared, but also… I don’t know… hot…”
“Hot?” she repeated. “Like aroused?”
“My body reacted to him, and now I can’t stop thinking about him.”
“Who is him?” she carefully questioned.
I spoke with conviction, “Your brother.”
I blinked, and she demanded out of nowhere, “You need to go!”
“What?” I countered, confused.
“You heard me! You have to leave!” She pushed me out of her bedroom suite. “Go home, Hennessy!”
“What? Why? What’s going on? Why are you kicking me out?”
She opened the door, shoving me out of there too. “You got to go before—”
“Too late,” Onyx’s voice stirred down the hall, right at us.
He was leaning against the far-left wall with his hands in the pockets of his hoodie.
“Deja,” he rasped in an eerie tone, “you know you’re not allowed to bring home strays.”
Her composure changed into something I couldn’t quite place.
“I’m your neighbor,” I reminded.
He nodded to my freshly covered wound. “Deja bandage you up? That’s brave.”
She scoffed, rolling her eyes at him, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’ll remember that the next time you ask me to stitch you up.”
“Are you two having a slumber party?” He gestured back and forth between us. “Aren’t you a little old for that?”
Deja answered for me, “She was just leaving.”
Without missing a beat, he simply stated, “She shouldn’t be here in the first place.”
On the same cue, she bit out, “She’s my friend.”
“Deja doesn’t have friends.” His gaze shifted to me. “She has alliances. Is that what you are?”
“Onyx, stop it!” she ordered. “You’re being an asshole.”
I couldn’t help myself. “What else is new?”
He stepped toward me with his hands still in his pockets.
I stood my ground, being straightforward. “You were following me tonight.”
He regarded me for a second, cocking his head. “Was I?”
“Don’t!”
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t pretend that wasn’t you tonight. I know it was.”
He mused, “You seem convinced of that.”
“I saw you.”
“Did you?”
“Stop it!” I stomped my foot. “I’m serious, I know it was you.” My stomach tightened. “You’re really going to stand there and try to deny it?”
“I’ve barely said a word.”
“Exactly! You watched me!”
“You certainly seem convinced.”
“I am!”
“Then why ask me any questions at all?”
“Because I want you to admit it to me!”
“Do you?”
I checkmated him, calling his bluff. “Show me your hands.”
His expression remained neutral. “My hands?”
“Yes! Show them to me if it wasn’t you.”
“Hmm…” he slowly hummed in a desolate tone.
After a moment, he casually slid his hands out of the pockets of his hoodie. Palms up, he showed them to us.
My composure stammered, lost and puzzled more than I was.
Not one wound.
No blood.
No stitching.
Nothing.
I frowned, feeling utterly defeated.
Grinning, he asked, “Are you finished now?”
I didn’t say a word.
He placed his hands back into the pockets. “You look disappointed.”
“I know you’re hiding something.”
“You don’t know anything.”
“Why are you doing this to me?”
“Doing what exactly?”
“This! All you do is bait me.”
“Hennessy,” Deja intervened. “I think you should just go home. It’s late, and you’re tired, and you’re not making any sense.”
My gaze shifted to her. “I thought you said you were my friend?”
“I am, and this is why you should go home.”
I searched her face, looking for answers she refused to submit. Instead, all I found was submission.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
Her lips parted. No words came out. Her silence was enough of an answer for me.
I humorlessly laughed. “You’re unbelievable. You’re as bad as your brother. It shouldn’t surprise me, though. You’re family after all.”
I backed away and left.
Time must’ve been moving fast. The next thing I knew, I was in my uncle’s kitchen, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge. I shut the door, gasping with my hand over my heart when I saw my uncle standing there, all unreadable in the darkness.
Watching me.
“Jesus… how long have you been standing there?”
“Long enough.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Last time I checked, this was my home.”
“This isn’t a home. It’s a prison.”
He didn’t pay me any mind. Instead, his stare traveled to the wound on my arm. “Deja isn’t a doctor, Hennessy. I’m home to let the real physician in. He’s going to look at your arm.”
“Great,” I spat. “Maybe then someone will actually believe what happened to me tonight.”
“It doesn’t matter what you tell him. He’s not on your side.”
“And you are?”
“I wouldn’t be standing here if I wasn’t. I wouldn’t have raised hell to get you into the Graves Academy if I wasn’t.”
“Funny, everyone said it was my grades alone that allowed me to be here. Is that a lie?”
“There’s only so much I can do, Hennessy. Do you understand that?”
I snapped, “Do or say?”
“Is there a difference? I’ve been preparing for your arrival for years.”
“Years? No fastidies,” I sneered. “Don’t irritate me.
” Gathering my sanity, I didn’t resist what I’d been holding in since I moved in, if you could even call it that.
“Now that’s a bag of bullshit, and you know it!
You want me here, you say? You’ve been preparing for me?
That’s why there’s no Peruvian food here for me, I don’t see any lomo being made or ceviche, no anticuchos, no pollo a la brasa, nada!
” I screamed all my favorite cuisines. “No juane or yuca, no tamales or Sublimes, King Kongs or alfajores! There isn’t shit for me to eat here!
There’s also nothing to drink but water!
Not even a damn Inca Kola! There’s no family or community, no dinners or breakfasts together!
Nothing! I’m just alone! Why did you bring me here for me to be lonely all the time?
I have no friends! None of my plants or animals!
It’s just these walls that hold more secrets than the fucking Vatican! ”
“Nina, no me hables así. En esta casa me respetas. ?Entendido?”
“Right now, I’ll talk to you any way I damn well please!
Where is my respect? You don’t want me here, and I just want to hear you admit it!
All you wanted was to get back in our family’s good graces.
You’re using me, but that’s just the beginning.
There’s so much more I don’t know, and no one will tell me! ”
“Hennessy—”
“Look at my arm, Tío! Look at what happened to me tonight! I was hunted through the woods like a witch on trial! And then, a man didn’t burn me at the stake.
No, he smeared our blood together in some sick demonic ritual, and you’re not batting an eye about it! Is that why I need to see your doctor?”
He didn’t get to react. The doorbell rang, loud and clear, interrupting us. He turned to answer it, but at the last second, he reached into the pocket of his slacks and pulled out my grandmother's protection bracelet. Except it wasn’t broken anymore. It was perfectly intact as he handed it to me.
“Did you fix this? It snapped in half.”
After I grabbed it, he started walking toward the door. “I’m going to let the doctor in.”
I didn’t back down. “You’re lying to me by not telling me what is going on. You know that, right? My mother would be devastated if I called her and told her what was happening to me. You know that too, right? I can bring this whole plan down with one phone call to her.”
He faced me. “If you were going to make that call, you would’ve already.”
“Don’t threaten me, Tío.”
“It’s not a threat, mi nina.”
“You don’t—”
“You haven’t made that call because deep down you know you’re the only one who holds the truth.”
“To what?”
“To your future. You’re just hoping someone’s going to prove you wrong about it.”
“You’re not making any sense.”
The doorbell rang again.
“You want to call your mom and tell her, I’ll hand you my phone, but she doesn’t have any answers for you. No more than I do.”
“Then who does? How about you guide me in that direction?”
“You already know the answer to that too.”
“Yeah, well, the Devereauxs aren’t telling me shit either.”
“You have all the answers, Hennessy.”
He walked toward the door again. Over his shoulder, he added, “You just haven’t realized it yet.”
Two things happened the following morning when I woke up. One, all the stuff I threw in his face about my food, snacks, and drink was in the kitchen, perfectly placed in the huge pantry and enormous fridge as if they’d been there this entire time.
The second was far more alarming…
All the proof I had on my cell phone was gone.