Chapter 13 Sweet Cupid
“What the fuck have you done?” Niklaus grits through his clenched teeth. He’s not speaking to the young man who essentially has no idea who we really are.
Niklaus is talking directly to his father. Betrayal stains his cheeks a soft ruby red.
The glaring sterile light spills over his pale chest. Strands of black hair hang tangled and damp across his eyes, bloodshot and half-crest with rage.
Weathered, old leather manacles bite into his wrists binding him to the gritty concrete wall behind him.
A light sheen of sweat glistens across the dark hair on his chest. And with that deep brow line carving into his forehead—I can taste the fury bleeding off him, as thick and palpable as the sour rot clinging to the air.
“I’m not crazy,” Uncle Niles says quickly.
What’s happening? My gut twists and churns with the slow creeping understanding that this man I’ve grown up trusting with my life and the lives of everyone I love…is now a serious threat to my existence.
“It’s just… No. No, I really can’t explain.” Uncle Niles bangs his fist on the wall as he takes careful, performative steps down the stairs. “You two are going to be my houseguests for a while.”
“What’s—wrong with you?” I blurt out in horror. “Please, let us go. You’re a good man. I know you’re a good man.”
Hold it together, Sapphire.
I swallow that sticky lump in my throat.
Uncle Niles races down the last few steps to kneel at my side. The industrial light behind his head paints his face with gruesome shadows.
“Of course, I’m good!” He smiles and nods with unfocused eyes. “That’s why I’m doing this. It won’t seem like it for a while…”
“Then let us go,” I whisper dreadfully.
At this, his gaze focuses on mine, and it’s like he’s considering it.
Moving my hair out of my face, he says, “You have strange eyes.”
My sluggish heart cracks down the middle. He looks so sad. Confused. Drained of that golden sunshine light. Every ounce of warmth inside him has faded into a restless fog.
“Striking. Beautiful. But strange,” he adds to himself.
“I get them from my parents.” Something in my words feels like a threat. One I don’t even understand yet.
“If you let us go, I’ll spare you,” Niklaus grunts, yanking his restraints hard and fast.
Uncle Niles shifts on his heels, still watching me thoughtfully. “I’m afraid you’re not really in a position to be making threats, my friend.”
“I am not your friend.”
My uncle stands, twisting to the side to pop his back, sighing at the sound cracking along his lower spine.
“Maybe in a few months, you’ll think differently…”
“A few months?” I shriek.
The complete stranger in front of me backs away a few steps, while looking right through me. He offers a small, pathetic wave goodbye.
“I’ll have friends coming over soon to meet you two,” he says his parting words and jogs back up the stairs, shutting the door behind him. A few clicks and there’s movement of cogs and bolts. We’re locked in.
And I will no longer refer to him as Uncle Niles.
I have to separate the two. For the respect I have for the uncle who helped raise me and for my own unraveling sanity.
He isn’t Uncle Niles at this point in time.
He’s just Niles.