Page 185 of Hell and High Water

“Enough lying about. We have work to do. We must act, before it’s too late!” Avarice gnashes his teeth, too close, clawing at my hospital gown.

Take. Take. Take.

Shaking, I tug the I.V. out, dropping the bloody needle to the floor and setting my freezing feet on the linoleum floor. They are right. It’s time to go.

Work to be done.

The black smoke clouds my sight more as I stand, my vision blurring.

And a wonderful sense of dread and purpose fills me to overflowing. It’s easier when I give in to it. When I let them control me, use me as their tool.

My leaders.

My Sinful.

They’ve been with me all this time, guiding me, just out of sight.

Now, they show me the way, a path forward to complete our mission. To save the lost souls of Sanctum.

Blood and fire. We will save them all.

And I will take my rightful place. Even as a sixth specter joins us, Ardor, running his filthy hands up under my gown and driving me wild with desire. It can only mean one thing.

They’re all gone. They’re all dead.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I know I learned this from her, my agent. Speaking to me while I slept. Or I read it in my emails, my texts. They’re still out there, my eyes and ears, conveying every detail that happens in my domain.

But it’s just so hard to focus, now, to remember what I did. What they did.

It’s the same, in the end.

As I stumble from the dark room into the hall, I pause, a shiver running up my spine. He’s there, in the chair outside my door, watching me. Shrouded in darkness. He never says a word, but his eyes burn through my skin, flaying my soul with his hateful stare.

Damon. My brother.

But the others drive me forward, harassing my every waking thought. So I must go.

Back to Sanctum Harbor.

A grin aches in my cheeks as I step out into the cool night air, any doubt left behind me, now. Our time is now.

“We are the Sinful. Our will be done.”