My poor, poor sisters. Margaret, so brainwashed she agreed to be eaten, so desperate she laid there and let them destroy her in totality. They weren’t cannibals or anything; I was sure of that. They were probably going to do nothing with her limbs. I think it was all a way to scare us more, to horrify us, to show us how little agency we had over ourselves. All of this seemed like a game, an attempt to make us as scared as possible, to taunt us with their power. To devastate. Rafael was sick in the head, but he’d never shown an inclination to eat human meat.
If he had, I was sure I wouldn’t have survived with all of my flesh intact. But the blood he’d drained from me the very first night, what had that been for? He always licked up blood spills, savoring the life he drew from me when he did it. Maybe this was just an extension of that.
I guess I’d never know, in fact, I hoped I never did. I thought I did; I thought I would want to learn everything there was to know about all this, but the more I found out, the more of a farce it seemed. I turned to Amy, fell to my knees beside her while Theo continued working on Uncle Connor.
Amy, so naïve, her life cut short and brutal, the most innocent of all of us, the least deserving of all this.
I cupped her head, and ignoring the coagulated blood coating my fingers, I kissed her forehead, avoiding the bullet hole. Her eyes were closed; her expression peaceful. Good. I hoped that she was at peace, that death brought her the comfort I longed for.
“What a sick, twisted lot we are,” Theo muttered as he scooped up the curtain I’d dropped.
Not Amy, maybe not Margaret, not fully. But Connor could eat rocks.
My mother too, who we hadn’t moved from where she fell. Damn her. Damn Gabe and the other random guards — lifeless and scattered. Gabe was dead. He’d bled out at some point, either while I watched or later, when we were distracted. He didn’t deserve my attention, my time. I just let his life leak out and nodded in confirmation when Theo told me he was no longer with us.
Only my sisters deserved their dignity here.
I kissed both their heads again and stood, turning to Theo. “Let’s track my husband down.”
Theo was better at this than me. Moving through the shadowy halls with easy stealth, guiding my clumsy, noisy steps with patience. His hand stayed on my hip as we drifted from room to room, stalking my husband through the house I’d learned so little of. Til death we part indeed, because Rafael’s was coming. One of us wasn’t walking out of here alive, and in my gut, I knew it would be him.
I had Theo at my back, bolstering me, making me strong. Together, there was nothing we couldn’t do. And here we were, doing something. It would be Rafael’s end or ours. Either as a unit or not at all. We would dance together until the end. And there was fortification in that.
Rafael could probably see us; he knew this house better than us, after all. I bet he was tucked up in some panic room with CCTV monitors, waiting for us to get bored so he’d be able to escape or come when we let our guards down. I struggled to believe he would hide like this, that the monster I had conjured in my head was cowering somewhere.
No. He had a plan. A something. He must. So our guards would never drop. It made the tension in my body so high I ached almost everywhere. But screw this. I was done being his pawn.
“Rafael!” I bellowed, making Theo jump and turn to me with an incredulous look.
“So much for stealth, Vi,” he chided, but his voice was light. We both knew this was the end, so there was no fear. He almost looked excited, his expression one of mild glee, of focus. He was in his element here.
“I want to get this over with,” I explained, letting him dip his forehead to mine for a brief moment of peace.
There didn’t seem to be anyone else around in the house, no other staff or guards to protect Rafe, no one with guns prowling the property or maids or whatever flitting about as usual. It was strange and made the darkened rooms even spookier. But Theo still insisted on maintaining his guard, his gaze sweeping and his muscles tense as we moved on.
When we reached the back of the mansion, through the kitchens and into what looked like utility rooms, my body wobbled, a wooziness rushing over me that I kept trying to fight. I was running on fumes at this point, but when wasn’t I? For that brief time Theo and I had in Christian’s cabin, but before and after, fumes alone.
“You good?” Theo asked, cupping my cheek, allowing us a quiet moment together.
I nodded. “I just want this over with,” I told him. “I’m sick of that man haunting me. I don’t want to wait anymore.” With a sigh, I leaned into Theo’s body, my heart swelling when he kissed my head. “I want this done now.”
Theo kissed my head again, and the one hand he had around my back splayed out, rubbing down my spine. “It will be. It will be.”
“Why do you think it’s so quiet?” I asked.
“I’m not sure, but I don’t like it,” Theo said, turning our bodies, our feet shuffling, I think to better see the entrance to this small room. “Something feels wrong.”
“Something is very bloody wrong, Theo. Our whole family is dead.”
I listened to his racing heart, pressing my ear to his chest as he took in slow breaths. We were silent for a while, listening to the noises of the house, for the creak of a floorboard or the hinge of a door. Any indication that someone else was here.
But nothing.
Complete silence. Maybe Rafael had already left. Fled from us.
But somehow, that didn’t feel right.
“When we’re done here, can we go to the beach?” I asked with a soft whisper, that familiar dream wrapping itself around me. “Sit in the sand with ice creams and chips and fend off seagulls?”
