A choice that would end up ruining her life.
Looking sick, Gage presses his head against the doorframe, eyes closed. He groans as if agonized. “When I was young, Ineeded the money to eat, because my mother spent it all on her poison. When she was dead, I simply needed the money. Me and the guys, we used to shoplift. We had a system. When we got older, we graduated to bigger heists. Robbing banks. In Harrow’s Row, you either dealt drugs or did other crimes to get ahead. We just so happened to be good at stealing money and cars. It wasn’t personal.” His sharp face twists with anguish as he shakes his head in memory. “You should have never been in that fuckin’ car.”
I beg your finest pardon?Eyes narrowing, Minnie’s hands clench, shaking. “Are youblaming mefor the hostage scenario?!”
He rocks back on his heels, eyes flashing with dismay. “No. That’s not…that’s not what I meant.Fuck. I’m bad at words, Minnie.” Gage rubs a hand down his face roughly. “You were not part of the plan. There was never any intention to harm you. But your car was chosen and you were in it. Now, here we are, in the fuckin’ fallout.”
Swallowing thickly, Minnie stands with her jaw beginning to ache. She can feel a tension headache beginning to claw at her temples. There’s so much anger and disappointment in her that she doesn’t knowwhatto do with it.
With her emotions boiling like water in a hot kettle, Minnie finds herself focusing on something lurking in the darkest corner of her mind. An image from her nightmares, a haunting whisper of her inner torment. It takes her a moment before she can speak the words, but when they spill out, they taste acidic. “Which mask were you?” Her voice is tight, as if she is squeezing the words out of her voice box bit by bit. This is, perhaps, the question she fears the answer to the most.
Which man was he? On that horrible day, which of her hostage-takers was he?
The blood seems to drip from Gage’s naturally tanned face, leaving him ghostly. “Don’t ask me that,” Gage says, his voice absent its usual strength. He takes a step back from her, stricken. He shakes his head, expression pleading. “Minnie. Don’t do this. Don’t do this tous. Knowing won’t make you feel better.”
How can he ever understand that sheneedsto know? Now that the smoke and mirrors have been done away with, it's time to reveal the wizard behind the curtain.
There is no going back from this. Minnie cannot go on without knowing which tormenter in her dreams he is.Be the lion. The gazelle.Something that isn’t a mouse!Make him answer to you, Minnie. “If you ever claimed to care for me, you will answer me.” Minnie’s voice drops low, hoarse with emotion. “Which. Mask. Were.You.”
The Evil Clown.
The Ghoul.
The Wolf.
The Grinning Skull.
Something shifts in him, as if stealing the light from his eyes, leaving an empty look on his face. Something Minnie isn’t used to seeing. Gage straightens up to his full height and looks down at her. He reaches a hand forward and carefully covers her eyes, uttering in a rough voice that drops an octave, “Princess. Don’t you already knowmeby now?”
The temperature in her body changes, first hot, and then ice cold as her heart drops to her toes. The tone washes over her, a nightmare from another life. That voice that she can never forget, the one in her darkest dreams. Of course, she knowsexactlywhich mask he wore. She just wishes shedidn’t.
She can practically feel the chill of the gun sliding against her face, down to her jugular.
Minnie remembers the gloved hand of iron will on the back of her neck.
A vile part of her wonders if subconsciously, she knew all along.
Sniffling, Minnie crumbles internally, violently shoving his hand away from covering her eyes. Her vision settles on the black ink at his neck, where a grinning skull with sharp canines sneers at her. When she speaks, her voice comes out in a snakelike hiss. “You were Skull Mask.” The pain inside of her grows sharper, insistent. The reality of the knowledge solidifies. Emotional agony becomes a storm, and her lips tremble. Minnie looks up at him in distress. Suddenly, anger is hard to wield as it falters, leaving hurt in its wake. “Y-you held a g-gun to my head.”
The man in front of her listens, eyes dark. The self-loathing oozing from his gaze is a stain on her heart. He doesn’t speak a word; he just continues to let her vent her pain.
“You th-threatened to k-kill me in front of all those p-people.” It feels as though she can’t get enough air. Black spots dance across her vision as her legs go unsteady. Minnie turns away, her vision tilting, needing an escape-
The world spins.
“Minnie. Oh, shit,” Gage says sharply, catching her when her legs seemingly vanish. He has her in his arms before she can even touch the ground in a near faint. “Breathe slower, dammit. Please?”
It’s hard to slow her breathing, but after a moment, the stars vanish from her vision, and Minnie can see again. Unfortunately, her physical shock has given him an excuse to enter her home with her in his arms.
“Put me down,” Minnie says caustically when she comes to her senses again. She doesn’t want his arms locked around her. She doesn’t want to be cared for by this man who once caused her such pain. “I didn’t say you could come inside my house.”
“I was supposed to let you fall and crack your pretty head?” He retorts with a scoff as he kicks her front door shut with his boot. “I don’t think so.” He carries her into her home, not taking his boots off, considering his hands are full and he can’t undo the laces the way he normally would.
Minnie’s face crumples, and she feels tears on her face. “My floors!” It seems trivial, but she hates it when people wear their shoes in her home. The situation isn’t helping any.
“I’ll wash them if you want me to.” He gently sets her down on the couch, kneeling in front of her. “I will fucking vacuum.”
The audacity of him, to destroy her world, dirty her floors, and then offer to clean them. “I don’t want you to clean my floors, I want you to leave me alone!” Minnie snarls, throwing a pillow at him in a fit of renewed anger. Red flashes in her vision. “I never want to see you again!”
