She thought of the huge man from the parking lot as she ran the towel over her flesh. If he’d been there with her, she’d bet he’d have taken a whole hell of a lot longer.
“Stop that, Blair. He looked at you like you were the dirt beneath his size fourteen boots that hecouldn’t wait to scrape off.” She’d seen that look on her family's face more times than she cared to think about. It was best to remember who she was and where she came from. Men were good for one thing, and that was...well, for her, nothing.
She pulled on her sleep shirt and panties, tugged the cap off her head, leaving the messy knot on top. A yawn caught her by surprise. Blair looked at her watch as she pulled the mountain of pillows off her bed, then rolled the comforter down and placed it on the bench at the end. She grabbed her favorite blanket and shook it out, then climbed under it, snuggling down in the center of the king-sized bed. She reached into the side table, pulled out her sleep mask, and covered her eyes. No way was she going to let the sun coming in at the ass-crack of dawn wake her up.
Sleep came quickly, but memories from her past flooded her dreams.
“Clair, we need to hide. Take a Barbie and remember our signal.”Blair tried to sound tough as she spoke to her twin, but hearing their older brother Benjamin banging on the front door of their estate sent a chill down her spine. At twelve, she and Clairknew his moods by the sounds he made as he came and went. Tonight, their parents had left them alone while they went on a trip. Benny wasn’t supposed to be home either since he left for baseball camp.
“Sissy, I don’t want to split up this time. Let’s go into Mommy and Daddy’s room. We can call them and tell them he’s home. They’ll come back early,”Clair begged.
The sound of the front door slamming shut made them both gasp. Blair slapped her hand over Clair’s lips as her twin did the same to hers. They were literally two peas in a pod.
“You know they won’t do that. Come on, we need to hurry. He never finds us when we hide and use our signals. We move rooms once we know he’s been through them. Go Clair. Hide.”Blair pushed her twin up the third flight of stairs towards the staff quarters.
They hid for what felt like hours. Blair stared out from between a crack in the door, watching Benjamin stroll down the hall. She bit her lip as she saw what he held in his hand, watching him scrape the tip of the lethal-looking blade down the expensive wallpaper their mother recently replaced.Benny’s lips were twisted in a sneer as he did a little hop, skip, taunting them with a song she was sure he’d twisted to scare them.
“One, two, Benny’s coming for you. Three, four, better lock your core. Five, six, I’m up to new tricks. Seven, eight, better lay down straight. Nine, ten, Benny will come again,”Benjamin laughed maniacally.
She didn’t understand his words, but they frightened her. He walked into the room across the hall where Clair had gone, then came back out, turning back around to stare at something she couldn’t see.
“Ah, you two think you’re so fucking smart,”he snarled. A thud made her wince as he tossed the Barbie out in the hall.
“I’m sorry, Benny. Don’t hurt me,”Clair screamed.
Blair stood frozen behind the door as Benjamin dragged her sister down the hall by her long blonde hair. She wanted to jump out and help, but her body wouldn’t move. Her voice failed her while Clair kicked her legs and wailed. Their brother dragged her down three flights of stairs, uncaring of the damagehe did to her with each bump. After what seemed like forever, Blair forced her limbs to move. She didn’t know how or why her legs felt stuck in cement, each move taking extreme effort.
When she hit the bottom floor, she slipped and fell. The dark red liquid on the floor made it hard to get her bearings. Finally, she picked herself back up and moved toward the muffled sounds of Clair’s sobs coming from the piano room. Their mother didn’t like them playing in there because she’d bought all white and black furniture. Through her haze of confusion, Blair blinked to try to understand what she was seeing. Red streaked the white fur rug as two bodies lay.
“Clair,”she whispered.
Clair’s eyes met hers as she lay limp, one hand reaching for her.“Run, BeeBee,”she gasped.
Benjamin sat back, his pants down around his ankles as Clair’s mouth opened and closed wordlessly. Blair couldn’t fathom what she was seeing. He, their brother, knelt between her sister’s legs. The knife lay next to him, stained crimson with so much blood. The macabre scene appeared straight out of a horror movie.
Blair grabbed one of her mother’s beloved candle holders from the entry table, moved fast before she could lose her nerve, and hit her brother over the side of his head. He fell sideways, but she knew he’d get back up. Benjamin was a demon clothed in a human’s skin; he’d proven that over and over again. If she didn’t take him out first, he’d be on her. She swung again, bringing the heavy object down again, and again. He grunted, screamed, and cried out. She didn’t know how many times she hit him. Her arms shook with exertion, and then she dropped the blood-soaked thing with a thud.
Benjamin lay motionless. Clair’s whimper brought her head around. She moved back to her twin, crying as she saw the blood pooling beneath her sister.
“I need to call for help. Hold on, CeeCee,”she whispered.
Claire coughed, and blood slipped from the corner of her lips.“Don’t leave me.”
“I’m not. I won’t. You’re my other half, CeeCee.”Blair knew something was really wrong with her sister. However, leaving her sister scared her more than anything else. Her brother’s cell phonechirped a few feet away, bringing her out of the stupor she’d fallen into.
“I’m going to grab Benjamin’s cell. I’ll be right back.”It took almost as much effort to move the five feet as it did to run down the stairs, but finally she’d pried the device out of his jacket, shaking so hard she nearly dropped it three times. She hurried back to Clair’s side and punched the three numbers in for the emergency line.
Blair rambled off her address and the details of the emergency, staying on the line while the operator worked to keep her calm. She hadn’t noticed she’d been sobbing, nor did she register the pounding on the door as several uniformed men and women burst through.
Jinx woke with a start, clutching her chest. “Fuck. It was just a dream.” She shook her head. The memories from her past were fading from her mind, just like the dream, yet the scars were there, embedded in her soul for life.
She shoved the blankets off, knowing there wasn’t any chance she’d be able to get back to sleep and wasn’t sure she’d want to even if she could.
The thick rug on the floor next to her bed was warm and soft. She shivered as she headed toward the closet, selecting a pair of jeans and a sweater before going to shower to wake up for the day.
Half an hour later, she felt marginally better and in need of a massive cup of coffee. In the kitchen, Jinx let out a loud groan when she realized she’d forgotten to buy a box of her favorite pods for her Keurig. Hell, at this point, she’d settle for regular coffee grounds, but she didn’t have those either.
“I will become a murderer if I am let loose in the wild without caffeine from the liquid of the gods,” she whined, slamming the cabinet shut, then winced at the loud sound.
