“Hey,we’re all good. Just no killing yet. Ringo will literally cut my nuts from my body if I let that happen before you get your daughter back.”
I grin, stepping inside and pulling the door closed, and Brody shifts back to sit in a chair in the corner by the door.
I take in the space where I unleashed my monster on Wendy.
The only colours I see in my head when I think back over that time are black, white, and red. Lots of red.
Daniel is laying curled in a ball on the concrete floor along the back wall. He’s not asleep, though. His eyes, although swollen, are open, watching me as I approach, lowering to sit in the middle of the room.
For a long moment, we just stare at each other, and I hate that I feel bad for him. How could I after what he did to me with his friends? After the way he treated me at school. After the way he chased me through the forest, and pushed me, wanting to kill my baby. A baby that is potentially his.
My cousin’s.
My stomach rolls at the reminder that it was my cousin who took my virginity. My cousin, who wooed me, made me feel special, and wanted.
God, that seems like so long ago now.
But here he is, the guy that destroyed my life. He may not have known he was my cousin at the time, but he knew what he was doing when he agreed to have sex with me to help his family rise through the ranks of the church… the cult.
He knew what he was doing when he raped me. Shared me with his friends to rape me too. When he hit me. Choked me. Forced so much vileness onto me, so much that I can’t even bear to think of it.
“When did you know that your mum took off?” I ask, and he blinks painfully a couple of times before slowly pushing himself to sit up.
Clearing his throat, he rests his back against the wall, and answers.
“When we got back home from the Chapel… it was later that night,” he explains. “At first, my dad and I thought she just wasn’t home yet, but then my dad came running out of their room, saying her clothes were gone, and we knew. It wasn’t until she sent me that photo of her and Bobbi that I thought about the stuff we were hiding in our shed, and I found it gone.”
Stuff?
Sitting taller, I ask. “What stuff?”
“Medical supplies.”
I stiffen, but it’s Brody that responds from behind me.
“Medical supplies? What sort of medical supplies?”
“Uh…” Daniel clears his throat again. “At first I thought it was just a heap of PPE and stuff, for the pandemic, but then I noticed some other stuff too.”
“What other stuff?” I snap, gaining his attention off Brody.
“Baby stuff. Nappies. Formula. And a humidicrib.”
“A humidicrib?” I squeak, glancing up to see Brody now standing next to me.
“You mean your old man was the one that stole from us?” Brody hisses, and Daniel frowns, shaking his head as his confused eyes dart from Brody to me.
“I-I don’t know. I have no idea where it all came from. It arrived in some trucks, and Dad had them put it in our shed. That’s all I know. I didn’t know there was baby stuff until I went snooping ages afterwards.”
“You get that, Lewy?” Brody asks, and I stand, frowning at him to see him talking into a radio.
“Yep, got it.” Lewy’s voice comes through the radio speaker, and I frown.
Glancing around, I see there have been some modifications done in the dungeon since the last time I was here.
There are cameras set up, their lights blinking, and I realise Lewy is recording everything.
“So you really don’t know how your dad got that stuff, other than some trucks dropping the supplies off?” I ask, and Daniel shakes his head.
