“No. More like she was holding me down.” He frowns. “But there was a…tenderness to it. It’s hard to explain.”
No. I get it. I’ve been in that exact same position. The position where you’re being forced into a false kind of intimacy. The men who take me behind the curtains at the club do it all the time. And I remember Rouge doing it at least once as well…
Story for a different time.
Right now I’m focusing on Jack.
“Anything else?”
“Yes.” The color drains from his face. “It was… I mean… Rouge was holding me down, and eventually she turned my head to the side of the bed. And… It was Two again.”
“What about her?”
“She was on the floor at this point. And Mr. Rose was over her, pressing a finger to her neck. He said something to Rouge, but I couldn’t understand it. And then…he took out a saw.”
“A saw?”
“Like the tool. And he placed it against Two’s neck. Rouge made me watch as he… As he…” He starts breathing heavily, his eyes wide.
I run into my kitchen and grab a paper bag. I hand it to him. “Here. Breathe into this.”
He does, and eventually his breathing slows.
“What did Mr. Rose do to Two?”
Jack steels himself, slowly delivers his answer. “He… He sawed her head off. Removed it from her body.”
I gasp. “He didn’t!”
“He did. Rouge made me watch the whole thing. He did the same with her hands, sawed them off, too.”
My stomach is churning. This can’t be true… My sister is a little cuckoo, but she’s not this.
“And then…he took a silver chalice, and he… He held her wrist over it, filled it with her blood.”
I can’t speak. There are no words.
“He took a drink of her blood. Then he gave it to Rouge. Then she gave it to me.”
“Did you drink it?”
“No. I couldn’t. I couldn’t really do anything except just lie there. I was terrified they were going to do the same thing to me. And then…I started sinking into the bed, into the fiery depths of hell itself.”
“The shrooms…” I say.
“Exactly. Next thing I know, I’m back in Rouge’s office. She tells me that, regrettably, I failed the test, but that I’m welcome to stay on as the Jack of Hearts.”
I scratch the side of my head. “Just like that?”
He nods. “Just like that. I got up and tried to leave the office, but I was locked in. Rouge told me to sit down. Feeling like I had no other choice, I did. She told me that sometimes people have adverse reactions to using the mushrooms. She’s still tinkering with their genetic makeup and hasn’t quite figured out the right potency yet. She told me I had a bad trip, that if I saw anything frightening or traumatic while under the influence, that it was the mushrooms. My brain playing tricks on me.”
I bite my lip. “So… Is that what you think happened?”
He raises an eyebrow. “Bianca?”
I clasp my hands together. “I just mean… It sounds like you had a bad trip.”
“I know what I saw, Bianca.”
