“Shut up, runt,” Samuel says from the doorway.
Like a villain in a cheesy action movie, he struts into the storage room as though he’s the biggest, baddest disposable extra in the cast.
Penelope’s laugh sends ice down my spine.Wordless fear grips me.She’s purposefully putting all the attention on her, but I’m not sure if she has a plan or if she’s snapped.
“Are you still that afraid of the truth,brother?”she snarks.
I don’t understand her emphasis on the word, but it hangs in the air like a loaded weapon.
“Truth?Aren’t you the one hiding from the truth?”Samuel says as he drapes an arm around Cathy’s shoulders.
“Not anymore,” Penelope shrugs.“In fact, I think speaking the truth can be quite liberating.”She twists to smile up at Michael.He tightens his grip on her throat, but she speaks despite the compression of her vocal cords.“Say, Michael, how does Cathy like my modification?Does she like the big bite I took out of your puny dick?Maybe it’s like those cheap truck-stop condoms with ridges?”
He yanks her head back by her hair and pulls a knife out of his pocket.Nightmares play across her features, but resolution shines from her pale face by the time he presses the blade to her throat.She doesn’t lift her bound arms even though she could protect herself.
I growl and fight against the hands pushing down on my shoulders, but the throbbing in my back prevents me from escaping.
“I never touched you, circus freak,” Michael snarls.
Penelope doesn’t even rise onto her toes when he increases the pressure of the blade.Deranged humor lifts her brow as a thin line of crimson trails down the side of her throat.
“I have more truths, Samuel.How about the fact I’m smarter and better than you in every single fucking thing?How about the fact I know your worst nightmares have already come true?You’re a failure,” she taunts her brother.
He drops his arm, grabs a pistol from the small of his back, and steps toward Penelope.
“What the fuck are you doing, Samuel?”I growl.“Penelope is your sister.What happened to protecting her?”
Samuel scoffs and turns toward me.Icy rage shivers down my spine.
“She’s not my sister,” he shrugs.
“How can you be such an ass—”
“No, I mean it.She’s not my sister.She’s an orphan.My parents adopted her when they found out they couldn’t have a daughter of their own.They wanted a little girl so bad, they forgot about me.Because of that little runt, I had to share what was rightfully mine.”
“You never shared, Sam.You lost.I won.I made your parents love me more than they could ever love a spineless idiot like you,” Penelope sneers.
Samuel sighs, passes his piece to Cathy, and saunters over to Penelope.
“You can have my worthless parents, pipsqueak.”
Penelope flinches at the nickname.He pinches her chin and leans down until his nose is an inch away from hers.
“You don’t really think they love you, do you, Penny?They only want you for your money.You’re just too desperate for attention to see it.”
Disgust and horror clash within me as he leans impossibly closer and rubs his face over hers.
“You’re an unlovable orphan, so stop with the high and mighty act,” he whispers with his lips brushing over her ear.
He rises and turns to me.
“I tried to love her, but she’s just too pathetic,” he says with a shrug.
Penelope flinches.The flash of hurt in her eyes solidifies Samuel’s destruction.
“If I’m so pathetic, then what does that make you?”she asks.
He quirks a brow and spins back toward her.Before he can berate her, she lifts her chin and answers questions I didn’t even know to ask.
