You mean the fucking world to me.
I have to leave you here because there’s someone else who needs me too. Please don’t ask me to take you with me again. Be strong like I know you are. Find our baby then. . .
Fuck. Then we’ll have everything.
I loved you then. I love you now.
I’ll love you tomorrow, no matter what I become.
There’s someone I want you to meet when the time is right.
Every time I see you, I’ll fuck you. It isn’t because it’s all you’re good for, okay? Remember that. Remember you’re more than a body to me. A beautiful fucking body though. Still, more than a body.
I’ll speak to you like shit. Hurt you. Hate you. Make you crawl for me. Fuck that lying mouth. Fill my cunt. Make you into my little cum slut who’s starving for me. And you’ll be my good wife, taking it all eagerly.
You belong to me like I belong to you. But you belong to yourself first, so the key is in the bag.
No one else can control what happens to you. Hide the key, even from me if you need to. I just want to love you openly. One day I will. We won’t have to hide. You said there won’t be any dates, but I’m getting you back no matter what fucking happens.
Right now, though, I need you to be my strong god. Find everything you need, then bring these motherfuckers to their knees for everything they’ve taken from you. Do not forget you are Delilah. You’re not a silly or stupid girl. You are my Delilah, who burnt these fuckers once. Do it again, koukla mou. I’ll be waiting on the other side of the embers with the rest of our family.
You are mine, Delilah Xandros. Only mine.
I am yours.
Your husband x
I turn the sheet over, expecting more to be on the back, but it’s blank. I reread it. Kane is confident we’ll be okay, that I’ll be able to find our baby. I need it to bolster me because the longer I’m alone, the more I question myself, the weaker my resolve becomes.
In theory, being trapped on an island without anyone else sounds like a dream. The reality is vastly different. There’salways dread weighing me down, so I spend more time anticipating what Helene can do until it exhausts me.
Kane isn’t going to leave me here. We’re going to leave. I’m not a stupid naïve girl anymore. He’s right. I fucked their plans up once, fought through the fog of my mind, the drugs, the abuse. I can do it again.
I take the key and letter to the bathroom. That bitch will use Kane’s words against me, which forces me to read it one last time before I run it under the water until it’s an unintelligible, crumpled mess. I push the soggy pieces of paper through the gaps in the drain then take the chastity belt from the corner of the shower.
In any other world or circumstance, Kane giving me the key to a chastity belt would be a fucking insane thing to do. Given our current circumstances, it’s sweet. Or I really am crazy. Fuck it, you can’t beat crazy with sanity so I’m going to embrace being insane. Helene’s mind is warped to the point a normal person couldn’t anticipate her next move, so all I need to do is out-crazy her.
Once I’m dressed with the key around my neck, I leave the room like I belong here. That seems like something a crazy person would do.
I strengthen my spine as I go to the kitchen, where she’s already seated at the table, humming to herself while skinning a snake. The tail curves over the edge of the table, hanging limp against the table leg. My resolve wavers as I get closer, but I don’t drop my chin. I can’t stop my curiosity as I watch her peel the leathery skin off the snake’s muscle.
It has two fucking heads.
The body is long, thick, forking into two, and she delicately slices a line between the scales before she unwraps the other head.
“Would you like some tea?” Helene asks without looking away from what I’m hoping is a taxidermy project.
“No, your tea doesn’t agree with me.” I stiffly walk around her and take out safe, packaged foods to make a sandwich. Then sit opposite her, uncaring that she’s desecrating a dead animal as I eat without looking away from her. She must be in a good mood, or whatever constitutes as a good mood to a raging fucking nutcase, because she doesn’t try to harm me.
“What are you making?” I ask to appear unaffected.
“The rarest things in life have power behind them. It’s why they survive at odds with the environment they’re born in.”
Her cryptic answer provides a barrier to seeing her as human. The more oddities she shows, the more likely I’ll be able to retain my sanity.
“This piece will be magnificent, don’t you think?” She cradles the snake’s two heads in her bare hand. “A predator evolved to have the ultimate protection. While one satisfied itself, the other watched over it. After all, aren’t we all the most vulnerable when satiating our appetites?” She pointedly looks at the sandwich in my hand.
“Survival,” I agree, taking another bite. “It’s engrained in nature to survive. Flowers will turn towards the sun, pack animals will leave their group to hunt alone, humans will disregard their morals to survive.”
