You ugly fucking cunt.
“Would you?” she asks, temporarily pausing her taxidermy.
“I’m human, aren’t I? Turning that natural instinct off isn’t possible, so I’d survive. At any cost.”
She nods.
“Just like you have,” I say gently. “Alone on this empty island with nothing other than your hobbies to keep you company.” I take another bite of my sandwich. The smell of raw flesh perfumes the air.
The sides of her jaw become sharper, but she keeps her tone light in the same way my mother did when she felt slighted. “Now I have you to keep me company.”
“I know.” I hum. “You’re very lucky.”
I expect Lenny or Kane to walk in when the front door opens, but my muscles seize when a carbon copy of Lenny walks to his mother. His shirt collar shifts as he lowers his head to kiss her cheek, unveiling the mottled skin. Helene doesn’t ignore him like she did with her other child. She turns her head, catching his lips instead of his cheek. I can feel my face contorting as bile rises in my throat at the sight of their lips parting, then a flash of pink.
I drop my sandwich and get the fuck away from their incestuous shit. I’ll watch her skin an animal, whip someone, anything other than tonguing her adult son as he gushes about being agood boy. The force of my escape makes the double doors swing as she coos, “Did my darling boy miss his mother?”
I need bleach. For my eyes, my body, to pour into my ears.
“Yes, Mother,” he says back so softly, he doesn’t sound like the same person who would tie me to a bed before ordering my father to entertain him by raping me.
It makes me turn around to watch them through the murky glass in the doors. Only to instantly regret it as he kneels beside her, lifting her dress to uncover her chest. A grown fucking man is kneeling beside his elderly mother, suckling from her like he’s a baby while she holds the back of his head in the crook of her elbow to continue skinning the snake. Thank fuck her back is to me so I can’t seeeverything, but there’s no disguising what’s happening as Rowan pushes his hand flat against his groin.
Filthy fucking cunts.
I can’t be exhausted or wait for Kane. I need to get out of here, away from whatever the fuck this circle of a family treeis. They make my family appear normal in comparison as she moans at whatever her vile son is doing.
The other parts of the house are unreachable without passing them, so I slowly walk up the spiral staircase, careful to avoid making a sound. Rather than go back into my room, I turn towards the rooftop entrance Lennox showed me. Fear of Helene’s torment stopped me from entering any of the other rooms before, but she’s busy fucking her son now.
I wince while opening the first door, checking behind me to make sure no one is watching me. The thick layer of dust is disturbed, little pieces glimmering in the light as I poke my head into the gap to see the bedroom is empty, except for an ivory sheet over the bed and a few frames hung on the wall. Even the drapes have thinned and yellowed from the sun.
I go to the next room, which is the same, other than the bare walls. The silk wallpaper peels from the corners where it meets the plaster cornice. Large, obnoxious corbels bracket the window. Each has a lion’s head with its teeth bared, holding the brass curtain rod.
My grandparents have something similar at their vineyard home, with a ram head instead of a lion. The curved ram horns held their curtain rod.
Helene’s stick has a lion’s head, a ram’s head, and a snake.
Three families. She created The Three, so she has three symbols. The ram is on my family crest. She keeps the lion of her cane free from any dirt, which must be the one for the Kobalts. All I have to do is find the family that she discarded—the snake—then we’ll know her weakness. Fuck, I can’t remember any of my grandparents’ friends who would stay at their vineyard. The summer house was always full due to the parties, but they only allowed a select few to visit the vineyard.
I search the other rooms, trying to recall anyone who had any snake insignias during my family’s events.
All of the rooms are the same.
Every single fucking one is empty—along with my memories.
I keep walking through the hallway, avoiding the door leading to the roof. At a certain point, it becomes a maze. The same empty rooms with a bed covered in a dust sheet, the same hallway, and the same questions with no answers because the rooms are fucking empty!
When I reach the end of the hallway, I stop at the large arched window and trace the lead strips separating the panes of glass to soothe my mind.
Trace a line, don’t think about where Kane is.
Complete the rectangle, don’t think about how you let her take your baby away.
Follow the lead piping, Kane believes in me.
Yeah, Kane believes in me, so does Lenny. They both know their family more than I do, so I can trust their opinion.
I reverse my steps as I go back through the hallway, checking each room again. This time I lift the sheets, disturb the drapes, look for any loose floorboards. Anything. These motherfucking cunts had to drug me, pull my memories away with their abuse, but I figured it out before. I can fucking do it again.
