“I will kill you right fucking now, then see howyoutaste.” I grab a fistful of her hair. “Answer my fucking question.”
I slam the heel of my palm against the stick pinned at her neck. She chokes. The sound is better than music. The wind amplifies it, carrying it further like it knows her death needs to be spread far and wide.
She punches me in the ribs, but I laugh. “Your evil grandson beat the shit out of me for years. You’ll have to do better to get me off.”
“You will regret this,” she splutters.
“I’m enjoying it.” I shrug. “No one is here, remember? Only me and you, so tell me where my baby is, and I’ll let you live. Don’t, and you’ll rot right here while I watch like you’re my favorite TV show.”
She shuts her fucking mouth. I’ve got her pinned but she doesn’t tell me. Her head hits the gate with a clunk as I pull it further back, pushing my forearm on the stick.
“Tell. Me.”
Her eyes flicker to the side as she croaks, “Washed away.”
My hold on her loosens without my volition.
She grips the stick, pulling it free from the gate while snarling, “Thatdefectivething was stupid, just like you. It refused to stop playing when the storm hit.”
My baby.
My baby washed away.
I can’t stand.
My knees crumble, hitting the hard ground as I stare through Helene, past the gates at the water raging. The water stole my baby, so I can’t save them.
Helene swings her stick, catching me in the jaw with the sharp horns of the ram as she rubs across her neck. “You will learn your place is not to question me. I protected you from the truth, now you’ve lost your strength. Pathetic.”
She strikes me again, but I take it because this pain is nothing in comparison to the water softly rippling, gloating about what it took from me. My life has been worthless, a constant cause of misery for anyone involved with me. First Kane, now my baby, whose only crime was being born from me.
Blood erupts from my nose as Helene knocks the top of her cane into it. I don’t even catch myself when I fall back. I try to pull myself forward to join my baby, to tell them I didn’t know she was in their life.
Helene presses the snake tail tip of her stick to the center of my throat as she leans over me, her eyes darkening, features full of rage. “Remember, silly girl, you are the one who is alone. The shadows belong to me.”
Heavy booted footsteps echo behind me while I stare at the water licking the sides of the raised ground. My fight only comes back when hands wrap around my arms, dragging me away from where I need to be.
I kick, claw at the hard ground, scream, anything to stay here with my baby.
“Get off! No! My baby!”
They keep dragging me.
Pulling me without any care.
Until the waves are further away as Helene stands in front of the gates.
“You’re lying! You’re a fucking liar! My baby’s fine! They’re fifteen! They go to school!”
The chastity belt scrapes against my ribs while I continue screaming every profanity, threat, and lie.
The masked guards punch into my ribs while dragging me through the basement under this godforsaken house.
“You’re a liar!” I sob, begging her to admit it. “They go to school!”
My screams echo off the stone walls as I’m dropped into a cell like the one I was first brought into. The steel door clangs but it doesn’t mute my pain as my throat dries from my shouts.
I can’t move.
