“So, why can that not happen?”
“Because I either kill you or I kill another girl who looks like you.”
For a long time, all I heard was the dripping of water in the bathroom.
“Can you make it not hurt?”
I nodded. “I will make it feel really good for you. You’ll simply go to sleep.” The first tear dropped from my eye straight to my jeans.I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to do this.
“I don’t want to die,” she sobbed. “Please...”
“I know you’re scared but there will be no pain.”
“I have a family, I have a little brother. Please. Find another way.” She shook her head, her eyes brimming with tears and her face contorted by the agony.
“Shhh… Come here.” I opened my arms to her, but she crawled back to a corner of the bed, still begging me not to do it. My heart was breaking for her, and something about the way she spoke, her accent, was killing me. She was so petite that she could easily be mistaken for a younger girl. I decided I just had to do it, so I took out the syringe and closed the distance between us on my knees.
“I’ll do anything you want. Please! Please! Don’t do it! Please don’t do it! Ahhhhhh! No! No!” She was getting increasingly hysterical, looking at the door as if someone would come to rescue her.
I pinned her arm against the wall behind her and pushed all the liquid in as fast as possible while she screeched and triedto pull herself away. “Please don’t! Please! Somebody help me! Somebody help me—”
I caught her body as it relaxed, and her eyes became heavy. Gathering her in my arms, I rocked and cooed her.
She looked up at me, tears streaming down her temples. I never broke our gaze. “Shhhh ... It’s going to be okay. Someone told me once that when you die, you go where there are unicorns and fairies, and fireflies that you ride in the night. It’s never too hot or cold, even when there’s snow, and there are flowers that glow. That’s why the night is never scary there. It’s going to be so beautiful that you won’t believe your eyes and only the nice people go there.” I rocked her, and her eyes fluttered closed.
“So, you will never have to see me again.” My tears were continuous; out of all the things I’d ever done, I wouldn’t forgive myself for this one.
“Lots of cookies, cakes, and any candy you want. And as soon as you get there, they give you a dragon so that you always feel safe. And you take baths inside clouds near the sun so that the water is always warm enough. I promise it’s going to be okay.” I had to snivel. By the time I finished pronouncing dragon, I was sobbing hard and couldn’t speak. I’d regretted what I’d done immediately.
“I’ll find a way to make it up to you. I’m so sorry. I’m so fucking sorry,” I repeated when I saw her eyes roll back. “I’ll tell your family soon so that they don’t look for you for too long.” I wasn’t aware how long I held her before I laid her on the bed.
“I’m so sorry, Elizabeth,” I said right before I squeezed the trigger and the gun went off.
Boom!
Minutes later, I rushed into Ben’s office, shut the door behind me, and fell into the chair across from him, still out of breath. I wasn’t looking at him. In fact, I was leaning forward and holding my head. I’d managed to walk down the stairs to his officewithout shedding tears, but once I sat there, I was drowning in them. Despite how much I’d abhorred Mael and Callum... Callum had never had a chance.
I remembered the first time I met him. I’d been thirteen and sent to feed him in his cage. He tried to convince me to let him out by telling me everything his father had done to him. I might not have let him out, but at least I talked to him. I risked getting punished for him. We were never friends, but there was a silent understanding between us.
He’d drugged at five so he’d have a psychotic break and he could lock him up in the fake psych ward institute under the supervision of Dr. Laurent. But it was all really so he could have his way with his own son.
Callum was never allowed outside the compound until his twin brother died. And that’s exactly what drove him to true insanity. One would think he’d thank us for killing Mael, but the opposite took place. As soon as he was out, he got the same obsession Mael and I got. The same obsession that had just driven me to kill an innocent lady. Magdalena Michaelson. She was like a fucking disease, killing us one by one. I could’ve called Callum a monster, but I was much worse than him.
I had thought saving her would keep me safe from the pain, but I was a mess. I couldn’t take one more fucking day in the world I had been living in.
“Uh… Should I even ask?”
“I’m so fucking sick of this. So fucking sick of my entire fucking life.”
“Okay. I’m sorry, but are you… What—Is all the cargo intact?”
“No.”
“What did—”
“Ben… Callum is dead.” I paused, staring at the tiles, watching my tears drop to the floor. “I have to go lethimknow that hisonly son is dead and that the girl who killed him has also been eliminated.”
“You—”
