I don’t miss that word.Most.I think of what Sanford Rule said, about his grandfather buying this property from a descendant of Gates.
“Had some spooky ideas about science and longevity,” Isa continues. “Why do you ask?”
“Did you know he used to come here?” I glance up, indicating the hotel.
She frowns, her dark brows pulling together. “No.”
“Why are you asking this?” Von questions, his gaze drifting from Isa to me.
“Do you know why Sullen Rulewent missing?”I curl the words out with distaste.
Von closes his eyes a moment, like he’s tired and out of patience, and I realize I’ve asked the wrong thing. “No, Karia. Tell me why.” I don’t miss the sarcasm in his words.
“Because it’s possiblehekilled Mercy Rule,” Isa says before I can get a word out. “And that all attempts to rehabilitate him in the years after didn’t work. I’ve heard my parents talk about it. They stayed in downtown Alexandria to look for you, by the way.” Her gaze hardens as she stares at me, like I’m an inconvenience to her family. “Something is off about him, Karia.” Finally, her mask cracks a little, letting another emotion besides stoicism in. But I loathe what it is: Pity. “He isn’t…”
“Something is off about all of us,” I snap as she trails off, slamming my fists down on the pillows either side of me, which isn’t as satisfying as I’d like it to be. “Stein Rule ishorrible.He’streated Sullen terribly. Remember he never came outside? Never got to hang out with us? He never took off that hoodie or his shirts or?—”
“Let me guess. You know all of this because he told you so?” Isa counters, her brow arched.
I frown, shaking my head. “Yes,” I reply, thinking of the marks on his body. The ones I’ve only briefly seen, and all the others I haven’t. “And I saw… he’s…” I can’t say it. I can’t give up so many of his secrets when he’s spent his entire life covering his shame.
“Do you remember when he told you that you should slice your eye with a knife?” Von cuts in as I falter, his gray eyes narrowed. “BecauseIremember that. Maybe Writhe isn’t blameless. Maybe they’re fucked up, like you said.” He nods toward me as if in concession. “But you’ve only heard one side of the story. You don’t know if any of it istrue,Karia. I don’t think Sullen Rule is blameless, and I’d like to know exactly what he did to youafterhe cut Cosmo and drugged you.”
“Fuck you,” I snarl, bunching the soft, cool material of the pillows in my hand. “Fuck you for not listening to me. I thought I was your friend. I thought?—”
“It’s because we’re your friends that we are trying to reason with you, Karia,” Isadora says, her voice softer than before. Somehow, it hurts more.
I glance at her and find she’s standing, arms still crossed over her chest.
“He did something to you, and I’m not saying Stein is a good person. I’m not saying any of us are. But Sullen did drug you, we know that for a fact, and I don’t think anything else he did to you after was any better. I mean, you hit Stein with a flashlight.”So he did tell them.A soft smile curls at the corner of Isa’s mouth. She tries to hide it, but I saw it, and for a moment, pride courses through me because I know she admires my defiance. “Thattakes guts, but it took something from Sullen’s manipulation to push you to that level of violence for him.”
A differentlevel of violencewells up inside of me now, understanding neither Von nor Isa will believe anything I say, not unless I can prove it to them. They care about me, they want to protect me, but in their minds, that means even from myself, from Sullen’smanipulation.
So I’ll have to have some of my own.
I take a breath in through my nose. Out through my mouth. Then I say, “How long am I a prisoner in here, being guarded by you two?”
To Isa’s credit, she doesn’t look at Von. She just levels me with a scrutinizing expression and says, “Until we find out what he did to you.”
“I’m a job?” I counter. “A task?” I roll my eyes and smile, though I definitely don’t mean it as I turn to Von, still standing beside the bed and watching me like he thinks I might spontaneously combust. “Is that it?”
His jaw tightens and he sighs, running a hand over his red curls. “We’re here as your friends and we’ve been given directives, yes.”
“Why is the power out as you complete thesedirectives?”I question. Something Sanford never answered for me. I glance at Isa and see her frowning. “Does anyone know, because we didn’t cut it?” I have no clue what it means, but if Stein really did let Sanford out—if Sanford isn’t some kind of delusion me and Sullen shared—then Stein probably cut the power. But why?
Von looks to his girlfriend, as if waiting for her answer.
“Did Stein do it?” I press. “Did Writhe? Did the two of you see it happen? Do you know how it might be useful?”
And in the silence that follows, contained in the shadows of our room with only moonlight streaming in now through the parted curtains, the lamp on the nightstand flickers.
Once.
Twice.
I see the lighting beneath the door Isa is standing in front of blink on, too. For a moment, it all stays lit, casting Von’s under-eye circles into starker grays.
He looks like he hasn’t slept in days. Isadora has makeup on and her appearance isn’t quite so haggard, but I can tell she’s been up, too.
