"I won't let anyone hurt you!" he called to me.
"Too late!" I stuck my hand in the air and flipped him off. "I've been hurt by far more people than you can ever imagine, Swayze." I turned, now a distance away. "I'm not sure whatgame is being played here, but you killed off the wrong players. Ruth, Blane, and Chitra were just pawns. Do you want to get the real monsters, the ones that are controlling everything? Start with the ones at the top of the hill." I turned my head toward the trees, where on the other side, a mile away, was my family's mansion. Where Uncle Carlos and Monica sat, safe and protected.
"Just say the word," he said, his voice low and deep. There were twenty feet between us, but I could hear the growl in his throat. His hands fisted at his sides. The handcuffs in his hand shook.
"Swayze," I shifted my weight. "Go to hell and take everyone else who's hurt me with you."
I left, knowing he wasn't going to follow. I was sure someone saw me on one of the many park security cameras, but I no longer cared. I found Georgie with Mitchell and Mattias and thanked them for watching him while I'd been in the hospital.
"Sure, you okay? I heard about your breakup." Mitchell eyed me with an exaggerated frown.
"I'll be fine. I didn't need them before, and I don't need them now. Thanks," I snapped and stormed off. I hated gossips. When the sun set, I snuck into the med office and locked the door. I looked around the room. There was a bed, a sink, and a mini fridge. It was better than ninety percent of the shelters I'd had in the last seven years; it'd work for now. I laid down, pulling the stiff, scratchy hospital blanket over my body and tried to sleep. I'd just closed my eyes when there was a knock on my door.
"It's me," Marisol said from the other side. "I'm not going to murder you!" she added when I didn't answer right away. I got up and let her in.
"What?" I asked. "Here to confess about all the people you asked to kill me?"
"No, that's too long a list," she shot back. She plopped down on my bed and stared at the wall. "When you were gone, I envied you for getting out of this hell hole. That was why you left, wasn't it? Uncle Carlos?" She looked up at me, her eyes shiny. I nodded.
"I knew it. He came to my room a week after you ran away. He raped me. Did he rape you?"
I swallowed the lump in my throat. "No. Marisol, I'm so sorry. I ran before he could."
She stood abruptly. "But you knew. You knew what he wanted and didn't tell anyone. You wanted him to touch me. To rape me, over and over again until I was nothing. Until I hated myself and was willing to give my body to the first boy who took interest. You know I gave Swayze that ring just to pretend I was normal? That it was a real boy who liked me and not my disgusting uncle who had taken my virginity? And you just ran like a fucking coward." All the while she was screaming, she was pushing me into the corner, trapping me.
"I'm so sorry. I didn't know."
"Bullshit!" she spat. "And that's exactly why you don't deserve any of this. My spirit died when you left, and now I think it's your turn." She backed away, allowing me to breathe. "I'm not going to kill you tonight, but if it's me or you, I'll trip you to save myself. Like you did to me." She left then, leaving me to my dark thoughts.
I tossed and turned all night, trying to accept my role in her ruined childhood. It hadn't been me to touch her, but I could have saved her had I stayed.
In the morning, I took Georgie for his morning walk and decided to go to my family's house to try to talk to Marisol, but when I stepped through the gates and onto the property, I screamed. Hanging from the third-floor balcony were the bodies of Uncle Carlos and Monica, nooses around their necks,completely naked, with a slice through their bellies, and their entrails spilling to the ground.
Dead.
Rule 50 - Domino
Don’t make life-altering decisions on a whim.
Icouldn't stop screaming, and I couldn't stop staring at the bodies side by side.
Lights turned on in the house and the front door flew open. Someone called my name and rushed down the stairs. Fabian grabbed my shoulders and my eyes rolled into the back of my head as my vision went black.
I awoke sometime later to a circle of people around me and the yard.
"Domino! She's awake. Let's get her up and inside," Fabian ordered. Hands were under my back and legs, and I was lifted off the ground and brought into the house.
"They're dead," I gasped.
"Ssshh, yes, we know. We’re... handling it.” Mattias told me. A washcloth was placed on my forehead. I sat up and looked at him. He’d been crying, and so had Marisol and Fabian. Everyone else in the room looked more shocked than sad.
“What do you mean, handling it?”
“Well, we can't really call the cops right now, can we?" Marisol snapped. "If we report them, then they'll start asking more questions. Blane might not have had family, and Ruth's family was bought out, but Chitra’s we won't get so lucky. She’sclose with her family. They’ll want answers." She stood, her body shaking with rage.
"Marisol, shut the fuck up," Mattias snapped. He put his hands up. "Everything is fine. We're… we're handling it. We can’t act with our emotions." His lips trembled. Sympathy crept into me. My siblings had just lost their mother. As awful as she was to me, she'd loved them.
"Whoever did that acted withtheiremotions, clearly," Marisol argued. "Did you see Uncle Carlos's..." She swallowed and spun to point at the room. "Who did it? Who cut his balls out of the sack and shoved them into his mouth?"
