“You’re a cold-blooded killer.”
“No!” she cries, shaking her head. “He...he….”
My heart thuds in my chest and I’m tempted to look away.Damn it, Amelie, you’ll have to witness more than this!I need to grow a backbone. Do what needs to be done.
Mackenzie is next. She looks void of emotion as she shifts through a pile of photos, the camera angle isn’t in the right spot for me to see what she is looking at, but a voice radiates through the room. “Kenz, help me please.” Her head snaps up. “Bunny?” she whispers. “I’m sorry, so sorry, I couldn’t find you.”
My mouth starts to water and my stomach coils. I start to retch as I run over to a trash can and lurch over and over but nothing comes out. Taking a deep breath, I compose myself. My eyes water, but I do nothing to wipe away the tears. The Order is a good place for Mackenzie. If her sister is alive, we will help find her. If she’s dead, I will help her hunt whoever is responsible to the ends of the earth. Sawyer kneels beside me and holds back my hair, rubbing my back. I don’t want to seem weak around him. But he doesn’t say anything.
Belle lets out a blood curdling scream and I make my way back to the monitors. Her room’s set up like a hospital. She is rocking back and forth on her bed, one of her arms is still strapped to the side rail. A mirror is smashed and shards of glass litter the floor, and there is a bathtub set up in the corner of the room, where the tap drips red into the already crimson water.
I run a hand down my face…these are brutal. Emmerson’s room is pitch black. A small overhead light starts to flicker and what I see chills me to my core. A lone coffin sits in the middle of the room.
Her panicked, muffled voice can be heard over the microphones set up in the room. I can’t watch this.
I need to check on Elsie, maybe somehow she will know that I’m with her. It’s the least I can do after involving her in all of this.
Elsie is still out, but I see the heat dial move up as she stirs. She looks at her arms as she comes to and the words whore, slut, skank, ho, cover her in red lipstick. Her file was messed up. She killed her entire family, and they deserved it after everything they put her through. She set them all on fire, but only after years and years of abuse and torment. When she was found she was covered in lipstick and nasty words.
I watch the screen as she rubs at the words relentlessly. The heat has started to make her take notice and smoke seeps in under the door as flashes of me fill the room from when I left her. I have to look away.
I check on Maggie as she screams, “I’m a good mother! I love my sons and you can’t control my mind!” The images immediately cut to black and her door swings open. She races to it. The next room is empty besides a desk with eight envelopes with names written on them. She finds hers and opens it, sagging with relief at her message of congratulations for passing her individual round. I watch in disbelief as door after door opens and the room is filled with my picks.
Elsie is the last, yet to appear, and the room she’s in is thick with smoke. She’s coughing uncontrollably. She crawls towards the picture of me, one that was taken before I left and she pulls herself up.
“Amelie loves me, I’m not alone,” she whispers.Come on Elsie, it needs to be convincing.
Chapter Twenty-One
Elsie
My head thumps and the grogginess disorientates me.
He drugged me again.
I can hear his vile words.You don’t love me anymore. I see you with the neighbour’s boy. Do you know what happens to naughty girls?
I squeeze my eyes shut harder. This is a dream. I amnotthere anymore. I’m free of them. I have to be.
Opening my eyes, the realisation that everything was just a nightmare sinks in. The multiple personalities I created to cope have shielded me from them.
The heat in the room is causing sweat to form on my brow, and when a lone drop falls to my arm, I see the words.Whore, slut, ho.I scrub at my arms. My Mumma would blame me for him sneaking into my room at night, my brother was jealous of the attention I used to get, he covered me in vile words because he had to wait to become a man.
I’m still in this hell. I thought I was free. Why am I here?
Smoke catches my attention.
It can’t be true, I killed them all.
The beating my mother gave me last night left marks where people could see them. Not being able to move, they must have decided to go out without me. Every Sunday we have to go and play ‘happy families’ at church. How can my family be so respected and yet not one person knows what goes on behind closed doors?
This is my only chance.
I pull myself up and out of bed, limping over to the door. Every inch of my body hurts, screaming in protest at my movements. Sometimes I’m locked in here for days at a time. But today I get lucky: The door is unlocked.
Maybe it’s a sign that things are going to be okay today. I make my way downstairs, where the house is peaceful, normal almost. Not that I know what normal is.
I find myself at the bottom of the garden, standing before the shed where Daddy keeps all his tools. What I would do for a weapon. Something to protect myself with. I could run, but what’s the point? Daddy’s best friend is a hotshot lawyer with everyone in his pocket. I would end up right back here by the end of the day. Daddy lets him visit now that I’m a woman. I don’t like it when he comes over, my screams go unheard, and they like it.
