Page 105 of Two Sides of Sin

I opened my eyes, staring at the blank wall in the dark.

“Yes, you are, little bird,” I whispered to the empty room, knowing Julian couldn’t protect her, knowing she was now at my mercy, and knowing that when she finally woke up, the illusion of her safety would be permanently shattered.

I sat perfectly still in the dark, listening through the wall as the chemical weight of the sedative finally dragged her under.

The soft sounds of her chewing stopped. Her breathing slowed, turning heavy and shallow. There was a faint rustle of fabric, followed by the dull thud of her phone slipping from her fingers and hitting the floor.

“Sage?” Julian’s voice vibrated thinly through the drywall, laced with a sudden edge of panic. “Sage, are you there? Did you fall asleep?”

She didn’t answer. She couldn’t.

I stood up, adjusting the cuffs of my dark coat and walked over to the adjoining door connecting our rooms. It was locked from her side, but the mechanism was nothing against the heavy steel bypass tool I slid into the gap. With a soft, metallic click, the deadbolt disengaged. Safety is just an illusion, a deranged comfort we tell ourselves.

I turned the handle and pushed the door open, stepping into her sanctuary.

My eyes immediately swept the space, and my jaw tightened. It was chaotic. The velvet armchair was shoved haphazardly against the main door. The greasy room service tray was sitting recklessly on the pristine white duvet, dangerously close to staining the sheets. And sage was slumped at an awkward, asymmetrical angle across the pillows, her bathrobe twisted around her legs.

It deeply offended my nature.

I walked slowly towards the bed. “Sage. Wake up,” Julian ordered through the phone speaker lying on the ground. “Sage. Answer me.”

I ignored my brother for a moment, my attention captivated by the girl on the bed.

I leaned over her, and a dark thrill spiked through me.

The sedative was a heavy paralytic, designed to shut down the central nervous system. But because her adrenaline had been running so high for the last two days, it had created an interesting side effect.

Her eyes were open just a fraction.

Her dark pupils were dilated, fixed blindly on the ceiling. As my shadow fell over her, I watched terror flood those deep blue depths. Her chest hitched with a trapped breath. She was semi-lucid. She could see me. She could feel my presence. But she was entombed inside her own paralysed body.

A sinister smile curled my lips. “Hello, little bird,” I whispered.

I could see the frantic, screaming panic behind her eyes, but she couldn’t move a muscle.

“I can’t stand a mess,” I murmured calmly, turning my back on her panicked gaze.

I picked up the greasy room service tray, carrying it all the way to the hallway door and setting it on the floor. I walked into her bathroom, turning on the hot water. I took a clean, white washcloth, soaked it, and wrung it out meticulously before walking back to the bed.

Her eyes tracked my movement, wide and screaming.

I sat on the edge of the mattress, the springs groaning beneath me. I leaned down and gently, methodically wiped the grease and salt from her lips and chin with the warm, damp cloth. I folded the cloth into a perfect square and set it on the nightstand.

Then, I reached into her discarded canvas tote bag and pulled out her hairbrush.

I spent the next five minutes grooming her. I brushed every single tangle out of her dark waves, smoothing the hair out so it fanned perfectly and symmetrically across the white pillows. I grabbed her shoulders, feeling her heart hammering a untamed rhythm—and shifted her body until she was lying perfectly straight in the dead centre of the king-sized bed.

I pulled the white duvet up to her waist, smoothing every wrinkle out of the fabric. Finally, I took her small, limp hands and folded them flawlessly over her stomach.

Immaculate.

“Who is there?” Julian’s voice suddenly roared from the phone, the sound echoing in the quiet, thoroughly cleaned room. He had heard the rustling. “Sage! Sage, pick up the phone!”

I crawled onto the bed, sliding my large frame right next to her. I braced my weight on my forearm, hovering directly over her paralysed body. I could feel the frantic heat radiating off her skin. I reached out and picked the phone up off the floor next to the bed, holding it between my mouth and her ear so she would hear every single word.

I let the silence stretch for three gruelling seconds. I wanted Julian to feel the suffocating helplessness of the distance between us.

I reached my free hand out, slowly tracing the back of my knuckles down the soft curve of Sages spine.