Chapter Twenty
Dexter
Idon’t know why I whispered encouraging thoughts into Megan’s ear before Charles took her to the stables. You can run all you like, but no one can hide from death.Not even death himself.The sedatives I forced Megan to take already weakened our game, let alone the four additional hunters my father invited onto his playground.
This is so unlike him. He has never invited outsiders to the stables before. I know he is on the verge of psychosis; I am seeing the same signs in him I witnessed in myself during the hours leading to my mental breakdown yesterday. But this. . . this isn’t him at all.
He hunts for the thrill, for the adrenaline associated with it. Tonight’s game isn’t filled with palpable excitement. It is laden with hate, inspired by death. He’s not hunting Megan because his thirst for blood is the strongest it’s ever been. He is killing for glory instead of need.
I understand his quest. I too have killed for reasons other than an insatiable appetite. I am not judging him. I am merely confused. The man who raised me was a brilliant, cunning man. He taught me that no one is more revered or important than me. That I was not greatness waiting to happen, I was already great.
That is not the man standing across from me now.
This man is unhinged. Hyper-sensitized. If I didn’t know any better, I may even say medicated. He’s not strategizing his game plan for the most direct maneuver. He is wishing for the game to be over before it truly begins. I’ve only ever seen him unhinged once before. It was when. . .
“You fell in love with your pet.”
I intended to say my comment inside my head, but the words slipped from my lips before I could stop them. I’m glad. If I was having any doubts about my theory, my father’s wide eyes and unspoken rebuttal soon take care of them. He’s not hunting Megan to forewarn his captive what will happen to her if she doesn’t obey his every command. He is doing it to prove he is still in the game, that he is still capable of ruling his sanction with eminence.
He’s hunting Megan to prove a point.
“Don’t be absurd. My pet will follow this routine. I’m just preparing her for the carnage.”
Lies, nothing but lies spill from his lips.
“You know that isn’t the way I operate anymore. I didn’t just teach your mother; she taught me as well—most importantly, that people like us can never fall in love.”
He pours two servings of whiskey into dusty glasses before handing one to me. His hand rattles so fiercely, brown liquid spills over the rim and onto the floor. I ignore his nerves. He always gets extra agitated in the lead up to a hunt.
“She was never going to understand us, Dexter. That’s why I had to do what I did. I didn’t want her to die. But she was hurting you, so I had no choice.”
He tosses down a mouthful of whiskey before suggesting I do the same. The last thing I want is to haze my mind with alcohol, but I need something to take the edge off the pain rocketing through my lower back. I have to be on my game tonight. I am the youngest and fittest here, but I am competing against a man who has hunted for longer than I’ve been born.
Megan left over an hour ago, but I know my father can still smell her scent lingering in the air. How do I know this? I can smell her as well. She’s not just imbedded in my skin; she’s underneath it. Never to be removed.
When I place my empty glass of whiskey on the counter, my father nudges his head to the bottle, asking if I want another. I shake my head, amplifying the immediate buzz the whiskey caused in my veins.
“Are you not going to finish yours?” My words slur like I’ve drunk a gallon of whiskey instead of a measly glass. I wiggle my tongue around my mouth, loosening its uncooperativeness.
When I take a step toward the bar for a glass a water, the room spins around me. The pain zinging my back no longer exists when my hands dart out to steady myself. I accidentally bump my glass off the counter, exposing a gritty substance coating the bottom of it.
Suspicion runs rife through my veins. “You drugged me?” My voice resembles a snake’s hiss in the seconds leading to his venomous strike. “You drugged your own fucking son?!”
My father steadies my wobbly legs by leaning me into his chest. He whispers words too low for my thumping ears to hear as he guides me to a mangy chair in the middle of the room. I watch him through kaleidoscope vision when he returns to the group of men standing at the side of his den, gawking at me with concern.
“It’s okay,” he assures them, his voice brimming with concern. “This is all a part of the detoxification process.”
When a man with a receding hairline asks if they should stay to help with my rehabilitation, my father assures him he has everything under control. He plays the part of a devoted father well. Even I’m convinced he is on a mission to rid me of evil.
After seeing out the men I thought were hunters, but now realize are guests, my father returns to the dark nook in his detached workshop at the back of his family manor. The manic glint his eyes held earlier has vanished, replaced with the gleam of a man in the midst of his prime.
“What did I tell you, son? What was the number one rule you swore you’dneverbreak again after your arrest?” He flips a chair around to face him before straddling it backwards. “You were not to fall in love—ever again!It’s a trick, a ploy, another way of medicating us! Women donotlove us. They want to contain us. Control us. They want to stop us from being the men we were born to be! I thought your arrest would have proven that to you!”
He scoots his chair closer, bringing his face to within an inch of mine. “That’s why I’m doing this. It was not my intention, but I’ve seen the signs you’re refusing to acknowledge. I was already suspicious of the indecisiveness in your tone when I asked if she was pure. You couldn’t stand the thought of her with another man; you didn’t even want to consider it.”
He tsks loudly. “That wasn’t your only downfall. You got sloppy. You left your hand wide open for the world to see. Your eagerness to put Ashlee in her place left me no doubt of what I needed to do. Then I saw how you looked at her when you thought I wasn’t watching.”
He sounds disgusted, like his throat is burning with the same bile scorching mine. “You did the same thing with Shelley. That’s why I had to send her away.”
