Page 63 of No Asylum Here

“We couldn’t reach you in time. There were complications with the baby.”

“And?”

“She was too weak to deliver the child. Barbara Reed is dead.”

Chapter Thirty

Mal

I winced as my teeth sliced through my forearm, drawing a fresh torrent of blood. I dipped my fingers in the wound, hissing at the sting, and set to finishing Tuesday’s portrait.

Something was missing.

I painted “MINE” in large dripping letters over her throat. Then again, on her forehead. Her cheeks. Her lips.

Mine.

Mine.

Mine.

Mine.

Mine.

I stood back to admire my work and frowned.

I’d gotten carried away. My bloody proclamations covered all of her.

Unable to contain the rage I felt from not being able to see her face, I slammed my fist into the cement until my knuckles bled. Then, using the blood from the fresh wound, I started over on a new wall.

The shutter covering the peephole of my cell door opened with a loud clank. My bloody knuckles cracked as my fists clenched from irritation. How dare they interrupt my work?

“You’re finally out of your jacket, and this is what you do? You really are one crazy fuck.” The orderly snorted. “Every other poor bastard in your cage would be rubbing their meat until it’s raw.”

“Fuck off, I’m busy⁠—”

“Wait, what in the fuck happened to you?”

“Boiled alive,” I muttered, paying no mind to the orderly or my red and peeling flesh.

“Ah, classic,” the man cackled.

After a few moments of tense silence, filled only with my unparsable muttering, the orderly on guard shut the peephole with a bored sigh.

Once I was nearly done with her portrait, my attention snagged on the shade of my blood, particularly on her mouth. If only my tainted blood were a brighter shade of red, then it would match the lipstick the doctor liked. Pity.

Then, I blinked. Or I thought I had. It felt like no time at all, yet I must have blacked out for at least a handful of minutes, because the second portrait was now completely covered by my obsessive brush strokes.

This time, it was different from the first.

Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine.

Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine.

Mine. XX. Mine. XX. XXX. XX. Mine. XX. Mine.

Mine. XX. Mine. XX. Mine. XX. Mine. XX. Mine.