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“Twelve.”
“Twelve?”
Five frowns. “She’s dead, Leon.”
“He wouldn’t fuck her!” he grinds out, fury coating his words.
“No, you misunderstand me,” Five says, eyes widening.
“What do you mean?” I ask, my gaze pinballing between the pair, confused by the mixed signals I’m getting. Konradwantsto fuck, to hurt and heal, then do it all over again. He said as much to me that day he sewed me up. That’s his kink, so why is Five implying thathe’sthe victim here. This was obviously some sex game gone wrong.
“I don’t believe Konrad is at fault here,” Five goes on to say.
“Of course he wasn’t!” Leon retorts angrily, shocking me further. “Do you think he would’ve retreated to the furthest parts of his mind if hewantedto fuck Twelve?”
Thirteen gasps but I just feel numb, uncertain how to react. Is he suggesting she raped him? My head spins and I wobble on my feet. Thirteen reaches for me, placing her arm around my shoulder as we silently follow Five and Leon into the room.
The first thing I notice is Twelve hanging from a rope tied through a hook that’s embedded into the stone ceiling. She’s naked, her eyes bloodshot, her tongue hanging out of her mouth, her face swollen and dark purple. There’s dried semen between her legs and even a little blood. I gag, my gaze flicking away from her face only to land on the severed head of the Baron. His skin is mottled, tinged green and brown, and filled with holes. A knife is embedded in his forehead, and one is wedged into the weeping socket of his eye.
“No. Oh Jesus,” I whimper, the stale scent of sex and rotting flesh permeating the air, poisoning it. Too traumatised to move, I simply stand and stare at the carnage before me.
“Five, cut her down!” Leon demands making me jump.
He reaches for me, twisting me in his arms and ducking his head so he can look me in the eyes. “Konrad didn’t do this. Iknowhim,” he says fiercely before crushing me against his chest in a hug that squeezes the air from my lungs.
It’s true, he does, and that means he also knows that Konrad is capable of doing exactly what Twelve did to him, andhasdone to her in the past no doubt. When Leon lets me go, I know he reads that truth on my face. Regret, pain,shame, it all registers on his face as he swipes a hand through his hair. “Will you be okay for a moment?”
“Yes,” I nod.No, I think.
My gaze tracks Leon as he strides over to his brother on the other side of the cell. Konrad’s strapped to a chair, black leather restraints pinning him in place. He’s still wearing the same clothes that he wore the day of Renard’s funeral, a black suit with a white shirt that is no longer white but dirtied by sweat, and dried vomit. His trousers fare no better, covered in the white stain of their arousal, and his flaccid cock rests against his thigh. But none of that is more disturbing than the way he stares off into the distance behind the cover of his mask. His blue eyes are blank of emotion, of feeling, of any kind of life.
It’s like he isn’t even there any more.
“She did this to him,” Leon says, gently resting his hand against Konrad’s cheek, cupping his face and the mask Five had the wherewithal to put back on him, saving Thirteen, if not herself from a life sentence within these castle walls.
“Yes. Then killed herself because she knew what the consequences would be,” Five finishes quietly. I glance over my shoulder as she lays Twelve on the ground, gently untying the rope from her neck. “She loved him in all the wrong ways.” Her golden eyes find mine and a thousand words are spoken. I flick my gaze away from her, refusing to acknowledge them.
“Fuck!” Leon exclaims, pressing his forehead against Konrad’s. “What have we done?”
That unanswered question hangs in the putrid air as Leon struggles to comprehend what’s happened and how their actions have led to this point. Twelve was in love with Konrad, so much so that her love twisted into something dark and obsessive,poisonous. The Masks fucked with her mind, twisted her up inside so much that when she couldn’t get the attention she craved from the man who abused and manipulated her, she took it for herself. She became the assailant, their violence perpetuating more violence, just like their father would’ve wanted.
That thought terrifies me because Iknowwhat that looks like for me.
“I can’t,” I mumble, shaking my head as I stumble backwards, emptying the contents of my stomach in the corner of the cell. I heave until there’s nothing left and even then I don’t feel any better. I feel like I’m losing myself to this place, to these men and the way they twist me up inside. It’s a sickness that infects and destroys.
“Christy?” Leon questions. I hear the concern in his voice, and it only makes me feel worse, not better.
“Just give me a moment,” I mutter, leaning my back against the wall.
He nods, focussing his attention on Thirteen. “Help me untie him.”
“We should get him back to my room. I think I have some tonics that might help,” Thirteen says, swallowing back her own emotions and pushing them aside as she helps Leon to untie him.
“No,” Leon says, shaking his head. “We both know that your tonics and ointments can only heal physical wounds. I know what I need to do. I’ve done it before to get him back.”
“This has happened before?” I whisper, staring at Konrad who is lost to some place far, far away from here.
“This isn’t the first time Konrad has retreated into himself.”
