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Such contrast. Jenna lived her life in the Pit, and now she was sleeping for eternity in the Hills. I knew Ferris’s reasons for having the funeral in this graveyard. He was trying to compensate for our mistakes, bringing her close to her family since he was probably going to move them to one of his residences in the Hills.
Though what could ever compensate for her death?
I was searching for an answer to that exact question when I reached a small chapel located near the south entrance. A place where people came in moments of despair. It was exactly one of those moments, though nothing had prepared me for therealmeaning of despair.
The place was so peaceful and calm that I could hear the old wooden crack of the floor as I ventured further within to light a few candles. Maybe as a consequence of living with Ferris, but the smell of wax and fire was bringing me closer to the spirit world and hopefully closer to my friend.
I was just lighting a candle when the same squeak of the wooden floor filled the space.
At first, I suspected it was one of my kings, but the sound was sinister, like coils of fear were sneaking up on me. Inexplicably, I wanted to run away, deflect the danger and surround myself with all the ones dear to me. I felt like a cub that ventured off too far from his nest, too afraid to stay still and wait for an outcome, too afraid to turn and see who it was.
And maybe I was exactly a cub since the voice that filled the room hid a parental sound.
A fake parental sound. ‘Hello, my daughter.’
Like an earthquake running through my world, acknowledging the man’s presence seemed an impossible task. My brain was refusing to process that it was him. That was until I finally turned and discerned the face I hoped never to see again.
‘Father?’ I murmured, recognizing the last person I wanted to set eyes on. My mind just clicked, tying his presence with the negative events present in my life lately.
I scanned him from head to toe, observing a strange worker’s uniform. A gravedigger. That’s how he must’ve passed Brax’s bodyguards and got in unobserved.
‘What are you doing here?’ I quivered, although I seemed to know the answer to that question. The glimpse of madness shining from the depths of his mind was making things as clear as day and night.
He wasn’t my father.
He was a killer.
‘Funny that you ask this question. You’re a smart girl, Bea. You know why I’m here. You took something that belongs to me. You destroyed my business. You destroyed everything I’d built!’ His voice was alternating between shaking with anger and a surreal calm, like hell could break loose at any moment.
‘What you’d built! You were exploiting people for your personal interest, including your own family.’
‘I don’t have a family. Your mother was my only family. You were just the burdens she left me with.’
I always knew that he felt that way about us, but I never thought that he would reach the point that he could hate us enough to see us dead.
‘You’re a psychopath. You killed Jenna, didn’t you?’
‘I don’t even care what her fucking name was. She was wearing your clothes. It was supposed to be you. But I believe things turned out way better for me. Now I get a closeup of your death.’
My suspicions were right. He killed Jenna, thinking it was me. The thought didn’t get to linger in my mind for too long as the gun that was pointing straight at me managed to catch my full attention.
‘You’re not a parent. You’re a monster.’
‘With children like mine, does it surprise you? You have all betrayed me. And you will all pay the price for that.’
‘You had us begging strangers for money for years. You were going to sell Natalie to the highest bidder, yet you’re the one talking about betrayal?’
‘It was about time you ingrates gave me something in return. It was your fault that I needed to get rid of her. You and your stupid ideologies about high schools and colleges. They don’t ask you for a fucking degree down on the streets! She didn’t need to go to college to gain people’s mercy.’
‘No. She needs to go to college to gain self-respect.’
‘Well, self-respect gets you at the wrong end on the gun.’
I could hear him cocking his gun while the gaze of a killer was surfacing to send me to oblivion.
My pulse was racing like a wild stallion, and beads of cold sweat were gliding on my temples. The end was closing in on me. I could feel it the same way I felt it on that day back at the governor’s house, only this time around, I stood no chance of avoiding my destiny.
A gray shadow made its way between the chapel’s pillars, following the path of the darkness until the proximity to my sorry excuse of a father was close enough to create leverage for the man that had just sneaked inside. ‘Drop the fucking gun before I blow your brains out.’ A second weapon was being cocked as Cole’s cobalt blue eyes shone through dying candles.
