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“Fine. Let’s go.”
CHAPTER20
CHLOE
Iknow this place.
The dirt roads, the tall trees, the rustle of the wind the only sound around us. I breathe in, the woody scent taking me back to my childhood. I remember being young and coming up here with my family. I couldn’t have been much more than five or six, too young to recall much else, other than the fact that it’s one of the happier memories that are locked inside my mind. I look around, remembering the dirt track that leads to the lake not too far away, full of pretty boats. A vision of Jake and I jumping off the jetty and into the water fills my head.
Laughter. Happiness.
I swallow, my heart swelling because all it’s reminding me is that there was a time where I used to have that before everything went wrong. Mum was sick and what she did was terrible, but there were glimpses of happiness in there somewhere in between all of the bad, heartbreaking memories. It’s so easy to forget the good, given all that has happened to me.
Jake turns to me and smiles. “You remember this place, huh?”
I nod, blinking back tears. “I think it was Grandpa’s old cabin? I remember jumping off the jetty and Dad catching me in the water. I was so happy that day.”
Jake nods. “The last time we came here was the week before they died.”
I frown, trying to think back to that trip. Hazy memories merge into each other, distorted and confused. There’s not much that I do remember about my childhood, even when I think really hard about it. Just fragments of the trauma I have suffered. A psychiatrist once told me that it was my mind’s way of coping with all the tragedy. I guess that makes sense, but sometimes I feel like I’ve missed such a huge part of my life. I lost my childhood.
“You took Marissa here?” I ask, confused by why he would do that. One of the few positive memories I have with my family is now tainted and that makes me angry.
He nods. “It was the only place I could think of to bring her.”
“And do what?” I ask, bewildered. “What exactly is the plan here?” I ask, as if we don’t both know what he’s planning.
He shrugs. “Whatever it takes to protect us. You and me against the world, remember?”
I shake my head. “This isn’t right. You can't kill her,” I say, hoping to God I’m not too late. What if he’s already done it? We’re in the middle of nowhere. There would be a million places out here to hide a body. The lake…the woods…
I shudder, Jake’s voice ripping me from my thoughts.
“Why the fuck not, Chloe?” he shouts, his lip curling into a snarl. “She’s going to ruin us. She already has. Think about everything she’s done. Does she really deserve to live?”
“Everyone deserves to live,” I whisper the words so softly I’m not sure he hears me.
Jake's grip around the steering wheel tightens, his eyes darkening. I haven’t seen him this angry, this worked up since that night…I swallow, not wanting to think about it. Thinking about it reminds me of how dirty I felt. How helpless and alone I was night after night. How ashamed I felt when Jake walked in on us and saw what he saw…
I clench my jaw tightly and force the bad memories from my mind. They have no place being there anymore. Even dead, I won’t give Victor the satisfaction of making me feel that way ever again.
“She's not a nice person,” Jake grits his teeth. He’s getting frustrated with me now, which makes me nervous. “It's never going to be over unless we make it end. Now, are you with me or not?”
“Okay, fine. Let’s just get this over with.” I swallow and then nod, willing to agree to anything to try and appease him for now. I will work out what I'm going to do to stop him later.
We pull up outside the cabin and I can’t stop staring at it. It looks so different to how my eight-year-old mind remembers it. The paint is peeling, the once flourishing garden has been neglected and is long dead, so much so that it looks derelict. The whole place is falling apart. It’s the kind of cabin you'd see and think it's abandoned, a place you wouldn’t think twice about driving past.
The perfect place to kidnap someone…
I get out of the car, closing the door quietly, then I follow Jake up the path to the front door. He opens it and I walk in behind him, following him down the hallway and into a small bedroom. The frayed curtains are drawn, and the dark room is empty, apart from a chair that Marissa is sitting on. She's bound, gagged and blindfolded. Her head jerks up at the sound of us and she struggles against the restraints, her screams muffled by the tape wrapped tightly around her mouth. My heart races as I steal a glance at my brother.
What the hell is he doing?
“Jake?” My voice cuts through my throat, barely above a whisper. “What is this?”
“She’s a fucking lunatic who deserves to be taught a lesson,” he barks at me.
I’m not arguing that she’s not crazy, or that she doesn’t deserve some form of punishment, but what exactly is his plan?
