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“You mean this old thing?” She glances at the syringe in her hand. “I stole it from Eli. It’s some kind of tranquilizer for the animals. I figure if this will bring down a lion it’ll probably kill a tiny, insignificant human girl. Goodnight, sister. Thank you for building an empire for me. I’m so excited to step into your life. My life. Kisses.”
She air-kisses my cheeks as she jams her thumb down, emptying the syringe into my neck. I try to kick, to scream, but a grey fog envelops the edges of my eyes and makes my tongue flop about uselessly. The last thing I see before the fog takes me is my own reflection laughing at me.
Then everything goes black.
Claudia
I’m underwater, chest heaving, bubbles escaping my mouth. My whole body screams for oxygen, but I don’t want to go up just yet. I like being down here where it’s quiet, where no one expects anything from me.
Where my father can’t hurt me.
Eli’s calling me. I look up and see him silhouetted against the harsh sunlight – a skinny boy of eleven, eyes wide as he begs me to surface, to stop scaring him, to stop pretending I want to give up. He plunges into the water, wrapping his arms around me and pulling, pulling… and I don’t want to go…
Wait, no. Those aren’t my memories. This isn’t my life. It’s the life I stole from Mackenzie…
The hands around me aren’t Eli’s. The arms are thick, veins standing up beneath intricate tattoos, the skin on the hands rough from fighting. I sink deeper into the warmth of those familiar arms. A name dances in front of my face, but I’m not sure if I say it aloud or just dream it.
“Antony?”
“C’mon, Claws.” He drags me – a dead weight, my feet scraping on rough stone. “It’s this way.”
“Wha…” I fight to keep my eyes open. I’m no longer in the swimming pool, no longer cocooned in that calm, cool water. I’m assaulted by everything that’s wrong – the throbbing in my neck, the damp, thick air of the tunnels, the concerning fact that I can no longer feel the cavity where my heart used to be. I can no longer feel anything at all below my neck.
“It’s okay, cousin,” Antony murmurs as he drags me like I weigh nothing at all, which to him I probably don’t. “Everything’s going to be fine. I sorted it out, like I always do. I spoke to the guys. They’re waiting for us at Colosseum. I just have to get you out of here before she finds us, so do me a favor and move those legs.”
I focus every thought on supporting my own weight, but Antony’s moving too fast and my legs have become two strange floppy things that aren’t attached to my body. I sink back into his arms, letting him drag me where he needs us to go.
Antony’s here. The guys. Everything’s okay.
We emerge into the round room where Mackenzie left her parents’ bodies. Our parents. It’s exactly as I remember it, except that my foggy, grey-tinged mind registers two differences – a rope ladder now hangs from the hole high on the other side. And there seems to be a giant hole and a pile of dirt, and two more coffins in the room, even though Galen and Tiberius dismantled them and disposed of the Malloys weeks ago.
No. That’s just my double-vision. I rub my eyes. Moving my hands makes my whole body lurch to the side. I grab onto Antony to keep from toppling over.
Two coffins, or one?
“Immmmooooo…” I try to say that I’m never going to be able to climb that rope ladder, but what comes out is a strangled moan. My vision swims.
“You don’t have to climb the ladder,” Antony says as he drops me. I can’t control my arms to break my fall. My face slams into the dirt floor. “You’re not leaving this room.”
Antony’s fingers grip my arm, twisting it so roughly I cry out. He kicks out his leg, shoving the lid off the coffin. I expect to see Howard’s decomposed body, but instead, it’s empty, the sides lined in fancy fresh satin colored ice blue to match my eyes.
A Walter Hart original.
“What’s going on?” I cry, although I’m not sure if I say the words out loud or just in my head. I can’t feel my lips anymore. “Where’s Howard Malloy?”
“This isn’t his coffin any longer,” Antony says. “It’s yours.”
Claudia
With a tenderness I didn’t know him capable of, Antony lays me down inside the coffin. In my head I’m screaming, pummeling him with my fists, hitting him with everything I’ve got. But my limbs won’t move. All that escapes from my mouth are incoherent moans.
I sink down into the plush silk, betrayed by the drug that’s pulling me under.
Betrayed by my cousin, by the closest family I have.
“What are you doing?” I try to say as Antony arranges my hands at my sides, positioning me like an Egyptian mummy at a museum. But my lips refuse to work. The words don’t materialize – only a low, anguished cry that I can’t believe comes from my own lips.
Antony peers down, smoothing back my hair. “I know you’re trying to speak, but the drug will keep you quiet. This won’t be like last time, I promise. You’ll just slip away into nothing. It’s more than you deserve.”
