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Leaving it, I open every drawer, pulling them out and abandoning them in a heap on the floor. Empty. Empty. Empty.
I’m as empty as the drawers that lay around my feet once I’m finished. The light that’s been such a central part of my life, blinked out in an instant.
The emptiness that stamps its way around my insides is consuming and joined by a wave of anger so strong I couldn’t control it if I tried. In an instant, I’m out, leaving the sliding doors wide open as I stalk my way back down the path, around the pool and to the glass back doors of the main house, and as I hammer the door, it takes everything I never realised I had not to scream.
She’s gone.
An unmarked grave was her likely destination.
And we sat here watching TV while they did it.
My stomach twists again, the thought so disturbing my body can’t even control its reaction to it.
While we were here worrying about what was going to happen to us, the unconsolidated group of men and women, the ones that aren’t paired up andsafe,the two that declared themselves each others are done, gone, lost.
And why the hell isn’t anyone answering this door?
Eventually, Leo appears, flicking the lock and sliding it back as the anger tumbles from me in a rush, collapsing into a heap in his arms, tears tracking down my face.
“Woah, angel,” he placates, catching me and pulling me in against his chest, wrapping his arms around me as we lower to the floor and I sob uncontrollably.
“She’s gone. It’s all gone.”
He stills around me, anger rippling out in waves.
This is what we promised each other.
Vengeance when the other was hurt.
And I’m hurt. Incapacitated. Bleeding my pain into the arms of the man that promised me blood. Pain. Retribution.
I don’t even realise he’s contacted anyone until Jacob arrives, his presence a balm not just for me, but also Leo as his rage simmers around us, a palpable force.
“Taylor’s stuff is all gone.” He confirms the one thing I was hoping wasn’t real, and any tiny amount of hope I was desperately clinging onto tumbles from me in waves that I couldn’t control even if I wanted to, but they said it earlier on, didn’t they?
“Your fates are now mirrored, your achievements and weaknesses linked.”
NINETEEN
NICK
Me: You didn’t message me…
Me: Did you make it back okay?
Me: I’ll be coming to find you if you don’t reply…
Ifling the final message through to her and drop my phone on the sofa, unable to settle until she replies to me. I’ve got no idea what’s happening on the screen, but both Jacob and Leo have disappeared somewhere.So much for popcorn, I guess that’s code for something else.They could have just said.
Oh, hey, the tension in this programme is so high you could boil water with it, we need half an hour alone so we’ll see you later…that’s all it would have taken. But no, they make this all about the fucking popcorn and never come back with it, and Ivy hasn’t replied to me either.
Checking the phone again gets me nowhere, still no reply, so I shove it in my pocket, giving Aimee and Jasper the room as I go in search of this damn food I was promised, only, the doorbell rings.
That feeling I had as we left the church comes back in force, and dread sinks in my stomach as I open the door. The Sect are here.
“Good afternoon. Can we have everyone gathered in the movie room, please? Masks on.” He strides straight past me, two security guards following gaze to the ground as the other locks the door behind them, waiting for me to move.
Watching them gets me nowhere as I stand there stunned and silent. The security guard coughs beside me, forcing me into action, banging on the den door twice and calling out, “Masks on, movie room.”
