AllFreeNovel
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One of the guards has his hands around one side, and the other around my other.
“Your test was to get out, but you didn’t do that. You gave up. Weak.” The guards push me back into the igloo, slamming the glass door closed and locking it again.
Royce’s eyes come to mine, and his fingers go to both of his eyes and then to me.I’ve got youis what they say.
I shake my head, defeat racking through my body. Anger vibrates through me, but I can’t find the energy to fight back. When they’re all turned and making their way out of the clearing, I pick up the razor beside me, falling to the ground.
Tearing off my shirt, I toss it to the ground and bring the razor to my chest. Sinking it into my skin, I carve the wordsthe last petal fell.My hands fall to the side, my eyes closing as my chest tightens and my throat closes.
Whatever gas he’s releasing into the den this time, I hope it takes me. I don’t want to wake up. Not now, not ever.
Two pointed bunny ears look down on me, covering eyes so fucking green they remind me of the ocean. She has soft lips, not quite as big as Ruby’s but big enough, and wears a tiny little bra and panties. I go to press up from the floor, only my hand collides with a mattress.
I’m in bed. She moved me.
I raise my hand to my chest and feel the covering over my cuts. And bandaged me. I want to ask who she is and why she is here, but I have the feeling that whatever K Diamond wants from me, it has to do with her. The den is clean, no sign of the struggles the last sixteen days have endured when it was filled with four of us. It’s not until I shift around the bed that I notice he has moved me to a separate igloo, one away from the last. Not much difference in this one, except there are latches on the bed, LED lights lining some appliances, and a large box at the foot of the bed.
“You are awake.” K Diamond’s voice comes through the box. “I’m sorry to do this to you, Wicked, and you have to know that you and I have no issues. Whatever you have going on with my brother is between you and him. So I give you this…” My shoulders rise and fall as I take in deep breaths. He couldn’t possibly give me anything. He has taken too much already. “You do this. Give me six more days in here and I will give you the location of Skully once I see fit.”
I want to talk. I want to yell and call him every fucking curse word, but the anger I feel bubbling inside of me is stuck in my throat. I can’t even find the energy to address his bullshit.
“The girl who is looking back at you is in need of your service. I studied the video between you and La Rosa, and now this one needs you. Do you agree? And then I will let you free.”
I stare back at the green eyes through the glossy leather bunny mask, before going back to the camera. “Yeah.”
I give him six extra days, and the girl with the bunny mask hasn’t come back. My soul scratches against the areas inside of me that it knows it can use as an escape. I stay lying on my back, watching as the crescent moon slowly fazes past me and hides behind the thick trees. I don’t think about Poppy anymore. Blocking her name and face out of my memory because it burns too much to have it there.
I shoot to my feet when the door unlatches by itself, opening wide onto the outside. I haven’t felt fresh air touch my skin for days upon days. I don’t even know how many have passed now. Looking down onto my arm, I stare blankly at the cuts sliced into my skin, as if I’ve tried to scribble out the days I have kept track of.
“You’re free, Wicked.”
“You told me you would give me Skully.” I say, but stepping closer to the door, afraid it will close. That first brush of air flicks over my skin and I close my eyes to feel it whistle through my bloodstream and calm me.
“And I will. In time. For now? You’re free.”
I jolt forward, not bothering to get any of my clothes. I run so fast the wind slaps me across my face. I continue running through the dirty tracks until I come to a grass opening and field. I don’t want to go toward the asylum where he is. I wanted out this way. I needed it. To feel dirt between my toes and the air massaging my skin.
I stop when I reach a wired fence, grabbing it in my palms and ignoring when the stabs of barbed wire rip through them. I keep running. To feel blood finally rushing through my body as if it has been vacant all along. Headlights flash past up ahead and I know that I’m close to a road. A busy road. I keep running, shoving through fallen branches and dodging tree trunks. I tearthrough a clearing and pause when I see a car idling on the curbside. Blacked out windows on a BMW isn’t what has me stopping. It’s when the door opens and the man who comes out stares back at me.
“Royce?”
He nudges his head to the car. “Brother.”
Time stands still when you’re waiting for death. The words replay in my mind like a bad song that won’t get out. A song with no tune, no melody, no lyricism. Death is God’s way of regaining control. As if He needed a reminder because He knew that for years, it was Papa that held all of the control. ItisPapa who owns all of the control. It has been one whole year since I gave Papa that envelope, and I still don’t know what was inside of it.
“Principessa…” Mama’s voice filters through the room and I turn slightly to face her. She stops at the threshold of the door, as if she knows how much they’ve taken from me but do it anyway.
Mama straightens her shoulders and continues all the way into the bedroom in my penthouse apartment in the city. It is fitting for them to do this for me. Keep me in Chicago for the reasons Papa always threatens. I know the threats aren’t empty, and yet here we are, staring at each other because we both know.
We know that all of the threats over the year, the things we both did, mean nothing. Nothing because now? Now Papa is dead.
“I need you back at the house, Ruby. You don’t need to be here anymore—”
I cut her off, tilting my head. “Papa wouldn’t want me there.” I don’t bother to wait for her to answer, shifting my weight around to look through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows that overlook the city below. “He hated me toward the end.”
“He didn’t hate you, Ruby!” Mama scolds, entering into my space. I can feel her anxiety shiver over me as she lowers herself down onto my bed. “He didn’t understand you, and that is different from hate.”
“I can’t do this…” I whisper so harshly I almost choke on the words. “I can’t—”
