Page 49 of Tainted Love

Blood lines the floor, pooling out from beneath a pile of bodies. I can barely recognize their faces anymore. I can’t even stare at them long enough to try. Nausea rattles my stomach, dropping me to my knees. Marty lets me fall and I land at the end of a quivering, whimpering line of fellow dancers and friends.

“Lucy…”

I look up to see my father on his knees in front of me with a bleeding nose. A man stands behind him with a gun pointed to his head while two more of Marty’s men linger nearby.

“Daddy—!”

Marty grabs my hair again before I can reach for him. He pulls back, tearing it out at the roots, and points his own gun at me. “Where is Dante Hart?”

I shake my head. “What?”

He points his gun across the stage, straight at Cynthia, and fires. The bullet strikes her in the chest. She falls backward, tumbling off the stage onto the floor below. I cry out with my hands over my mouth, too scared to do anything else.

Marty shifts back in my direction, grazing the gun barrel against my cheek so it burns me.

“Where is Dante Hart?” he asks again.

I sob loudly, looking up into his bloodshot eye. “I don’t know! I swear!”

Marty presses the barrel harder into my skin and I cringe beneath the burning hiss.

“Stop hurting her!” my father cries out. “Please!”

Marty tugs on me. “Answer the question and I’ll stop!”

“I don’t know where he is!” I scream.

“You were with him last night!”

My father raises his head, surprise crossing his eyes. I keep my focus on Marty, far too ashamed to look at him.

“I was!” I say. “But he kicked me out this morning!”

Marty leans down. “When?”

My vision blurs but I see a line of blood falling out from beneath his bandage, staining his pale, white skin. “I…” I close my eyes, pushing through to the memory. “Eight! Eight-thirty! I think.”

“Did he say why?”

I cringe from his pungent breath. “No!”

“You’re lying…”

“No! Please! I’m not!”

My father jerks his head up. “Leave her alone!”

Marty extends his arm, pointing his gun at my father.

I hold up my hands. “Wait— no! I’m telling the truth. Dante saw the news and he kicked me out — told me to forget he ever existed! Please—” I reach for my father, tears pouring free. “Don’t hurt my father, please—”

“I don’t believe you,” Marty growls.

He pulls the trigger.

“No—!”

My father slumps to the stage and all my senses break down within me. I scream but I can’t hear it. Black auras invade my vision. Bile boils in my throat. Blood spills out from between my father’s glossy eyes, rolling slowly toward me along the floor as the life drains from his face.

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