Page 47 of Protector

I try to reach out to him, but it’s no use, as he’s being held back by guards himself.

And as I’m almost through the door, a million thoughts hit me at once. The first is Bonnie’s smile, her laugh, the way she lights up around me, then it’s of our night together, the trust she had with me, giving me all of her. Her life, her soul, her body. And then the very last thought, the one that would haunt my every waking moment from this second onwards.

I am never going to see her again.

And that’s why I shout to King, desperate pleas that she knows I didn’t leave her, and I never will.

“Tell Bonnie I love her!”

The last thing I hear is Carlo’s laugh, and then I’m hit on the back of the head, everything going dark, including my thoughts of Bonnie.

An hour maybe after Carlo locked me down here, the door above the stairs opens again, and heaving his way down the creaky old steps is my father, a smug smirk on his face.

“That’s one problem solved, now for the last.”

“Where is he?” I ask, walking myself up to the bars caging me in this concrete box.

“Firstly, you don’t ask questions. When the fuck have you ever been important enough to ask questions?” Carlo laughs, and I frown at him.

How is this my father? I was aching and desperate for his attention for years. I looked up to him, pined for him. I wanted nothing more than the love of my father from the first moment I can remember.

Shame washes through me, sickened and disgusted with myself that I could ever want to be anything to this man.

“Now, how far along are you?”

I step back a little, shock crossing my features.

“What?”

“How far along are you?” Carlo asks again coldly, and I stammer.

“I, I don’t know. I’ve literally only just found out, and then you dragged me away. Wait, where’s Maria?”

But Carlo just shakes his head again. He said he wasn’t going to answer any of my questions.

“I dragged you away because you were stupid enough to get knocked up. You have never been any use to this life, or my world, and you never will. It ends now.”

My heartbeat slows, almost as if it knows this is its last moments.

My palms grow clammy, my eyes welling up.

“Why do you want to know how far along I am?” I ask shakily, terrified to even hear the answer.

Carlo steps up to the bars, a hideous smirk masking his face.

“Because I wanted to know if I’d be killing more than one person today.”

My world stops.

You don’t know what evil is until you look it in the eye. They say the devil is evil, that the fiery pits of Hell are where all evil comes from. But after looking into Carlo’s eyes, even I can’t believe that.

Because whilst the devil's eyes may dance with flames of fire, my father’s eyes are blank, and that is more evil than any spirit or demon.

“You, you can’t do this to me,” I whisper, stepping back up to the bars, trying to plead my case.

“I can and I will,” Carlo replies coldly, snatching Puck’s journal out of my hand.

“Give that back,” I shout, but Carlo flips open the pages and scoffs at the words written on each page.

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