Page 24 of Lethal Truths

I could keep threatening her. Make her clean the entire three-story frat house. Have her do my homework. Order her to come to a party and strip for the guys. Hell, I could actually make her suck my dick in the middle of campus this time.

But even before I’ve wasted my time, I know that she’s too goddamn resilient for any of that to phase her. It’s so surface level, like high school bully shit, and Prudence is far too determined to let it stop her.

The fact of the matter is that Irene is Prudence’s one weak spot. I just don’t know how I feel about exploiting it. At what point do I go too far and turn into the fucking heartless monster my father wants me to be? I’d like to get back to normal once Prudence is gone, live a happy life, but I know there are some things I just wouldn’t be able to come back from.

The decision weighs heavily on me, my mind going back and forth, and my dad’s icy voice hissing in my ear. Fucking hell. I have no choice, really, do I? Closing my eyes, I send up a silent apology to whoever might be listening, and then I say, “Of course, I understand. Would I be able to speak with her over the phone, though? Just for a few moments?”

The doctor is quiet for a while as he considers. The longer he takes to answer, the more anxious I get, until I’m almost ripping my fucking hair out. Finally, the man grunts some kind of agreement and then puts me on hold while a nurse goes to fetch Irene.

“Hello?” a small, shaky voice murmurs into the phone.

I grit my teeth, rubbing my fingers over my temple to try to fend off another headache. I’ve been getting them more and more lately, and I blame Prudence and all the trouble she’s brought into my life. “Hi, Irene,” I breathe, failing to put any emotion into my voice besides reluctance. “I hear you’re not…” I trail off and clear my throat, listening to her even breaths through the phone. “That you’re not doing too well lately.”

Irene is quiet on the other end for a while, but I don’t push. I give her time to collect her undoubtedly chaotic thoughts. “It’s them… St-stars. They m-mixed my brain up when they had me t-tied up,” she eventually stutters out, so low that it’s almost difficult to hear her.

Sitting up straight, I frown, though she can’t see the expression. I’m well aware of the history between Irene and The Celestials… Or I thought I was. The story my dad told me made it seem like she fell in love with one of the members, got dragged into his secret life, and then couldn’t handle it and split. But he didn’t say she was mentally unstable at the time, and he certainly didn’t tell me that she was pregnant with Prudence when she ran, either. I found the latter out all on my own.

But that leaves me wondering what else my father has chosen to omit?

“The stars?” I ask casually, even as my heart begins to race. I’m caught between wanting to hear the story from her side and being hesitant to believe a word that falls from her lips. I won’t give her any information to roll into a semi-believable story, though, so I keep my next words vague and uninterested. “Like, up in the sky?”

Irene chuckles darkly. “You’d think, but no. No, no, they’re down below,” she whispers, and something about the haunting lilt in her tone has goosebumps springing up along my arms. “The stars under the black woods… They h-hurt. It’s what th-they do, did you know? They hurt me, just like so many others b-before me.”

“I don’t—“

“But I had my Catie. My Prudence Cate, she was there. I had to get away for her, so I could stop them f-from hurting her, too.” Irene sucks in a shuddering breath, and the sound of it is so wounded and raw that it’s as if she’s right back there, reliving her trauma all over again. “She’s—Prudence, my girl, sh-she’s safe now?” she pleads, her voice cracking.

Slamming my eyes closed to fend off the emotion rising within me, I lick my lips and nod. Not in silent answer to Irene’s question, but at myself, to convince myself to do this. Because now that I’ve got her on the phone, I can’t hang up without saying this one thing. Even if it goes against… well, fucking everything.

“Prudence is safe,” I rasp, my heart trying to crawl up my throat. “Your daughter is safe, Irene. The stars won’t touch her.”

Right now, this very second, I’m not sure if I believe my own words or not. I have a task to complete, no matter how guilty I feel about it. But what if I just said no? What if I demanded answers from my father before I made another move in the name of The Celestials? Would he kill me on the spot, or would I get to make my own choices and find out who I am without their constant intervening?

What a wild thought that is…

My mind is ripped back to the moment when Irene breathes out a broken sob. “They won’t f-find her. I ran. Years and years, house a-after house… We moved. Always moving, so they’d get tired of searching. She’s safe as long as she doesn’t wander the black woods,” she rambles, sounding distant, like she’s lost in thought.

I scrub my free hand through my hair, trying to think of something to say to ease my way out of this conversation and hopefully forget all about it. I’ll tell my dad that my visitor application got denied, and then I’ll find another way to hurt Prudence… Or maybe I won’t.

“No!” Irene shouts, startling me enough that I jump and almost drop my phone. “You promise me! You swear that she won’t go near that place! If they get their bloodied hands on her, we’ll never find her again.” Her words are spilling rapidly from her mouth, growing more frantic as someone in the background asks her to put the phone down. “No, please, no! You don’t know what they did to me! They’ll do worse to my girl if they find her! She’s one of them! Ple—“

The call disconnects, jolting me from my shocked, still position. A gnawing feeling creeps up in the back of my mind. From the moment I saw her, Prudence looked familiar. She’s stirred old, forgotten memories that have refused to settle into the background since. Why? That’s nagged at me for months. I’d never met her before all this, I don’t truly know her. So why does her smile — not that I see it very often — pull on something in my brain?

She’s one of them. What does that mean? Fuck, I need to speak with my dad. Just another question to add to the ever-growing list. Doubts and guilt rear up yet again, and the longer I stare at my phone, the more hesitant I feel about continuing this shit.

Something isn’t right. Maybe it never was.

16

Prudence

I finally spoke to my mom. She’s not well, still unstable, but even so, what she told me made perfect, haunting sense. I thought and thought over what to do about this news, and finally settled on violence. Which is why I’m here, in the middle of the night.

The kitchen knife in my hand feels like an extension of me as I climb the stairs and stop at the third floor landing. My fingers curl tighter over the black handle, and my entire body is humming with an innate rage.

Don’t kill him, I try to remind myself. The problem is, there’s another, louder voice in my head screaming at me to spill some blood. I’ve hated people. I’ve despised people. But until tonight, until this very moment, I’ve never honestly wished someone unfathomable harm.

I guess Asher is just special like that.

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