Page 59 of Beautiful Prey

“Ms. Eve…I am. Got back last night. How can I help you?”

I moved over to the window to look out at the island, at the clock tower of St. Agnes staring back. “I know this is a late notice, but I need to see Emery.”

There was a pause. “I’m sorry, Eve, but that can’t happen.”

“Why not?” I started to pace. Had Ethan talked to someone already?

“We don’t allow visitors after eight on weekends,” John replied. “And since it’s almost eight now…”

“Not even for an emergency?”

I heard him shift around. “What kind of an emergency?”

“I…” I couldn’t exactly explain. Because it was really only important to me. “I just really need to talk to Emery.”

“If it’s serious I can take a message to Dr. Thomas. Or to Dr. Langley but he won’t be in until tomorrow afternoon.”

“That’s okay,” I said. “Can I just come in tomorrow? As early as you will allow?”

He paused again as if thinking it over. “Dawn. At seven. He gets outside time around then, but we can make it work.”

“Thank you, John,” I said in a breath. I let him go, then clutched at my stomach grimacing. I didn’t have an appetite in the least, but I forced myself to eat something anyway. After, I rifled through the rest of the files.

I opened Nina’s record and read the whole thing. Dad hadn’t lied about one thing at least. According to the record, she had died in the hospital just like they had told Emery. She passed from a collapsed lung and blood clots. Not mentioning she was malnourished or anything else. I wanted to cry all over again reading her file, noticing this time the notes were signed by my brother. When I watched her videos, it was my brother there watching her. Like father, like son.

She spoke in a whisper. It was so heartbreaking. They’d shaved her head because she had kept ripping out her hair. It was astounding she had lasted as long as she did.

The rest of the night, I went through the other folders of the remaining children. Learning their names, their birthdays, where they had been taken from, and where some had died. Most were from the States, but a couple came from South America and another from the South Pacific. Most who died hadn’t made it past their eleventh birthday. Nowhere did they say where the others had gone, but I wrote their names down thinking maybe somehow, I could find them. Someday.

I went through each video, disturbed, but unable to stop watching, knowing if I fell asleep, I would have nightmares.

Before I knew it, light was beginning to show over the water. I looked at the time and readied to leave.

It took me longer than usual to pass through the gates as the guards weren’t expecting me. I parked in my normal spot, seeing some of the patients walking across the yard with workers around them.

Now that I was here, it was hard to walk up the steps to the entrance, knowing what I was about to do. Knowing I would have to see the hurt in Emery’s eyes, the disappointment, the anger.

As I opened the door, I was greeted by John on the other side.

“I’ll need you to fill out this form before I have you see him,” he said in greeting, “as well as sign in so the doctors know you were here. We’ll chalk it up to an extra session.”

While I signed in, John made the call to those out in the gardens, letting them know to secure Emery in the courtyard.

I followed John out to the yard and around back to the gardens. The lone, gated courtyard was situated next to the gardens and the kitchens; a small, bare cobbled stone space with an oak to one side and a bench underneath it. Emery stood alone, his feet and hands chained as usual, only this time, they were tied to a pole at the center which he could walk around. His back was to me looking at the wall covered in ivy and the oak tree whose red leaves glowed like fire in the rising sun and fell every so often onto the ground to join the other dead leaves scattered at his feet.

Jittery, my hands were clammy, as I approached him.

“Emery, you’ve got a visitor,” John called. “You’ll be happy to see this one.”

Emery turned his head, and when he saw me, his eyes lit up. “Evee?”

He turned to face me, and from the look in his eyes, I knew he was smiling behind his skull mask. With long strides he moved toward us, the chain connected to the pole sliding across the ground like a snake, only to be pulled taut as he reached the maxdistance, several feet from us, enough to keep him in the center of the courtyard.

“Stay behind the line, Ms. Eve.” John pointed to the red line painted on the ground. “Emery, be polite. I’ll have one of my guys close by.” He left us alone, left me to stand there with Emery who was towering before me. Seeing him sitting most of the time, I rarely noticed how massive he was until he stood. With him being so close, it made him even more intimidating.

He tilted his head, his fingers playing with the chains on his wrist as if he was uncertain what to do with his hands. I had this all played out in my head, but I was too scared to speak.

“Hi, Emery…” I said softly. Why did this have to be so difficult?

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