Page 28 of Sick Bargain

“What else should I apologize for, Remiel? Everything else should have been expected when you made a deal with a devil. But your brother? That shocked you and wasn’t part of the bargain.”

Well, when he puts it that way, I guess he’s right. I severely underestimated what I thought giving my life to a Vile Boy meant. I figured he’d try to control me a bit, hover, keep a watch over me, and get me to do a few things against my will. I had not expected him to completely overtake my life to the point where I can’t even touch anyone, and no longer have a house, ID, vehicle, or any free will.

“How long have you two been… uh, here?” Never had a conversation in a shower, naked, with a mysterious but familiar man before.

He puts body wash on a sponge and my eyes follow it across his chest and down his abs. I swallow when he gets to his cock, looking up at his eyes instead. “We initiated when we were seventeen.”

“Seventeen?” I gasp. “So, you’ve been the purple mask for, what, eleven years?”

“Three years. Before that, I had to work my way up. Same with Ghost.”

“Ghost,” I repeat my brother’s new name. “Right. Why Ghost?”

“That’s his story to tell.” He spins to rinse off, but there are no bubbles on his back, so I take the sponge from him on autopilot. He tenses when I run it over his muscles, but relaxes into it a heartbeat later. Why am I doing this? Plying my captor to make him less abusive to me?

I’m such a fuck-up.

“Why do you hate the letter C?” I ask instead, ignoring my dick hardening.

“I don’t know. It just sets me off. I went through a lot of psych evaluations where I had to look at blobs and describe what I saw. A lot of them looked like the letter C.”

“Oh.” Strange.

“One of them looked like a C, but also like a pregnant belly. Nothing weirds me out more than pregnancy,” he says, hands braced on the wall while I wash his back. “Things itch at me sometimes.”

I’m smiling, and I don’t know why. “Pregnancy kinda freaks me out, too.”

He spins, and the water stream pushes his hair over his eyes. When he wipes it away, his biceps flex, showing me another tattoo. Keegan with a giant X through it, crossing it out. He notices me looking.

“Keegan died a long time ago,” he says. “I feel more like myself as Krypt.”

Maybe Remiel will die and I’ll feel more like myself as the hero he calls me. I nod, rinsing the sponge clean. He puts shampoo on my palm and pushes me under the water again, so I wash my hair while he watches, forcing myself to get comfortable while I’m this raw and vulnerable.

“He’s pissed at me. Told me to refuse your bargain. Doesn’t want me anywhere near you.”

“Well, considering what you’ve already done, I don’t blame him.”

Krypt’s face is blank, but his jaw muscles twitch. “You think he’s innocent? You think he hasn’t done worse?”

I’m sure he has, but he hasn’t done itto me. Krypt has. I’m selfish enough to care about what happens to me and not what happens to anyone else. Except Cain. And my sister.

“Rinse,” he says.

I tip my head back, exposing my throat to Krypt while the water washes the shampoo away. Eucalyptus and aloe. The scent reminds me of my house that no longer stands. No point in mourning it now.

“Please don’t burn my music shop down. It’s… I can’t live without it. It’s the only limit I have.”

His thumb and finger pinch my chin, making me lower my head. Water drips into my eyes, blurring my vision. His face is right in front of mine, eyes intense and lips together. “It’s the only limit I’ll respect.”

I lick my lips and nod to accept that, despite how baffling it is. “Am I a prisoner here?” I ask. “Am I confined to this room?”

“Our deal is etched in your skin and sealed in blood. You’re allowed to know the others now. They’ve all agreed to it. Except the one who leads us.”

There’s a leader? “You mean there are eleven of you?”

“There are ten who wear the masks. One who leads us, a small group of leadership, and about seventeen other members who live in this house when they aren’t in their own homes. You have to work your way to the top around here, and most never get there. But they’re still Vile. Still family.”

Oh, no wonder they hold initiation every year, then. I’m already learning so many Vile House secrets I refused to look into before my bargain.

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