Page 131 of When Night Falls

"Lucynda, he doesn't love you. You have to know that. He's making you believe that you are capable of being happy without love and you can't let him take advantage of you like that."

Something dark twists in my wife's head. I can tell she is fully allowing her loyalty for me to drive the way she addresses Ameliana as she steps forward threateningly and lowers her voice.

"I don't know who you think you're talking to. But I am the queen of this castle and you will not speak to me about my husband as if you know me or my wants. You are in my home and you have betrayed the king. Show me some respect when you talk to me." Rage burns within the walls as Lucynda takes advantage of the control she now has over everyone.

She's fucking sinful the way she handles her words, with virtue while instilling fear in our guest.

"Lucynda, please. You have to get out of here while you still-"

"SHUT UP!" Cyn forms a tight fist and punches Ameliana in the chest. Her fist penetrates skin and digs deep into her body, the squelching sounds of blood sound musical to my ears as Cyn opens her hand to grip around the plump organ that is Ameliana's heart.

The chains clatter against their hold on her limbs as she drops to her knees, feeling the violation of having her heart tempted in the shadows of death and in the hands of the monster she helped create.

"Lucynda," she gasps. Air evades her as Lucynda holds her heart hostage.

"Mom?" I turn to see Troian standing at the doors to the basement, the scent of blood and torture permeate the room.

"Troian." Ameliana's voice is dry and croaky as my wife keeps her grip in place.

"Lucynda, let her go!" Troy tries to run for her mom but I step in line and hold her back, stopping her from impeding on Cyn’s beautifully savage attempt to back her king.

Maybe this is how I ratify having both. Maybe letting Cyn do the honors of watching Ameliana burn is what needs to happen for me to live in honor of my revenge and in acceptance of my love for my wife.

"What the fuck, Rivian? Let me go!" Troian tries to fight against me, but I wrap my arms around her to capture her in place.

"I can't," I whisper against her ear.

"What the fuck do you mean? What is going on?"

Troy's mom struggles against the grip of Cyn's hand, clutching her pumping organ tightly. I can imagine the exact way it feels as contentment paints my little muse’s face, accepting the power one contains when you have someone in fear of their life all at your hands.

Cyn turns her head toward us, twisting her hand as she does which causes our guest to sputter blood from her chest and her mouth.

"Troy, this isn't meant to hurt you.” Lucynda’s words to my sister are of sincerity. The bond they’ve created over time likely drives her empathy. “But she was a horrible mother to you,can’t you agree?" Evil spews from Cyn’s tone as a disturbed look paints her expression.

Something doesn’t feel right.

"I don't know, I mean-" Troy is lost for words. I know this isn't what she wants. Despite my issues with her mom and the fact that her mother left her for no reason other than for selfish choices, I know Troy wants a relationship with her mother.

"Well, I do. Anyone who leaves their children for the likes of someone or something else is rotten, in my opinion." She digs her hand in deeper.

Ameliana cries out in pain as I watch her life slip from her eyes.

"How does it feel to have your heart tampered with, huh?" The irony is not lost. She thinks she's doing this for me, in an act of requite justified by the fact that Ameliana's actions have caused damage, and she is angered by it more so because she knows how that feels having gone through it herself. So Cyn's emotions are charged with the memory of her own.

Little does she know…

"Rivian, please. You have to do something." Troian's tears accompany her plea for mercy on her mother. I want to protect my sister, I really do. But I have lived for years with the pain that was bestowed upon me. She has her mother. I don't. My mother will never remember who I am because I was a mere flicker of time wiped from her mind and shadowed by the ghost that is now me.

"Why are you doing this?" Ameliana uses every last ounce of breath she can muster to ask my wife for her reason.

"Because I love my husband. Because he sees me for who I really am." She squeezes the heart harder causing bursts of blood to squirt against her hand. "He is the reason why I am alive and why I am free. He saved me. And I want to save him." Her loyalty raptures me. Of all the things in life, this is all Iwanted. Someone to fight for me regardless of reason or events of action. “Because no one deserves the burden of feeling like they can’t be loved because they aren’t good enough,” Lucynda directs her eyes over to my own and I recognize now what I’ve done.

The monster I’ve created.

Her words ring truth in the air for herself against her own mother and father, for me against Ameliana and my father, and for the twins against their mom.

But she’s also talking to me.

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