Page 87 of Baby Duke

He leaves, closing the door behind him. I can't help the small smile that plays at my lips at his sudden timidness. The great and mighty Duke shrunk to a baby. A Baby Duke.

I release the plug and stand, the water clinging to my skin as I rise, causing a wave to ripple through its depths. I step out and raise my eyes.

And I see me.

I look mostly the same. Maybe I have lost a few kilos, the skin of my face is sallow, there are bags under my eyes, and my side is an ugly purple. But it is still me.Iam still me.

Slowly, I take a step closer. I reach out. My reflection does the same. We touch. Just a finger. Then two. Then our whole hand.

Her lips tremble, and a tear rolls down her cheek. My cheek.

"What is a pane of glass to make me feel so abused?" I whisper.

"And this is how I break you."

I scream through my teeth and slap my hand against the glass.

"You won't break me!" I yell through the tears that are blurring my vision. Distorting my reflection. "You can't! You're dead!" I laugh. It is sudden and slightly mad, but it ishealing. "You are dead,Sir! And I am alive! You hear that? I. AM. ALIVE!”

Chapter Thirty

West

I can hear her screams from outside. She sounds completely unstable but utterly perfect. This is her way of healing. Of processing and accepting what happened to her.

I waited for almost an hour on the front steps of Katie's house with Captain- yes, I renamed my dog. Not that I changed it for her. Well, kind of for her. But also for me. Chaos was my younger self's way of making myself strong. I didn't need that anymore. Not with my father locked away. I am the man of the house now. My sister is free.Iam free. I mean, there was no fucking way in hell I would be taking the 'Floof' part onto his name atanypoint in my life, but Captain, I could live with.

I smile. The moment Roe came into our lives, Captain was no longer my dog. He was ours. He knew it before either of us did. Hell, does she even realize it yet?

Captain trots over, tail wagging, from his exploration of the yard. He hadn't gone far. Kept turning to make sure I was still here every now and then before exploring under anew shrub, pissing on the roses, and drinking from the fountain.

"Good boy," I croon, grasping his face between my hands and giving it a good smoosh.

The door creaks open behind me, and I try not to freeze. Or turn to look at her. This is her moment. She will decide how this goes.

Captain's jaw drops lazily, and he pants happily as Roe sits on the steps. She is about a meter away, so she isn't close. But she didn't choose the position furthest from me either.

I side-eye her as she basks in the mid-morning sun. Her eyes are puffy and pink and her cheeks are pale. Captain rises with a lazy groan and collapses in a puddle at Roe's feet. She smiles down at him.

"You called him Captain," she says softly without looking up.

"I did," I say, my lips kicking up at the side without my consent. "It suits him. Besides, he stopped responding to Chaos the day he met you."

Roe glances at me shyly, her smile growing.

"Of course he did.”

We fall into a silence that's not uncomfortable but not quite natural either.

I clear my throat. "How… How are you?"

Roe's smile disappears, and she stiffens. "I'm… ok. I mean, it's shit. Everything that happened…" her lips tremble, "it was a horrible nightmare that I may never fully recover from. But I am going to do everything in my power to live my life as full and complete as possible. Not just to spite him but to prove him wrong. I'm not making sense…"

"No," I say. "You are. You’re making perfect sense."

She gives me another smile.

"I'm not ready to talk about what happened to me," she continues, her smile fading. His brow creases into a frown. "But I do want to know your side of the story. My memory of how we got out of there is fuzzy and loud." Her breathing stutters for a moment. "Will you gather the others? I need to know what happened.”

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