Page 107 of Haunted Prey

She tilted her head, a sneer curling her lips. “When I deliberately botched a test, they nearly beat me to death. That’s when they started the hypnosis program. Can’t have their bright little soldier disobeying orders, right? Just a few special words, and I’d snap to attention, ready to do whatever they wanted.”

Her eyes narrowed as she leaned forward. “Whatever… they… wanted. Your brother, I remember, used those special words often. He liked taking me into a room alone for his own ‘tests.’ Made me do things that would leave me retching later. Made me want to bash my head into the concrete walls of my room. Eventually, I did. They had to patch up the crack in my skull.”

Her voice wavered slightly, but the venom remained. “When I started failing their expectations—too many side effects, losing sight in one eye—they quit me. Just threw me back into foster care. But no one wanted the broken girl with the bad eye. I had fits, and it wasn’t long before I was sent to a mental institution. Drugs numbed me there, and when I got out, I ended up on the streets. That’s when Micheal found me. Saved my life, told me he wanted to make them all pay for what they did. I didn’t need convincing. I was ready.”

Her sneer grew sharper. “We waited, bided our time. Until Emery got to your brother first. I should be glad, but honestly? I wished it had been me. I wanted to be the one there that night, slitting your brother’s throat.”

The silence grew between us. I sat frozen, unable to speak. I’d missed typing half her story as I just sat there and listened.

“Let me guess, you don’t believe me? Don’t believe your brother could—”

“No,” I interrupted, finding my voice. “No, I…I believe you.”

I didn’t want to believe it, but there was no reason for her to lie. The pain she carried was written across her face, unmistakable. After everything that had come to light, I had slowly come to terms with the truth: my father and brother were capable of unspeakable acts.

No matter how I remembered them—my smiling brother climbing into the treehouse to play with me, giving me the necklace as a gift, wrapping me in so much love—I had to face the reality. No matter how much it hurt, I had to accept that beneath all of that warmth and kindness, he could also be a monster.

Cassidy made a face at me, both confused and angry. “Is that because you knew?”

“No. I swear I knew nothing.”

“Yeah, sure,” she said softly. “Just like you told Emery, right? How you didn’t mean to find his sister. How you didn’t mean to get her caught. Yeah, I heard your conversation. Honestly, I’m surprised Emery didn’t kill you on the spot.”

She shifted onto her knees, leaning in closer, her glare cutting through me. “I knew her too. She was in the room next to mine. We talked through the walls, trying to comfort each other. I remember her cries, her screams. And then, one day, they just stopped. She was gone.”

Her head tilted slightly, the glare in her eyes hardening. “Emery might not blame you, but that’s because he’s lovesick. Me? I’ll never trust your word. You’re not one of us. You’re just the one who got lucky and lived. Be sure to writethatdown in your paper.”

She turned from me and picked up her brush, dipping it in the red and continuing her strokes.

I tried to steady my shaking hands as I took the laptop and closed it. I stared at her back for a moment and saw the picture she painted over her shoulder. A picture of rabbits, their heads and bodies twisted, crushing each other until they seemed to meld together into one. Eyes, tails, feet, and open mouths screaming as they fell into a black void.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Emery was sitting at the fountain when I returned, staring off toward the road. The clouds broke apart and everything brightened, even warmed a little in the November chill.

For a moment I just stood there wondering if I had ever seen him so clearly before, if there was ever time he wasn’t shrouded in shadow or darkness, and I honestly couldn’t remember. Without the mask and the dark to hide him, he looked like any other man from the back, even with his bulk. When the light caught his hair, I could see the strands of red in the dark locks.

He must have heard me behind him because he turned and looked around at me and our eyes met. His scars looked almost faded in the light and, when he smiled at me, I could see the man that could have been, the gorgeous one that had never known such awful pain.

I went to sit next to him on the fountain wishing I could give him a smile worthy of his own but knew mine was tighter.

“I take it that went as you expected,” he said.

I placed the laptop between us. “She talked at least. She…has a lot of reasons to be angry. As you all do.”

“As you do too.”

I was silent for a moment, thinking back to her words.You will never be like us.Even with what happened at Severfalls, with the nightmares and everything, it was nothing like what they went through.

“When you were in the warehouse, do you ever recall seeing Cassidy being taken away by my brother?”

He didn’t speak at first. “Yes,” he said. “A couple of times.”

I felt a knot constricting in my throat. I didn’t want to think about my brother. I didn’t want to think about my family at all. Still, the pain in my heart couldn’t be ignored.

Trying not to focus on it, I opened the laptop again, clearing my throat. “There’s one last person I need to talk to.”

“Yeah? Who’s that?”

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