Page 31 of House of Clowns

"Will you come with me?" She pulled me from the bed, her fingers wrapping around my wrist like releasing it would break the spell of whatever gave her the courage.

I got up reluctantly, feeling like a dead weight dragging across the floor. She handed me one of her oversized shirts and a pair of slippers, into which I slipped my half-open eyes. The shirt was loose, more of a dress than anything else, but I didn't care; all I wanted was to have everything over with so I could crawl again into bed.

"Come on, hurry." She dragged me down the stairs, our quiet footsteps echoing in the silence. As we landed in the hallway, the dark, heavy door at the end loomed larger with each step.

Dhalia knocked frantically, and a low, disgruntled growl echoed from inside, supplemented by a rough shout, "It's fucking open."

Inside, a man slumped over a table, an almost empty bottle of rum beside him.

"Rocco," Dhalia called out, strains of desperation in her voice. "Ruby's gone missing!"

His name cut like a sharp prick, slicing through my sleep.Could this Rocco be my father?I stared at him, noting the lines on his face, the shadow of familiarity, even into his eyes, a mirror of my own.

"What?" He shot up, slamming his fist onto the table, his eyes blazing.

"I have looked for her everywhere and she is nowhere to be found," Dhalia choked out, her voice quivering with her tears. "And if I tried to pull cards… onlyDevilandDeathcame out."

"Calm the fuck down," he growled, flipping her a crushed tissue. "Go to your room. Thenew girlhere will fill you in on what you need to know.".

Dhalia nodded, the sound of her sobs echoing down the empty hall as she turned and hurried away.

My chest clenched. I just wanted Ruby to be okay.

Rocco closed the door behind him and then turned to me, his eyes piercing as he motioned to a chair. "Sit."

I let myself fall into the seat, my body tensing up. He crossed to the table, yanked out the notebook, and slammed it onto the surface between us.

"You read it all?" he asked, seeming for all the world to have expected me to find it, to dig into secrets I wasn't meant to know.

"I..." The words choked in my throat.

"I gave it to Carlo, to give to you," he said. His eyes weighed in condemnation. "But I never thought you'd come here back with it. Extremely stupid of you."

He flipped through the pages and stopped near the end. "Their last victim," he read, his voice gruff, "would be Rocco Salvatore in 2023."

I swallowed as my pulse raced loudly in my ears. "Did... did Ariane write that?"

He shook his head, his eyes piercing. "No. You did."

The words hit me like a wave, and I was speechless with the chill.

“I… wrote it?” My mouth went dry. “How?”

“You have a gift, same as your mother,” he said quietly. “When you visited the circus at the age of six, you scrawled it in here. You predicted all of it.”

My eyes widened, disbelief mingling with shock. “How? How could I have…?”

“It’s in your blood,” he said, a shadow of something raw in his eyes.

I stared at the notebook, hands shaking.

"By now, you know I'm your biological father," he said, upon hearing each word land with the weight of a blow. "And don't even ask me for anything, 'cause I ain't gonna give you a damn thing."

"I didn't want anything from you," I spat, his apathy raking over my nerves like fingernails on a chalkboard.

"I just want to prevent this Circle from inflicting further harm. Nothing else." His eyes didn't waver.

"How did you get the notebook?" I asked, my angry eyes narrowing into slits, searching his for something that made sense.

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