Page 42 of Havoc

Ebony paced and paced around me, finally coming to a stop dead in front of me. Her eyes dark and cold.

“What do you want, Presley?” she asked me for the tenth time. “What do you desire most?”

My usual response was always half-hearted because I didn’t know what I wanted. My father had sent me to this place, to be locked up with crazies for the rest of my life, so if I were to get out, what would I do?

“You betrayed the only man who loved you for you,” she whispered in my ear. “You have no one left.”

My chest heaved with sobs, and I felt my face cringe up as if I was about to cry but still no tears. I wanted to die.

That was what I wanted.

“Presley…you have to answer me.”

“D-d-death.”

She was silent. Her heels didn’t clack on the tiles, and she didn’t move. I’d said it aloud, I knew in that instant I could expect the end. I’d seen her kill men for less, so why did they keep me alive if this was what my father wanted all along?

“You can’t have that.”

That was all I heard before she moved out of the room and slammed the door closed. I heard the lock freeze the door in place and silence took over. The vents in the ceiling opened and the smoke filled the room.

The hallucinogenic smoke they used on me when they wanted to ask me questions and find out just how crazy I was. Why wouldn’t they let me die?

I pulled my arms up from their position on the bed, but they’d strapped me down with brown restraints and a buckle. Both arms spread out on either side of me, and my legs tied to the bed posts. I tried to wriggle free but they’d tied me too tight. All I could feel was the skin on my wrists rubbing against the restraint painfully.

Lennon’s image came closer to me, kneeling beside the bed and looking into my eyes. The blood pouring down the side of his face was thick and almost dry.

“How could you do that?” he said to me in that deep and domineering voice I loved. “How could you betray me? Do you know what he did to me?”

The tears finally crept up in my eyes and fell down the sides of my face into my greasy hair.

“I loved you, Presley. I would have done anything for you.”

Stop…stop it!I screamed inwardly, shutting my eyes to block him out. I shook my head from side to side to clear the image. He wasn’t really here. This wasn’t him. He was dead.

Dead and gone.

I felt cold hands on me, and I blinked my eyes open. Ebony’s face filled my sight. She was shaking me awake.

“Presley, wake up.”

I shook my head from side to side, blocking the images of Ebony and Lennon.

“Put her in the shower,” I heard someone say from beside me, but I refused to open my eyes. My heart raced as I felt strong hands lift me up into the air. Weightless, I felt like I was floating on air.

Cold water forced my eyes open as I felt the water cascade down my back. I was shaking for an entirely new reason now.

Ebony was holding me under the spray as Jett helped. I’d never seen them work together before, but I could see how they worked as if they didn’t need to speak. I wish I’d had that with Lennon. I should never have let my father get between us.

The spray was turned off and I sat against the tiled wall of the shower and looked down at my wrists. Turning them over and inspecting them closely, I saw Ebony kneel in front of me.

“What’s wrong?”

“Where are the restraint marks?”

“Honey, we haven’t had restraints on you for weeks now.”

I looked up at her, looking for a show of deceit but there was none. Pushing up off the wall, I ran back into the room where my bed sat with my sheets strewn everywhere and no sign of restraints.

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