Page 89 of The Monsters Within
Rosebud Peterson.
The lonely, broken and damaged girl who hid behind the monsters and the Kytten’s fake smiles.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Mimic
Jingles stepped up behind me and placed a hand on my shoulder. That wasn’t a good sign. Something began to build inside me, telling me to run. My senses were heightened. I could feel myself slowly losing the control I tried desperately to keep in check.
Sam, my momma, reached over and took my hand. I held on to her like a lifeline. Fear raged inside me, telling me if I let go for even a second, I would drift away again. Lost in the ocean of memories and nightmares.
No one knew what I was capable of. No one knew what I had endured, what I had learned while the man had me locked up. No one knew what I had given up to get away.
The day I walked through the gates of the Silver Shadows’ clubhouse, I didn’t know what to expect. I came here looking for answers. I thought she would have them. But she didn’t know who she was, let alone who my sister was.
Or where she was.
I hadn’t found any answers here, but I found something else. I found a family. Found Sam and Charlie. And I guess Jack too.
King was a good guy. Not likehim.Not like his father. His father was gone now. Buthewas still alive. Still walked the earth while my mother didn’t. His time was coming. Now that Rose had found me, we’d work together. We’d take him down.
And fuck the others if they got in our way.
They might not have been involved, but they knew who he was. The things he had done. They should have taken him out a long time ago. Instead, they let him roam the world. Wreaking havoc on innocent, unsuspecting women and children.
I had to pull myself back from the brink. My sister needed me. I was here for her. I sat quietly, holding Sam’s hand, as I listened to Rose tell me everything. The truth about our mom and the man who took her. That day so many years ago when I thought I saw her kiss him played through my head. Only now could I see what my ten-year-old innocent mind couldn’t.
The way she leaned away. The way she struggled against him. How he overpowered her, forcing her against the wall. Anger burned inside me. Even more now than it did that day. I should have done something. I should have run down the stairs and pushed him away from her. I should have hurt him before he could hurt her.
What could you have done?
I could have done something!
Then he would have known about you.
He knew about me anyway. He found me, and he took me too!
He would have known about Rose.
That stopped me in my tracks. To this day, he still didn’t know about Rose. And if I had anything to say about it, he never would. Only his father knew. Why his father hadn’t told him, I couldn’t say. Maybe he knew what his son was. What he had become.
It was his father who let me go. Sent me here. He’d known about her. He wanted eyes on her. Wanted to make sure she never left. I sold my soul for my freedom.
“Rose, he needs to know all of it. So does Val,” Cash said, pulling me back to the room we were in. Rose nodded and turned back around.
What more was there?
There was a lot fucking more.
“Mimic,” Sam whispered. “Calm down, son.”
Hearing her call me son did things to me. She knew it. That was why she did it. Some might call it manipulation. I didn’t. It calmed something that raged inside me. Only right now I wanted to rage. I wanted to hurt someone.
That someone stood on the other side of the room. The fucking bitch who had sexually assaulted my sister. I wanted to take everything I had learned from the man and use it all on her. I wanted to flay the skin from her bones. I knew just how much to cut without killing her.
He had taught me that.
I wanted to pull the nails from her fingers, one at a time. And peel back her eyelids so she couldn’t hide her guilt. So she couldn’t retreat into a safe place while I tortured her.
