Page 34 of The Black Lotus
“Everyone already knows where we come from.”
She ignores me, her cheeks turning red through the paint smudged across them. “Everyone who bullies us, every teacher who hurts us, they will all regret it. One day they will be the ones shaking in fear just from hearing our names.”
I stand up, my eyes light up with excitement to imagine taking the lives of everyone in this god forsaken place.I guess Kelsey isn’t so bad.
She excitedly walks over, careful not to touch me this time, her eyes sparkling “We could be partners in crime! Like our parents!”
Before I can respond, the door crashes open, an angry Crumbwell stands in the doorway with three children I don’t recognize snickering behind her.
“Well, well, well, when I was told Aster went to the girls side with our newest recruit, I couldn’t believe it. No way Aster would risk the basement. Not so soon after he just got out. But, low and behold, here you are.” A sinister smile splits her face, sending chills racing down my spine, my hands becoming sweaty as I take a step back.
Crumbwell snatches the back of my collar with one hand, Kelsey in the other, and drags us out of the room.
“No!” I scream. “It was all me; Kelsey had nothing to do with it.”What am I doing?I know very well what awaits me below, but after her little speech she sparked a fire of hope inside me and I can’t let her be punished. If she experiences the basement; I don’t think she would come out the same. Her fire would be extinguished and I would have no one to help me burn this place and these people to the ground.
“Very well,” Crumbwell drops Kelsey, her butt hitting the ground, then continues down the hall. I look back and give her a small, reassuring smile. “To the basement then, Mr. Balcom.”
Everything in me screams to fight back, but I know she will overpower me and my punishment will be worse, so I relent and follow behind, her grip still tight around me. My breaths come in ragged gulps, my hands becoming sweaty the closer we get to the torture chamber. My eyes widen as my breath is stolen from me when she shoves me through the door, my heart dropping when it creaks closed, locking me in the darkness with a truly evil woman. All feelings of hope dissipating as she stalks towards me.
SIXTEEN
SERENA
Hearing that makes me wish I could have tortured her longer, really prolonging her death, but I fear that would have hurt Aster. I could see he was really struggling with the decision to save her or end her. There was an internal battle I couldn’t see raging inside him and the only thing I wanted, besides her death, was to free Aster from his inner turmoil. Free him from the guilt that would come from ending the life of his only childhood friend. From not being able to come to her rescue. Be the knight in shining armor she grew up admiring and fantasizing about.
To my surprise, I feel relieved hearing how his time with the Twisted Trickster started. I’m more secure in myself and who I have become. If past me went through this, I would have killed her the moment she touched Aster, but I held back because I trust him. My knuckles go white against my plate. Granted, when she started talking more and more about their past, I blacked out, so I will blame my killing her on that. I don’t bother hiding the smirk stretching across my face.Female rage is a scary, unpredictable thing.
Placing my food down, I move in closer, Aster’s gaze piercing me, his eyes begging me to understand. I do, and yet… “Thank you for telling me. But I have questions.”
“I’ll answer anything,” he answers quickly, the words being said so fast they almost blend into one.
I nod my head once, contemplating what to ask first. “Your bond with her happened because of who your parents were?”
“Yes.”
“What made you want to save her from the bullies?”
“Honestly, to this day, I don’t know what made me jump in and save her. I could chalk it up to our similarities in how we grew up or maybe I saw myself as she cowered from their cruelty. Scared in an unknown place, judged because of where we came from, automatically labeled a monster and bullied not only from the kids, but from the adults too.”
My mouth thins into a line, my heart breaking not only for Aster, but for Kelsey, too.Even if she did try to kill me, she was a victim just like Aster.They weren’t born evil, the people who raised them made them that way. They are not monsters, they’re misunderstood, only knowing one way of living. If anything, not killing in a place that deserved death shows they never were out of control. They are both products of their parents' creations.
“I understand,” I whisper, smiling sympathetically. “Why did you break your promise to her?”
He sits in silence, his fingers covering his mouth as he ponders the question. “I didn’t love her. I couldn’t see myself becoming partners with someone I only saw as a friend. As we got older, I knew she was falling in love with me.” He smiles sadly, his eyes unfocused on a past that finally caught up with him. “I didn’t know I was capable of that emotion until I met you. So, when I got out of there, I never looked back. I never had any intention of finding her. I changed my last name, partly soshe couldn’t find me but also to separate myself from my parents abandoning me again.”
“Looks like your plan worked.”
He looks down, fiddling with his hands as a sad chuckle escapes his lips. “Yeah, it did.”
“Do you regret it?” I ask breathlessly. Waiting for his answer feels like time has stopped and the world is falling off its axis. His answer can either make me drop right along with it or have me soaring above it. With everything we’ve been through, I would think it’d be an easy answer, but as the silence stretches on, that voice in the back of my mind, the one I thought I’d crushed, is waking from its slumber as it threatens to rear its ugly head.Please say no.
He sucks in a greedy breath, holding it for a beat before murmuring. “I just hoped better for her. I wanted her to be more than what her parents made her into.”
“You followed in your parents’ footsteps.”
“That’s different. Yes, I am a killer like them, but I was a monster before they made me into one; fascinated with death.”
“That doesn’t make you a monster.”
