Page 28 of The Black Lotus
-Twisted Trickster
“I know who is behind this.”
“Are you okay?” Handing back the clue, I wring my hands together as he puts it into his back pocket.
“Well, yeah, she signed her name instead of her initials this time.”
We walk back to the car in hurried steps, both of us wanting to leave the skeletal equipment behind. Sitting down, I pick at my nails. Unease of confessing what I knew all along to Aster washing over me like a waterfall I don’t want to be under. “I should let you know I knew it was the Twisted Trickster after the zoo. Nate said she was coming next, but you’ve been so secretive with your past, shrouding everything from me, I didn’t want to tell you. Plus, I knew you would figur-”
“Serena,” Aster cuts me off, placing his hands around mine to stop my fidgeting. He takes a shuddering breath, his eyes unfocused outside the windshield. “I’m sorry I haven’t told youanything and kept you in the dark. I promise, once we deal with Kelsey-”Her name is Kelsey?“-we will sit down for however long we have, and I will tell you everything.” He turns, leaving the ghost of his touch behind.Why does it feel like his actions aren’t going to match his words?I’m tired of empty promises.
He turns the key, his car rumbling beneath us. “Do you trust me?” He asks the question he’s asked me several times now, and my answer is always the same.
“Yes,” I sigh, clenching my jaw, feeling defeated and irritated at his broken record speech. I trust him, but my patience for answers is wearing thin.
He smiles softly, but it doesn’t reach his eyes, making my stomach drop slightly.
His sadness creeps its way into mine, up my arm, crawling slowly like a spider would, making me swat at the invisible force. Shaking the emotion away, I swallow back the sob that wants to break free. I take a deep, shuddering breath to keep my mind focused and my emotions in check for the reunion. This is literally life or death.My life. I can’t afford any kind of distraction.
Staring out the window, the car slows in front of an abandoned building. A broken, burnt sign claims we’ve arrived at ‘Angel’s Mercy Orphanage’. Based on the little I’ve gotten from Aster about this place, I doubt any mercy was ever given. The sign makes me sick, the lies this place holds and the truth of the evil hidden behind the plastered on fake smiles I imagine the children were forced to wear. It makes my blood boil. If this place was still standing I would free all the children, then lock away the ones who were supposed to love and take care of them. Then I’d burn it to ash and watch the wretched souls be pulled below.
“Promise me, no matter what happens, or what I say, you trust me.”
My brows furrow. “Say?”
He huffs out a breath, not one of annoyance, but one of regret. “I may have to say some things that are not true to distract Kelsey.” My heart drops. “They are just empty words, Serena, meant to give a chance to take her down. When I give you an opening, you take it.” He looks away, clenching his fists.
I place my hands over his, his fingers uncurling and wrapping around mine. “I trust you. I know you love me.” His eyes meet my own. “Whatever you have to do, I know it’s to protect me. I won’t let what you say or do distract me from my own mission.”
Bringing my hands to his mouth, he kisses the back of my palms. “Our mission.”
My heart settles and I force a smile, my confidence growing knowing we’re facing this together. “Our mission.”
Getting out of the car, I study the building of broken, boarded up windows and a door hanging off its hinges.If the building had steps, they would definitely be rusted and dissolved by now.We step into Aster's childhood hell and the smell of mold and wet moss hit my nose, the rancid smell making me gag.
We walk into what I assume used to be the foyer and see a table with a game of scrabble sitting on it, caked in dust and dirt aside from the six letters that spelled out two words in the middle.
Find me.
Aster knocks the table over, grabbing my hand before storming up the stairs and down a series of hallways that keep rounding corners, never seeming to end. A maze that leads to Kelsey. Broken picture frames litter the walls and floor, so we watch our step, careful not to crush the glass below us. She may know that we are coming, but she doesn’t need to know when. If she hears us, she can get the jump on us and that is a problem we don’t need.
We stop in front of a door, the only one in the hallway we find ourselves in. It's brown and corroded but has a drawing taped to it of a little boy and girl holding hands with a heart around it, ‘Aster and Kelsey’ written above their heads.
My hands fist at my sides, my vision turning red as my heart pounds erratically.Is she in love withmyAster?I’ll kill her before she has a chance to even say his name.
The glass beneath my feet crunches as my body responds before I can react; instead of walking over it, I reach down and grab a piece, the sharp edge piercing my skin and biting into my flesh.
“Serena!” Aster whisper yells, grabbing my weapon out of my hand and placing it in his pocket. “I’ll take care of that later.” His now bloody hand covers mine, and his words snap me out of my murder fueled haze. “Remember what I told you. I need you to use your head; don’t let your emotions fog your mind.”
He talks about my emotions distracting me, when his are written all over his face. His mouth is parted open and his thumbs are rubbing back and forth over my palms in a fidgeting sort of way. I may have wanted to stab her over and over again to get this over with, but the pleading look in his eyes has the fire inside me settling, regaining the composure I lost.
Shaking my head, I take a deep breath. “I’m sorry, that-” I point at the picture. “-surprised me.”
His cold hand covers my cheek, glancing at the picture as he whispers, “You’re not going to like what I have to do next.” He hands me black gloves to put on and with trembling fingers I secure them. My hands aren’t shaking from fear, they’re aching to be wrapped around the throat of the one who dares to want what is mine. When I get the signal, she’s going to wish she never got the list. I will make her regret ever accepting the hit.
I worry my bottom lip, the anger bubbling back up. Aster’s thumb pulls it free before that, too, starts to bleed. His lips ghostover my own. “It’s all an act.” He softly kisses me again, breaking away too quickly, grabbing the picture and opening the door. Sheer determination set in his green orbs, the persona of the Monet settles on his features, sending goosebumps up my arm. I wouldn’t want to be Kelsey right now. She may think she set a trap for us, but Aster is setting one for her. One I would rather not be a witness to, but beggars can’t be choosers.
The scene before us is more gruesome and twisted than anything Aster or I could ever be capable of. What she has set up makes me wish I didn’t eat today because it feels like I'm about to paint the floor with it. I swallow back the vomit, take a deep breath, and look at the scene from a killer's point of view, going numb to everything and admiring it instead of feeling disgusted by it.
