Page 81 of The Black Lotus
“What do you think it is?” I ask, anxiously tapping my fingers as I wait for Aster to open it.
“I’m not sure,” he mumbles, his fingers twitching like he wants to tear into it, but isn’t ready to see what’s inside.Should I nudge the box towards him or leave it be?Like he was reading my mind, Aster slides the box onto his lap and slowly opens the lid.
His brows crease as he lifts a single piece of paper. Unable to stop my curiosity, I lean over to read it over his shoulder.
“What does ‘hide and seek’ mean? Is it the game?”
Aster places the note back in the box, and without saying a word gets up and leaves the room.What the fuck?I pick up the note and examine it for any hidden meaning but find none.It has to be something only he knows that no one else would catch on to or be suspicious of,but a note by itself from a mass murderer in prison is suspicious regardless.
Aster bounds back down the stairs holding a little black book and hands it to me with tight lips, his grip loosening as my fingers wrap around it.
“What does hide and seek mean?” I ask, placing the book in my lap.
Aster looks up at the ceiling as if he's reliving the memory. “When I was little and Dad wanted to give me something to keep hidden from Cynthia, he would use the code word hide and seek.” He clasps his hands in his laps, looking down at his fingers. “I hid so much stuff in that spot over the years, and honestly, I forgot about it.” He points to the notebook. “This was the last item we ever played the game with. He hid it in our spot and when he used the code word again, then I could seek it out to see what it was.” A sad laugh slips past his lips as he shakes his head in disbelief. “Even after death, he made sure to get this message to me. Like he knew what Cynthia was planning,” he whispers the last part, “I wish I could ask him.”
I place my hand over his and give him a sympathetic smile. “Isn't this last gift meant for you? Why give it to me?”
“It’s all the victims my parents had. I looked over it upstairs, and… there is something you should see.”
Reading through the dates and names, I drop the book when I see someone I had forgotten, the faceless woman in my dream coming to the forefront of my mind as tears fall down my cheeks. Aster wraps me in his arms, cradling the back of my head.
“Tina Raven,” I whisper, “she… she was my aunt.”
All the questions my parents had with no answers, the very reason we moved to Salem in the first place after she disappeared when I was six.
She was killed by Aster’s parents.
She was the reason I have a love for art. She was the person I looked up to most, and her disappearance crushed me. I remember it all; every holiday, every moment spent with her, the pain when my parents stopped bringing her up. Soon after, she was a forgotten memory.
I sniffle and look up at Aster. “She was my dad’s sister. They were inseparable, and I… I forgot her.”
He places his hand on my cheek, pressing his lips to my forehead. “It’s okay; you remember her now. Are you going to tell your dad?”
I nibble my lip. I want to, but if I tell him who killed his sister, he will want to know how I found out and opening that can of worms is something I’d rather not deal with. “No.” I shake my head.
“You can if you want. You can tell him I’m the son of the Patchwork Killers and what was sent to me from my dad and what I found. He deserves closure after everything he’s been through.”
“You’re right, but not today.” I lean into his chest and close my eyes, enjoying the memory of Aunty Tina. She was a light that was stolen too soon, and now that I remember her, I will never forget.
“Do you think she could be the reason you dreamt about me from a young age?” he asks, rubbing circles on my back.
I look up at him as I place my hand on his chest. “It would be just like her to somehow connect us. Maybe we have her to thank for bringing us together.” I quietly laugh, my chest warming at the thought.
“Thank you, Aunt Tina.” Aster says, pulling me onto his lap, I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him as the doorbell rings again, this time for our food.
After we finish our food with the heaviness seeping through the air, I get up and reach my hand out to Aster. “Come on,I have a surprise for us.” He cocks an eyebrow, a tent already growing in his jeans, making me laugh, “Not that kind of surprise.” He frowns. “Yet.”
He grabs my hand, quickly standing. “Where to, my vixen?”
I step in front of him, and drag us out the door, towards my reading room, excitement buzzing in my veins as we quickly walk through the grass. Before I even bring out the surprise I stashed, we are going to have a heart to heart and if he doesn’t open up, I’ll just have to persuade him to talk. I am tired of this bottling your feelings bullshit.We don’t do that.
“The surprise is in your reading room?” He looks around the room as we walk in, looking under stuff, on the top shelf he hid my surprise. Finding nothing he starts to pull the three books to open the kill space and I run in front of him, stretching out my arms. “My surprise is in here, then.” He tries to push me out of the way, but I cover the books he needs to pull.
“Yes, but you can’t have it, not until we talk.” His movements stop, looking down at me as I stare back at him. “Please,” I whisper.
He lets out a deep breath, but steps away from the bookshelf with his hands raised in the air. “I knew this was coming.”
I walk over to the chaise and pat the seat beside me, the butterflies in my stomach flying at full speed. “Does that mean you’re ready to talk?”
