Page 109 of This Blood That Binds Us
“Your brothers have to pay for their crimes. For centuries, The Family has done nothing but spilled blood and brought the plague of evil. That includes you.”
My attention snapped back to him at those words. “What crimes?”
“They’ve been linked to a number of deaths in the Brooklyn area. Not to mention various crimes of stealing, theirinvolvement in money laundering...I could go on,” he said with a stupid smirk still on his face.
“I don’t believe you! My brothers don’t kill people. The other stuff...maybe. But they wouldn’t kill anyone.”
His eyes bore a hole into mine. “You don’t sound so sure about that.”
The apparition appeared next to his shoulder, and I fell back a few steps. It traced its fingers across his shoulder. The white hair was blinding.
“What are you lookin’ at?” His face was only inches from mine. A smug smile danced on his lips. “Aaron, Aaron, Aaron...seeing things, are we?”
“No . . . no.”
I flinched as it stalked farther into the room to sit next to Kimberly, who was still lying peacefully on the couch. Its skin was hollow and translucent.
“It’s that thing in your head. You’re losing it. That’s what happens when you don’t feed. You get weak. It found your weakness. Now it’s here to collect.”
“To collect what?” I said, still watching my own hallucination.
The white-haired apparition sat over Kim and moved its hands over her hair. Panic hit me instantly. I knew in my head it wasn’t real, but everything about it looked that way. It felt like reality.
“Your body. Your soul. It doesn’t matter. You won’t be alive much longer to feel it. Who knows, maybe I’ll leave you alive long enough to let you suffer.”
Numbness traveled up my hand. The apparition was gripping my arm. I pulled my hand away. She was closer than I had ever seen her. Her white eyes pierced, and I jerked away in panic, but William grabbed the sides of my face and forced me to look straight ahead. Searing hatred and a wildfire of rage hid behind his irises.
He pushed me into a floral lounge chair that was situated in the corner. A layer of dust flew up into the damp as he spoke. “Stay with me. Don’t pay attention to it.”
He pressed his palms into the sides of my face. I struggled to turn my face away, but his grip was strong,
“Don’t struggle . . . it will be over soon.”
A disorienting feeling washed over. A thick film filled my vision. And then everything was black. My world faded in an instant.
The room was gone. Like being hooked into an amusement ride, my mind flew off. Flickering light induced pain in my head. I knew I had no control as flashes came up in my mind.
At first, my head was throbbing, but in seconds, it turned into searing pain. Whatever the flashing flickered too fast. Heat flushed my body. A range of emotions hit me all at once, over and over in a reel, making me nauseous.
My limbs tingled. Electrical pulses surged through my veins. It felt as if my body was being torn apart from the inside out. William was in my head. It wasn’t a subtle occupation. He was stomping around and turning up the mattresses.I couldn’t feel my body anymore. I was completely in my head. His searching made me frantic. My brain couldn’t take the intruder.
William’s voice was close. “The more you struggle. The more pain you will feel.”
The floor dropped out, and my chest ached with that familiar pain. I could feel my fingers again. I tried to pull my arms away from the chair with all my might. My eyelids were heavy and refused to open, and I was locked in my own body.
A wobbly image pulled into my vision. Everything was tilted back and forth. Everything was too vivid. Too sensitive.
Something familiar caught my attention. Flowing locks of white hair, bending and blowing in the light.It was a woman. She felt oddly familiar.
“No need to be upset. You can relax.”
Her voice sucked me back into the image. It wasn’t the words she said but the way they affected me. Her voice was magnetic.
I was in my old living room. It was all there. Our mismatched couches, the pencil we broke off into the ceiling, and the smell of cheap vanilla candles my mom loved. The comfort of that nostalgia didn’t last for long. My hands were restrained behind me. The muffled sounds of Presley’s groaning came from somewhere. The muscles in my arms burned as I struggled to get free.
It looked like a memory, but it wasn’t anything I recognized happening before.
“Don’t worry, he won’t be harmed. I just need to see your face. I need to look into your eyes.”
