Page 121 of Misery
"Yes."
Simple. Direct. No justification or explanation. Just fact.
"Good," my father says, his arm tightening around me. "Fucking good."
Starla and Helle have reached us now.
My mother takes in Dad's condition with the practiced eye of someone who's seen this craziness before.
She doesn't cry. Just sits on his other side, careful of his injuries.
"You look like shit," she tells him.
"Feel worse," he admits. "But at least I’m alive."
Helle hovers, unsure where to fit in this tableau of damage.
She finally settles for standing behind the couch, her hand on Dad's shoulder.
"What did he do to you?" The question comes out before I can stop it.
Dad's jaw tightens. "Nothing that won't heal."
"Dad—"
"He wanted me to beg," he says quietly. "Wanted me to call you. To cry and plead for you to save me. I didn't. That made him angry."
I look at his wrapped hand again. The wrong shape of it. "The fingers?"
"Pliers," he says simply. "One for each hour I refused to call you."
Bile rises in my throat.
I stand abruptly, needing air, needing space, needing something.
Oskar moves aside as I push past him, out the front door into the parking lot.
The night air hits cold against my flushed skin.
I bend over, hands on my knees, trying not to vomit bourbon and horror onto the asphalt.
"Elfe." Oskar's voice behind me.
It’s careful, distant.
"He tortured my father. Cut off his fingers. Because of me."
"Because of him. Thiago. His obsession. His sickness. Not you."
I spin to face him. "How many people have died because of me? The Los Coyotes soldiers. Now Thiago. How many families are grieving because one man couldn't accept rejection from someone who didn't even know he existed?"
"Nine," Oskar says. "Nine Los Coyotes dead. Plus Thiago."
"You kept count."
"I keep count of everything involving you." He reaches into his jacket, pulls out a USB drive. "This was in Thiago's computer. Everything he had on you. Photos. Videos. Audio recordings. All the surveillance he had on you."
I take it with numb fingers. Such a small thing to hold so much violation.
