Page 69 of The Devils Melody
FUCK!
I’m not a weak man, but I’ve never felt more helpless in my life. Knowing that I can’t get to her immediately, that there’s too much time between us being here and getting to her, is crushing me and I don’t know what to do. Memories flood my brain and suddenly I’m twelve again. Helpless, broken, and bleeding. Waiting for someone to come and rescue me but no one ever came. Only now, I need to rescue her.
Shaking the thoughts out of my mind, I yell over at my brother. “Nox! We gotta make this quick! It’s Wren!”
There’s nothing more I need to say. Her name and the horror painted across my face is enough to send a bullet through Kevin's skull. Within seconds, Nox has called Jimmy to clean up our mess and we’re tearing out of the parking lot of the warehouse.
“What happened?” Nox questions, hands gripping the steering wheel so tight his knuckles are white. He’s speeding through the streets with careful precision, dodging traffic with an ease that can only come from years of ditching unwanted followers.
“Someone broke in. She said there’s blood everywhere and the owner is missing.”
Nox looks over at me with an expression that I can’t quite place. “Call Jimmy again, see if he can get any footage from the restaurant or around the area. There’s gotta be something.”
I can’t even begin to process what’s going on. Too many thoughts are running through my mind and only one thing stands out to me the most.
Richard.
Maybe he did it out of retaliation. What if he did this because of me? There’s no way he could have slipped past Jimmy's radar. He was supposed to have eyes on her. What the fuck happened?
“Nox if something happens to her?—”
“I know.”
24
Wren
THE SONGBIRD
My phone is dead. I didn’t want Kage to hang up but now it’s dead and I’m so fucking scared. My chest feels tight thinking about what might have happened here. My breath is shaky as my eyes fixate on all the blood. There’s so much fucking blood.
Slowly, I stand up staring at the smeared handprint on the wall next to Chen’s front door. Pushing it open, I step inside, following the deep red that contrasts against the stark white of the linoleum tile.
“Be quiet Wren, don’t let him hear you.”
I blink hard, trying to shake the memories away but they crash into me like a freight train.
Small beads of blood paint the floors of our kitchen.
Where does it lead to?
Following the droplets, I step down the hallway and into mommy and daddy's room. The door is cracked just enough to where I can see her. Mommy is laying on the bed, her hair sticking to the dampness of her cheeks. A large cut slices through her eyebrow, the blood pooling in the corner of her eye where it’sstarting to swell. Her lip is busted and bleeding and ugly bruises are painted all around her neck.
“Wren baby, go to your room before your father sees you in here. You shouldn’t see me like this.”
Mommy is trying to hide her face from me now, turning her head towards her headboard but the light from the lamp on her bedside table only highlights the swelling of her face.
I’m frozen in place, terrified by how different mommy looks right now. She’s so scared, there’s so much blood. I look down at the floor, my toes scrunch in the tiny pool of blood I’m stepping in. A rush of horror spikes through me. I need to get it off.
“Please sweetheart,” she begs, her voice cracking on the last word. “Just go. Be a good girl and go.”
Tears sting my eyes, I want to run to the bathroom and wash the blood away. I want to take her with me and fix her. Why can’t we run away? Away from daddy and all the pain he causes us. Daddy’s aren’t supposed to hurt their little girls.
My lip trembles as I whisper so soft, mommy almost doesn’t hear me. “You didn’t stay quiet when daddy asked you to either…did you?”
Mommy’s eyes grow wide and I look back down to the floor where my toes are still covered in blood. Footsteps pound on the other side of the house and I know he’s coming.
“Go Wren! Please! Go hide!”
