Page 30 of Cain

The clock shows that it’s already past midnight, which means everyone will be locked in their rooms by the automated locking system.

As I head to the garden, I realize the smoke isn’t enough to wash away the taste of his blood lingering in my mouth. I need something more substantial.

And then I see the vase at the end of the corridor, holding a large bouquet of red roses. I’ve filled my entire place with them. I want her scent to linger everywhere.

I pluck a petal, drive it into my lips, and let her taste flood my mouth again, recalling the day when I first touched her. Recalling the day when I saw her again, wandering the street, looking completely lost. How could she not be? She had just arrived from the Czech Republic—just likeIplanned. She was searching for a place to stay in this massive, chaotic concrete jungle I’d brought her to.

“Cain?” Katerina gasps, widening her eyes.

“What the hell are you doing here?”

“Is that … a head?”

This can’t be happening! Why is he covered with blood, holding a fucking head in a plastic bag, and walking around the house as if nothing is going on?

“I asked you something. What the hell are you doing here?” he growls calmly, his gaze piercing and commanding.

“I couldn’t sleep,” I pant. “I-I asked you something as well …” I repeat.

He takes a deep breath and brushes his dark blonde hair back with his fingers, covering it with blood as well. He looks disheveled, yet still classy, in his bloodstained white shirt. His black tie hangs loosely around his collar,exposing his skin and a glimpse of his neck tattoos. I hate tattoos. I hate smoking. I hate violence. I hate everything he does and everything he is.

He tosses the bag with the head, and it lands near my feet. Oh my God! Is that the photographer who …?

“He won’t harm you or anyone else again.”

The men behind him are carrying something, also wrapped in a plastic bag.Is it his body?

“What have you done?” The words barely escape my lips. I’m suffocating, as if the air around me isn’t enough to fill my lungs. My pulse is throbbing in my temples, and my fingers are getting numb. My vision is blurry. I think I’m having a panic attack.

“Katerina?” He paces towards me.

“Get away from me!” I squeal, trying to push him away.

“Come here.” He pulls me into his arms, but I try to fight myself out of them. He’s a monster! How could he do that?

“I said, let me go!” I scream, yanking myself fiercely so he’ll let me go.

“Hey!” He grabs my face and forces me to look at him. “Calm down. You’re having a panic attack.”

My breathing grows shallower by the second, the air scraping at my throat as though it can’t reach my lungs. I don’t think I have control of my body at the moment.

He’s fucking covered with blood, and he’s touching me!

“Let me go!”

“Listen to me, goddammit!” He jabs into my cheeks with his fingers. “Look at me.”

My eyes lock on his, but I can’t focus on them. I can’t do what he says. My ears are buzzing, and my heart is racing. I am scared. God, it feels like dying.

“Rein it in, Katerina.”

“I … I can’t.”

His fingers twist my loose hair into a firm fistful and force me to look at him again.

“Tell me five things you can see,” he growls. What the hell is he asking me to do? I don’t respond. I feel that I can’t breathe at all right now. “Do as I say. Five things you can see.”

Involuntarily, my eyes dart all over the place, obeying his command. “Carpet, vase, plastic bag, roses, wall,” I say with one breath.