Page 82 of Ethereally Tainted

“How do you have this?” I whisper, and when he doesn’t answer, I repeat myself. “How the fuck do you have this?” I scream, my voice echoing and reverberating through the walls.

He looks at me with a dead look, almost as dead as the woman in the picture. “What do you see?”

I want to scream, hit him, fucking kill him too, for doing this to me, but I’m stuck in handcuffs.

“Answer me, Lily.”

That name makes disgusting feelings swirl in my stomach, and I scream. I scream until my voice becomes hoarse until I’m sure I look like a lunatic, but frankly, I cannot care.

“My mother,” I whisper, my voice hoarse and filled with pain as the tears blur my vision, but I can still see his contented expression.

“Very good.”

“Why are you doing this?” I’m talking, but I don’t know if it’s in my head or if I’m saying the words out loud.

Mr. Ricci does not answer but instead takes out another picture and places it next to the picture of the woman who ruined my life by taking my father’s life, and then I took revenge.

The new picture makes my lungs gasp and feels like someone has kicked the air out of me.

“What do you see?”

It takes me several seconds to really understand what I’m seeing. It’s another picture full of blood, but less grotesque than the one before. Green colors are mixed with the red shade, and after several seconds of staring at the picture with my mouth open, I see that the green color is masses of leaves. It looks like the body is surrounded by trees and bushes in a forest. But that’s not what catches my eye the most, it’s the body itself that lies there. A bullet has ripped into the man’s flesh, causing the skin around the hole to peel away, leaving a horrendous scene of blood.

Blood I can’t bear to look at.

The shock washes over me like a huge tsunami wave, and I stare at Mr. Ricci. All the memories come back from the day I ended up here, and the headache takes over.

Screams.

Children.

Everlee being dragged away.

Someone pushing me to the ground.

“What was in the medicine you gave me?” That’s the only question I can think of, mortification taking over me.

That smile is back, looking at me with an evil glint in his eyes. “Ah, I see you finally remember.”

My stomach churns.

“Drugs to make you forget.”

The world tilts on its axis around me, and it feels like I don’t know anything anymore.

Everything suddenly makes sense, the memory loss I had where I couldn’t remember anything, the lack of pain after being told I had been in an accident. They drugged me, making me forget those memories so I would comply.

“Now that I have replied to your question, you shall reply to mine. What do you see?”

All I want to do is disappear from the face of the earth, but I know the answer without looking at the picture again. “Frederick Grimhill.”

When I bring up the master’s name, there is no trace of confusion in Mr. Ricci’s expression, as if he knows who he is.

“That is right. He was killed the day you got here.”

“Can I please go?” I interrupt him.

I can’t take this anymore.