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"So this is what Miles leveraged to get funding for his project. He'd set up the facilities for the transplants, and he'd provide medical personnel, right?"

"Yes. Exactly. And that means that Mother Superior should know where his headquarters are, since I bet he's housing all his procedures in the same place."

"I want to know too," I whisper, my eyes on him. "I want to know who took that from me. I want to know who paid for my bone marrow. Hell, Vlad, I…" I trail off, my throat clogging with emotion as I realize just how much this place had exploited me.

Me and all these other children.

"Sisi." He grips my nape, bringing my forehead to his. Closing his eyes, he holds me to him, his breath on my lips, his warmth on my skin. "We'll find out. I promise you. And I'll kill everyone who touched a hair on your body, you get me?"

His hands move slowly to cup my cheeks, urging me to look him in the eyes.

"You get me, Sisi? I'll kill everyone you want me to. You just give me a name, and it's done. Fuck." He releases a ragged breath. "Fuck, Sisi. I can't…" He leans closer, kissing my forehead, my nose, and finally my lips.

"The thought of you, small and defenseless on a fucking hospital bed while some makeshift nurse is sticking a needle into your spine is killing me," he sighs deeply. "It's fucking killing me."

"I don't remember it. I really don't." I press my own hand to his cheek.

"Maybe it's better this way, but I still need to find out.

I… This can't go on, Vlad. I know the world is a fucked up place, but we're talking about children.

Defenseless children with no one to look after them.

" My breath catches in my throat, because this feels a little too close to home.

I was one of those children, after all.

"They can't get away with it," I continue, almost suffocating from this anguish, a deep chasm opening in my heart as I realize how lucky I'd been to make it out alive.

When others weren't.

"They won't," he's quick to say. "They won't. One word from you, hell girl, and I pull the trigger. That's it. No questions asked." He strokes my hair gently, the emotion in his features almost mirroring my own.

Because we are one.

"I'm your killing machine. So use me. Kill everyone you want. You say the word, and their heads drop. It's that easy," he continues, and I can see this is the only way he knows how to comfort me.

"We'll do it. Together," I say, more resolute than ever.

By the time we finish filtering through everything, it's already night. We put everything back, and then we make our way toward the living quarters.

"How are we going to make her talk?" I ask right before we go inside the building.

"Leave that to me, Sisi. I'll make sure she tells us everything before I kill her in the most painful way for everything she's done to you."

"No." I stop, my hand on his arm. "Let me." I raise my eyes to his. "I want to be the one to do this. I…"

He places his finger on my lips, not letting me continue.

"I know. I know." He presses his lips in a tight line. "I'll help you with whatever you need. You know I always have your back," he says, his sweet words warming me on the inside.

"I know the whole purpose of this was to find Miles," I tell him before I lose my courage. "But I also feel like I'm finally closing a painful chapter in my life. Past secrets are being revealed, and the people who made my life a living hell are going to be punished."

"I'm glad." He lifts my hand to his mouth. "As long as you're happy, I'm happy," he says and I can't help myself as I quickly jump up to lay a kiss on his cheek.

"Let's do this!"

Except Mother Superior isn't in her apartments. We search everywhere for her, but she's not inside.

"Let me check the cameras quickly." Vlad pulls out his phone, accessing the feed and looking for any sign of her.

"There." He finds her in one frame, leaving her quarters at midnight. Accessing some of the other cameras, we manage to pinpoint her location to somewhere around the church.

Vlad also does one of his tricks and manages to divert all security footage, placing it in a loop, so there will be no trace of us.

"She must be inside the church," I note when we get in front of it.

"A bit too late to pray her sins away, wouldn't you say?" Vlad mutters dryly, aggression already rolling off of him.

He's been like this since we found my medical file.

While he hadn't outright said it, I can tell it pains him even more than me, since I don't remember anything.

But he has intimate knowledge of what it feels like to be cut and probed, so it must not have been easy to hear that I'd been in a similar situation.

From the beginning I've been able to note the change in the atmosphere around him whenever his moods oscillate, and the tension had become increasingly unbearable as I'd watch him clench and unclench his fists when he thought I was distracted.

In his own way, he doesn't want to bring it up to me in fear that it might trigger a memory, and so I know he's holding back a lot. But after we're done with Mother Superior, I aim to have a conversation with him.

Stopping in front of the church, I take a deep breath, ready to face all my past demons. Nodding to Vlad, I push open the door.

He's behind me, and I feel the way his eyes are studying every inch of our surroundings, so I know that nothing can harm me. Having him by my side truly makes me feel invincible, and so I give him one last smile before I school my features.

The reckoning has arrived.

As we walk down the aisle, I see the huddled form of Mother Superior.

She's on her knees, her head bent low in front of the altar, a long rosary hanging from her hands.

Her head whips back the moment she hears the noise behind her, her eyes having a hard time to discern who it is that's disturbing her private time.

"Don't you know it's curfew time?' she asks, her voice grating on my nerves as I suddenly remember every insult and every mockery uttered by that very voice.

I don't answer, stepping further into the church.

My own knight in shining armor is trailing behind, blending in the shadows as he just watches, letting me do what I need to do. And his unconditional trust is the only thing that makes me capable to follow through.

The only light inside the church is coming from the altar, where a dozen candles are lit in a small circle, the flicker of light confined to a small area.

And so it's not until I'm mere steps away from her that Mother Superior realizes who I am, her eyes widening, her mouth hanging open in shock.

"Assisi," she sputters, flustered. "What… what are you doing here?"

"Mother Superior," I say somberly, and a wicked thought to play with her crosses my mind, "I've come to give you your dues," I continue, very slowly putting one foot in front of the other.

"How come you're here? You can't be here?" She gets to her feet, looking at me with confusion.

"Isn't that where we all go where we are aimless? To the place we know best? Home?" The word home burns on my lips, and knowing this had been indeed my home for so long does little to quench the need for destruction brewing inside of me.

"What… I don't know what you're talking about," she immediately counters, although I note a slight twitch in her eye as she looks around for any exit.

"Did you know what they did to me?" I ask, fighting back a smile as she narrows her eyes at me. In spite of her perceived bravado, I can see the slight trembling of her hands, the beads of the rosary moving in a back and forth motion and clinking against each other.

"How they took from my body until there was nothing left? And you allowed it," I intone, putting all the strength in my voice and enjoying the way the sound echoes in the church. I lift my finger up and point at her, and finally I receive the reaction I've been waiting on from her.

Her features blank, her mask dropping as she realizes what I mean.

"What…" she whispers, slowly backing away from me. "You're not real." She shakes her head.

Well, well, but I think my ghostly talk seems to be working. And so I push, wanting to see the fear etched on her face.

"It's your fault," I say as I take one more step toward her.

She keeps on shaking her head, closing her eyes and doing the sign of the cross over her body, her lips muttering a quiet prayer.

"Are you scared now? Scared to face your sins?"

My tone is consistent throughout, and I make a conscious effort to not give myself away by bursting out in a scream, demanding to know exactly what she did to me.

And it seems to work as she continues to back away until she trips on the small steps of the altar, falling down on her ass.

Her eyes are wildly looking around for an exit, her hand thrusting that rosary into my face as if it might protect her from me.

Dropping on one knee in front of her, I snatch it out of her hands, flinging it to the ground.

"You," she spews, her brows tightening together, her hand reaching out to touch my arm, "you're not dead," she continues, her voice accusatory.

And therein lies the issue. Why would she think I'm dead if she's not knee deep into this whole thing?