Page 135 of Phobia

I knew subconsciously that I loved my mother, but I hated the person she became. Hell, I couldn’t even remember a time where we talked like we should, not to mention the days where she wouldn’t criticize every single thing I did.

So I came here, to this hell. To this damned place that would be the end for me.

“The moon is visible now,” Judah said. I could feel him next to me—his heat, his energy—just like I could feel Lazarus on my left. “We should start now.”

“We need to wake her up first,” Lazarus added just as somebody from the background grumbled inaudibly. “Gabriel, you can either stay or go, but you know this will happen.”

Gabriel was still trying to stop them. Maybe… Maybe if I managed to somehow give him a sign, maybe he would save me. Maybe he could take me away from here.

The Lacroix family was powerful enough to stop this madness. To stop Judah.

“Are you in or out?” Judah asked. “You better be in, my friend. Your father and your mother are counting on you, and we both know what will happen if you fail tonight.”

“Fuck you, Judah,” Gabriel spat out, the disdain evident in his voice. “I never wanted to be a part of this. I never wanted to do this.”

“Then why are you still here?” Lazarus asked.

“Because I have no other choice!” Gabriel’s voice boomed around the room, burying itself deep in my brain.

The despair. The anger. The sadness.

They were all mixed into one, coloring his words with the unhinged madness that was threatening to burst on the surface.

I should have listened to him, I told myself just as a wayward tear rolled down my face.

“Ah.” Lazarus laughed. “Our little lamb is finally awake.”

Shit.

Fuck.

He saw it. He saw me crying.

“Open your eyes, Danika. Look at me.” My head shook of its own volition, my body fighting against the pull he had on me. “Come on, Dani. You wanted to meet me. You wanted to see me.” Poison dripped from his words, and I was a silly little girl, thinking it was sweetness that he carried.

They all carried venom in their veins. The only difference was that some of them knew how to hide it. They knew how to subdue the monster living inside.

They were capable of changing themselves like shapeshifters, switching from one form to another—a charming young man in one moment, and a fucking psychopath in the next one.

“Dani,” Lazarus cooed. “Open your pretty eyes, darling.”

“Fuck. You!” I belted out, opening my eyes momentarily.

It took me a moment to zero in on him, to see him fully, all with the sinister grin and the darkness swirling in his sable eyes. Blinding lights were placed somewhere above me, making it so much harder to see the rest of the people inside this room, but they were there. I could feel them. I could sense the depravity in this room, just like I could that night not so long ago.

Just like that night, fear wasn’t what moved my limbs. Fear wasn’t what ruled my mind.

Dark, red anger slammed through me, rushing in my veins, mixing with my blood. All I wanted to do was to jump from this bed, this table, whatever the fuck they were keeping me on, and to wrap my hands around their throats.

I blinked and blinked and blinked, adjusting to the painful lighting, to the eyes of a man who I thought needed a friend, a someone. But just like with so many other things in my life, I was wrong about this one.

Gone was the mask he wore earlier, unabashedly showing me his fucking perfect face, openly giving glimpses of a monster that hid behind all the glamour and ritz.

“Ah, Dani.” He smiled, wrapping his hand around my knee, squeezing hard enough for me to bite down on my tongue, stopping the yelp from erupting from my lungs. I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of seeing me cry and beg. I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of breaking me, no matter how painful this experience was going to end up being.

They didn’t deserve my tears.

He—this fucking idiot I thought could be a saving grace for me—didn’t deserve my tears. He didn’t deserve to see the hollow parts of my soul, only to fill the chasm in his own.