Page 37

Pain: Acute mental or emotional distress or suffering.

S o much pain. I was engulfed in a fire.

I tried to open my eyes, an annoying beeping letting a blip every few seconds. The room was quiet. I forced my eyes open. A log ceiling stared back at me.

Where was I?

A woman with tight braids in her hair came into view. She looked familiar. I could have sworn I knew her from somewhere.

“Doctor Masters?” I said, my voice sounding like a pathetic squeak.

“Taliah. You’re safe, Fallon. You need to rest.”

I protested, trying to pull myself up. There was an IV line in my arm, and two bags were off to the side—one a clear solution and the other…blood.

My eyes widened. Taliah put her arm on my shoulder, and I tried not to flinch at her touch.

“You lost a lot of blood, Fallon.” She searched for words. “We were able to transfer you to my in-home clinic here, but…”

What wasn’t she saying? I couldn’t have lost enough blood to need a transfusion from just rough sex from the asshole. I knew he knocked me around more than usual, but this…the way my stomach burned and ached with a pulsating cramping sensation…there was something wrong.

“What happened to me?”

I was scared. Taliah looked professional, but even her eyes had a sheen of glass in them that she couldn’t hide from me.

“I am very sorry, Fallon. You were attacked, and the trauma your body endured. They were unable to save the baby.”

Baby?

“Xavier’s dead?” I said in a sob.

Fallon opened her mouth and closed it again, searching for words.

“Look, please. That baby is the last thing I have of my brother, and he was brought into this world in the cruelest of ways. I need him to be okay.”

Taliah pursed her lips. “Fallon. I am not referring to your nephew. Your pregnancy did not survive the assault.”

I blinked rapidly. “My p-pregnancy? Wha?”

Now, she had that sympathetic look that doctors couldn’t help but use. It was their mask.

“Yes. You were in the early stages of pregnancy, and the trauma that happened during the assault at the hospital caused you to hemorrhage, and you have miscarried. I am so sorry.”

I couldn’t wrap my head around her words.

Baby. Assault. Pregnancy. Miscarried.

I couldn’t have been pregnant. I couldn’t have. I didn’t…

Ferdinand…

He always claimed he was infertile by an accident that was caused on a boat as a child. Could he have lied to me? Why? Why would he…

Baby. Assault. Pregnancy. Miscarried.

He assaulted me. He raped me. He didn’t stop. He kept going even after I begged him to stop. He smashed my body into all those damn things in the nursery. I…

“I can get your nephew if that would be a comfort? He is being cared for by a close friend of our family. She has a little one, too, so she knows how to handle them. I am…not very good with babies unless it’s bringing them into the world. Even then, I prefer to…uh…work on sleeping patients.”

“Is he safe? Where is he?” I sat up now, and my stomach was already screaming at me.

“Yes, Fallon. I will call Penelope and have him brought right over, okay?”

I relaxed a little bit. The knowledge that Xavy would be back in my arms soon was the only comfort I had right now. I was still reeling from the events.

I had been pregnant? I couldn’t be a mother. I was so unfit for being a mom. It wasn’t even funny.

Yet the thought of losing Xavier felt…wrong. Like I would be missing a puzzle piece. Taliah left me in my room, and I allowed myself to cry. Tears fell down my cheeks as I spoke to the child I would never know.

“I am so sorry, little baby. I didn’t know you existed, but I would have loved you. I…I don’t know what to say. I feel so guilty you’re gone, even though I don’t know the first thing about being your…mom.”

I put my hand on my stomach, feeling the emptiness now.

“I…I am so sorry. Noah, please take care of my baby, and I will take care of Xavier, okay?”

I was probably high off the drugs in my IV, but I felt a warmth. A light in my body I couldn’t explain. It was like my brother heard me and took my child’s soul to be with him.

“Be safe, little one. Maybe you can play with Xenia, too. Pharaoh said she always loved babies. I know you’ll be happy up there. So many to love you. I will love you from down here until we meet again, okay?”

I was babbling. My word vomit turned into actual vomit. I was losing my meal when Taliah came back into the room. I could see her from the doorway. She looked calm, but fear slid onto her features as she walked forward. I started to ask what was wrong, but then I saw the glint of a gun at her head.

I opened my mouth to scream when Ferdinand came into view. He looked like hell. His clothes were dirty, bloody, his face beat to shit…what the hell happened? What the fuck was going on?

“Hello, Pet,” he said. His voice held a vibration to it that showed his insanity. “You thought you’d check out with no call? How rude.”

I looked at Taliah. I didn’t know what to do.

“Ferdinand. Darling. I am sorry. I was wrong. Please let go of the doctor.”

I had to get Taliah free.

“Darling, please. Let her go, and you can take me home with you, okay?”

He was unhinged. He was shaking, his head jerking as if there was something he was trying to shake off.

He laughed hysterically. “Oh, Pet, your lies are beautiful. Maybe that’s why I grew so attached to you over the years.

Your pathetic family was auctioning you off and I finally had you.

That damn brother of yours nearly ruined it but no matter.

It was easy enough to keep you in line after I killed Noah.

Their prized stallion child was the perfect setup to seal the deal. ”

I shivered.

Killed…Noah?

He waved the gun around in front of Taliah’s face, using the barrel to scratch his cheek like he had an itch.

“See, that snoop caught me one night tracking you. He was always that good big brother. I knew letting him live would only get me into trouble and prevent the big finale when I find her.”

Find…her?

“Oh, don’t look so miffed, Pet. You threw a spanner in the works by getting nice and cozy with none other than Pharaoh Fucking Masters. I must admit the cosmic irony isn’t lost on me, dear. A wife for a wife, as it were.”

“What do you mean a wife for a…what did you do to Ariah Masters, Ferdinand?”

He sighed in mock sadness. “I killed her, of course. She was supposed to save my dear Gemmy from her own mind. But she failed that even in her death.”

Who was Gemmy?

“Ferdinand…I don’t understand. Why would…why would you kill them? Noah and Ariah…”

The shots ricocheted in my mind that night in the graveyard, and I zeroed in on the gun.

“Hannah. You killed them all... Why? This isn’t who you are.”

The monster smiled, and I knew I couldn’t be more wrong.

“Stupid girl. I am bred of greatness. It was always my purpose to finish his great work.”

Bred of greatness…

“All those work trips…you were killing those girls, weren’t you? How long has this gone on? Are you the Reaper that desecrated the patients at the asylum?”

Taliah spoke up. “No. That was a man named Joe—”

He cut her off and sang those haunting lyrics I’d heard too many times now.

“Tick-tock, tick-tock, the sleeping doll.”

“What the fuck does that mean, you creep! Are you working for Joe? You tried to kill my brothers!” Taliah said.

Ferdinand threw Taliah down onto the ground and pointed the gun at us.

“No, you ignorant bitch. Joe is my grandfather. I am bred of greatness. I will finish his work. Tick-tock, tick-tock.”

Ferdinand was losing his sense of sanity. He was slipping. He kept smacking his head with the metal, his words growing more and more broken into musical syllables.

“I don’t understand…tick-tock…no…sleeping doll, don’t ‘tick-tock’ me. I…am…me.”

Taliah and I watched him struggle to hold on. Neither of us could understand what was happening to him. He was holding his head, screaming in agony.

“Gemma. No. Tick-Tock. Why? Why would sleeping doll tick…tock…me?”

“Ferdinand…?” I tried to get his attention. He was truly succumbing to his mind, an implosion of mania trapping him within his gray matter.

His movements were off, jerking more than usual. His breathing picked up. I took a deep breath, giving Taliah a look before sliding slowly off the bed and walking toward him. Ferdinand was…gone. In his place was…a monster.

“Tick-tock, sleeping doll. Soldier One is done. Soldier Two is who? Soldier three is…me?”

I kept slowly walking toward him. He was smashing his head with the gun, and I reached forward, trying to take it from his grip. He snapped, his bloodshot eyes bugging out as he latched onto my wrist.

I screamed and tried to jerk free. He cackled and held onto my wrist tighter. Taliah smashed him upside the head with some medical tray, and he lost his grip.

Ferdinand lunged at Taliah and knocked her off balance, and the two battled with the weapon. Scrambling, I searched the ground for fallen medical equipment. I spotted a syringe, and without thinking, I pulled the cap off and ran toward the two of them.

I slammed the needle into his neck and pushed down the plunger. His body jerked, and his eye shot open before he gasped and fell forward. I reached for Taliah and was stunned when a loud shot rang out. Blood coated my feet.

“Oh god!” I screamed, trying to push his body off of Taliah’s. I couldn’t see where the bullet went. I had no clear view of who it hit. Finally freeing the doctor from the maniac, I saw the gaping hole in her stomach. My heart dropped.

“Oh my god…Taliah!”

She was panting, her strength a testament, as she forced out a laugh. “I have sewed up worse than this…I will…be okay.”

Her voice was trembling. Her effort to even talk was evident in sapping her strength.

“Hold on, Doctor Masters. I will get help!”

Her teeth began to chatter, and I walked as fast as I could to the phones in the living area of her home. Footprints of her blood trailed behind me. I picked up the cell and dialed the police.

“Please! There was an intruder who shot my friend. Come immediately!” After they confirmed they were on their way, I hung up and dialed a new number.

A gruff voice picked up on the other end, but not the one I dialed.

“Goliath? Where’s Pharaoh?”

He was silent for a minute. “He will be okay. Are you doing well?”

I started crying. “No! Your sister has been shot, Goliath. My ex came to kill me, and there was a big fight. Taliah, she…she was trying to protect me. She got shot. I called the cops. I don’t know what to do. Everything is happening so fast. I need—I need Pharaoh. Please. Where is Pharaoh?”

Goliath was speaking in low tones to someone next to him, telling them of the situation in a demanding tone.

“We’re on our way, Fallon. Where is he?”

Pharaoh’s brother sounded every bit the monster the rumors claimed him to be.

“He’s in the medical room. I-I stabbed him with some kind of drug. I don’t know what it was…he just went down.”

Goliath was silent.

“I…I don’t know what to do. I am waiting for the police.”

“We’re coming to you now. You need to lock yourself in a room, Fallon. In case he wakes up.”

I gasped, not even realizing he may not be dead.

“But what about Tal—”

“We will take care of our sister. Just hide. Now.”

He hung up the phone, and I cursed at it. All the Masters’ brothers were arrogant fucking assholes! I wasn’t going to leave Taliah to die.

I limped back to the medical room, opening the door to see…nothing. Both Ferdinand and Taliah were gone. There was an open window and an abandoned puddle of blood.

I walked to the window and looked outside. There were trails of blood leading into the woods behind the house.

Was she running?

Did he wake up and go after her?

“Taliah.”

I took a deep breath, grabbed a sharp scalpel, and climbed out the window.