Page 114 of Volatile Waters

“You must go in there and stop this.”

“But Wolf—”

“Will feel betrayed. He will have just suffered all that for nothing.”

My shoulders sunk. Whitney was only speaking the truth. She loved Link, indeed. Having her soiled was beyond unreasonable and cruel. “You are right.”

As my hand reached for the doorknob, I jolted when blood splattered across my face.

In slow motion, I watched as Adrian dropped, his body simply forgetting how to stand.

It took me a second to comprehend he had been shot in the head. Someone I had worked with, since the beginning, was now on the floor with blood pouring over everything. I had been in gunfights, but my own had always survived. Seeing my lost comrade felt as if the ground was unearthing itself. My whole world felt as if it had to realign in order to make sense. Maybe I was in shock. Maybe Wolf’s violence and the violence I was casting on Whitney was finally too much. Maybe this is how it felt to actually care for someone.

Either way, I numbly reached for the door handle again, not checking to see who had just killed my friend. It was like an out of body experience. I simply had to put all aside and open the door, to once again keep Whitney from the harm that I had created. My ears no longer heard, but my eyes refused to stop working for me. They saw another bullet hole, right in front of my face. I stared at the splintered wood. Then I witnessed another hole form…

Is someone trying to kill me? But I have to open this door.

A voice I knew well entered my mind as my ears decided to let me hear again. It was a male who was in anguish. “Yury! What is happening out there?” Wolf was banging on his door. I peered over my shoulder to see that Adrian’s blood had leaked under his door. “Yury! Please, answer me! Tell me you are fucking alive, goddammit!”

In a daze, I turned to face the door. As I did so, I uttered, “I’m alive,” right before a bullet grazed my shoulder. I stared at a little blood forming on my jacket as I told Wolf, “I think I’ve been shot.”

He roared from within his room, then asked, “Can you run?”

So lost and confused, I gazed at my unharmed legs. “I think so.”

“Then, fucking run!”

“But—” I reached out to him, even though I couldn’t see him. “What about you?”

The door vibrated as he kicked it. “Fucking run! Fucking run!”

I never reached for my own gun in the back of my pants. My mind was not firing on all cylinders, but it begged me to do as Wolf demanded. So, I ran down the hall, to the right, down another hallway, and up the stairs. I hit the buzzer in my pocket and rushed into the foyer. I didn’t stop. Why did I end up in the kitchen? I may never know, but my mind started to clear as I found myself standing there with a butcher knife in my hand. I was gasping for air, rattled beyond comprehension, yet was starting to hear another familiar voice. This one had sparked a hatred many years ago, and as I listened to his words, that loathing became a tidal wave of murderous craze.

Prowling through the kitchen and into the massive living room, I saw Father looking out one of the many huge windows. The reflection of the snow lit off his dark suit as he held a cellphone to his ear. “Yes, they are toying with him to keep him below until the soiling is over… Oh, he never even saw the note we gave her.” He laughed. “All he could see was her watching that blogger on his laptop. Such a fool.”

At that moment, I knew I was. When I had left Whitney to hide money, we were solid and committed to our twisted fate. I wasn’t sure what note Father was speaking of, but he had tricked me twice that day. Both trickeries cost me dearly. Wolf had been sodomized, and Whitney had surely started being raped by now. With guns waiting for me in the basement, I knew I had to find another way to get to her. In order to cease the violence in my world, I had to snuff out my father. My skin broke out in chills as I decided it was time for him to die, and I was going to be the one to bring his demise. My lips formed a smile as I hid, waiting for him to get off the phone, so he couldn’t notify whoever was on the line. And, I knew cellphones didn’t work in the basement. Unless his minions came to check on him, Father had no way of knowing I was no longer down there.

Once off the phone, he didn’t hear my stealthy approach, but he jumped in surprise as I wrapped my arm around his neck from behind. I was bigger. I was stronger. And, I held him to me as I sneered in his ear. “You brought me into this world. Is it suiting that I am the one to take you out?” His answer meant nothing to me. It was far too late for explanations or excuses for being the biggest piece of shit I would ever know, so I kept my arm incredibly tight, blocking his air. “It may sound trite, but never loving me has made me your true curse, not the one being raped. Maybe that means you are the fool after all.” He struggled, grasping at my arm that refused to budge. “Settle, Father. I will not kill you by strangulation. No, that would be far too kind.” I whispered, “Which I am not, because of you.” My arm loosened enough to move my hand to the front of his throat. Once I had purchase, I stepped back just enough to give room so I could slam his back to the ground.

Stunned by the impact and fighting for his lungs to work again, I took no pity nor did I pause so he could collect himself. I put the knife in my right hand while saying, “You watched as I was forced to find my dead mother. You watched as I was forced to fuck Fire’s mother. You watched as I killed an innocent slave, vomiting behind her gag. You watched as I learned my true name. You watched me witness Wolf’s rape. You will watch no more.” I drove the knife into his right eye, twisted, and popped out the mutilated ball. Father wailed in agony as I growled, “Never again will you witness my suffering.” I slammed the knife into his left socket, twisted, and removed that damaged eye. Screaming, blindly reaching out, Father tried grabbing any part of me he could find. I ignored his every attempt to stop me from the wrath I was bestowing upon him, and lifted the knife into the air, as he had, above Seafoam’s body that fateful night.

Then I slammed it into his chest, over and over… until all fight left him.

It was cold but necessary, for too many reasons to recount.

Seafoam’s curse had come true. “With the blood from my body as a sacrifice, I pledge for you to find agony in your death. Let it be by the hands of one of your own. Let your spawn be your downfall and your demise. And I pray that my daughter witnesses it all.”

Rushing to my bedroom for more ammo and another gun, I thought of Father mentioning a note. In my room, there it was—a letter claiming to be from me, telling Whitney I was giving permission for her to watch another Link video.

Father had set me up, and Whitney took the fall.

Not sure of how much time I had before Uncle would return permanently to this home, I quickly grabbed my keys and cellphone and made a call to order a private jet to fly me, Wolf, and Whitney far from this hell on earth. While on the phone, I grabbed a necklace that had not been mine to take. I slipped Link’s charm in my pocket, knowing he would be the only one to give her the strength to survive what I had just put her through.

With the false note in my pocket, and the gun and knife in hand, I raced down the basement stairs, believing I would soon be hit by silent bullets. My feet faltered when I saw the two young employees that had been with Whitney, now laughing and speaking of the good fuck they had just had.

Was it right to kill them? I had asked them to commit the crime against her.

I wanted every tie to Whitney gone. They were now a tie.