“Now come,” Beau said. “Stay close to me and don’t make a sound, unless you’re pulling on the trigger of that gun.”
Under the cover of darkness, we made our way back up the grassy hill and onto the outdoor pavilion where most of the guests had congregated earlier, just before the massacre began.
Bodies were littered everywhere, fleshy husks of the dead who only moments ago were dancing and drinking in merriment.
The red mess on the ground was a mixture of blood and wine, pooling underneath a dam of shredded bodies.
“Fuck,” Beau said as he stood there, dumbfounded.
Three weeks ago, this senseless massacre would have made me catatonic. But I’ve been desensitized since, and now, the only thing I felt was sadness and anger for those that had died so needlessly.
I had come to accept the fact that for the rest of my life, I will always be drowning in a sea of the dead.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something shiny protruding from the dirt in the ground. I bent down and picked it up.
It was Lincoln’s silver pocket watch—his totem of truth. There was a single smear of blood on its once lustrous surface. I gripped it tightly in my hands and closed my eyes.
“I’ll return this to you,” I whispered. “I promise you.”
Suddenly more gunfire erupted from within the mansion of the plantation. We both turned towards it, just in time to see bursts of orange light through the large windows, flashing to the rhythm of gun fire.
“Stay down,” Beau said, as we slowly crept up towards the house.
The shots fired were erratic. The sounds of men screaming inside the manor soon drowned out all other sounds. What the hell was going on inside?
“It’s a damned warzone in there,” Beau said.
That was when the phone Lincoln had given me rang.
“For fuck’s sake girl, mute that damned thing unless you’re planning on visiting the afterlife tonight,” Beau hissed.
However, I needed to take this. If things went south, and there was a good chance they could, I needed to hear Shadow’s voice one last time. I hid amongst the foliage, with the phone in my hand.
I answered the call, pressing the receiver up against my ear.
“Hello,” I whispered into it.
“Lincoln? Are you there?”
I bit my lip. The very sound of Shadow’s voice filled me with longing. I wanted him to be here with me right now.
I’ll keep you safe Aria, he had told me once. That’s one of the perks of being with me.
Then why the hell did you send me away? Can’t you see that all this time, I needed you?
“Shadow, it’s me. It’s Aria,” I whispered into the receiver.
“Lincoln? I can’t hear you. Everything sounds like static.”
The damned phone must have been damaged in the water. I didn’t care though, I had to keep trying. I needed Shadow to hear me.
“Shadow, it’s Aria,” I said once again, as I darted towards another hiding spot, hoping to get better reception.
“Can it not wait?” Beau cursed, as he pointed towards the mansion, a symphony of gunfire resonating from deep within. “They created this nifty, silent thing called texting too.”
“Is Aria okay Lincoln? Fuck, all I’m hearing is static.”
“Shadow,” I cried out once more to him. “Shadow, I need you.”
The sounds of screaming and gunfire continued to reverberate from within the house.
And that was when the phone died on me.
I stared at the phone with shock and anger, as if this inanimate object had reached out and punched me in the face.
I whipped the phone to the ground and cursed.
“Keep your voice down you crazy bird,” Beau said. “I don’t know about you, but I still care to survive. Now come on, let’s hide out close to the house and hope we can catch whoever comes out of it off guard.”
I nodded. We continued inching toward the house. It wasn’t until we were fifteen paces away from it that the sounds of shooting completely stopped.
What followed was a long moment of lingering silence.
“What do we do?” I asked.
“We hide behind that tree over there and point our guns at the doors,” Beau said as he grabbed me by the wrists and dragged me towards a large, oak tree.
The two of us waited behind it, bathed in darkness, my finger pressed against the trigger of the gun.
And then she appeared at the doorway like an apparition. It was Isadora, her face and beautiful black dress drenched in blood. In her arms, she was holding the lifeless body of Delilah, her white gown splattered in red.
“Delilah,” I whispered.
“Fuck,” Beau cursed as he shook his head in dismay. He rose from his hiding spot and walked slowly towards her.
“Isadora,” he called out.
I followed closely behind him.
She looked at us with deadpan eyes, her face showing no signs of emotion. She looked like an empty shell of a human being.
“Isadora, are you alright?” Beau asked again as he approached her cautiously. “Is there anyone else in there we ought to be worried about?”
She looked at him as if the words coming out of his mouth where gibberish, while still cradling Delilah’s limp body in her arms.
I stepped forward. “This is our fault,” I announced. “We should never have come here. Those men were after Lincoln. We brought this upon everyone.”
Isadora suddenly unleashed a scream, one filled with rage and anguish, its sound slicing through the bayou like a curved blade.
Isadora dropped to her knees, laid Delilah onto the ground, and then collapsed on top of her body. She buried her head into her dead bride’s chest and began sobbing hysterically.
I wanted to rush to her side and console her, but Beau held me back.
“Give her a few,” he said. “Sometimes, the best thing we can do for a person is to leave them be.”
And so I did. I watched Isadora mourn for her bride with a shattered heart. I understood how difficult it was to find true love in this world and to lose it in such a way was a tragedy.
Eventually, the crying stopped, and Isadora slowly lifted herself back to her feet. She wiped the tears and blood off her face with the back of her hand, and turned to us.
“I’m done,” she replied.
I could only speculate on what she was referring to.
“I’m sorry,” I apologized once more.
Isadora shook her head. “This is not your doing,” she replied, “Nor Lincoln’s.”
“You can’t stop me from feeling guilty though,” I said as my eyes remained fixed to the ground out of shame.
Isadora walked over to me and lifted my chin with her thumb and index finger. She looked at me with icy eyes. Imprisoned underneath their cold surface was something terrifying, something supernatural.
“Tell me the name of the person who is responsible for all of this,” she said, more of a command than a request.
“Calisto Tremaine,” I whispered.
She nodded as she gently brushed the side of my cheek with her index finger.
“Then consider the bitch as good as dead,” Isadora said.
Beau knelt down and made the sign of the cross over his own body, while looking at Delilah’s face. Her eyes were still open, a look of shock engraved into them. He reached out and closed them.
“Godspeed, sweetheart. Find heaven soon,” he whispered, just before turning his attention back to Isadora. “Was there anyone else inside there we should be worried about?”
She shook her head. “I killed them all,” Isadora replied with such conviction that it could have been gospel.
The look of skepticism on Beau’s face was a clear as water. “You’re telling me that you took out eight men—by my rough count—all by yourself?”
Isadora shook her head. “It was not just by my hand alone,” he said. “The restless spirits of this plantation helped me as well.”
He scratched his head and scrunched up his face. “I know better than to start disrespecting you, the witch queen, but I’m a little skeptical”
“There were nine men hunting me,” Isadora said. “Now there are nine bodies, desecrating the halls of my home. I don’t care to discuss how they died. Just know that they are dead. You can step inside and have a look yourself if you need reassurance.”
Beau shook his head. “That’s good enough for me,” he said. There was a brief pause before he changed the subject of discussion altogether. “The boat that you loaded for Lincoln, I figure we take that back to the mainland before this place is crawling with cops. I figure someone here must have a plan as to where we’re heading next.”
I nodded. “We’re going to the House at the Edge of the World,” I replied. I said it in a way that sounded far more dramatic that it should have been.
Beau raised a brow. “Come again?” he asked. “I didn’t sign up to partake in some cheeky girl’s fairy tale fantasy.”
I sighed. “The cliffs across the water from Moral City,” I replied. “Shadow is waiting for us there.”
Isadora stared at Delilah’s body. “I need to bury her first,” she said. “She loved it here on this island. This was her home. This is where I’ll bury her so her spirit can rest.”
Beau shook his head. “We won’t have time,” he said. “The cops will be all up over this place like rats on cheese.”
“Please,” Isadora said firmly.
Beau looked at her, pursed his lips, and finally agreed.
“Get me a shovel then,” he replied. “I’ll do the digging.”
Isadora nodded. “Thank you.”
“Meanwhile, is there anything within that house that can help us on our way?”
She nodded. “Money, passports, weapons,” she replied. “Everything else…” she swallowed hard. “Everything else belongs in the past now.”
“Get what you need then,” Beau said. “After we leave this island, I’ll craft us up some new passports and IDs. Then we can make our way to this magical house at the top of the hill, or wherever it is. Shadow can take it from there.”
Isadora walked over to Beau and touched him gently on the forearm.
“Thank you, Beau,” she said. “Perhaps you’re not the dog I thought you were.”
“Think nothing of it,” Beau said. “The business of revenge is a lonely endeavor. We all lost someone important to us to the evil bitch sitting high on her throne. I figure we can all keep each other from getting completely lost while we search for vengeance.”
Beau’s words made me think of Shadow. He was a lonely soul, lost in the cold unforgiving darkness.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Shadow
I finally tore my eyes away from my cellphone, resting atop my dining room table. I leaned back in my chair and took a deep breath and looked out the window of my mansion. The House at the Edge of the World always provided the most spectacular view of the ocean.
Fifteen minutes ago, I had tried calling Lincoln, and what I heard on the other end of the line was static along with the fragmented voice of a woman.
I was so sure she sounded like Aria. But, before I could find out, everything went dead.
It was the worst time for the piece of shit phone I gave Lincoln to finally crap out. That was the last time I would buy any piece of electronic equipment off the black market—though I had no other choice at the time.
All I could do now was pray that everything was alright.
“You worried man?” Cairo asked as he snuck up behind me.
“Wouldn’t you be?” I asked.
He nodded. “Yeah, of course I would.”
He took the seat across from me, one hand buried in a bag of salty snacks. “Dorito?” he asked.
I shook my head. “I’ll pass.”
Cairo shoved a few chips in his mouth, and then tossed the bag onto the table and dusted his fingers off.
“I never liked Lincoln,” Cairo began, “But I can never say that the man wasn’t resourceful or loyal to you. They’ll both come back alive. I’m sure of it.”
“Why don’t you like him?” I asked.
“It doesn’t matter.”
I frowned. “Of course it matters. Lincoln has a key role in the endgame,” I replied. “I need to know that you’re not going to choke him out the moment you see him.”
“I won’t,” Cairo said. “I’m the consummate professional.”
“You tried choking me out the second you saw me,” I pointed out.
“Different circumstances man,” Cairo replied. “I thought you murdered my dad, and we were in a cage match. I can’t think of a more perfect scenario for a man to choke another man out.”
I sighed. “What’s your beef with Lincoln?”
Cairo took a deep breath. “Back at the Academy, the dude kept making passes at Reiko.”
“So?” I asked. “The two of you hadn’t hooked up at that point.”
“I know,” Cairo said, “But I was trying to.”
I smacked my palm against my forehead. “Let me get this straight, you’re holding onto a decade long grudge over a high school crush?”
“I think he kissed Reiko,” Cairo added.
“Once again, my reply is ‘so?’ Who cares what happened back when you were still trying to grow your first pubic hair?”
“You don’t get it man.”
“No, I do get it,” I replied. “You’re an idiot.”
“What Reiko and I have is pure. I’m her first, as she was mine. No one from the outside ever tainted us. The thought of her lips on someone else’s drives me fucking mental.”
I rose from the table, and took my cellphone with me.
“Hey, where are you going?” Cairo asked.
“For a drive,” I replied. “I need to get away from the cloud of stupidity that’s currently surrounding me.”
Cairo folded his arms and leaned back in his chair. “I think you’d understand once you found true love,” he replied, “You’ll know you found it when the idea of anyone else touching your girl is enough to drive you over the edge.”
I thought about Aria, and how much I wanted to, no, needed to see her again. I thought about the call to Lincoln’s phone and how I had heard her voice along with something else in the background too.
Was it gunfire?
I had to think positive. The negative thoughts would only drive me insane.
Two weeks ago, I had been foolish. I didn’t realize how much I needed Aria in my life.
I missed her smile, her playfulness, and the way she looked at me like I was the only thing that mattered in this world.
I was an idiot.
I was scared of myself, and because of that, I pushed her away.
I looked at Cairo, who had his hand back inside the bag of Doritos.
“I do know what true love is,” I said. “I’m experiencing it right now.”
Cairo smiled as he held a single Dorito between his thumb and forefinger. “Good for you man,” he said genuinely. “It’s a thing of beauty.”
It was, unless you were a meathead like me, tossing it all away like sand in the wind.
I dusted off my silver Aston Martin Vanquish and pulled out onto the driveway. I took a long look at the mansion, which I had secretly purchased almost five years ago.
No one breathing knew about this piece of property, with the exception of Lincoln, and now, Reiko and Cairo. It had been purchased under a fake alias from an untraceable offshore account.
I always dreamed of taking permanent residence in this beautiful modern home, situated on the coast of Moral City. There was something about this place that calmed me and made me feel at peace.
It was my fortress of solitude.
After I received the keys to the property, the first thing I did was walk over to the edge of the cliff and stare out into the waters of the Pacific Ocean, losing myself to the blue world before me. This was a place where the sky and ocean met, for
ming a union of tranquil beauty.
I had planned on bringing Aria here for our next date but everything had gone to hell before I could.
I sighed and pulled out of the driveway and onto the long, winding road that went further up the cliff. The stars were out tonight, and God, was it quite the sight to behold.
I began to drive, with the spirit of Aria and the memories of her warmth lingering in my mind.
I lost track of how long I had been on the road. It wasn’t until my cell phone rang that I pulled the Aston Martin over alongside the shoulder and parked it.
I immediately answered the unknown call, hoping to hear the voices of either Aria or Lincoln.
It was neither.
“Shadow?” Leah asked.
I cursed silently to myself before answering her. “Yeah,” I said, curtly.
“You don’t sound happy to hear from me.”
“I was just expecting another call,” I replied.
“I see.” There was an awkward pause. “I know I said I was going to stay out of this war you’re preparing for, but I have more news coming from a source, planted deep within the Revenants organization.”
“You have a mole inside the Revenant’s?” I was stunned. Why hadn’t she told me this before?
“Yes,” she confirmed.
“Who is it? Does he or she know where Calisto is hiding?”
There was another long pause from the other end of the phone. When Leah spoke again, I could almost hear her frown through my earpiece. “I can’t give you my source, you know that.” Leah replied, “And no, this person is a few steps removed from Calisto herself. If they knew where Calisto was, they’d have given me a location a long time ago.”
“That’s fair,” I replied. “So what updates do they have for us?”
“The Revenants think you murdered Elena Zhao,” Leah replied.
“I didn’t.”
“Yes, we all know that. But if you didn’t murder Elena and Calisto didn’t hire Duckface to kill her, then who did?”
I had no reply for her.
Was it possible there was a third party involved in this mess? Perhaps it was Nathan, the backstabbing asshat, who thought it was the perfect opportunity to off the billion dollar princess.
Penumbra (The Midnight Society #2) Page 27
