CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

WILLIAM

“You chose to take it upon yourselves to punish someone in my home?” I growl, pacing in front of Number One and Number Eleven.

They say nothing.

There’s nothing to say.

“I thought you would have known better by now, Number Eleven. I offered Number Thirteen your punishment and she let you escape it, and this is how you repay her? By beating her? That’s a bully, Number Eleven, and I don’t tolerate bullies. You will be punished for your actions, and this will continue until you learn.”

She hangs her head, her jaw tight.

“George,” I growl, and George appears in my view, his arms crossed.

“Yes, sir?”

“Number Eleven is to be treated the same way she treated one of her own. Take her to the baseme toake her nt, and give her twenty lashings. She will then proceed to do as Number Thirteen commands for the next week. If she disobeys Number Thirteen, she will be punished far worse.”

Number Eleven snaps her head up. “I’m not listening to that bitch.”

“Make that thirty lashings,” I say, not looking at her.

“You’re a bastard!” she screams.

I spin to her, storming forward and wrapping my hand around her shoulder. “I will continue with these punishments, doing whatever I have to, until you learn that it is not your place, nor will it ever be your place to lay your hands on another person. Especially a person who has done nothing at all to deserve it. That is the act of a coward.”

She jerks her body from mine, and glares at the floor again.

“Number One didn’t hit Number Thirteen, so she will receive only ten lashings for being present. She may come back up, but she will take all the kitchen duties tonight as well as the washing. Give the girls a night off.”

“Yes, sir.”

I turn and walk away. When I reach the door, I turn to face the girls. “You will learn that nothing gets past me in this house, and if you wish to remain in it, instead of in the lives you were in before this, then you will obey my every command until such time that you can create your own lives. I am all you have right now; do not forget that.”

“Please let me go,” I scream squirming as his fingers run down my thighs. “She’s out there alone, please.”

“Hush, we don’t have long before your momma is home.”

“Lanthie!” I scream from under him. “Lanthie!”

I can’t hear her. I can’t hear anything, not for the longest moment. All I can hear is his panting as he tries to rub himself against me, letting him get that little bit further than last time. Vomit rises in my throat, but it’s mostly from panic. My baby sister is out there alone, on the patio...the patio with a balcony that she is always climbing.

“Lanthie!” I cry again.

“Shut up, puta,” he hisses, slapping my face so hard I scream. Tears leak out of my eyes as he presses his hand over my mouth while his other hand yanks my hair, causing my head to burn.

Then I hear it.

And I’ll never forget the sound.

My baby sister’s tiny cry that grows more distant until it suddenly stops. Then I hear screaming, all of them, screaming to call 911.

I wake up screaming, clutching at my blankets as the dream assaults me. I throw myself out of bed, disorientated. I run towards nothing, slamming into a wall, which quickly propels me backwards until I land on the floor with a thump. Blue eyes, blond hair, and a smile that lit up the room. Lanthie. My baby sister. The baby sister who died because of me.

My screams turn ragged, and I claw at the floor, shaking my head from side to side as my mind spins with the remembrance of my life before this. The light flicks on, and suddenly I’m being scooped into a set of strong, hard arms. William. He carries me down the hall quickly, urgently, until he reaches his room, then he places me down, kneeling in front of me.

“Hush, Beauty. What is wrong?”

“Lanthie,” I sob, “I killed her. It’s all my faults arther t. It’s my fault. I didn’t fight hard enough. I didn’t stop him.”

“No,” he rasps, pulling me into his arms and rocking me backwards and forwards.

“She was just a little girl,” I wail, feeling my teeth clatter together as I inch closer towards a complete meltdown.

“It wasn’t your fault. You were just a girl too.”

“She was just a baby,” I scream, pummeling my tiny fists into his chest.

“Shhh,” he soothes, holding me tighter, squeezing the air out of my lungs.

“She’s d-d-d-dead, because of me.”

“No,” he murmurs again. “She’s dead because you had a careless mother. She’s dead because you had a monster in your lives. She lived that long because of you, Emelyn. Because you protected her.”

“How could I have forgotten her, William?” I whimper. “Even for just a second.”

“You never forgot her, sweetheart. You just put her in a safe place for a while.”

Tears leak from my eyes as I clench them shut. “Take me to her. Promise me you will take me to her.”

“I promise,” he murmurs into my ear.

“Are the rest of my memories going to hurt like this?”

He doesn’t answer me for a long while. When he does, his voice is soft. “Nothing can hurt more than losing the only thing you’ve ever fought for.”

I press myself closer into him, hearing his heart ponding into my ear.