Page 81 of Please Open Me
“Then what is it?”
I stared at the water circling the drain, heart pounding. If I said it, I couldn’t take it back. If I said it, everything changed.
Seb, Cam, Lucian, and Sophia were all stuck with me for better or for worse. A mess of trauma bonds, soul mates, and true love made us an unbreakable polycule, but Mattie wasn’t at that level yet.
Nor did I know if she even wanted to be. So, while I’d love to have her fully integrated and love my found family as much as I did, it wasn’t fair to just expect her to acceptthislike I could everyone else.
I shut off the water and closed my eyes.
“I’m pregnant.”
Chapter 20
Sebastian
Saint Samael’s always reeked, but I could usually breathe through it, almost ignore the frankincense. Today, though, the smoke didn’t just hang in the air—it flooded the sanctuary in thick, suffocating ribbons.
My fingers curled around the wooden podium as I squared my shoulders. The sea of worshipers in front of me looked faceless, like someone had painted over them in oil and left their features blank.
Still, I continued with the sermon.
“When it comes to failure, the Lord knows none. For in his plans, while there are setbacks…”
I trailed off, scanning the crowd again, desperate to focus.
A hand clamped down on my shoulder, tight enough to bruise. Cold lips brushed my ear, corpse-like and slick with what felt like mucus.
“Keep going, Father Castillo,” Dale’s drawl rattled in my ear like death itself.
I jerked around—but no one was there.
Then, from the other side, Dale returned.
“You’re who they’re here for. Make the congregation proud.”
The chapel lights flickered—first dim, then blinding—before every bulbburst at once.
I screamed, ducking behind the pulpit as I covered my face. My body shook violently, wracked with seizure-like convulsions as I waited for the gunshot-like shatters to end.
When the noise finally stopped, I forced myself upright, legs trembling. The sanctuary was pitch black, save for the faint glow of incense.
The pews stretched on forever, but the congregation had bowed their heads, not in prayer. They looked like marionettes with their strings cut, collapsing in unnatural heaps. Limbs tangled and twisted. Some broken. Or worse.
“You remember what it’s like to not be chosen. To be hated. To be feared,” Dale’s voice slithered back into my ear.
I spun, nearly slipping off the podium. My nails dug into the wood just as the floor behind me crumbled into a gaping black void.
Gravity doubled. I stifled a scream, muscles shaking as I fought to stay upright.
“We are the only ones who want you, Sebastian.”
“No!” I shouted, arms trembling. Every skipped gym day suddenly haunted me.
Decay spread across the podium, rot crawling like vines under the wood grain. I jumped—just barely catching the edge—only for it to give way beneath me.
And I fell.
Invisible flames licked at my feet, and I screamed. The pain was instant. Real.
