Page 106 of Bound Bride
"Oh for fuck’s sake, Beatie!" Frustration and fear collide with anger and for a few seconds, I'm sickeningly overwhelmed with what to do. The blood pulsing against my palms doesn't stop, but Calvin isn't moving as much anymore. Beatie keeps the knife in her hand, an ever-present threat if she decides to lunge for me, and somehow no one has heard us shouting.
Calvin did say the estate was quieter today.
"Beatie, listen to me. This isn't what you think, okay? I'm not mad at you because you don't know what you're doing, okay? I know you think it's for the best because that's whathetold you and all the drugs in your system probably make me seem like the worst sister in the world. But I promise you I never abandonedyou. Everything I've been doing here has been to protect you and Mom."
"Then why didn't you come back?"
"Because… fuck. Because Mathew tricked me and kept me here with the same lies he's probably told you. It was him, wasn't it? He told you to kill me and that would save Mom? Well he told me coming here and having Kon's baby would save you and Mom, and look at you, Beatie. You're not safe at all."
Her wide gaze slowly dips down to the knife and then crawls back up to me. "You're lying. He loves me."
"What?!"
"He loves me. He told me."
"You're fucking fifteen, Beatie. He doesn't love you, he's manipulating and using you because he's been torturing us all for months and we don't know any better!"
"You're lying!" Rage unlocks something in her and she suddenly lunges at me with the knife, forcing me to abandon Calvin to save myself from a knife to the neck.
I scramble backward and my wet, blood-stained hands slip on the tiles, but I'm able to create some distance between us.
Beatie lunges at me again as I scramble to my feet and I narrowly avoid her with a twist of my body.
It sends her crashing into the soup pot and she knocks it over, sending broth and soup cascading all over the oven, the counter, and then the floor.
"Beatie, stop!"
She comes at me again and I raise my arm, then scream and the blade slices through my forearm and glances off my elbow.
Blood, hot and thick, runs down my arm as she swings her hand again and tries to stab me once more.
Panic takes over and I grab her wrist, twisting it as hard as I can, and a squeal of pain rises from her before the blade slips from her fingers.
As it clatters to the floor, I throw her against the counter and follow with my own body to pin her there.
"I hate you!" Beatie screams as I get both my arms around her from behind and pin her arms to her torso. "I hate you! I hate you!"
"No you don't," I gasp. "You don't know what you're saying!"
Beatie throws her head back and her skull collides with my mouth. Hot pain flashes across my lower lip where my teeth cut into it, but the pain fades as my adrenaline spikes and I keep my grip on her. Together, we wrestle back from the counter and I keep holding her as tightly as I can.
"You don't hate me!" My embrace tightens. "You're scared and not thinking straight and I get it, Beatie. I do. We've been through hell but it's okay! You're okay now. You're here with me and I'm going to fix things. I'm so sorry I never came back!"
"I h-hate you!" Beatie sobs as she gradually stops fighting me and sags in my arms. "I hate you so much!"
"I know, sweetie. I know!"
"I hate everything…" Her sobs come thick and fast, choking her with each desperate breath and she finally stops moving. "I j-justwanted to save Mom because no one came back for us. I didn't want to be another person who just left."
"I know. I know. It's okay. It's okay. I promise we will help her. I promise."
"It's gonna be too late," Beatie wails as I slowly, cautiously relax my arms. Beatie turns to face me and my heart breaks at the confused distress written across her like a scar. "It's gonna be too late."
"No. No it won't." I cup her tear-stained cheek. "Do you know where she is? Did Mathew ask you to meet him somewhere?"
She nods. "B-But he only gave me a day."
"A day?"
