Page 86 of Unhinged Cain

Cain paused long enough to pull something out that looked similar to a gun from inside his jacket. We made our way quietly down the hall toward the bedrooms, and I could hear him moaning and looked up to Cain for confirmation that Peter was, in fact, having sex.

Cain held up his hand, and I stopped walking. He held a finger over his lips and motioned for me to stay where I was. I’d never known any of Cain’s victims to be shot to death, so I doubted that was what he was up to, but I prepared myself for a bang anyway.

Did I care if he killed Peter? I searched inside myself and found the answer to be no. I didn’t give a fuck what he did to the man. I also stopped needing a reason for what I felt. It was tiring, and Cain accepted my decisions and didn’t want me to justify myself. It was freeing and terrifying to feel so unsanctioned.

There was a distinct yell from two voices, one Peter’s and the other one…was that my mother? No, it couldn’t be. I’d joked about it and wondered if Peter had the hots for my mother, but even she wouldn’t stoop so low. Would she? The fact that I even had to ask myself that question said a lot about how our relationship had been.

A few minutes later, Cain came out into the hall and waved me over. For some stupid reason, I was scared to turn the corner and see if I’d been wrong about her all this time and if she really would do something like this to me. Broken up or not, if she was in there, she didn’t care about my feelings at all.

Stepping into the room that only had one small light on, I spotted Peter first. He was tied up with some bright red rope with a red ball gag in his mouth and was strung up to look like a puppet on strings.

“Did you do that, or was he like that,” I asked, my tone quiet.

“I did it just now.” He cocked his eyebrow at me. “It’s not like I’ve never tied someone up and put a ball gag in their mouth before.”

“Good point, but your skill still baffles me,” I said as my eyes went from Peter’s slack face to the bed and the woman that was also tied up in a precarious position.

My mother looked like a cow that had been hogtied. Even though I thought I’d heard her voice, I didn’t believe it could be true until now. My eyes roamed over my mother’s face and her naked body, and I had to cover my mouth as bile traveled up my throat. Who did this to their daughter?

“What did you do to them?”

“Drugged them,” he said and held up the thing that looked like a handgun. “It’s a mild tranq.”

He was always so calm and matter-of-fact. He knelt and began lifting one item at a time out of his bag.

“This is what you wanted to show me? My ex and my mother are having an affair,” I asked and couldn’t stop the hurt and feeling of betrayal in my chest. My heart hurt as I realized she was never going to love me. Maybe my mother was more of a psychopath than Cain?

“Yes, but there’s more. I’m going to go take care of a few things to ensure we are not discovered, but they will wake up soon, and you’ll have the answers you’ve been looking for.”

“Are you leaving me here?” I said as a soft moan left my mother’s lips.

Cain’s mouth curled up at the corner. “No, I’m never leaving you.”

I watched him walk out of the room like what he said wasn’t profound, and I couldn’t help but smile. I didn’t know which answers he was referring to, but I sat down in a chair and stared at the fucked up tableau.

My mother came around first. She mumbled random words that made no sense before she groaned and tried to move, only to realize that she was stuck.

“What the hell is going on,” she asked, her eyes searching the room before they finally landed on me. “Kirby? What are you doing here? What have you done to me?”

My mother tried looking over her shoulder to see how she was tied up, but it wasn’t going to do her any good. Cain was an expert when it came to knots and different ways to tie people up. Again just another fact that at one point would’ve terrified me.

“I’m kind of wondering the same question. What the hell are you doing here,” I asked and watched her face closely.

“I…this isn’t what it looks like…we—this was a mistake, an accident,” she stumbled through her words, and I knew she was lying. My mother was rarely ever shaken, but when she was, she always stammered.

“I call bullshit,” I said and stood from the chair.

“Kirby Lawson, untie me right now,” she ordered, and all I could do was laugh. Even now tied up with her hand caught in the cookie jar, she refused to treat me like a daughter and instead tried to order me around like one of her subordinates.

“No, not yet. How long has this been going on? I want the truth.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and walked closer to the bed. She was still a beautiful woman. All the boyfriends I’d ever had would comment that she was hot MILF material. Now I had to wonder if my mother was a real Mrs. Robinson.

“I told you it just happened. We were commiserating over you being gone so long, and we both missed you, and it just sort of happened.” She wouldn’t look me in the eyes, and I shook my head.

“Oh, fuck Peter, yes, just like that. Kirby is such an idiot to let you go.”

I whipped my head around and stared at Cain as he stood in the doorway with a phone on showing a video. He stepped forward as the scene played out, and even though I didn’t want to see this, I couldn’t look away.