But now wasn’t the time for a price of real estate guessing game. I ran straight over to the windows draped in heavy red velvet Victorian curtains.
And I was right. We weren’t exactly in the French Quarter, but I recognized the street below as French Quarter adjacent, even if I couldn’t quite name it. And there was a small balcony attached to the window. Perfect for throwing beads. Or letting the people down below know I was up here and in need of saving.
I had to get out there!
But unfortunately, the window hailed from when people left doors permanently opened and closed, depending on the season. A few pulls on its handle with my zip-tied hands revealed it to be secured shut with one of those top and bottom bolt set-ups. And unfortunately, the top lock was placed so high, there was no way I could get to it without something to stand on.
I looked back at the chair behind the desk. Not as large as the one in his throne room, but somehow just as regal. It was upholstered in red velvet, with its wooden parts painted the same burnished gold as the one downstairs.
No swiveling office chair for Hades. Apparently, only a king’s seat would do.
Whatever. I rushed over to the mini-throne to drag it to the window.
And…nothing.
I pulled as hard as I could, but it didn’t budge. Not an inch. It wouldn’t even do me the courtesy of tipping a tiny bit toward me. It had been so important to my mom that I work out without weights. Squats and all the cardio I could stand were fine, but upper body muscle?
“Men don’t like bulky,” she’d warned me in the same tone Kathy Kliebert, the Louisiana Department of Health Secretary, used to warn people against swimming in lakes infested with flesh-eating bacteria.
Well, look at me now. Muscle-free and unable to move the one thing in this room heavy enough to break window glass. Crap! Crap! Crap!
The door opened and closed before I could figure out a new plan.
“Time for bed,” the teenager said, once again walking in without knocking. “If you want to use the bathroom, I suggest you do it now.”
I stared at her in the new light Hades had shed on her identity.
Ellie…
This was Ellie, the little baby I’d watched grow in Mama Fairgood’s tummy for nine months but never got to meet. I could see her resemblance to Mama Fairgood now. Same round jaws and long, straight noses. But their eyes were much different.
Mama Fairgood’s cornflower-blue eyes had always stayed gentle and sympathetic. She’d acted like everyone was worth a kind word and a smile.
But her daughter regarded me like I was a pile of poop she’d found in her brother’s rooms—right before she pulled out a switchblade.
I instinctively reared back.
“Relax.” She grabbed me by the zip-tie handcuffs and cut them off with a sneer. “If H is going to keep you alive and make me babysit you, I’ll be damned if I’m also wiping your ass, princess.”
I didn’t know whether to be relieved to finally have both of my hands free or insulted that she considered me so little of a threat that she felt completely safe to let me out of my restraints.
“Babysit me?” I asked her. “How old are you? Fourteen? Fifteen? Why are you here, helping him, and not in school?”
She just glared at me and pointed to a gorgeous French Oak chateau inner door. “If you want that bathroom, better do it now. I’m giving you five minutes. And then you won’t get another chance.”
A small part of me wanted to stay and keep asking questions until I got some answers that made sense. But a bigger part of me actually did have to go to the toilet.
So I dashed into the bathroom and reviewed my situation as I unloaded all the waste product that had been pushing against my urethra and sphincter ever since that monster pressed a gun into my head.
I did my business and wiped everything. But when it came time to stand up…
I couldn’t. I just couldn’t. It all hit me at once.
Mama Fairgood…
The woman I’d loved just as much as my own flesh and blood mother…She hadn’t answered any of my texts because she was dead. My father had stood by and let some random criminals kill her. And now the son she’d been so proud of…Swamp Boy….he’d turned into a complete monster.
On the morning of December 31st, I’d jumped out of bed at five a.m. to make sure everything was in place for my biggest birthday gala yet. And now…
