Page 9 of Corruption
“Do you know how to use one?” he inquired.
I shook my head.
“Very well.”
He reached inside his jacket again, this time producing a smaller knife with a curved blade and a black handle. This weapon I knew how to handle. I slept with one under my pillow.
“What about this?” he asked.
“I know how to hold it, but if you’re asking if I’ve ever stabbed someone, the answer is no,” I admitted.
He smiled and turned the knife, holding the tip of the blade and showing me the handle. I regarded it skeptically.
“Take it,” he insisted.
Slowly, I drew closer, reaching out to grasp the handle with my slim hand. It felt light but had a sense of balance that suggested it was easy to wield.
“Do you like it?” he asked.
“I do, but I wouldn’t know how to use it against someone. If I did, I’d be in jail,” I confessed.
“My guess is your list is very long,” he chuckled.
“Very long.”
“The thing is, boy, we don’t just kill.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Eliminating people can mean many things. I will teach you how to exact revenge on all those who’ve hurt you without the police ever suspecting it was connected to you,” he promised.
“You mean, I won’t have to hide?”
“No, you don’t.”
I glanced around. “Then what is this?”
Vince smiled, his expression slightly amused. “My kingdom.”
I was unsure how to respond to that. I still held the knife in my hand, and a strange sense of empowerment coursed through me. Vince came closer, and I flinched, but all he did was walk past me and stop by the door. I glanced over my shoulder, and he turned to look at me.
“Tomorrow, I will show you around and explain how things are going to work from now on. But for now, you deserve a night of sleep without fearing the worst,” he assured me, his voice calm. He grasped the door handle, then closed the door behind him, leaving me alone in the room.
I remained frozen in place, convinced he would return. But after ten minutes, restlessness overtook me. I continued to gaze at the inviting room, unable to remember the last time I had slept in something so clean and devoid of haunting memories. Unsure of where to begin, my eyes settled on the bed. I walked over and carefully lay down. I didn’t wrap myself in the blanket, still fearing this might all be a dream. My clothes clung to me, damp and chilled, but I simply curled into a ball, clutching the knife as if it were my lifeline. And there, in that moment, I lay still, not moving or doing anything but waiting.
Chapter 5
-Alison-
Nothing seemed to make sense anymore. I had been confused from the moment Jared first appeared in my life, but I thought I had gleaned enough to understand him. Yet this house, the other man, the people who attacked me tonight… It was becoming increasingly evident that I knew very little, and Jared had expressly forbidden me from asking further questions. So, I had to be clever and devise alternative methods to uncover the answers I desperately sought.
“Your mother,” I remarked, extending the picture toward Jared for him to see. I recalled her, even though she had vanished many years ago, leaving everyone clueless about her whereabouts. However, there was something about her that drew you in.
Jared glanced at the picture for just a moment before he strode over to me, snatched it from my hand, and returned it to its original place.
“It’s here,” I persisted.
“It’s just a picture.”
