“What?” I ask, looking up at him. I couldn’t
have heard him correctly. That’s too sick, even for him.
“The only reason I kept those two around was to see what kind of mother you would be,” he says softly, his lips curling into a smile. “And you’ll be a damn fine one if I do say so myself. We just have to get rid of them, and then we can start over. Just the two of us for a while.”
“Why?” I ask, my voice shaking.
“Because that’s how it’s always been, baby girl. Now when I go visit Vaughn later, I don’t want you to cry or be upset or even think about it. I do want you to take care of another task for me, though. Can you do that for me?”
His breath is hot on my face as he rubs his lips gently against mine, before pulling back and leaning down to look into my face.
“I want you to get rid of Eloy. We don’t need him anymore.”
I let out a shaky breath and choke back my sob. If I do this, it’ll be merciful, I know it will. If I don’t, he’s going to die anyway.
“Yes, Pater,” I agree in a shaky whisper.
Chapter Eight
He looks so peaceful as he sleeps; like a cherub, ignorant of the dangerous plot that’s been laid out behind his back. He doesn’t know that his life is meant to come to an end soon, and I won’t wake him to tell him either.
I gently lay a hand on his leg and his body shivers, but he doesn’t wake up. It’s a natural reaction to being touched in this godforsaken place. You can wince, you can shiver, you can whimper, and you can cry, but you can never say no.
It’s been a couple of hours since I’ve entered the boy’s room, and this is the first time I’ve actually touched him since being here. I’ve only just sat on the edge of his bed, watching his chest rise with each breath he takes in, and lower shakily with each breath he lets out.
To know that I’m here to make sure his breathing comes to an end is more of a psychological pain than anything else, but that’s always been the main point of any game Pater decides to play.
“I’ll either break your mind or I’ll break your spirit, but rest assured that I will fucking break you.”
Those words have never left me. Ever since I ascended, so to speak, to the role of wife and mother, it was a credo he would repeat to me almost daily until I accepted the fact that I would never be able to leave him.
Not on my own terms, at least.
Of course, his warnings have always been sugar coated with assurances that he would never harm me more than I can bear, but what he asks of me now is just too cruel to comprehend.
I hate myself for agreeing to this, but he’ll go much more peacefully at my hands than he would Pater’s.
Leaning forward, I brush his hair out of his face and give him a gentle kiss on his cheek before I reach for one of the pillows on the bed. The one lying next to his head. The one that won’t wake him if I try to pry it out from beneath him. The one I’ll use to steal his last breath.
“Good night, my sweet boy,” I whisper, a tear rolling down my cheek.
With one swift movement, I place the pillow over his head and press down as hard as I can. Since he’s asleep, he’s unaware what’s happening, but it doesn’t take long for his body to react to the lack of oxygen and his will to survive surfaces.
Eloy attempts to fight me off and he’s so valiant in his efforts that I almost stop. But I know this is what Pater wants, and it might spare Vaughn a similar fate, so I get onto the bed and straddle him, pushing down with the weight of my body to hold him in place.
“Please. Don’t make this harder than it has to be. Go back to sleep, sweet boy,” I whisper, pushing down harder.
His muffled cries for help are starting to fade, but he’s not resigned to his fate; not yet. He continues to claw at my hands, trying his damnedest to get me to stop.
“I’m going to miss you so much,” I manage to choke out as I push down even harder. “Please remember that I love you. Please.”
His body is beginning to relax now and his breaths come in three more heaping gasps before there’s silence. There’s no more fighting, no more hoping that this isn’t really happening to him. And one less son to keep safe.
A wail escapes from deep within me. It’s loud and desperate, and so heartbreaking that when I collapse against Eloy’s lifeless body, I know it will take the strongest of men to pull me off him.
The door opens a moment later and I can hear the heavy footsteps of Pater as he walks toward the bed.
“Come on. Off,” he says quietly as he grips my arms and pries the pillow from my hands. His small act of kindness is to leave it balanced on Eloy’s face so that I don’t have to see what I’ve done to him.