Violet Grenade(103)

I kill so Domino doesn't have to.

"Do it," Madam Karina says from behind me. "Do it for both of us."

Her words spill over me like heated oil, tangling in my hair, sticking to my skin. It's dangerously similar to something Mother would have said. Mother didn't want to be alone in her hatred, and so her baby girl helped torture her victims. Madam Karina's own hate stretches from her to Domino, an invisible thread binding them. When I assisted Mother, she gave to Domino freely-affection. And Madam Karina will give to her, too-freedom.

Domino hesitates. She hesitates, but I won't.

My hand quivers above Mr. Hodge's body as he writhes side to side. I lose my hold on him once, but regain my place on his chest quickly enough.

Why am I shaking? I don't have a care in the world for this man. I am fearless and emotionless and made of gears and glass.

Because you are me, Wilson. And I am you.

My body freezes. Why won't she just shut up? I asked for complete control, and she gave it to me. So why is she here?

Go back to sleep! I growl.

No, she responds firmly. I won't turn away this time.

"What are you waiting for?" Madam Karina barks. "Do it!"

At the same time, Poppet and Cain yell for me to stop. To put down the knife.

But it's Domino's voice that stills my arm. I've closed my eyes to the things I've done for too long. I want to see it now, all of it.

I spot it then. The dark room. The girl. My girl. She has a chain tied around her ankle. Rusted links that stretch from her to me. She's bound to me the same way Madam Karina binds herself to Domino. But it's not the same.

IT'S NOT THE SAME!

Mr. Hodge breaks away and races up the stairs. I can get to him again. That's not my concern. My worry now is Domino and her insistent fingers digging into my mind.

Domino produces something from behind her back. An axe. She has an axe!

"What are you doing with that?" I yell aloud. "You shouldn't be here!"

"Who's she talking to?" Eric mutters.

These are my memories! Domino says, lifting the weapon. This is my anger. I want it back. All of it.

"Don't do this," I whisper.

"Enough!" Madam Karina snatches the gun from Eric and points it at me. I lunge at the madam, no longer sure who I am. The gun goes off at the exact moment that Cain slams into her. I'm stunned silent for only a fraction of a second, the bullet lodged into the drywall behind me.

Cain pins Madam Karina to the floor, yelling as if he'll never stop. Eric fumbles across the room for something, and Poppet grabs him about the waist, trying to stop him. It isn't until I see the gun in Eric's hand that I understand what he intends to do.



       
         
       
        

Let me in let me in let me in! Domino screams, bringing the axe down.

Eric takes aim at Cain.

A gun.

My Cain.

I dive across the space between us and sink my teeth into Eric's arm.

He elbows me off and swings the gun wildly. A second shot is fired, but this time it doesn't lodge in the drywall.

It buries itself into my body instead.

Domino hacks at the chains over and over as I scream in anguish, in desperation.

Pain sears through me, and Cain turns his attention to Eric. He rises to his feet and transforms into a battering ram, a plague, a stone giant come to life-and he uses every ounce of his pent-up resentment to take Eric down. Eric's face becomes a blood-soaked sphere as Madam Karina scrambles back toward the wall in horror. Poppet is next to me, putting pressure on my arm and telling me it isn't so bad. But all I can think about is the gun. Where it is? Who has it?

Then I see it in Eric's hand. It's stretched forward and kissing Cain's gut. Eric smiles, white against red, and his finger moves to pull the trigger.

I scream for Eric to stop.

Domino screams, too. Brings her axe down one more time and severs the chain.

Wilson gone.

Domino here, here, here.





Chapter Sixty-Seven

Fire

Eric jams the gun farther into Cain's stomach as I rise on shaking legs. My legs. My body.

Eric grins. Spits his anger at Cain. "And now you're gonna die 'cause you thought you were a big man."

The wall behind the two tangled men explodes. The madam collapses beneath the rubble, the house thunders with the magnitude of a deadly earthquake, and I decide that maybe God has had enough, that he's reached in and ripped away the walls that shield us.

But then Angie appears, killing the headlights on Black Betty. She's yelling something I can't make out. But as she climbs over the crumbling fragments of siding and drywall and insulation, I understand her perfectly.

"You killed my dog!" she roars, unearthing Madam Karina from pieces of wall and debris. "You killed my dog, and I'm going to kill you!" Angie's remaining Doberman, Kali, is by her side as she kicks the injured woman in her rib cage. "You poisoned them. You poisoned my babies!"