Page 72 of Devil's Queen
Rex returns, meeting me in the kitchen.
“No one is upstairs. All the bedrooms are empty.” Panic and fear cross his face. “Where’s your mom’s room?”
I step past him, leading him through the empty living room to the entrance to Mom’s room right off it. Rex pushes the door and finds resistance. He shoves it again, and it finally budges.
Broken wood and glass from Mama’s full-length mirror litter the floor in front of us. The weight of Rex’s steps crunches the glass with each step. I start to follow behind him, but he freezes in front of me.
My heart drops.
No. Please. No.
Not my mom.
I gather up every ounce of strength I have and follow him inside.
There, in the middle of my mom’s bed, lies Pike, a red stain of blood on his T-shirt where a knife protrudes from his chest.
Rex and I stare in horror at the scene before us, frozen in disbelief. My world crashes down around me as my worst fears are confirmed.
Pike’s dead, and my mom and the kids are gone.
REMY
The world slowsaround me as I fall to my knees. The soft carpet of my mama’s bedroom not doing a thing to soften the blow.
My mom and my son are gone.
Rex’s daughter is gone.
Pike is dead.
And it’s my fault. We should have never left the house. We should have been here to protect them from this.
I kneel there frozen in the deafening silence, the weight of loss pressing on my shoulders. The world, once vibrant and alive, now abandons me in this hushed moment of profound emptiness. It feels as if time itself has come to a standstill, trapped within an icy grip that tightens around my heart.
“Rem?” Rex’s panic-stricken voice calls to me. His voice sounds like he’s underwater.
I try to focus on his voice, to break free from the suffocating grip of despair that holds me captive. Slowly, painfully, I turn toward him. His eyes are filled with tears, reflecting the same anguish that engulfs my soul.
“Rem,” he repeats, his voice breaking. “We have to keep moving. We can’t stay here.”
His words echo in the desolate landscape of my mind. The weight of my guilt threatens to consume me.
“We did this, Rex. We brought this to our family. It’s all our fault,” I manage to say, my voice hollow and distant to my ears.
Rex reaches down, pulling me up from the floor and into his arms. The embrace is a numbing cold instead of its normal warmth. I bury my face into Rex’s chest, seeking solace in his familiar scent. But even his touch feels distant, as if there’s a vast expanse between us that cannot be breached. The weight of my failures and regrets threaten to shatter me into a million pieces.
“We’ll find them. But I’ve got to get you out of this room.” Rex releases me and walks me out to the living room, settling me on the couch. The kitchen door busts open, and Marissa and Harlow charge inside.
“Where the fuck were you?” Rex roars at them.
“At the shop.”
“You were supposed to stay here. You were supposed to protect my family.”
“What are you talking about? You sent a couple of your guys to relieve us. We got down to the shop, and Cheyenne acted like she had no idea why we were there. What the fuck is going on?”
“What guys?” I quickly get up from the couch and stride over to them, my steps full of determination. “Can you give me a description of those guys?” I demand.