Page 136 of A Foster Fling
Roman and I both barely suppress a laugh.
“Pete, you can’t call your sister fat, it’s mean.” Roman scolds her and tugs her ear.
“They’re happy.” I sound so dumbfounded. “I don’t understand.”
“I told you; I’m keeping them safe.” Toni says firmly. “But I’m going to lose very soon. He’s not got much time and the kids will be passed on to someone else. Someone he’s arranged, and I doubt very much that I would be kept on. They’ll end up somewhere awful.”
“Then I guess we’re just in time.” Waif speaks as he leans to pick up Petra who’s decided to try to climb up him.
Someone who once scared me seems to be like the easter bunny to kids.
“He’s upstairs. End of the hall. He’ll already know you’re here.” She glances to a camera in the corner. “They’re offline and he can’t hear us. Something told me today would be the end one way or another.”
She’s making all of this seem so downplayed. Like we aren’t’ three strangers that just showed up to kill a man. Like we’re just here to shampoo carpets.
“The sooner you do what you came to do, the sooner you can eat. That empty stomach is racking the house.” She softly clasps my shoulder as she heads into the kitchen.
“Can we leave with you?” Petra asks Waif and I spin in shock.
“Maybe for a little while.” Cae answers for him. “We shouldn’t spend any more time here than necessary, Sayler. Do you want me to go with you?”
“No. I don’t. Waif was right,Ineed to do this.”
I follow the ornate railing up the stairs and into the upstairs hallway. Wouldn’t you know the Devil’s door is painted red. In fact, upon closer inspection, it’s the one from his office at the old house. There are scorch marks up and down the wood.
“How the fuck did he get that?” I mutter.
Not wasting anymore time I approach and open the door. I smell his rot immediately. The sound of his voice makes me want to cower.
“So, you found your way home little lamb. I have missed you.” How does he sound so frail? This great beast that has haunted me, he's…
“Pathetic.” My arms drop and my shoulders sag. “How could you?” My ire rises and my rationality can't break through. “How can you just lie there withering away after what you've done to us? I thought you were dead. I thought you were nothing but ash and I still have been running. I've been terrified and you're herejust dying quiet!?” I shake with my uncontainable anger. “You won't run now will you?” Is that disappointment in my voice?
I reach the side of his bed, only inches away from his torture capable hands.
“There's that fire I came to love so dearly. Nothing will put out that flame. You had it even when you came to mesobroken.” He wheezes and a cough slams through him.
All of the tubes and wires connected to his appendages bounce off his bed frame making ominous offbeat music. There's no telling where any of them come or go, they just hold him to the bed like overgrown Ivy. Decrepit pillows keep him propped up like a discarded doll. It makes it hard to recall the fear he used to instill. He's no more threatening than the mice he used to cherish in the foster home. Such kindness he showed them.
“It was so beautiful, seeing you puppeteer those flames. I felt the pull as if it were tied to my own limbs. leaving you there- it was excruciating. A shepherd torn from his flock is unnatural.” The scoff that rips from my mouth disturbs the air lying across his brow.
“Shepard? You were our fucking captor. We were prisoners.”
“Were you?” The first sign of irritation crosses his face. “At any point where the doors locked? The windows? Were the hallways of the home patrolled like a prison?” His brows rise and his body becomes more rigid as he speaks. “Which of you is remembering me as a monster, Lamb? Sayler? Or Jaxsin?” I feel his venom in my veins burning through me like a storm of lightning.
“Don't talk about him.” I grit but it's too late, the memories tear through me.
“You were so close as children, weren't you? In-separable.” He bites.
——
“Jaxsin! Please make them stop, I just want it to stop.” His cold eyes assess my face and he glances at the doctor and Wendell as though they bare no significance.
To him, they never do.
“Always saving you.” He shakes his head and strokes a hand down the center of my face with a sigh of disappointment, malice hiding behind the eyes that match mine.
His love is so harsh but I wouldn't be alive without it. He's protected me in a way neither Cae nor Waif ever can. His protection comes from the deep.