Page 95 of Madness

I clutch my arm around my stomach tighter, fear gripping me as I wonder if my sister knows about the life inside of me and what she’s planning to do to try to rip it from me like she attempts to do with everything in my life that brings me happiness.

“We have you, Red, but we cannot act rashly right now,” Bander appears behind me, his arm wrapping protectively around my middle, “A plan is being made. Let us look after you, and you focus on you and the baby. Worry isn’t good for either of you.”

I nod my agreement, but I eye the door beside us, wondering if Al’s heart is hurting as much as mine is at the idea of leaving him behind.

I know that White has been messing with him, but a part of me wants to know why, and I refuse to leave him behind to be the victim of her games when he’s already been through so much.

“We will win, Atropa. I promise.”

Epilogue

Icing coats my fingers as I decorate the two small cakes for my dear little sister; the two bottles carefully labelled Mifepristone and Potassium glare back at me, but I ignore the small voice in my head telling me what I’m doing is wrong.

No, what is wrong is leaving your child behind when the new one is born.

Leaving my mum to fend for herself while you play happy families is what’s wrong.

Daddy only ever became proud of me once I started studying to become a nurse at university.Then he was interested – not interested enough to let me be in his life full-time, though.

No, he wanted bragging rights… to be able to say that his daughter was going into the medical field just like him… following in Daddy’s footsteps because he was my hero.

“Bullshit!” I shout out loud.

He was never my hero and only ever the man who refused to marry my mum, who left us to live in a council house while Red got to grow up in the lovely big house in the countryside.

He told me that he tried to see me every weekend and that he offered for mum to live on the next street where he would pay for everything, but she refused, wanting only the money instead, but mum wouldn’t do that.

She wanted me to have a dad – my dad and Red should never have come into the picture.

It’s fine – my plan to finally ruin her has worked, and I put the finishing touches on the cakes.

Eat Me

After all, when you are delivering a killing blow, you need it to be presentable.

The hallways are eerily silent as I walk towards Red’s room, the idiots not seeming to think I wouldn’t strike right away.

I knew all along this would happen – after all, when I injected her with the vitamin C shot instead of the birth control three months ago, I knew it was only a matter of time once she was knocked up.

I need her out of the picture to get my inheritance… to get my dad back, and she’s far too stubborn to do it on her own, no matter how hard I try.

The door to her room creaks as I turn the handle, and I wince but push inside, ready to finish this once and for all.

Red shoots up from her bed, her arm cradled around her stomach.

“Tut, tut, little sister,” I sneer, “did you really think I didn’t plan all of this?” I laugh, “I mean, I had to get rid of you somehow, and we both know how much you are desperate for love since your parents listened to me and locked you up in here.”

“You didn’t,” Red gasps, her eyes filling with tears, “How could you be so evil!”

“Because I hate you. I fuckingloatheyou,” I shout, “But you wouldn’t die no matter how hard I pushed you. I gave you that offer out of the niceness of my heart, and now look what you’ve made me do.”

She sniffles, backing away from me until her back hits the wall, “What do you get out of this?”

“Everything.” I say, “Everything I ever deserved. Everything you have – I’m going totake it all because you took everything from me the moment you were born.”

“I never asked for this!”

“No, you didn’t, did you, but you did continue to be stubborn. Poor little Red with those itty bitty dark thoughts that made her so sad,” I mock, “God, it was so easy to convince them you needed to be locked up. All I had to do was play the role of the concerned big sister and tell them that you were thinking about ending it all.”

---