Page 231 of Poison Aches

“My brother?—”

“His life is up to you,” Emmett says.

“Governor Hughes and Beverly are also threatening me with my family. What makes…”

“Then you must think I’m at the same level as your wretched parents,” he says simply. “I won’t be playing dirty tricks. I’m sure you know that I don’t have time for that.”

In other words, he’ll kill him.

Tears stream down my eyes as I look up at him where he sits on the black chair that looks like a throne, regarding me silently.

“Please, Emmett,” I whisper brokenly. “They have my brother…”

I expect him to laugh.

I expect him to say he told me so.

I expect him to taunt me, ridicule me, but instead, he leans back in his seat and our eye contact doesn’t break.

The way he watches me doesn’t falter.

The way he rhythmically runs his thumb over his bottom lip is becoming more hypnotic the longer I stare.

At this, he actually narrows his eyes at me.

“Do you know what Pandora’s problem was, Angel? It wasn’t her curiosity, as everyone says. It wasn’t even the mere fact that she just wanted to know what was in the box she was never meant to touch. It was the hate she secretly harbored in her heart.”

“What?” I gasp, tears filling up my eyes.

“All the stories say she was beautiful. And that she was gifted by the gods and placed in the world as the first woman. Logic would have it that she lacked nothing, but what if she was just a malicious woman who knew what she was doing all along?”

Malicious?

Why is he looking at me like that?

I clench my fists tightly, not knowing what to say.

“I don’t know what you’re trying to imply,” I whisper.

“I’m not implying, just coming up with a theory that just made itself apparent the moment I saw your face.”

I look up at him. What does he mean?

“What if Pandora knew all along that the box contained all kinds of horrors, mayhem, and pain? What if she knew that opening it would release all that shit into the world? A world that was cruel to a being like her. A world she resented because it never quite accepted her or knew what to do with her kind.”

He says the words slowly, deliberately, as if coaxing something out of my soul, pulling it out with the low, deep cadence of his dangerous voice.

“So… what if she hated that world all along and desired to see it fall into ruin? To see civilization descend into chaos with every living thing suffering in misery and agony like she was, subjected to loneliness and sadness? What if all along she vowed to exact revenge against the beings that used her, tormented her, taunted her with the very things she had always longed for?”

Images of Melissa smirking at me at the dinner last night flash in my head. Did she already know what Jackson was going to do to me?

I see her and her mother whispering to each other like best friends, fawning over each other.

I see the way Beverly was caring for her, fixing her hair, hugging her… and yet, she decided to threaten her own mother and son’s lives just to make me do what she wants.

It all awakens the desperate anger and resentment I’ve been feeling.

And Emmett is like the pied piper, playing the enchanting, dramatic yet alluring tune.

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