Page 6 of Famine

“Yourwomen?” Famine’s attention returns to me.

Squaring my jaw, I meet his gaze.

Does he recognize me? Does he know?

His unsettling green eyes take me in, and they’re so shrewd. There’s no spark of familiarity. If he remembers me, he doesn’t show it.

“How terrible it must feel,” Famine says, “to be owned and used like property.”

I open my mouth to tell him he’s wrong, to tell him to fuck off, to tell him that if only I could be alone with him for a moment, I might just jog his memory. Maybe then I can finish that old business between us. When it comes to him, my hope and my hate are old.

For a second, the horseman hesitates. I think he almost feels it. But then his expression sharpens.

Famine’s eyes move over our heads. He whistles, gesturing to a few nearby men.

“Get rid of them with the others.”

This was a mistake.

That much is clear when Famine’s men roughly grab me and Elvita, dragging us away.

“Get your hands off of me!” my madam commands.

The men ignore her.

I fight against their grip as well. I only have eyes for the horseman, who resettles himself on the plush chair we found him on, his scythe laid once more across his lap.

“Don’t you remember me?” The words finally rip free.

But Famine’s no longer paying attention to us—the ridiculed whore and her desperate madam. His eyes have drifted to the front door, where the next supplicant will be entering.

“I saved you!” I shout at him as I’m dragged away. The men that hold me and Elvita haul us towards a door that leads out to the back of the mayor’s estate.

Famine doesn’t so much as look at me. I assumed that once I said something on this subject, he would stop and listen. I hadn’t anticipated that he both wouldn’t recognize meandwouldn’t hear me out.

Old hurt and indignation bubbles to the surface. If it weren’t for me, neither of us would be here right now.

“No one else would help you!” I call out to him. I trip a little as one of his guards tows me outside. “No one but me. You were hurt and—” The door slams shut.

I—I missed my chance.

I’m still staring at the door when I hear Elvita’s sharp inhale. Then—

“Jesus fucking Christ.” Her voice is shrill, the pitch of it too high.

I tear my gaze away from the door, turning to where—

Holy mother of God.

Ahead of us is a huge pit, the steep earthen walls of it smooth. Antonio had mentioned once, months and months ago, that he was going to install a pool for his daughters. I remember the conversation only because a pool sounded like a nightmare to upkeep.

Rich people and their toys.

Now … now I’m staring at the beginnings of that pool. Only, there are splatters of blood on the stone pavement around it, and inside the earthen pit—

At first my eyes don’t want to make sense of what I’m seeing. The strangely bent limbs, the blood-soaked bodies, the glassy eyes. Over a dozen people lay in that pit.

Dear God. No, please, no.

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