Page 88 of Dominion

I had another manila file on the passenger seat with the deed to the little house I managed to buy down by the coast, far away from fucking Winworth, and I couldn’t wait to tell them. Judahhad no idea that all these years I was biding my time, taking money, and transferring it to a different account—one he knew nothing about. He thought I had spent it all on drinking and girls in Seattle, but the truth was that I always wanted to separate myself from him.

And now I could use it to do something good. Hell, I already used it. The two-story, four-bedroom house that was already ours made all of this worth it. It made all these sacrifices worth it and if this was the outcome, then I wouldn’t change a single thing even if I had to go through this hell all over again.

My phone buzzed in my hand, pulling me back to the here and now, and a smile I couldn’t contain broke on my face when I saw Casimir’s name popping up.

“Is it—” I was about to ask if it was time for me to go back. Was it time for me to go to the manor, but his booming voice cut off my words, extinguishing the happiness I felt mere seconds ago.

“What in the actual fuck, Dylan!” His voice boomed over the line, his anger as palpable as if he was right in front of me, and I completely froze, because I knew what this meant. Somewhere deep inside of me, I fucking knew. “They’re not here. Nothing is here.”

“No, that’s impossible.” I couldn’t recognize my own voice, the fear dripping from every word. “It can’t be. I spoke with Judah this morning. They were in the church. They had to be.”

“Well…” Casimir laughed darkly. “They’re not. They were here, that much I can see, but they’re not here anymore!”

No, no, no, no... That could only mean... “Cas, remember the house I told you about?”

“What fucking house. Dylan, we?—”

“Do you remember the fucking house, Casimir?” We had no time. “Tell me.”

“Yeah.” He quieted down. “I do. Why?” I could almost hear the wheels turning in his head. “Oh no.”

“I’m gonna call Skylar. I need to make sure she’s okay. I’ll meet you there, okay. Ten minutes, Cas. Ten minutes.”

“Dylan,” he growled. “Don’t do anything stupid. You know she won’t?—”

“I know,” I added. “Please be there in ten. I’m begging you.”

I quit the call and placed the phone in my lap while I turned the ignition on, my heart in my throat. The moment I turned around and started driving on the main road, I called Skylar’s number, praying, hoping, begging that she would answer.

“Come on, Little One,” I begged, as the sound of the phone ringing filled the silence of the car. “Pick up.”

“The number you have?—”

“Fuck!” The automated voice message answered instead of her and I continued trying, begging to whatever force was there in the universe to save her. I begged and begged as I called her number, but there was no response, until my phone rang, showing Casimir’s number again.

“She’s not answering, Cas,” I panicked. “She’s not fucking answering.”

“Dylan—”

“They will kill her, Cas!” I belted out. “They will fucking kill her if they get their hands on her. You don’t... You have no idea how fucked up those people are. Judah wants her dead and Danny is completely fucked up, completely under his mercy to even think straight.”

“She’s not in the manor,” he murmured, and I could hear the voices in the background. “We’re picking up Ash. He called me saying that she left maybe twenty minutes ago. We’re almost there at the house, maybe five minutes more.”

But they would be too late.

I was already turning right from the road and onto that gravelly bullshit leading to the home I once thought Skylar and I would share, only to find out that it would always be the house of horrors for her. What a fucking fool I was.

My gaze drifted to a black car parked in front of the house—a car I didn’t recognize, and I knew it was her. She was already here, inside with the monsters.

“Dylan!” Casimir blasted again, my brain finally picking up that he was still there. “Do not fucking do anything stupid. Don’t go in there without us.”

“I’m sorry, Cas.”

“No, Dylan! She will never forgive you. No. Don’t fucking do it, kid.”

“I have to,” I answered, turning off the ignition further away from the house, hoping that they wouldn’t have anyone monitoring the area. “She’s inside, Casimir. And she’s all alone. If anything happens?—”

“Nothing will fucking happen because you are not going inside alone!”

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