Vicious Minds: Part 3 (Children of Vice 6)

Fuck him to hell.

I wanted to burn down this stupid house with the stupid family inside of it.

“Calliope!”

“Calliope, stop!”

I held the flame in my hand. All I had to do was drop it and poof. The end. Let him come back to see how reckless and foolish and cruel it was to leave me behind to play like this.

“Calliope, stop! Gigi is scared!”

I had worked so hard for so long, and he just…he just sat me in the corner like a child. Why didn’t Ethan understand? Why didn’t he hear me? Why did no one ever hear me? They just did as they liked and disregarded how I felt.

Because how I felt never mattered.

I thought at least to Ethan, at the very least to him, I mattered.

Blinking a few times, I looked over to the entrance of the garage to see them all watching me. Wyatt, Helen, Neal, Killian, Sedric…oh, and Nari. I guessed they were back home now. They stared at me with wide eyes. It was Killian who slowly stepped forward.

“This was what you wanted, right?” I asked him, showing him the flame from the lighter I had. “Me to get punished? Revenge?”

“Calliope, calm down,” he said to me.

“Now, you’re telling me what to do?” I replied to him. “You? This great family of yours and none of you could trust him, but then I guess you were right, too, because he reduced me, as well. I’ve killed so many people. All of my life, people feared me and didn’t even know who I was—the grim reaper he called me. And now look what I am—a crazy woman in a garage.”

“Calliope, I understand—”

“Why does everyone keep saying that? I understand. That is a lie. You don’t. You don’t even like me. You’d love to see me go up in flames.”

“No, I wouldn’t—”

“I killed your mother,” I said to him and stopped walking. “I think out of all of you, I liked her the best. She was very reasonable and true to her word. She did everything I asked her to do. All she asked for was that I forgave either you or your sister for doing anything stupid out of grief. And that I make sure Ethan forgave you, too. He was tempted to break your legs the night after your sister poisoned me. But I told him to calm down, and he listened. I did that, not because I like you, but because I promised your mom. She left you all tapes. I have them. I no longer care to give them to you, though. I no longer care about anything.”

Let it all burn.

“You don’t mean that,” Evelyn said as she came into the garage, holding Gigi’s hands.

“Mommy?” Her little voice stunned me, and the mixture of fear and concern on her face hurt me even more. That was right…I had her. And how did I look to her? Crazy? Like my own mother?

Putting my arm down, I pulled my thumb off the lighter. However, when I did, I heard a footstep behind me. Turning, I held the gun up directly at Wyatt. He’d come around as Killian tried to distract me. I looked at the syringe in his gloved hands.

“It’s a sedative,” he said to me.

“I’m fine.”

“You shot your way down the house and in here where you were about to send us up in flames.”

“I wasn’t fine, then. Now I am,” I said, handing him the gun and the lighter.

He frowned but took them.

Ignoring the rest of them, I walked directly up to Gigi and hugged her to me.

“You’re sad, Mommy?”

I hugged her and lifted her into my arms despite the pain. “I was very sad,” I admitted, walking us back into the house.

“Why?”