Playette

“I love you. I did all this for you. Fuck this, I’m taking you with me.” Uncle Max reaches for her but she pulls her hand away.

“Don’t touch me you small, insignificant little rat. Who do you think you are?” She scoffs and sits up then looks over at me, her eyes bearing in on me.

“I’ve seen you before,” she states, then looks at her son. “You love this one?” Jasper doesn’t answer, so she cackles. “I wonder how long until you destroy each other? It’s what love’s great at. Did you know? Love equals destruction.”

“I’m not leaving without you,” Max states again then he looks back to me and then to Jasper. “What have you done to her?”

Jasper shrugs. “Not a damn thing.”

I know Max isn’t going to leave this room alive, no matter what. He no longer has any leverage with them and with me because of what he just did to Sharon. Yeah, that’s about broken my heart into a thousand irreparable pieces.

“Lies, Leila, get up. You are leaving here.” He reaches for her, but she pulls her arm free from him again and spits at him.

“I’m not going anywhere with you. Think again, rat,” she barks at him, pulling back even further.

“If you aren’t going to come with me…” He raises his gun to Leila’s head and she starts cackling.

“Do it, you silly rat. Do it,” she screams.

“You really never loved me?” he asks, trying to get it to sit correctly in his mind, while he’s still holding the gun to her head.

Jasper’s in the doorway still trying to block my view. Ace steps up and slides a gun past me to Jasper while Max is not looking.

“No, I used you. As I did everyone in my life. I was put on this earth to make him.” She looks to Jasper with a soft smile. “You were just some fun I had along the way.”

Max shoots, the same way he shot Sharon.

Jasper’s mother falls to the bed with a sickening thud.

Max looks our way as Jasper shoots.

Max falls to the floor with a thud so loud, I think it will echo through my ears for years to come.

Jasper steps into the room and heads straight to his mother. His hand touches her face and he closes her eyes with his fingers. “I’m sorry,” he whispers then leans down to kiss her cheek. My heart breaks for him as he stands up and kicks Max’s dead body on the floor.

Jasper looks at me then walks straight past me not saying a word as he leaves.

I desperately want him to turn back around and tell me everything will be all right even though I know it won’t. But he doesn’t, he doesn’t even glance back at me. That hurts more then I care to admit right now.

“Issy.” I turn to Carter who hands me a set of keys. “It’s time you left.” I look at him, and then to the keys, unsure of what’s going on. Taking the keys, he nods to me before he walks into the room where both the bodies lay. Taking a deep breath, I try to tell myself I can do this. That today hasn’t been as crazy as it now seems. I’ve managed to get Sharon killed and now my uncle as well.

No. This did not happen.

Did it?

Walking up the stairs and into the kitchen area, I look out the back to Jasper’s house. I know he is in there, I can see his silhouette, but it’s probably best I leave.

A car sits out front, it’s a small red one, and when I click the keys I know it’s the one I’m meant to leave in. I turn back to see if Jasper’s come out to say goodbye.

He hasn’t.

And Sharon’s body, which laid right here on this ground, is no longer there either.

28

Jasper

Pacing back and forth my fists clench and unclench.

I knew a day like this was coming. My mother couldn’t stay in that room for the rest of her life. But I didn’t think I’d be there to witness her demise.

She’s dead, and I watched it happen.

Looking down, blood covers my hands. Her blood.

I loved my mother.

I also hated her.

She didn’t understand the meaning of love, and her way of loving me was cruel and not what any child should have to endure. I’ve seen a lot in this world, and I’m a part of the bad and will forever be. That won’t change.

Children for me, they’re off-limits.

Always.

I’ll never put a child through this.

“Sharon has a child,” Ace says opening the door, he’s also covered in blood. Not her blood. No. It’s Sharon’s blood.

“Go. Make sure she has what she needs. Set her up for life.” He nods, walking out, pulling his phone to his ear as he leaves.

That insignificant man ruined my life, not just by killing her, but for Isadora as well. If I could un-kill and torture him some more I fucking would. I would do it in a heartbeat.