“My God. If only you knew how beautiful you are when you just stand there with your mouth shut,” he remarks with a wistful sigh. “Alright. Task number one; it’s going to answer your question.”
My question?
“The first thing I want you to do is go out into the woods behind the house. Find the mess the boy made and clean it up. I want it so spotless out there you’d never know that anything other than animals shit between those trees. When you’re done, you come back up and we’ll talk about your next task.”
I run past him and damn near fall down the stairs. If he wants me to cover Eloy’s tracks, then chances are he’s still alive. He may be bruised, battered, and beaten, but he’s still alive and now I have the chance to be the mother he deserves and help him.
But I can’t shake the chuckle Pater let out when I ran past him, and I know this task won’t be as simple as finding some shit to clean up.
Whatever it is I find is going to break my heart, mind, and soul.
Chapter Six
The most damning thing about what Pater has set as his first task is that I know it will easily break me if something has happened to Eloy. If I’m broken, I can no longer fight for them. I don’t care about myself; I am disposable because I’m not the first wife he’s had, just the one that has survived the longest.
But for Eloy and Vaughn to be left alone in his care again until he decides he wants another wife is more than I can take. It’s a weight on my shoulders that’s been threatening to crush me for quite some time now, and while my foundation may be slowly crumbling, I will not collapse until they’re safe.
I’m my own worst enemy in all of this. My constant fear of failing the children is starting to undo me, and the nights I spend in the oubliette would be much more bearable if I didn’t have them to worry about.
I can see him now as I quicken my pace, the grass crushing beneath my feet. I can see Eloy standing naked, almost completely hidden in the brush that leads into the woods. He has marks on his back, and from what I can tell, they aren’t severe.
“Eloy!” I call out as I run faster.
His body is shaking; I can see it now the closer I get to him. The marks on his back look like a series of scratches, but I can plainly see where he has been lashed with a switch. I call his name again, but he doesn’t turn to face me. Instead, he balls his hands at his sides and lets out a sob.
“I’m here now, it’s okay,” I promise as I finally reach him and put a hand gently on his shoulder. I guide him into the woods to keep our conversation hidden from any eyes that may be watching. Even though I know we can’t be heard out here, I also know he’ll use our body language to deduce whatever the fuck he wants, and punish us accordingly.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t want to. I’m sorry,” he wails miserably.
“Nothing we do here is by choice; you know that. Whatever you’ve done, it was because you were made to. I’m just happy you’re okay,” I say, trying my best to comfort him, but the fact that he’s shaking his head and still refusing to face me destroys any hope that Pater hasn’t already defiled him.
I push my way through the brush as I move around to the front of him. His teeth are grinding together and he lowers his face so that I don’t see how much he currently resembles a wounded animal.
“What did you do, Eloy?” I ask gently. I place a hand on either side of his face and pull him toward me. His body is covered with lash marks, and the haunting sound of Pater’s malicious laughter when he reentered the house begins to taunt my memories.
“It’s okay. I promise. I’m here to help you. I’ll fix whatever you’ve done; you just need to tell me where to go, and I’ll fix it.”
“I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to, but he made me do it,” he repeats desperately. What could he have been forced to do that’s rendered him a babbling mess? I would imagine Laura was already dead by the time they had dragged her out here.
Wasn’t she?
“He made me fuck her. He made me do it. I didn’t want to and when I refused he started to whip me. Then he told me—” his voice broke into another anguished sob as he buried his face in my hair and finally wrapped his arms around me.
“What did he say? He can’t hear us right now, and I swear to you I won’t repeat it. What did he say, Eloy?” I press gently as I run a hand softly over his hair.
Eloy takes a small series of deep breaths to try and calm himself, and it works long enough for him to tell me what the price of his refusal was.
“He said that if I didn’t fuck her, he would make me fuck you. He said he would make Vaughn watch us and then he would kill us all. I’m sorry,” he says, as he resumes his uncontrollable sobbing.
“Don’t cry. It’s okay, I promise it’s okay.”
I feel a rage starting to intensify deep within. Pater’s sexual appetites are unrivaled and his devious words are always enough to get us to do what he wants, but doing this to Eloy – he’s crossed a fucking line, and he knows it. That’s why he made me come out here; not to clean up a physical mess but to fix a psychological one he knows I don’t have control over.
“Listen very closely to me right now. Eloy? Look a
t me, please,” I say, stepping back and gently removing his arms from around me.
He uses the back of his hand to wipe the tears away from his face, but does as he’s requested and locks eyes with me. My heart hurts for him when I look into those beautiful brown eyes. They’re so devoid of any meaning - so dead and hopeless that nothing will ever bring life to them again.