My head is throbbing with the force of my anger, my blood pumping through my veins to the exact same rhythm. I almost killed my daughter—my own flesh and blood—and I can’t summon an ounce of regret. Once I’m done dealing with whoever is at my door, I will turn right back around and finish what I started.
I throw open the front door, ignoring the labored breaths of my daughter, and step outside, closing it softly behind me. Standing on my front lawn are a few of the townsfolk, their faces slightly panicked, and their hands clenched into fists.
“What’s happening?” Are the first words out of my mouth, when really, I’m thinking, What did Beverly do now?
“We heard them last night, too close to the treaty lines. They’re coming to pick us off one by one.” His eyes skim to my hands, held firmly to my sides, and clenched to match his own. Only mine are sticky with Hoyt’s thickening blood.
“I have a plan, using a technique my daughter has recently uncovered. If you noticed, her town signs are made from a type of clay which, once activated by water, dries and hardens into a stone form. We will start a border wall and lock off our town to these vicious creatures.”
“Is everything okay?” Another one points to my bloodied hands, concern etched into his features.
“Deer.” I hold them both up in the air, then watch them visibly relax.
“I think we should speak to the Four Regencies about the missing people, maybe give them a head’s up. I think the treaty is too old to be recognized by the Others. Their brains are mush from inbreeding and radiation rot.”
“You’re probably right,” I agree, fighting to stay calm as I hear Beverly move around inside.
“Thank you, Pollyx. Making you leader of our tribe has always been a great decision.” Both men nod as they turn to leave. Watching them makes my heart sink with failure.
It was not the best decision.
As close as I came to killing Beverly, I know with all my heart that actually ending her won’t happen, and I’ll continue to use my power as head of this tribe to cover up her indiscretions. I failed them and I failed her.
I open the door to find my daughter sitting at the table, eating a plate full of Tanner, and having a conversation with a very dead Hoyt. Her head tips back on a laugh and the bruises left from my fingers are prominent against her skin.
I lean against the door and quietly watch her, listening to her deranged and manic conversation with the dead.
“I can’t believe you thought this was a boar.” She shakes her head, her voice sounding like she’s trying to suppress another laugh. “Tanner’s body was riddled with fat. I bet she would’ve died soon anyway.”
She stares intently into Hoyt’s face, as if he’s answering her, and when a wide smile coats her lips, my body becomes rigid with a cold understanding. Beverly is beyond saving, unmarriageable, and completely insane. This goes beyond what happened between us and her obsession, although I do believe it was a catalyst.
“Funny you should say that.” She points her fork at him. “I don’t believe people should be forced to marry either. You and I were never meant to be. You would’ve been sad, yearning for a love you couldn’t have … like me. I saved you.”
Her lips seal around her fork once more and she chews with relish as she listens to a conversation only she can hear.
“It was no big deal.” She waves him off with a smile. “You’re welcome. Now you can be with your mother, too. I believe what she was forcing you to do was wrong, but I could see she loved you.”
Is this her confession for Canary?
“I freed you both from the constraints of this world. Only the strong can survive.”
My fingers are stiff as the tips turn to ice, the cold only spreading further the longer she speaks.
Heidi was right.
There’s something growing inside our daughter, something festered and rotten, and now it’s finally spreading outward, a parasite slowly eating her alive. I fed it—nurtured it—every time I sank my cock inside of her. This version of my daughter is my own doing.
I miss Heidi. I can’t do this without her.
“Come join us, Daddy.” Her voice sounds a bit strained when she raises it, no doubt due to the damaged flesh. “Don’t just stand there. That’s creepy.” That’s creepy? “He likes to watch me.” She leans in to whisper to Hoyt, the sound traveling across the kitchen. “He’s entirely obsessed with my tight pussy. That’s what he says, anyway. Young, tight pussy.”
The frigid cold reaches my blood, racing through my body, spearing me with shards of ice. I have said that to her, in my moments of passion, when my body was connected to hers, and her tight pussy felt like it was sucking me dry. I did say that to her.
I can’t move from my spot at the door, watching her as she animatedly eats her meal and speaks to Hoyt. Her cheeks are flushed with happiness, her smile wide, and those dimples—just like Heidi’s—wink from their deep recesses in her cheeks. My daughter is gorgeous, and it’s with a tortured thought that I realize how sick I am, too. I passed it on to my daughter, a disease of the mind that warps reality and eats its way through your soul.
“Daddy,” she whines, her head dropping to her hand. “Come join us.”
With a slight push off the door, I force my feet to take the necessary steps into the kitchen and toward my daughter. I drop into the chair I was sitting in before and settle my hand in my lap, resigned to what I’ve created.
“Hoyt says you’ve been naughty, and you’re not being very nice. You shouldn’t be forcing me into marriages I don’t want.”
“Yes.” The word comes out an agonized squeak and I clear my throat. “Yes, he’s right. I shouldn’t have done that.”
“Are you finally seeing the truth, Daddy?” She sits up straight, her eyes as big as saucers. “Are you finally accepting our love?”
“Yes, Bevie.” My stomach rolls with dread as the words slip from my mouth. “I see the truth.”
This is the only way we’ll survive. I have to give into my daughter. We won’t be able to stay here, which means we will have to find another tribe far away, one that will take us in, and give us the opportunity to start over. I don’t have the power to cure what I’ve passed onto her, but I can keep it contained if she thinks we’re married.
With our union, her killing will stop, and maybe I’ll be able to one day have my daughter back. The daughter who reminds me so much of my wife—the one I betrayed.
She rises from the table, her face speckled with blood, and her shirt completely saturated. She walks around the table and stands in front of me, the scent of iron invading my nose. Her bloodied hand—much like my own—skims along my face. Her eyes filled with adoration run over me, disturbing my stomach once more.
“Let’s go to bed, Pollyx.” Not daddy. “Show me how you love your wife.”
“Tanner…” I start to say, is in my bed, but my words are trapped in my throat, not able to pass the thick barrier of self-loathing.
“That’s fine.” Beverly smiles, the dots of blood moving with her flesh. “She can watch.”