darcie
It had been two months since my half-brother escaped police custody and went on the run. All leads faded. The NYPD and local authorities told my friends and me they were still searching for him, but I didn’t believe them.
I knew they had moved on to other cases.
As long as Declan didn’t kill anyone else, all was good in the world, right?
But if my brother was anything like our father, I knew he was biding his time, planning his next kill.
I wanted to look for Declan badly, but Dane, my friends, and the authorities forbade it.
Besides, Dane, the ever-loyal man, and husband, had distracted me with frequent weekend trips away.
One weekend, we travelled to Martha’s Vineyard.
On another trip, we went to Florida, where I confessed that I had never been to Disneyworld.
With the abusive childhood I’d had, my mother had never had any money because of my father, and my father had never thought I deserved it. He was always too busy spending what little money we had on pretending to be rich to lure in the next woman, his next victim. And then he stole their money, too, and moved on to the next victim. And on and on the cycle went.
So, Dane took me to Disneyworld in Florida. He took me on all his favourite rides, bought me Mickey Mouse ears, and we ate Mickey-shaped ice cream in the sunshine.
I had never been so happy.
And now I was back at our beach house, sitting on my back deck holding the diary my brother had written, trying to decide whether to read it.
I would much rather be back in Florida, watching the fireworks above Cinderella’s castle with Dane. But I knew I had to read it. I had to rip off the band-aid. I had to give myself closure.
Besides, I knew it would give me and everyone else more insight into my brother’s tormented and twisted mind.
I took a sip of coffee and cracked open the black leather cover. The wind tousled my unbound hair and the pages as I began to read.
And the very first word gave me pause and chilled me to the bone.
Darcie,
You said you wanted to protect me from the darkness, but I couldn’t stop it. I couldn’t wait any longer. I’ve had dreams and visions of sinking a blade into the flesh of a person, and I couldn’t wait to try it.
When I gave in, it was glorious!
Darcie, it’s delicious. You should try it.
You should embrace the darkness, too. It’s inside you, waiting for the right time to be freed.
You need to let it free.
Only the first page was a letter. It was like he had deliberately left this diary for me to find. The rest of the diary was filled with entries detailing his traumatic childhood. My heart raced as I turned the page. I wasn’t sure I was ready to relive the trauma. This was surely going to give me flashbacks and PTSD.
I didn’t know if his choosing to write to me was flattering or frightening.