“Sure, you don’t. I’m sure you told Cindy you never touched my brother either,” he averted his eyes, “Did you tell her you also molested your own little sister?”
“Are you fuckin’ kidding me?” Cindy exclaimed in disgust in Christian’s direction.
“I kid you not,” I said, as I paced the room, “But don’t worry, Cindy, we’re going to fix that today.”
“What do you mean, ‘fix it’?” asked Christian.
“Let me put it this way. I can’t hurt you. You can’t hurt me,” I said, dragging the knife across my arms and letting them watch the wound close up as stray droplets of blood bounced off the living room tiles.
“Aden, don’t look,” Cindy said, as she shielded him by putting his face into her chest, while her sight remained locked on me, mesmerized.
“What the fuck?” Christian said, wincing and trying to look simultaneously, “What the fuck is wrong with you? How did you do that?”
“Doesn’t matter. Anyway, for some reason I can’t hurt you because you’re a sick fuckin’ parasite who feeds off other people. You can’t hurt me, because I’m indestructible. However you can hurt you,” I said, placing the knife in front of him on the coffee table.
“I don’t know why the fuck they let you out of the hospital. You’re still fucking crazy.” Christian said.
“Yes, that I certainly am. Aden! Come sit with your cousin,” I said, walking over to Cindy, grabbing his hand, and leading him away from her. I sat back down in the chair with Aden in front of me, looking in Christian’s direction.
“Okay, okay, stop,” Christian said.
“Stop what? I just want to hang out with my cousin. Aden, do you want to see you father do a trick?” I asked him.
“No,” he said, turning to face me. He attempted to bury his head in my lap, on the verge of tears.
“Oh, come on!” I said, lifting his head up and turning him around to face Christian once again, “It’s going to be a really good one.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you, Dani?” Cindy yelled.
“I told you I’d come back for you, Christian. I thought of all the ways to kill you, all the wonderful ways. Then something dawned on me: I don’t want to kill you, I want you to suffer, and I want to be able to watch that suffering for a really, really, really long time.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“Well, now, this is so exciting. I didn’t know we would have guests, so I think I’ll let Cindy take the lead,” I said, glancing over at Cindy, “Cindy, Christian has a very serious perversion. You know this. I’m sure you always wanted payback for all the times he beat and bruised you. So I want you to take that knife and stab him where you think it would hurt him the most- without killing him, of course.”
“And if I refuse,” she asked.
I placed my hands over Aden’s ears and whispered, “It won’t end so well for Aden.”
Cindy immediately got up, snatched the knife off the table and plugged it into Christian’s crotch. I placed my hand over Aden’s eyes and he held my hand tightly against them. Christian yelped and cried out in pain.
“Again,” I said.
“Wait, no, sto —” Christian pleaded, as he keeled over on the couch, causing Cindy to hit more of the inner thigh than his crotch.
“One more time!” I commanded. This time she used both hands and thrust downward. She must have hit him in the place where it could hurt most. He cried out and grabbed himself, as if he was attempting to keep it from falling off. Blood dripped from the couch and onto the floor, and Christian continued to writhe in pain. Cindy tossed the knife back on the table and returned to the opposite couch, burying her face in her hands.
“Sit up!” I yelled at Christian.
“I can’t,” he cried, rolling around on the couch.
“Sit the fuck up and look at me. We’re not done.”
“What the fuck do you mean?” Christian spat, “What the fuck else do you want?”
“That was for my brother, this is for my mother. You see, my mother killed herself because of the things that haunted her, the things that you did,” I said.
“She’s not completely innocent in this, Dani. I don’t know how much you know. but I’m sorry —” he began.
“Say sorry one more fuckin’ time, Christian. I swear, say it one more time, and I will murder your entire family in front of your eyes.”
“Jesus Christ, Dani!” Cindy gasped.
“Shut up!” I said, glaring over at Cindy, then returning my attention to Christian, “You see, my mom killed herself. She missed out on her life, my life, and Nathan’s life. She’s not going to get the chance to watch her kids grow up, see what they become, watch them fall in love with people, go to prom, get married and neither are you.”
“What do you mean?” he asked, “Wa — wa — wait, no. I can’t do that! Please don’t make me do that!”
I leaned forward and inched the knife closer to him.
“It’s totally your choice. And don’t go easy, make it count.”
I let my shadow release from me.
“Watch him for a second while I witness this,” I commanded my shadow. It placed its arms on Aden’s shoulders.
“Wait, what’s that? What are you doing to him? That’s your demon, right? Your shadow, like Grandma Elizabeth had. Get it away from him! Don’t let that monster touch him!”
“Do it, and it will release him.”
Aden began to obtain a pale hue and waver in his stance.
“I don’t feel good, mommy,” came his first words as he rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand.
“Christian, do it!” Cindy screamed.
“Better hurry,” I suggested.
He ripped the knife off the table and looked down at the tip of the blade. He looked over at his son. He jabbed lightly at his eye, inflicting immediate pain.
“Not hard enough,” I said.
He jabbed again, much harder, producing blood. He sobbed as he did it. I
