Possessed Soul

Chapter 23

"Emma, I'm so sorry," I repeated. I would have said something more, if I was given the chance, but Kaden bolted upright and swore when he rolled off the bed and landed with a hard thud on the floor. I didn't know when Emma had started crying, but the tears flowed freely down her cheeks.

While Kaden bolted upright and went to her, I stood up. It surprised me that I had remained seated this whole time. It also surprised me that Kaden was so alert after he had just woken up. "Emma, what happened?" He pulled her to his chest and rubbed her back, trying to soothe her. There was nothing sensual about the way he held her; it was in a brotherly way. When I had first got here, I thought they would make a cute couple, but now I couldn't imagine them being anything other than siblings.

"What happened?" Kaden directed his question at me, when he realised Emma was crying too hard to say anything.

"I..." I couldn't finish my sentence. I felt choked with the guilt that was forming a lump in the back of my throat.

"She called me a prostitute." Emma found her voice. It took a bit of effort to hear what she was saying, since she was mumbling into Kaden's shirt.

"I didn't say that" I argued, with a slight shake of my head.

"But you thought it," she accused.

The look on Kaden's face was one of complete horror, and I took that as my cue to slip away. Kaden made no effort to stop me from leaving. He had the appearance of a deer in headlights; he was frozen, and his pupils had dilated to double their original size, his only movement the occasional smoothing of Emma's hair.

***

I paused in the kitchen, my eyes squinting in the dark. I could see the outline of the kitchen table and the stools that stood to the side of it. The legs of the stools were bent in the middle and bore a resemblance to knees. The old-fashioned light fixtures emitted no light; but I shouldn't have expected them to, as it was close to midnight so nobody would be up.

I found myself tripping over my own feet as I navigated across the creaking floor, making my subtle escape so much less subtle. My mother had always said I had the stealth of a banana. I didn't think bananas were stealthy at all, but at least now I knew why my stealth was compared to that of a banana's. I winced at the noise my footsteps made.

I wasn't entirely sure where I was going. Outside maybe? I didn't want to be here when Kaden came looking for me to talk about what had happened.

"Emma?" It was Holden. I didn't acknowledge him, I just kept walking. He must be pretty sleepy if he mistook my small frame for Emma's tall one. "Emma, what the hell are you..." He swallowed his words when he flipped the light switch on and saw me standing there.

"Hey," I greeted, with a fake smile. Holden's face was pale, which was normal. His face fell when he saw me, which was also normal. He was shirtless and I would have stared if it had been Kaden, but Holden looked malnourished; contrasting with Flynn, Aaron and Kaden who were all hefty. Holden's ribs were visible under the thin sheet of almost translucent skin that covered them. His body, unlike Kaden's, was smooth and scarless, but the ribs jutting out looked like whip-lash marks in the dim light.

Holden sighed and ran a hand across the bottom half of his face. "Get back to your boyfriend," he suggested, pointing towards Kaden's room. "If he sees you here with me, God knows what he'd do to me."

"If I go back in there, God knows what he'd do to me," I said under my breath. I said it low enough for him not to hear, but the way he raised his thin eyebrows made me wonder if my words were audible. Holden pulled out a chair and sat down. Then he pulled another one out and gestured for me to sit. I remained standing and uncomfortably looked to where the sobs were coming from. It didn't sound like sobs anymore, more like the soft rustle of someone making their bed.