Captured (A Modern Medusa Story)

CHAPTER 44: AVERISTA♥️

"Don't mind it. It's not mine." She gestured towards the blood.

"How reassuring." I pointed sarcastically.

How could I not mind blood? Out of all things. But this was Phoebe we were talking about . . . She could order me to dismiss a dead body on her feet and I would obey.

Then I noticed something when I moved closer to her.

"Phoebe." I fell apart at the sight of redness in her eyes, and I didn't need to ask to know that she had been crying, because the dried up lines on her cheeks were enough proof.

"Wildflowers." She whispered when I moved inside, my hands immediately reaching to touch her porcelain face.

"What happened?"

I was answered by new tears streaming down to her chin. I thought seeing my best friend cry was enough remorse to send me off to hell, but Phoebe broke the last straw left inside of me.

I closed the door behind us and pulled her into me, fighting off the urge to cry. I wanted to be strong for her. Maybe for the both of us.

Phoebe tightened her around arms around my neck and with mine tight around her waist, I pulled her up and carried her to the bed.

I placed her down on the pink silk and lay next to her, cuddling her into an embrace.

Her sobs were low, but the silence in the room made them seem loud. Her face tucked hidden in my chest, my fingers caressing the strands of hair at the back of her head.

I let her stay like that for as long as we could.

"Wildflowers." I heard Phoebe's voice call in a whisper, and I moved back to look at her in the face.

"Yes?" I moved the hair out of her face.

"I did something bad," she said. But all I could think about was how she would always be an angel to me.

"What?"

"I killed them."

I shifted, grazing my palm over her bare arms and living for the way goosebumps trailed wherever I touched.

"Killed who, Phoebe?"

A minute flied, and I remembered what had brought me there.

Helene.

"Martin," she muttered. "And his twin. And every other snake in the laboratory. I killed them."

Phoebe's blood stains were all over me too by now, but that's the last thing I worried about. She would've killed a real person and I still would've been there to hug the pain away from her.

I swallowed before letting out a reply.

"Why?"

Phoebe's body stiffened.

"Because I loved them," she marked. "I love them so much, but-"

I tried to find a rhythm for my breathing.

"But?"

"But I couldn't set them free. It was the only way to set them free, wildflowers. Was I wrong? I-I didn't know what to do."

I moved back and looked into Phoebe's eyes like she could see back at me.

"Do you regret it?" My question came out a murmur.

Why did Helene leave her daughter with that culprit of a man- McQuinn? She should've taken her with her. The man was a transparent manipulator.

Phoebe shook her head.

"I'm just-I'm just horrified."

"Of what?"

"Of what Papa would make of me after unaliving his creations. The auction business for the creatures is launching tomorrow, and I just shot some of the said creatures. Maybe he planned to sell those pythons too? He might throw a fit and-"

I kissed Phoebe's lips.

"Whatever your father makes of it, fuck it." I moved above her. "About the rest . . . I can make you forget, okay?"

Phoebe gave me a shy smile before pulling me into a deeper kiss.

This was all I ever wanted. To forget and make her forget about everything. We belonged in this act. In the touches, in the kisses, in the love.

Phoebe flipped us over, straddling me, and taking charge. There was something about her movements . . . Death-defying, ardent, uncalculated. Like there was no more tomorrow for us to make love again. I didn't question it. I simply dived into the rawness of it and let myself be taken advantage of.

If this was going to be the last time I'll ever have her body this close to me, then it better be best. Whether I ended up to be one of her killings, I didn't care for scriptures were about to come true.

The woman and the serpent will forever be each other's foes. That was the curse we beared. I would bite her heel and she would crash my head. But I knew my heart would never take back anything. I loved and I loved her, and I wouldn't lie about it for anything, because the feeling was mutual.