Kacie
The world stands still and the temperature in the room drops a few degrees. I watch as the wheels turn and Clara starts to grasp what Ken just said. The anger that was blazing in her eyes a second ago is gone as if it’s been extinguished.
Ken gulps.
I inhale a sharp intake of breath.
“Did he just?” Athena whispers.
“Yeah,” I reply. “He confirmed my suspicions. It didn’t make sense why he wouldn’t tell her where she was when she kept her side of their deal. I knew something was off. Her sister… is dead.”
My eyes trail over Clara’s face and her expression tells me she is in shock. She sways side to side for a second before her brows furrow and she catches herself. She turns her head and stares dazed out the window.
When she turns back to face Ken, her eyes are numb and appear empty, void of emotion. She lifts her hand and her fingers curl forward as if squeezing something.
Ken makes a gurgled sound as he fights for air and I realize she’s choking him. She might just kill him now.
“Wait!” I call out to her. “Don’t you want to know how? Or why? Don’t you want to know where she is?” I ask her. If she kills him right now she won’t have answers to any of the questions she might have after she comes out of her shocked state.
Clara turns her head to look at me, her arm still raised and squeezing. The noises coming from Ken are becoming desperate.
“This may be your only chance,” I tell her as I look her in the eyes.
“You’re still here?” She asks with those dull eyes. “You should go home,” she whispers. “You have someone waiting for you.”
“Why is she dead?” I ask Ken for her.
Clara turns her head away from me and loosens her fingers. Ken looks at me and spits on the floor. Clara hisses at him.
“She wasn’t fun to play with,” he said, his face screwing up in irritation. “She kept screaming ‘Ara! Ara! Ara!’”
Pain and desperation stretch across Clara’s features.
“She wouldn’t shut up! I hit her to shut up and she wouldn’t fucking stop,” Ken continues.
Clara closes her eyes and tears escape from the corners of her eyes. I watch as her shoulders start to shake.
“I don’t know how it happened but I snapped. I kept hitting her, over and over again until she stopped moving,” Ken said.
“How long did you have her?” I ask.
Ken’s eyes search the ceiling for answers, “I played with her for a few days before she started to act crazy.”
“By play… do you mean what we did?” I ask.
Ken’s eyes fill with amusement. “Sadly Kace, we’ve only played a little bit.”
I blanch.
He raped her.
Clara turns to look at me, a clear question in her eyes.
I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.
“He raped her,” I tell her.
She continues staring at me and I can’t even begin to even try and comprehend what she’s thinking.
“Where is her body?” I ask before Clara can silence him. Clara’s eyes widen and I realize she hadn’t even thought of her sister’s body yet.
“She’s buried where we used to meet,” he said as he looked at Clara. “I held her there. The day we met about your vision was the day I killed her.”
Clara’s head slowly turned and looked at Ken.
“Harper had a speech impediment as a young child. She couldn’t say my name clearly. The other witches would make fun of her and she wouldn’t call my name. She didn’t say my name for years. She was a stubborn child.”
Clara took a deep shaky breath.
“A few years ago,” Clara said as she glided over to Ken, “she tripped and fell in the woods. Her hands fell into the blackberry bushes and her knees scraped against the roots that ripped out from the ground and stretched out over the floor.”
“I don’t care about your stupid fucking story,” Ken growled.
“She didn’t know I was nearby and saw the whole thing happen. The shadows were with even then. She sat back on her butt and dropped her head back,” Clara continued, ignoring Ken’s outburst, “and she cried like a baby.”
Clara laughed.
“She was so cute,” she said with a smile, “but then she started calling me. Ara, Ara, Ara! My sister who hadn’t called my name in years was hurt and called for me. Despite the shame, she felt for not being able to pronounce certain letters. My baby sister cried for me and I stepped out from the shadows. She looked up at me like I was some hero, there to save the day.”
“So you see,” Clara said as she raised her hand again, and slowly curled her fingers, “In her last days, my baby sister was crying out for me. What you found annoying, was my baby sister calling my name.”
Her fingers tightened slowly, inch by inch and Ken gripped his throat with the hand he had left. Tears were streaming down my cheeks.
“I will go back to where my sister lays,” Clara said as her other hand reached out and touched Ken’s hair, “and I’ll rescue her again.”
Clara stares down at him, with a smile in her eyes. “I’ll save the day after I kill you,” she whispers with a smile on her face. I watch as she slowly closes her fist and Ken’s struggled breaths turn into blood spurting from his mouth. His hand drops to his side.
I call the heat and will it to my open hands. When they spark and engulf my hands, I take a step forward as Ken falls to the floor. Clara doesn’t move, she doesn’t look at me, she stares down at him.
I step forward and look down at the pathetic excuse for a man who terrorized me and broke me down to be less than human. I lay my hands above his crumpled form. Breathing out, I watch as fire shoots from my palms and covers Ken.