once upon a time. “How are you here? And how old are you?” I asked in dismay.
“I’m a hundred and six,” she announced. “Death is a good friend of mine, we made a deal me and him.” She winked, taking hold of my arm and gesturing for me to sit down. I kinda felt like I should be offering her a seat, but she seemed sturdy on her legs and standing was causing me all kinds of fucking agony since Shawn had burned the soles of my feet with a lighter the other day.
“Can we get out?” I looked to the open door with an echo of hope in my chest, but she was already shaking her head.
“The door at the top of the basement stairs is always locked with many bolts and keys,” she sighed and that little flame of hope in me snuffed out as fast as it had ignited.
I lowered onto the chair, breathing through the pain as she moved closer to push my hair out of my face and examine my fucked up right eye.
“Oh that little asshole,” she said in a warbling tone, shaking her fist. “I’d give him what for myself if I could.”
“How fucked is it?” I asked, unsure if I wanted to know or if it even mattered.
“It’s…exceptionally fucked, my dear,” she said and I released a breath of amusement at this frail old woman swearing like that.
“How are you here Mabel? I don’t understand.”
She took my hand, squeezing it tight and the comfort of that gesture was so strong that I clung onto her and didn’t want to let go. She was a good piece of my past, something tangible right here in front of me, and it helped to draw the darkness back in my mind and let some light in.
“Kaiser faked my death so he could get his greedy hands on his inheritance. He paid off some dodgy official to forge a death certificate and bury an empty coffin,” she snipped. “That little shit locked me down here in the rooms adjoining this storage space.”
“I’m in the Rosewood Manor?” I gasped, my head whirling with all that meant. Kaiser Rosewood and Shawn Mackenzie must have been allied.
“But he couldn’t get it all, see?” she said with a wild glint in her eyes. “He can’t have my diamonds.”
“Your…diamonds?” I asked, my head struggling to catch up with what was going. I was still half convinced I was delirious.
“They’re hidden,” she said with a grin. “And I’ll never tell them where they are because that inheritance isn’t for him. In fact, none of it is.” She gave me a twisted kind of smile which reminded me of the feisty old woman I’d known all those years ago. Her smile fell away and she caressed the good side of my face with her withered hand, the feel of that kind touch meaning so much to me in that moment. “But he’s too much of a coward to kill me so I suppose one day I’ll die with the secret, because I’ll never give it up to the likes of him.”
“I’m sorry,” I murmured, sad that her fate had been so cruel in the end. Maybe Sunset Cove was cursed for people who wanted to live a better life. Maybe we’d all end up bleeding in the dark one day.
“There’s no need for that,” she said firmly, her eyes watering as she stared at me. “Poor boy, there’s such pain in your soul and something tells me it’s not because of your wounds.”
I thought of Rogue, my final moments with her and the words that had spilled from her lips. “I’ve always fucking loved you and that’s the problem, isn’t it?”
Those words often circled through my mind and taunted me. They were a riddle I couldn’t solve, because she couldn’t love me, that wasn’t possible, so why had she said it?
“Do you still see those friends of yours?” she asked hopefully. “Fox, Johnny James, the sweet girl Rogue and Maverick?”
“Yeah,” I said heavily. “Sort of.”
She frowned. “What’s happened?”
“So much, Miss Mabel,” I sighed. “They’re not my friends anymore.”
Her thin white brows pulled together. “That can’t be true. You were all attached at the hip.”
“I ruined it,” I muttered. “And this is the price of that.” I gestured to my wounds. “I deserve all of them.”
“Goodness,” she cursed. “Don’t talk like that. No one deserves this.”
“I do,” I said seriously, feeling those words right down to my core.
“Well I may be old but I’ve