Soft || 18+ Reverse Harem ||

68 - for a while

. . .

Dahlia

I was in a car. I was drugged. I couldn't move. And this time, there were ropes around me. I was in the back seat. I was laying down. He was driving.

The sky outside cracked with thunder, illuminating the raindrops for mere seconds until everything was consumed by the darkness again.

I looked at the ceiling of the car and half expected to see my parents hanging from it. I could almost see the flickering of the fairlights. I could see their eyes. I had my mom's eyes.

"Alexandre," I whispered.

"Hey, baby. You're up." He looked at me for a second. "Are you okay?"

I stared at his hand which was on the steering wheel. There was no Sharpie mark on it. Lucian and Alexandre never wipe off the heart and star I make on them unless they had to.

I sniffled. "You...Elliot."

"No," he said gently. "I'm Alexandre, baby. Don't worry. Elliot won't hurt you now."

He was messing with my mind.

Maybe he wasn't.

The car suddenly stopped.

I heard a bang. The windshield cleared. His hand slammed into the seat. There was blood. The car door opened.

I was pulled out. The rain fell on me, drenching me in mere moments.

"You're safe, baby."

My tears mixed with the rain. "Who are you?"

"It's me, Lucian, baby."

I cried harder. "I don't know. How do I know?"

He set me in a car. A body pressed against me.

"Who are you?"

"Alexandre."

I sniffled. "Lie."

"What are you talking about? It's me. Look."

I looked at him. It could be anyone. It could be Elliot. It was probably Elliot.

He killed them all.

My head got heavier. I closed my eyes. "I don't trust you."

. . .

Lucian Monet

Mom, as it turned out, wasn't aware that Elliot was alive. Our dads, on the other hand, were very aware.

"What are you going to do about them?" Hedeon asked after we set Dahlia in her room, an IV attached to her arm. Elliot had pumped her full of drugs. Now he was dead in a car. I had shot him. It felt like shooting myself. We didn't move him. He was still there, dead in a car. 

"I don't know," I said. My dads were locked in a cell on the ship. They had kept Elliot hidden for this long. They knew we would have killed him if we knew he was alive.

"She got confused," Hedeon said. "She was drugged. She probably thought he was you or Alexandre once in a while."

"She said 'I don't trust you' to Alexandre," I said, leaning against the door frame of her room. She was nestled against her cats. "I think that was meant for me, too."

"Let her get the drugs out of her system," Hedeon said. "With a clear head, she'd be...better."

"I don't want her to see him when she looks at me."

. . .

Dahlia

I sat up, pulling Bobby and Vaness against my chest, staring blankly at the wall. My body felt weak, and every inch of my skin hurt weirdly, but my mind didn't feel fuzzy anymore. I knew what had happened. I knew who had done it. I knew it couldn't be Lucian or Alexandre.

But I didn't want to look at them.

The first thing I did when I woke up was lock the door. I didn't want to talk to anyone.

There was a knock on the door.

"Dahlia."

Marie.

I got out of bed, dragging my IV with me, and opened the door.

Marie looked at me. She was drenched, probably because of the rain that was shaking the whole ship.

I wrapped my arms around her.

She hugged me harder. "How are you?"

"Horrible. I-" My voice got stuck. "Mom, Dad, Emilia...they're dead."

"I know. It's on the news. Do you want to talk about it?"

"Never."

. . .

Marie left after spending hours with me. The sun rose and I kept rotting in my bed, staring right at the sun till my eyes hurt, and then I fell asleep biting into my fingertips to keep myself from sobbing out loud. My fingers bled. I couldn't stop.

The door opened. I hadn't locked it again. I forgot.

"Dahlia."

Andros or Hedeon. I felt frustrated again. I could never tell them apart.

I looked over my shoulder. "Hey."

He walked deeper into the room. There was a star drawn on his hand. I hadn't made it. He probably did it himself.

Hedeon sat down on the bed. He looked at my fingers that were bleeding. He gently took my wrist and pulled me towards him, setting me on his lap. He picked me up and walked to the bathroom. I stayed quiet. Not sure what to say. I didn't want to say anything either.

He set me on the counter.

"Let's take a bath," He said. "Yes?"

"Do I stink?"

"No."

"Okay."

He took my clothes off, I didn't miss the way he accessed every inch of my skin. He thought Elliot must have touched me. He didn't. He just slaughtered people as gifts for me.

Hedeon took his clothes off and slid into the bathtub behind me, pulling me against him. I turned around and wrapped my arms around him.

"So," I said. "Lorenzo and everything...what was up with that?"

"Lorenzo is dead."

"Damien?"

"He is...clean. He is leading the organization now."

"Noah's son," I muttered.

"Yes."

I rubbed my hand on his back, feeling the scars there. "Hedeon."

"Yes."

"I want to go back to the apartment and..."

"And?"

"I don't want to see Lucian or Alexandre for a while."

"...okay, baby. Whatever you need."

. . .