The Devil's Son

Thirteen

Maddie

It's Monday. I've been with Marduk for four days, and he's been acting kind of strange. He's been driving with determination, and every time I ask him if we're still lost, he replies with an angry yes. 

But something inside me knows that we're not. We drive and drive for hours on Monday morning, and soon he pulls up to this old barn. A knot forms in the pit of my stomach.

I knew it. 

"Where are we?" I ask Marduk. He looks at me with a twinkle in his eye. 

"Somewhere," He says, "Don't worry about it." He gets out of the car and walks around to open my door. He gestures me out of the car, and I follow. I walk out and he quickly takes my hand. 

"Where are we?" I ask again. "What does a rich guy like you have to do with an old-ass barn?" 

Marudk laughs tightly, and the smile on his face seems a little forced. He drops my hand and walks into the building swiftly. I follow him, and we walk down a long hallway before we stop at an old, brown wooden door. 

I look at Marduk. He grabs a key from his pocket and opens the door. He looks at me. 

"Go in," He says. I walk in, still confused as to where the fuck we are. I walk in and see three men, all very attractive, but sickly looking. 

Then I see a boy about 17, and a girl maybe my age sitting on two wooden chairs. The boy is tied up, and the girl is not. She's reading. 

"Maddie," Marduk says with a sly tone in his voice, "Meet Jameson and Grace." He points to the two kids. "Those are my children." 

I nearly vomit. His children?!

"Children?" I choke out, staring at them. The boy, he's also attractive, except he has these stunning blue eyes, not deep and brown like his fathers. I almost get sick again when I see that he's painfully thin and and weak looking, while his sister is healthy and happy. 

"What are we doing here?" I gasp, tears of fear welling in my eyes. 

I look desperately up at Marduk, and he smiles. 

"You'll see," He replies. He walks over to Jameson and yanks the duct tape off. Jameson gasps and covers his mouth. I stare at him, and fear is drowning me. 

Marduk yanks Jameson off the chair. Jameson falls onto the ground and gasps. He looks so fragile...

My phone rings in my pocket. Marduk turns around slowly, and sticks his hand out. "Hand it over," He says softly. I shake my head, biting back tears. I don't know what's going on, but I have to be strong until I do. 

I miss Kalani. I miss my mom and Kenzie and even Abby. I never wanted to go with him, but I did, and now I could possibly die. But now is not the time to think about regret. I have to think about getting out of here. 

Marduk walks over to me and takes the phone out of my hand. Or, tries to. I hold onto it and try so hard to resist. 

"Give it to him," Jameson croaks. I look at him, and in his eyes, there's pity. 

He's not scared. He feels sorry for his father. I look at Marduk, who's staring right into my eyes and holding the edge of my phone. I let my hand slip. 

"Thank you," Marduk drawls. "Guys!" He calls, and the three men, Grace, and Jameson look at him. 

"This is Maddie," He says, gesturing to me. I don't know what to do, so I have wave and look around. 

"Maddie," He says to me. He points to a tall man wearing a red flannel and jeans. "This is Eric." Eric waves and smiles. I just stare.

"This is Beck," He says to a smaller guy, still tall, but a lot smaller compared to Eric. Beck smiles at me. I nod. 

"And this is Justin," He says, pointing to the shortest of the three. He just nods at me, and there's a plain, bored expression on his face. I wave. 

"You obviously already met Jameson and Grace, so there's no need to introduce them," Marduk continues. "Maddie, stay there with Jameson and Grace. The four of us will be right back." 

They leave and shut the barn door with a bang. Jameson winces. 

"Hi!" Grace cheers. Their mother must be of color, because Grace looks nothing like Jameson and Marduk. She's small and pretty, with long, dark brown hair. Jameson is a splitting image of his father, except with shorter hair and blue eyes. "I'm Grace, I'm 14. This is my brother, Jameson. I'm trying to make the most of this situation because we're going to die here anyway, so live life as full as you can, right?" 

"Hi," Jameson says, "I'm Jameson, but please don't call me that. Call me either James or Jamie." 

"Got it," I mumble, looking down at my feet. 

"Wanna sit?" Grace bubbles, sliding off her chair onto the ground. "Since you don't have a chair, why don't we all sit on the floor? Jamie?" 

"Fine," he mutters, sitting down on the floor and wincing with pain.

"What happened?" I ask. "Why are you here? And why are you so...skinny?" 

I immediately regret the question. How rude of me to ask something so ignorant. 

James looks at me, and tears fill in his eyes. 

"I'll explain," Grace interjects, "although kind of a personal and ignorant question, don't you think? But I'll explain. Jamie was struggling before he was taken here. He was doing heroin, and he's sober now, but anyway, he was on drugs on the time, and he never ate, so that's why he's so thin." Grace finishes with a breath in and stares at me. I look and James.

"How old are you?" I ask. 

"None of your business," James snaps, glaring at me. 

"James!" Grace says angrily. "Sorry about that. He's 17." 

"18!" James cries, looking at Grace. "I turned 18 last January, for Gods sake! Remember? That was when we first were brought here?" 

"Sorry," grace huffs, rolling her eyes and sighing. 

"I'm 15," I reply. 

"Nice," Grace says. "I can't wait to be 15. If I live that long." 

"Why wouldn't you live that long?" I ask. Grace blushes and looks away. 

"I'm sick," she replies after a moment. She says it quietly, as if she's ashamed. "I have..." all the sudden, she breaks down in tears. I stare in confusion. 

Anger fills within me. How dare Marduk torture his children like this! One of them is an adult, who should be in his own and in college somewhere, and one of them is no older than maybe a freshman, and she's sick! 

James holds Grace carefully, but there's no sign of sympathy on his face. He looks at me, and mouths one, horrible word. 

Cancer.

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A/n: when you're writing in your study instead of doing homework 😂 hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! comment if you want a face reveal sometime before the end of the book. ❣️