26. Jax

Jax

I get to the other side of the building when I'm pulled to a stop. At first, I think it's Astaire, but then I realise the person holding me is alive, and I panic before I come face-to-face with Joe Hinklestein. His terror has turned his face off-white and his eyes into huge spheres of fear. His hand trembles on mine, and he puts a finger to his lip and points.

"What is this? Oh, this is fantastic. This is gold. I'm going to be rich. I'm going to be a millionaire." Sparrow bursts into laughter, pulls out his phone, and starts taking photos and videos.

I can just make him out from where I'm hiding.

"The eyes in the skies," Joe murmurs to me and gestures towards the corner of the room.

A gasp catches in my throat. There are cameras in the room. I spot one, two, three, five, eight, twelve.

"We need to leave now. The spider won't leave his nest alone for long," Joe murmurs. "Come, precious. We need to get the dead hands girl away from the king. Come, fat girl, come to safety before the king takes you, too."

I allow Joe to lead me through the debris and what feels like deeper into the Dead City. Everything is so sad here. It's so broken and dangerous. Creepers have pushed through the mortar between the bricks, they have lifted walls and roofs alike. Nothing shines here .

Joe smells bad, like wet clothes and rotten food, but it's a smell that seems to be everywhere down here. He doesn't rush or run and keeps a steady stream of uninterpretable whispers coming out of his mouth.

I force myself not to look back. But the feeling of being watched, of being hunted, is strong.

"We don't run, oh, no, we don't. Eyes are everywhere," Joe murmurs. "We keeps our words deep inside. We don't runs. We do what we're told."

I glance sharply at Joe's back.

"What do you mean, you do as you're told, Joe?"

"Death hands, hands of death!" he says loudly.

I rush him, hissing at him to be quiet. "Shh, Joe, shh."

"The blackness covers you. So many you've touched, so many touch you."

I stare at him, my skin prickling painfully. Surely, he's not talking about…but that's impossible.

"Joe, have you died?"

Joe's eyes snap to mine, and his head cants to the side. "My mother made me sleep in the bathtub."

I shudder at the madness in his eyes.

"She pushed on my chest until the water filled me up, up, up, and I slept. But I can see them now, so it's okay."

I follow his gaze to find two black shapes of children. The smell of burnt flesh seers my nose.

"My babies," Joe whispers.

My eyes widen as my brain makes the connection instantly. "Are you John Durst?" This is the man who had the affair. His wife came home and set the house on fire, hoping to kill her husband and his whore, and instead, killed her two children. Hurricane's very own tragedy. The father of those children from the playground.

Joe flinches. "John is dead. I killed him. He's dead. "

"No, he's not, he's you. You're alive. You disappeared. People looked for you for years," I retort back.

Joe snaps his yellow and brown teeth in my direction and makes a low moan. "She left me. Wonder if she's happy. Wonder if she's proud?" John spits viciously.

"What?"

Another dark shape appears with the children. She doesn't get close to them, and they retreat from her.

"Roselyn, my Rosie. I'm sorry," Joe cries. "I was weak. She wouldn't listen when I said no."

"Who?" I snap at Joe. "Who wouldn't listen?"

"Jojo," the voice singsongs in the dark, seeming to come from all around us. "You shouldn't be here. It's not time yet."

I flinch as memories fill me. I can't see him, but I'm finally hearing his voice. He sounds the same. My throat closes. I turn in a circle, searching all the windowsills, the roofs, the dark corners.

"She wouldn't listen!" Joe screams. "I said no. I said it had to end. I said it was over!" Joe howls at the voice. "She stole everything from me."

Louis, whoever he is, chuckles darkly.

Joe's eyes are bloodshot, and strands of drool run down his chin, his veins pop from his neck, and he trembles. "Your mother was a whore and a murderer," He hisses.

Those words fall and swim around and around.

Is he talking about my mother? But, no, he's not looking at me. Who is he talking to? Surely, not Louis?

"Whore," Joe hisses again. "She stole my world from me, and I'm going to make sure you never get your happy ending, you spawn of the devil."

Joe sounds almost coherent. But then his hand wraps around my wrist, and he pulls me through the buildings, moving faster .

"Have to hide. Have to hide. Somewhere there are no eyes. Have to hide."

"Joe, were you sleeping with Lee Banewood's mother?" I sputter out.

"Daisy? Daisy so sweet, big blue eyes, white blond hair, smells like flowers, poison, poison, poison. Yes, I let the poison into my home. Lost my wife in the fire. She died in my arms. Found my babies the next day." Joe shudders, and the madness steals back across his face.

"Not going to let him have you. He is his mother's child. He wants to be a king ruling over a world of ash."

His fingers tighten around mine until I feel like he might break my wrist, but then he turns and tugs me with him into a building. He points at a black hole in the wall. As my eyes adjust, I see they are those sewer pipes. There's dirt and grass, but I can't see anything moving.

"In!" Joe hisses and pushes me.

I crawl inside and flinch when I feel him right behind me. He crawls up over me, making me feel like I need to bathe, and tucks himself into a ball and watches the circle of light.

"What are we doing?" I murmur.

"Hiding. It's time to hide. Time to fight is later. We can't fights him down here, fat, dead girl."

I mutter unhappily and try to get comfortable, but I'm on my hands and knees, and it's freezing inside this tunnel.

But just when I'm about to try to get up, a noise in the distance explodes into the world like a gunshot. There's no mistaking the man's scream.

"What was that?"

"He's very mad. Very mad. No one touches his queen. "

I look back at Joe over my shoulder, trying to work out what he's talking about and remember the other person who is down here with us.

Sparrow?

Louis is after Sparrow because he hurt me?

I shiver and tuck myself even tighter. Is Joe Louis' father? No, he can't be. Joe didn't have any more siblings, either, and Louis' siblings died…in the fire. Oh, my god.

He killed his mother and his sisters. I'd bet money on it. He was the oldest, wasn't he? Yes. I try to wrap my mind around the time frame. John was older than his wife. I remember the stories, so Daisy would have been younger than John. She sleeps with him, when his wife goes crazy and decides she can do better, she somehow ends up going home to husband Liam Banewood with a little surprise that isn't his.

But who is the father?

"Who did Daisy go to after she left you?"

Joe twitches. "Be silent as the graves. Silent as my babes."

I shudder at the reminder. But the screaming and noise of someone running is coming in this direction. It's getting closer, and I don't need Joe's instructions anymore. I couldn't make a sound if someone paid me.

He explodes into the room, only his legs are visible. He staggers and drops to his knees but gets up instantly. Sparrow looks different than I've ever seen him. He's clearly terrified and injured. There's a dark patch of blood on his shirt and a cut that's bleeding down the side of his face.

"Help me. Oh, god, I don't want to die. I just wanted to tell your story. To help you. We're the same, I can help you!"

"You didn't want to help me, you just wanted to become rich off of my hard work," Louis says from above us. "It's greedy and lazy, and you touched my baby girl. "

Joe's hand tightens on my wrist, but I dare not make a sound. I don't know his voice. I should, but I can't place it.

"I was trying to help you!" Sparrow shouts. "Please. I did everything you asked."

"You went too far. I warned you not to hurt her, Ivan Sparrow. I told you what you could ask, what you could say. But you had to keep pushing and pushing. Did you think I was ever going to allow you to write that book? To get away with defying me?"

Oh, this side of Louis is one I only saw snippets of, but I remember him clearly. Please, please, if there's a god out there, keep Dane, Rafe, and Gideon far from here.

"For every horrible question, for every drug you force-fed her, for every liberty you took with her body while she couldn't fight you-"

I have to swallow bile as my head swims violently. Liberties?

"For making her feel crazy when they were real. For making her lie to you." Louis stops and lets out a deep menacing growl. "For making her fear me. All of these reasons and more is why your death is going to be long and slow and painful."

"Please!" Sparrow screams. "Please! I only did what you told me!"

"Now, Ivan, we both know that's a lie. You hurt her to get the truth about me. You should have known better."

I can hear the smile in his tone. This is a very, very angry Louis. This is the man people feared and the one I found out about after he died.

Sparrow drops to his knees, his eyes stunned, and now I can see him clearly, but he too can see me. He scrambles towards us on his hands and knees.

"I helped you. I saved you," he moans. "Stop him, you have to help me. "

Joe puts a filthy, unwashed hand over my mouth and leans over me. "You can't save him. He signed his death certificate the day he got into bed with the devil."

My eyes are wide as Sparrow pleads. He doesn't look away from me. Not even when the dark-clothed man appears behind him.

His eyes widen and sweat drips down his face.

I think of all the times I've been helpless in a chair, in a bed, in a room, because of this man. All the pain and fear he's inflicted on me, and I don't look away. I can't.

I'm the only witness. The only person who gets to see his fear, his regrets, his last moments.

And I can't find it in me to find even a smidge of regret. I want Louis to kill this man. I want him to do it.

I'm a monster, too.

"Jojo, it's time for you to leave, my love." Louis' voice comes out of a nightmare. "Joe, take her away and consider this your last warning about interfering in my business."

A gloved hand drops a rope around Sparrow's neck, and then he turns and walks away. I can't see anything about him. Nothing that looks familiar, and yet, he doesn't look unfamiliar.

Sparrow screams, he howls as he's dragged backwards. His feet drum on the dirt, sending up brown clouds, and his hands try to grasp at the rope around his neck.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" he manages to get out.

Louis drags him out of the building, whistling. I remember that song. It brings back memories of lazy days in our apartment. My eyes fill with tears.

It was all a lie.

Joe's hand slips from my mouth. "We need to leave."

He scrambles over me, kicking me in the ribs, but I don't even care, I don't react. Sparrow's not dead, but he will be soon. I'm kinda almost free .

Of that monster.

But not the other.

Joe leads me out of the Dead City with unerring precision. The screams of Doctor Ivan Sparrow follow every step we take. He suffers. He suffers for a long time. I'm exhausted just hearing it.

At the main road, Joe looks up and down nervously and touches each finger to his thumb in a repetitive pattern that makes me want to reach out and stop him.

"Thank you, Joe," I say, but I feel so far away.

His expression softens for a moment. "Be stronger than the eyes. They'll help you, all those ghost hands on your body. They'll try to save you if they can."

"Joe, I'm sorry for what happened to you."

His eyes flick up to me and then away. "Can't let the king have his kingdom. He's going to win, but we can't let him keep it."

I stare at him as his mind goes down a path I can't follow. Then he turns and jogs back into the Dead City, leaving me alone on a deserted stretch of road feeling like my life's been flipped all to hell.