Chapter 30

He’s late Bean.  He said he might be late but he said only might.  And this isn’t just late it is really, really late.  I’m out of wood and I don’t think he would have meant to be that late.  He said he would bring some back with him so I’m almost positive he didn’t mean to be this late.  He isn’t like that.  Mother Mary would have had a runner out and searching if Brian had ever done this.  And now it’s snowing.  Where is he?! 

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I heard something strange Bean.  I didn’t know what it was at first.  It’s so cold that I’m buried under the furs.  I thought it was the wind at first then possibly an animal.  It wasn’t the wind and it wasn’t an animal either.  Animals don’t test doors and windows.  They also don’t whisper.  I couldn’t’ understand what they were saying but it was something about cold and abandoned to move to the next one. 

Bean this is bad.  This is very, very bad. 

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I’m glad I’m not a nice person now.  It used to worry me.  Not anymore.  I saw them pass by.  I thought they all had and then I saw him.  There was one left like he was covering their escape; moving slow, looking back, picking up things that had been dropped.  I made it easy on him.  He only thought he was breaking in.  Then in the dark I knocked him out and locked the door.  Next thing I did was make sure no one could hear him scream then tied him to the columns in that room Roman called the dining room.  The columns are just for show but they’re sturdy.  Roman had told me how he’d anchored them to the ceiling beams and floor joists.  Good thing.  He was a fighter.  But my knots are better. 

I’ve been on the receiving end of a lot of punishments; I’ve watched even more.  Brian usually did it but Mother Mary liked to keep in practice.  When I started working in the office she used to explain her techniques to me, sometimes as she demonstrated at the same time.  Girls that wouldn’t obey, customers that wouldn’t pay, other pimps that tried to muscle in on her territory, they were all the same to her.  She did it to scare me maybe, or because she thought I liked it.  I didn’t.  It is just one more thing I know that I wish I didn’t.  But it came in handy this time. 

He didn’t last long – bullies never do – but I got the information I needed.  It is too dark to move right now so I got what blood I cold off the floor.  I need to rest anyway, pulling his body off into the woods made me hurt.   

I’ll make them hurt.  I’m make them all pay. 

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“C’mon Thorn, another spoonful.  Just a spoonful.” 

“Roman come away.  Narcissa is …” 

“Her name is Thorn!  Why can’t you just respect her enough to call her by her name?  Is it really that hard?!” 

“Easy Son.  Your mother was only going to say that you both need some rest.  That leg is going to get infected if you don’t get off of it.  And there’s nothing you can do for … Thorn.  All we can do is wait to see the state of things when there is light.  Your mother … she said that it doesn’t appear that the men that had her … abused her.  It is mild shock and cold.  In her condition …” 

“I promised her.  I told her that I’d keep Bean and her safe.” 

“Son … come away now.  Let the women do what they can.”