asylum [kai parker] editing/rewriting

Twenty-Six

Song for this chapter
•Monster-Imagine Dragons because it fits Kai's conversation with Sim perfectly in this chapter.

S I M O N E
The house is small, and white. Screams echo from the building, making my stomach twist in anticipation. The second I make it onto the front porch, the screams halt. My fingers fumble for the doorknob. The bronze metal makes me cringe, but I continue on to twisting the knob.

It doesn't take much to open the door. Just a little push and it flies right open. My eyes travel down the carpet laid down in the small hallway before me. A stair case leads the way upstairs to my right. Picture frames line the walls.

The pictures are of people. They're familiar. The pictures are disturbing, however. Each one is a different person that's dead. Either they have a stab in there middle region that's leaking blood or they have bruises around their necks. There's a young boy, a girl, and a few other members of a family. All of them are dead in their picture. Then, a few feet down, there's a framed picture. It's not slanted. It is perfectly straight. The boy inside the picture is smiling. His dark eyes are sparkling in the light. But his smile is disturbing. It's a murderous smile harboring little to no guilt at all. The smile of a sociopath.

In a flash of light everything changes. The pictures aren't the same. In fact, every single dead person in the picture is gone. Vanished. The only one remaining is the familiar face of Kai Parker.

Noises pull me from my thoughts. Quickly my head flips in the direction of its source. There, at the top of the stairs, is Kai. He's holding a bloodied bat and his converse are a dark maroon. His shirt isn't blue anymore, either.

I'm able to let out a scream of help before I hear his voice. "It's alright, kitten." He smirks.

"Please-" I pause, watching him grip the knife tighter, "please don't hurt me!" I scream.

"Shh, kitten. It's alright." Something jerks me awake. Arms are wrapped around me, shaking me slightly.

Two awful dreams in one night. First the disturbing scene in the meadow. And now this? My eyes are watering and I struggle to push back the tears. Why am I so shaken? The pictures in the dream are much like the ones I saw. The ones Nick showed me when I was in for questioning.

Kai rubs my arms and I cannot help but feel comforted by the touch. Goosebumps are left in his wake, making me cringe at the closeness.

"I would never hurt you." Kai whispers, barely audible. I know for a fact he didn't want me to hear it, nor did he think I did. His words shake me up a bit, more than the dreams.

Hurt me? Kai has hurt me in all ways possible. He's hurt my family, made me think low of myself, burned my self-esteem, hurt me in a thousand ways- mentally.

But he has never, ever hurt me physically. God knows he has the power and authority to do anything he wants to me but he doesn't. I don't know why, but I'm thankful he hasn't hurt me. Because that would be unforgivable.

Then again, two months ago 'hitting my dad with a crowbar' and 'knocking out my best friend twice' was unforgivable.

I've lowered my standards. Greatly.

Kai stirs, looking out the window as the sun peeks through the clouds, "Get up."

There he does it again. Ignoring what happened completely so we can just get on with this road trip. "Good morning to you too, Malachai."

"There's with that name again." He huffs, peeling the blankets away from himself and standing up. His head of blonde hair still seems to surprise me. But it also makes his blue eyes pop out more, and they're not as dark. But his hair reminds me.