A Curse Of Blood And Sorrow

Chapter Eleven

Blake

I follow as she wanders around the kitchen. "Do you not trust me?" I ask.

"Of course I trust you. I wouldn't have let you in if I didn't think I could trust you."

"Then why won't you tell me this one thing?"

"Because you'll hate me!" She yells at me, storming out of the kitchen and moving to the stairs.

"You don't know that unless you tell me." I say softly, trying hard to get her to confide in me. "What if I tell you a secret too? Would that help?"

"Maybe?" She says sweetly. I know it's a lie but I'll go with it anyway.

"Okay. Fine. Here's a secret even Maverick doesn't know. I saw my mother die and I didn't even attempt to try and help her. I just stood there and watched it happen. I felt so guilty that I didn't speak to him for days on end, praying that he'd never ask me questions. He didn't but kept asking me why I wasn't talking and I didn't want him to ask me any more questions so I had to start talking again." I admit for the first time out loud. It feels weird but also good.

"Why did you think that you killed her?"

"At the time, I didn't know that she had cancer, I thought that it was all because of me. Now tell me, what's this big secret of yours?"

"Promise you won't hate me." She whispers.

"I can promise that I won't react without you finishing what you have to tell me, does that work?" She nods slowly and sits down on the stairs, clutching her hands in her lap. "Ave, I promise I won't judge you." She takes a deep breath and I know that it's going to be bad. Whatever she was keeping secret must be awful if it's taking her this much energy and strength to tell me.

"I had a chance to kill the beast and end all of this but I decided not to." She says. I've got to say, I'm surprised. She doesn't seem to be someone who would let this go on for this long if there wasn't a reason for it. I want to ask her more questions but I don't want to freak her out by asking too much too fast.

"Take your time, Ave. I'm not going to go anywhere." She nods in response and takes a few more deep breaths.

"I could've had it killed but it was around my family. I had only just found out they were dead, I couldn't deal with that right then. I don't want to talk about this anymore if that's okay with you." She whispers. I sigh and let her walk up the stairs away from me.

Avery

I panicked. He kept asking me questions about what Aaliyah said and I panicked. I made up that rubbish about my parents and the beast just to get him to shut up. I can see that he doesn't fully believe me. He knows I'm still hiding something, I could tell he wanted to ask more. I just had to get away from him. I can feel the beast inside me starting to break free from the constraints that I usually keep it in. I need to get away from here. I rush to my room and lock the door. I've only got five seconds before the monster in me rips free and I destroy everything. Oh god. Blake is going to see me in monster form. He's going to know it's me. He's going to tell everyone. This is it, this is the end for me and Rebecca.

The beast breaks out of her shell.