Adelaide

Chapter XXXIV

Adelaide DuPont
* TW: Blood *

The day passes without much disruption, while I wait alone for James to arrive at the house as he agreed to earlier. With great effort, I steel myself against the nerves threatening to break me down bit by bit. He won't risk seizing me now, at least — not while the others know where I am. Emerald would search for me. His shift in favor towards the relationship between us pleases me immensely, but what does James think of it?

A knock at the door interrupts my worried thoughts, and I proceed to open it silently. James is still dressed in casual clothes, but his indigo eyes stand out against his black curls and the darkening sky.

"Miss DuPont," he addresses me, humor tinging his otherwise blank tone.

"Matisse, is it? Nice act," I scowl in return, brushing past his side out the door and ushering him to Sapphire's body.

None of us four could stomach lingering anywhere near the lifeless corpse, but Emerald managed to lay a blanket across her body and tuck its hem deferentially beneath her torso. A bulge in the stained fabric marks the exact location of the knife still lodged in her throat. Bitter anger arises in my stomach at the sight, but I breathe and allow none of it to color my face. Strong emotions lead James to unpredictability.

"She's so small," he comments idly as if he's never laid eyes on her before, and I bite my tongue against the scream building in my throat.

Without much premeditated thinking, he lifts the wrapped body in his arms and lays it meticulously on the stretcher he wheeled outside behind him. A half hour later, we stand in another garden — this one far more well-tended and elegant.

"I thought she'd like this best," James murmurs, setting Sapphire down on the pliant grass.

I refuse to acknowledge his words; how could he know what she would like or dislike? He ruined her life.

We stand beside a pre-dug grave and a mound of soil, waiting to bury the body. I stare blankly at the ground, at the carmine stains streaking the pure white sheet wherever Sapphire's blood soaked through. I've watched him kill and clean up so many times before, but this feels different — more intimate, now that I actually know the person beneath the linen. Impulsive anger overcomes my grief now, but I must swallow it until I'm home again, safe in Emerald's arms.

A dull thud from the left echoes through the silent air; Sapphire's body hit the bottom of the grave. The scraping sound of a shovel jabbing into the dirt and scooping it into the grave fills my head, muffled and distant. Help him, Adelaide. Numbly, I grab my own steel spade and begin knocking soil into the hole until every patch of white and red is buried beneath the earth. When I can't continue any longer, I stab my shovel into the ground and turn to leave; James can easily finish the job alone.

"Goodnight," I hear myself whisper.

Abruptly, someone slams me sideways into the garden's brick wall and my head strikes clay, stars exploding across my vision. I cry out in alarm, but a too-familiar hand quickly cups over my mouth, jerking my head back against his chest. Paralyzing fear courses through my veins; I can barely breathe.

"How dare you turn away from me."

Cold anger rimes his tone, only to fade emotionlessly the next second.

"No, it's no matter. I'll have you soon enough."

James releases me and steps backward in one swift motion, and I don't glance back toward him once as I sprint past the front gate. I can't stop until the door to Emerald's house closes securely behind me.

I could've killed him, if I thought about it sooner.

My mind whirls and the empty kitchen blurs around me. Suddenly, I can't see anything but the bloodstained knife lodged in Sapphire's throat or the dull glossiness of her unseeing eyes — a bird shot down. James will come for me next, won't he? Hot tears stream down my cheeks, and I gasp for breath as if his hand still closes over my mouth, suffocating me slowly.

Will he dig my grave, too?