Thrill of the Chase (Hunters & Heartbreakers 1)

XVIII - Wells

Update 3/25: still can't upload photos thanks a bunch WP.

**TW: This chapter depicts abuse.**

The Founding of the Institute and Its Venators

By Grayson Wilkes.

24-25 May.

I wanted to set myself on fire.

No, actually. I wanted someone else to. And watch me burn. Langdon Wilkes was going to be the death of me. How was it that I wanted him all the time, thought about him at every second of the day, fantasised about exactly what had happened on the couch in the sitting room? With less clothes, maybe?

I had a hard time settling down that night. After Naomi had put our father to bed and then gone to bed herself, I stayed awake. I stripped down to my drawers and paced the length of my room, hands clenched in my hair. Bloody feelings. They were the reason why I could never sleep at night.

I woke from my fitful doze the next morning in exactly the same state: in only my underwear. I also knew I needed a bath, because I smelled like it. So I shuffled to my bedroom door and cracked it open. There was Naomi, her hair loose, feet bare, and dressed only in a wrinkled, sleeveless chemise, helping our father down the stairs.

"Put on some clothes, Juliette," he was saying. "No respectable woman wants to be seen in that state of dress."

"You wanted breakfast early, remember, Papa?" she said, and I heard the strain and the sadness in her voice. "I've had very little sleep as it is. But the both of us were up early, so there you are."

"It was that baby," said our father. "Up all night. Never stopped crying."

By now they had disappeared, and I heard the sound of skin slapping skin, followed by a surprised, pained squeak from Naomi.

"I'm not an old man, Juliette," Father snapped, his voice sharp. "You don't need to treat me like one."

"I'm sorry, Papa, only...you've fallen down the steps before, sprained your shoulder..."

"Go get dressed. I can't look at you like this."

I heard Father's shuffling steps moving away, and Naomi's softly thudding back up the stairs. At the top, she gripped the newel post and covered her face with one hand. I heard her let out a sob, and then another one. I opened the door when she crumped to the ground, more sobs shaking her shoulders. I knelt down next to her and pulled her into my arms.

"Oh, Wells...what am I going to do?" She shook her head, face still covered, as she buried it in my shoulder. "Papa won't let me help him..."

"Maybe we consider...the asylum again?"

She uncovered her face to look at me, eyes red and cheeks stained with tears. "How could you say that? After last time...?"

"They'd be able to help him. Keep him safe."

"It's an institution, Wells!" Tears brimmed in her eyes and ran down her cheeks. "They wouldn't know what to do with him!"

"And we do?" I never wanted to be around him anymore, seeing how he was descending into madness further and further by the day.

"He knows this place, this house...changing his surroundings would only upset him..." Naomi swiped hard at her cheeks, but her tears just wetted them again.

"But he doesn't know you. And he doesn't know me. It's only going to get worse."

"Don't you think I know that?" She clenched her fists and covered her eyes again. "My God, Wells, he...he told me I was indecent. And that he couldn't look at me. He was ashamed."