Hot Revenge Box Set 4

Curled in on myself, my emotions running amuck. I ride the storm, letting it run its course.

And gradually, my calm returns. The clenching in my throat eases and the shaking dies away.

Oddly, I feel better. Objectively, nothing has changed. I’m still here, incarcerated in the dark, my life hanging on the whim of a psychotic.

And yet… yes, I feel better; cleansed almost.

Perhaps I needed that. The catharsis. The release.

My body knows something I don't? At least, at the conscious level…

Something just happened, and I need to pay attention.

Always listen to your body.

How often have I ever wept?

Very rarely. My tears dried up long ago. Or so I thought…

‘Where is she? Where's your mother?’

The little boy drops his head, tears trickling. ‘I don’t like Mommy any more.’

‘What? What the fuck’s that supposed to mean?’

‘Mommy went to sleep. She won't wake up and talk to me. I want her to tell me a story and she won’t. And she's gone all black.’

I shake my head. My mother’s death is the last thing I want to dwell on right now.

Nonetheless, suddenly, my mind is clear, astonishingly so. I can think again.

What just happened?

I didn’t expect Juliana’s reaction to my words. True, I was trying to get a reaction from her, but I’d not expected the scale of her fury.

So why did she respond as she did?

Juliana...

Solana…

I touched a nerve. That much is certain.

So... Intentionally or not, I scraped a sore spot...

A vulnerability...

A weakness.

...

Leverage...

Think…

from my foetal position, I sit upright, propping myself

Analyse… Be logical…

I need

The key.

bronze, blinking green in the light of

No… get it right…

I need is to have that key on

to bring

it’s barely visible at all now. No

originally applied directly to the ground, with its crust of mud and muck and nameless filth, probably never had too good a hold on the concrete in the first place. Now,

the barrier separating me from the real

*****

did she get

was

right. Juliana seemed more amused when I suggested it. At

So what upset her?

conversation in my

have changed. Who

no one changes. It's

That's what triggered it.

mainly, I was talking about myself... Not

is that what she

*****

No one changes?

That's what enraged her?

suggestion that she hasn't

So...

... Follow the logic...

Juliana that she believes... or wants... to have

She's a psycho...

…

Does she know that?

…

she doesn't care. She almost

?

?

Is that aspirational?