The Good Sister: Part Two

by Saint James, London

  He carried me into the dark. I thought we were headed for the stables, but I wasn’t sure. I felt strange, and my head was spinning. I thought I smelled chrysanthemums. The smell burned my nose like the chemicals I smelled when I was a young girl, caught within the darkness of the twin tower attack. My vision shimmered around the edges, knowing this was how I feel when I’m going to have an anxiety attack, but this was different, strange even. Did he drug me? I tried to focus on the hand over my mouth, but was unable to. I thought I heard Mayhem barking as we rounded the side of the chateau then the world went away. I slipped into the shadow of a real nightmare.

  PART TWO

  Ashton

  “Addiction” might be the best word to explain the lostness that so deeply permeates society. Our addictions make us cling to what the world proclaims as the keys to self-fulfillment: accumulation of wealth and power; attainment of status and admiration; lavish consumption of food and drink, and sexual gratification without distinguishing between lust and love. These addictions create expectations that cannot but fail to satisfy our deepest needs. As long as we live within the world’s delusions, our addictions condemn us…

  —Henri J.M. Nouwen, The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming. ~

  Chapter Eighteen

  “Jacqueline, I should look for Trinity. She has been gone for quite some time,” I said as the fourth song since her departure came to a close.

  “My Lord, do you hear that?” Jacqueline asked. “Is it howling?”

  I stood without movement. “Mayhem, perhaps.”

  “Milord,” Claudia said to me, her face panicked and her words rushed. “Milord, Lady Trinity’s bracelet.” She offered the bauble up in the palm of her hand. “It was by the front doors.”

  Panic washed over me as the next song started. I plucked the bracelet from Claudia’s hand. The diamond charms flickered in the candlelight. The locking mechanism on the bracelet was broken. It looked like it had been ripped apart. I returned my attention to Jacqueline and tore the mask from my face, dropping it to the floor.

  “Something is wrong,” I said, and charged through the crowd then up the stairs. My destination, Trinity’s room.

  Before my arrival, I heard Mayhem. He was inside her room, going mad. When I reached the door, my heart stopped, my stomach twisted with bile, and rage raced through my blood, burning like acid. It was consuming me to the point of murderous intent. There stabbed upon her door was a pair of her panties along with a note. I pulled my dove’s undergarments along with the note from the door.…

  I am saddened you did not welcome me home, my brother, nonetheless, I have found other pursuits to entertain me this evening.

  I had to calm down and think. How long had Gavin been stalking Trinity? Obviously Gavin had been inside of our home and her room. I paced for a moment, deciding to let Mayhem loose. Follow Mayhem. The dog may be able to find Trinity before I could guess where my dove might be.

  I opened the door to her room. Mayhem lunged out, running for the stairs. I followed behind. Mayhem and I burst out the front door of the chateau, ran across the side lawns, past the dinner tent in the formal garden then over to the stables. Mayhem pounded his paws against the main stable doors.

  “That bastard, he took her to the stables.” Hatred seared me, cut me deep until I bled the acid from my veins. “I will kill him if he has laid one fingertip upon her,” I vowed. I came to the stable doors. Pulled. Nothing. They were barred from the inside. I beat my fist against the aged wood. “Gavin, you bastard!”

  I went a window, trying to see inside, and caught a slight glimpse of gold, her dress. I glanced around. The stumps. I ran over to the redwood stumps that lined and separated the graveled drive from the main entrance into the stable and kicked one unmercifully until it had no choice but to give up and dislodge from the earth. I heaved it up, smashing it into the window. Shattering glass filled the night in an echo of anger, despair, and fear.

  “Gavin!” I yelled, hoisting myself up and into the window. I cut my hand upon entrance, but had squeezed through the opening and found my footing beneath on the stable floor.

  Blood flowed from my hand in a river of crimson. I tore a strip from my shirt, wrapping it tightly around the wound, tying it off with my free hand and my teeth. I focused; the stables were dim with little light. Gavin had only a few of the old antique iron and glass oil lamps lit. From my current vantage point, I saw Trinity’s foot and the bottom of her dress. I moved forward.

  Trinity was bound with her hands tied up over her head. She was secured with her back slumped against the side slats of an empty stall. Her feet were bound, her shoes gone; blood trickled from a rope burn that had cut into her left ankle. Her mouth was bruised, and bleeding. Bloody fucking hell, he struck her. Fury ate at my bones, but Trinity was not moving. Is she seriously hurt?

  From nowhere Gavin leapt upon me. The crushing blow landed to the back of my neck. From the angle of the impact, Gavin must have been lurking within the rafters overhead. I fell to the ground, gathered my wits, and wrestled with my brother. We tumbled. The horses stirred. Whickers sounded out. I gained the upper hand and pummeled Gavin’s side. I felt his rib break, but showed no mercy and landed another blow to his face. Gavin leapt back into the darkness.

  “Gavin, you bastard, stop playing in the dark. Let us put an end to this insanity.”

  “Ashton, my brother, you will feel the pain on this night when you watch me take everything you love from you. On this night, you will know my pain. Only then will we be true brothers,” Gavin whispered.

  I held out my arms. “Here I am, Gavin. Why wait? Why play theses games?”

  Gavin’s voice came from another direction. “I tasted your little dove. She tastes sweet. She has lips so plumped full of lusciousness, you wish to find them stretched around your cock. Unfortunately for her, she tried to stop my taste so I had to strike her.” Gavin laughed. The sound echoed through the dark spaces of the stable. “She stilled, feeling the sting of a real man against those lips.”

  “Gavin, I shall kill you for touching her.”

  “Now, my brother … you may want to wait with your threats. I assure you I intend to taste much more of your little dove before this night is over.”

  Gavin lunged from out of the darkness and hit the back of my knees, knocking me forward. He placed his arm around my neck and covered my nose with a cloth. Chloroform.

  I woke to a pounding head, not understanding what was going on. I wiggled only to find my arms secured behind my back. The horses stirred.

  “Ashton!” Trinity cried.

  “Shh … my dove,” I said in an attempt to calm her.

  “You know my brother has always been the man the ladies seem to admire,” said Gavin. He stepped out of the shadow like the devil he was. “Perhaps it is his smile. Should I take that pretty smile away?” Gavin asked Trinity, moving forward into the light with a straight edged blade.

  “Leave her be, Gavin!”

  “Gavin,” Trinity said. “I know very little about you, perhaps you should give me a hint as to why you are set on hurting me?”

  “I wish to take away everything my brother has. Only then will he know the pain I suffer. Only then will he see what it is to live my life.” Gavin inched toward Trinity, slithering like a snake in the grass.

  “Why? Tell me why you wish to harm your brother who you should love?” Trinity asked, calmly.

  Gavin grinned. “He is everything I am not.”

  “Trinity,” I said, in warning. She ignored me.

  Trinity softened her eyes. “I don’t understand.”

  “I was the first born, the heir, but my mother was a whore who my father pricked and not the fine Lady he married. I was born into a world of privilege, which I was forced to live within, but never partake of. Look, Gavin, but do not touch. Touch, Gavin, but do not want,” he said sourly. “But Ashton was born into the world by my father’s wife, so he became the heir, the chosen son. Ashton is the one who e
veryone wanted to be. He was the one who everyone wanted to be around.” Gavin moved within a hair’s breadth of Trinity’s face, but she held still, keeping what I knew must be a calm façade. “He was the handsome one, the smart one, the talented one, the one every girl wanted.”

  “Who was the girl?” Trinity asked.

  Gavin touched Trinity’s face. “Gavin, do not touch her,” I said.

  Gavin smiled. “Shut up, Ashton.” He returned his attentions to my wife. “She looked like you. Beautiful with long golden curls. I loved her, but she loved my brother,” Gavin spat.

  Something hit the stable wall. Gavin jumped up, descending into the darkness like a phantom.

  “Ashton,” Trinity whispered. “Listen to me. No matter what happens tonight, know that I love you. Only you, do you hear me? It has only ever been you no matter what you see or hear. Believe, only you, Ashton.”

  “Whatever you are planning, do not.”

  “Ah … my brother.” Gavin returned and kicked me in the side of my ribs. I let out a groan with a whoosh of air.

  “Gavin!” Trinity called. “You and I were talking. Just look at me, Gavin,” Trinity said in a soft voice, lowering her lashes and batting them at him.

  “You are a little strumpet, are you not?” Gavin said, licking his lips and glaring at Trinity. “I do see why my brother wanted you. You look like an angel and probably fuck like a demon-cat.”

  “Is that what you like?” Trinity asked. “For your women to act like whores?”

  “But you are a whore. My brother bought and paid for you.”

  “Gavin!” I yelled.

  Gavin moved in closer to Trinity. In a quick movement, he grabbed Trinity’s hair, pulling. Once her throat was exposed he placed his wretched tongue upon her throat, licking to the crown of her breasts.

  “I like how you taste,” he groaned.

  “Gavin. Untie me; fight me like a man without your tricks or drugs.”

  “I think not, Ashton. I am going to enjoy your whore while you watch.”

  I pulled forward, straining my arms behind me, feeling the strength of the ropes. Gavin moved swiftly, standing to his feet in a blur, and heaved another kicking blow to my side. This time, he broke my ribs.

  “Gavin look at me,” Trinity said. “You want me, not him.”

  I moaned. “Trinity, stop.”

  “I am what you want, Gavin,” Trinity continued.

  “Yes,” Gavin said, moving back toward Trinity. “I have been watching you. Do you know how long I have watched you?”

  “No, how long?”

  “No,” he smirked. “I must not give away my secrets. But I did enjoy watching you fuck my brother in the meadow. Oh yes, I pleasured myself watching you ride him. I especially love how your back arches and how you moan.”

  “Gavin, you are a bastard,” I said.

  “It was you who has been in my room, wasn’t it?” Trinity quickly asked. I knew she was trying to keep his attention off of me.

  Gavin licked his lips. “Yes.”

  “Fuck you, Gavin,” I growled.

  “You thought you could keep her all to yourself, my brother, but I told you. I told you I would get a taste.”

  “Gavin, look at me,” Trinity said.

  Gavin roared and beat his fist over Trinity’s head, hitting the slats that made up the stall. “I have always loved you, Jacqueline.”

  Jacqueline?

  “Yes, Gavin,” Trinity said, softly.

  Gavin slapped his palms against the wall of the stable. “Why did you not love me? Why could you not see me? I worshiped you; nonetheless, you never saw me, only him, only my brother.”

  “I see you. Gavin,” Trinity assured. “I have always seen you.”

  “You allowed me to make love to you then you laughed in my face the night I came to meet you here. You made me hurt you that night. I didn’t want to hurt you, but you laughed at me, and you threw him in my face.”

  “I was scared, Gavin. I was young. I didn’t know how to love you, but I do now,” Trinity assured.

  “Stop,” I said.

  “Shut up!” Gavin yelled, lunging to punch me.

  “Gavin!” Trinity yelled out, causing him to turn his gaze back to her. She moved her shoulder, allowing the thin strap of her golden dress to fall over her shoulder, bringing her right breast almost to bare. “He is not important, Gavin. Look at me, stay focused on me, Gavin.”

  “Jacqueline,” he whispered. “You have always been so beautiful.” He came toward Trinity, knife glinting.

  “Leave her alone, Gavin!” I yelled.

  He held the knife to the strap of her dress, cutting it, then cutting the left strap, lowering her dress to her waist where it pooled. Trinity’s breasts were bared to him. “So damned beautiful,” he murmured, and touched a pink nipple.

  “Do not touch her!” Rage more powerful than a storm overtook me.

  “I will cut out your tongue,” Gavin threatened, wielding the knife at me.

  “Gavin, stay with me,” Trinity said. “Don’t worry about him. It is you who I have always loved.”

  Zeus stirred harder, becoming restless. Mayhem was barking in the distance while sounds echoed from the stable overhead.

  “Why did you tell me you loved him? Why did you say you could never love me? You told me we were a mistake, that I had tricked you and taken advantage of you. But I did what I must in order for you to see me, Jacqueline.” Gavin placed his hand into Trinity’s hair. “Do you not remember how we made love? How you moaned in pleasure as you felt my tongue upon your pink quim? What it felt like when I entered your body?”

  Gavin placed his mouth to Trinity’s breasts. “I remember, Gavin,” Trinity said.

  I closed my eyes, fighting against the restraints, feeling the pain of my ribs protest and experiencing my heart shatter into a million pieces. I could not watch this, watch my dove trying to save me by giving herself to the devil.

  “Gavin, I shall kill you if you do not take my life in this moment!” I bellowed.

  “I shall take your life, my brother, only not with this knife,” he assured me.

  “Gavin, set him free,” Trinity said. “I will stay with you. We can be together. Don’t you want that, to be alone with me?”

  “Yes, I want nothing but you, Jacqueline,” he murmured.

  “Then, allow Ashton to leave, and we can be together.”

  “No, Jacqueline, he shall not escape the truth.”

  Gavin licked Trinity’s breasts before biting down upon her right nipple. She closed her eyes. I knew she was in pain.

  “As sweet as I remember,” Gavin groaned, licking his lips as if to savor the taste. “Why do you shake?”

  “From pleasure,” Trinity said, and I knew she was lying.

  “Then perhaps I should give you more.” Gavin’s rough hands squeezed her breasts together.

  “God, stop,” I pled.

  Gavin slashed open my shoulder with the blade. “You are going to watch this,” he hissed. “I will take everything from you on this night.”

  Gavin turned to Trinity. “You are not Jacqueline. I become confused sometimes,” he said, shaking his head. “You are the cunt who my brother bought as a wife. No matter, I shall take you anyway.”

  Gavin ripped the material of Trinity’s dress from her body and shoved his nasty hand up her bare thigh.

  “Um…” he growled. “Watch me fuck your whore,” he said to me, hoisting Trinity’s hips up and placing his nose to her, inhaling. “Sweet.”

  “Gavin!” I yelled, and wrenched my body forward. I felt the pop of my shoulder dislocate.

  “Gavin,” Trinity said. “I will give you what you want, let him go.”

  “You will give me what I want, my sweet little cunt, but he shall watch,” Gavin said.

  Gavin unzipped his fly. The sound of the metal zipper grinding made me sick. Each metal tooth grinded within my soul with the knowledge it was too late. Trinity’s beautiful green gaze met me, boring into my
soul.

  “I love you, only you,” she said.

  “Trinity!” I screamed. My heart was being torn from me. “Gavin!” It took every bit of strength within me to stretch forward, kicking with my bound feet until I struck my brother’s hip.

  Gavin gave a guttural growl, leapt up and lunged for me.

  Trinity cried out. “No!”

  Moving from out of the shadow as if he were made of it, Alec slipped up behind Gavin, knife to his throat, pulling Gavin’s body back from me. Reid moved around Alec swiftly, coming to Trinity.

  “Fuck,” Reid muttered, “oh fuck,” he said again. He pulled Trinity’s tattered dress up, covering her lower body. “He hurt you. He fucking hurt you.”

  Trinity tried to press forward, but her body was outstretched as far as she could go. “Reid, get Ashton out of here. Don’t let him see me like this.”

  “No!” I protested. “Take Trinity out of here, Reid.”

  Reid took off his coat and wrapped it around Trinity’s battered body before going for the ropes, trying to untie them. One of her small hands slipped free. Trinity had tears streaming down her face.

  “Reid, please. Ashton is hurt. He’s cut, bleeding badly on his hand and his shoulder. I think he has broken ribs; and he’s having a hard time breathing. I’m okay. Please, for me, if you ever loved me, take him out of here.”

  “Trinity, I will not leave you,” I said.

  “Do it, Reid,” Trinity begged.

  Reid came to me.

  “No, Reid. You need to get Trinity out of this stable,” I said with labored breath.

  “I have to do this,” Reid explained. “Stay still.”

  Alec moved Gavin back; Gavin shot his blade into Alec’s thigh with a sickening thud upon impact. They tussled…

  “Now, Reid!” Trinity yelled. “Get Ashton out now.” Trinity loosened the other tie around her hand.

  Reid helped me to my feet. The tussle between Gavin and Alec intensified. Gavin’s foot kicked out, throwing over one of the lamp lights, igniting the hay in a blaze. Within his hands, Alec held both blades. Alec lunged with precision and speed, cutting Gavin across his shoulder, then kicked him in the face, knocking him out.