“Naomi!” I screamed.
Michael grabbed his phone from next to us and dialed Adam. Wherever the other guys were, they needed to get here now and get us out of here before Naomi did something awful. It was obvious that she wasn’t thinking clearly, and she had a sort of crazed look in her eyes. When I heard the ringing from outside the greenhouse, a sick feeling pitted itself in the bottom of my stomach. Naomi reached into her coat pocket and pulled out two cell phones; Adam’s and Rob’s. She held them up for a second, long enough for us to see that they were some sort of game trophies that she had won, and then she tossed them on the ground beside her.
The phones hit the rooftop with a screen-shattering crash.
I wanted to know what Naomi was doing and what she could possibly be thinking. I also knew that it didn’t matter. Whatever was happening now was the real Naomi coming back out to play. She had been good for weeks, subdued and pretending at being sane. The simple fact that she was here at the aquarium with us, and that she had the other guys’ phones, meant that this was not going to end well.
It meant that she was out of control again, or that perhaps she had been so in control this entire time that the whole thing was just a ruse that she had been patiently waiting to execute.
My uncle had been right, Naomi was more than just crazy and dangerous; she was calculating and cruel too, and she was smarter than we had given her credit for.
Michael reached for our clothes, careful to keep a hand remaining on me at all times as if letting me go inside of this locked greenhouse was going to make any difference anyway. I was glad for it though. I didn’t want him to let me go. Whatever was going to happen here tonight on this roof, it would happen with the two of us together.
He pulled his pants on and Naomi made a small noise while she watched him stuff his massive cock back into his pants.
The noise sounded like the kind of sound someone would make just before they ate a deliciously tempting dessert, as they were eyeing it before putting it in their mouth. I pulled my pants and shirt on quickly, not bothering with the panties and bra, and not needing the jacket now that the door to the greenhouse was closed and locked and the glass building was getting warmer by the minute. I needed to appeal to my aunt, to the Naomi that sat in the doorway with me and talked about our childhoods.
There had to still be some shred of that woman left in there and I needed to reach her and find out why she was doing this.
“Did you follow us here?” I asked her.
“Obviously,” she said as she rolled her eyes at me.
“Why?” I asked.
“Where are Adam and Rob?” Michael interrupted.
His tone was becoming more and more agitated. I turned and put my hand on his chest to try to calm him. I wanted to know where the guys were too, but if we angered Naomi further, she wasn’t going to tell us anything.
“Why did you follow us here?” I asked her. “I thought that you liked The Sanctuary.”
“It’s okay enough as far as institutions go, I suppose,” she said. “I’ve been in several, so I consider myself to be a good critic.”
“Then why did you leave it?” I asked as calmly as I could while I tried to keep my voice steady.
“How would you like to be in a cage?” she asked.
“Is that why you left? You felt like you were caged?” I asked. “Is that why you locked us in here? So that we would feel caged too and understand?”
“Oh no my dear,” Naomi said.
Her mouth twisted into a smile that cut straight through to my bones. It wasn’t a good smile, it was the creepy, contorted kind of smile that you would expect to see on the face of a crazed clown in a horror movie. “I have an entirely different reason for why I’ve locked you in there.”
And as I stared into her unrelenting eyes, clouded with hazy indifference, I knew I had to get out of there.
Even if it meant killing my aunt in the process.
12
I thought that I had been able to get through to my aunt. I thought that Naomi had become better. I guess I was wrong.
Michael was now standing so close to me that my back was pressed up against him and he had one arm wrapped tightly around my waist as he glared at Naomi.
“Aunt Naomi,” I said. “Please tell us why you are doing this.”
“I’m helping you, my dear. Your mother is gone now and I’m all that you have left. I understand what you want now, and I want to help you. You had the chance to kill me, or to cast me aside, and you didn’t. Instead, you chose to try and help me. At first, I was irritated beyond belief; I’m not going to lie about that. But then I realized that you are just like your mother, except you are all the best parts of her. So I decided that instead of trying to help you in the way that I thought you needed, I am going to help you in the way that you want.”
“What way?” I asked. I was quickly reaching the end of my patience too, just like Michael.
“You want love. And even though I disagree with that entirely and would prefer you to steer clear of men and their untrustworthy ways; if that is what you truly want, then that is what I will help you with.”
“I don’t understand,” I said to her. “I don’t need any help with love. I don’t understand what it is that you’re trying to do for me.”
“I’m helping you to be happy.” Naomi waved her hand toward Michael who had protectively not moved from my side. “This is the boy you’ve chosen. Anyone with eyes and ears in that house can see it. You want to be with Michael after you’re done with all the rest. Isn’t that correct?”
“Yes,” I said, trying to step carefully since I didn’t really know where her questions were leading me.
“Those other boys are just extra distractions. One boy is bad enough, but three? Really now, Lisette, three?”
“What are you saying?” Michael asked.
“I’m saying that I am eliminating the two extra boys so that Lisette can be happy. That should make you happy too, I would assume, since you’re the chosen one.”
“Eliminating?” I asked with a growing sense of panic and dread. “What do you mean you’re eliminating them? Where are Rob and Adam?”
“Gone,” she said.
