Arsenic for the Soul (26 page)

Milo stopped within a few inches of
his sister.

“
Don’t you see, Camilla? We
were never meant to share this world, you and I. We owe our
existence to sin, to the lust of our adulterous father and a
foolish girl. Now we are gathered in the Magdalene Midnight Mission
to bear witness to the end of our family legacy. I have no regrets.
We never should have been born.”

Vivian burst through the door as Milo
raised his flail. Camilla dove for his legs, sweeping him off his
feet. He quickly recovered and lashed out at her. Before he could
snap the flail, someone rammed him against the wall.

He was surprised to see Vivian pinning
him in place.

“
If you’re so intent on
dying, just kill yourself!” she yelled. Milo grinned in response
and threw her off. He turned and walked into Camilla’s clenched
fist. Milo rubbed the bruise on his jaw and looked upon his sister
with newfound admiration.

“
You cling to life so
desperately,” he said with a blank stare. He tightened his grip on
the flail and bore down on her.

Every punch and kick she threw at Milo
didn’t thwart him in the least. He reached for her when Vivian’s
knee cracked into his spine. He turned his fury on her even as
Camilla wrestled the flail out of his hand.

Suddenly Vivian felt Milo’s hand close
around her throat. She flew back and her head burst through the
window, scattering glass into the forest below. Blood ran down her
vision as she gazed up at the silver sky. Milo’s voice cut through
her delirium in crystal clarity.

“
Do you remember the night
you asked me to dominate you?”

The world spun and she gazed into the
most lively, insane pair of eyes.

“
I enslaved you, heart and
soul, since the beginning.” His lips pursed in wicked delight,
sliding over his teeth.
“Red
Widow.”

To his surprise, he felt a gun barrel
dig into his belly. When he looked down at Vivian, all of the love
had left her eyes. As her finger rested on the trigger, what little
remained in her heart shrank into a cold, black void.

“
Do you know what red
widows do to their mates?” she asked.

Milo reeled back from the force of the
bullet.

His body flung through space in
silence. Camilla’s eyes widened as she watched her brother topple
to the floor.

Vivian stared at Milo’s body, torn
between her love for him and the pain of his betrayal. She didn’t
want to believe it was the same man who charmed her with his brazen
confidence and glowing smile. The sight of his blood revolted her.
She hated him and loved him, but the feelings were so blurred that
it seemed an incognizant emotion.

She wanted to save Milo, and at the
same time she wanted to put another bullet in him and sever this
insane emotion.

Before she could make a choice,
Camilla tugged her through the asylum into the streaming sunlight
outside. The sky overheard cut a dazzling shade of amber as the sun
rose above the rolling hills. The forest glistened with the
intensity of inferno.

For a moment, Vivian wondered if she
was already dead. Had Milo killed her and Camilla in the forsaken
laundry? Perhaps none of this was real, just a prelude to the
afterlife.

Her numb feet raced across the
rain-splattered dirt as she bound after Camilla. They finally had a
signal to call the police.

“
Let me do the talking,”
Vivian offered. She quaked as she dialed the authorities. She
barely remembered the explanation she sputtered to the
police.

She kept seeing Milo’s face and
hearing his voice. His last words.

Red Widow.

She remembered sitting on the bench
with him in the park, the countless nights they spent together, and
the promises they whispered to each other. All of it was washed
away in a tide of blood.

Vivian and Camilla waited by the dirt
road until the police cars rolled in. As five officers entered the
Magdalene asylum, medics tended to Vivian. An hour later, a police
officer grimly approached Camilla.

“
His body is
gone.”

EPILOGUE

Over a period of weeks, the outbreak
was quelled at the University Hospital. A cure was mass produced
that proved effective against the drug-resistant strain of
tuberculosis.

Xenophobia against foreigners declined
in the wake of relief. Soon the plague receded to a memory and all
the accompanying pain was replaced by contented citizens going
about their daily lives. Nonetheless, no one knew the source of the
tuberculosis, save for two lost souls.

One of those women slowly shuffled
through Vysehrad Park. The snow hushed beneath her footsteps as she
followed an invisible path that only her heart remembered. She
didn’t know when she would stop, nor did she care. She could walk
to the edge of the world without so much as glancing
back.

Of course, that wasn’t truly what
lured her.

Vivian paused in front of a lone park
bench. This was where she sat when Milo put his arm around her and
said they would always be together. She could still feel the snow
falling like crystal explosions on her face when he appealed to her
deepest desires.

She felt disgust in herself. Was she
any different than those weak girls who pinned all of her hopes on
a man to the point of dependency? Worse, she tried to rationalize a
toxic relationship and deny that Milo could be responsible for his
crimes—or perhaps she thought she could save him from his
wickedness.

At least she recognized it now. She
rarely ventured out of her shell for a man and this experience
demonstrated precisely why. She was horrified of becoming too
dependent and waking up to a crushing defeat.

Yes, that was the awful truth. She
feared how her self-worth seemed attached to others around
her.

Despite the damage, she vowed to
rebuild herself.

After all, doesn’t strength come from
enduring the worst that life throws at you and dusting off the
scars?

She settled down on the bench. The
healing process wouldn’t be without the occasional twinge, but she
would survive. Yet, she never felt a connection this intense
before. She had never felt so vulnerable and weak.

She still sought answers to the wild
events that played out in the Magdalene Midnight Mission. How could
a relationship so intimate have been an utter
fabrication?

“
I thought I might find you
here,” a voice whispered behind her. Vivian looked over her
shoulder at her dearest friend. Camilla was bundled in her familiar
cashmere jacket and vermillion scarf. Truly, she was the image of
the young journalist she first met in the Vesely Manor.

Time seemed to hold its breath and
Vivian could almost taste the beauty between them. No other person
made her feel that way before.

With a sigh, Vivian sprang up from the
bench.

“
I think I’m ready for a
career change.”

“
Are you sure?”

“
I’ve been toying with the
idea of going into forensic investigation. Even criminal profiling
piques my interest. After all, I—or should I say
we
—seem to get caught up
in these near fatal encounters more frequently than I intend to. I
may as well make a living of sticking my neck out.”

“
Aren’t you going to return
to the nursing program? You can prove you don’t have HIV. They had
no reason to let you go. You can always try to go back—”

“
Screw that shit. I’m
done.” She laughed hoarsely, barely forcing the bravado through her
teeth. “I’ve had enough of hospitals, doctors, and anyone wearing a
white lab coat. Think of it this way, with your skills as a crime
reporter, we’re bound to uncover some horror stories
together.”

The silence fell upon them
again.

“
Why did you come here?”
Camilla asked.

“
I think I’m still seeking
closure. I don’t love Milo anymore but the pain doesn’t go away. I
don’t know how to sift through it.”

“
That part of your life is
over, Vivian. Close this chapter once and for all. You’ll find
someone who will cherish you in ways he never could. At the risk of
sounding like your mom, you have so much to offer. We’ve been
through a lot together and it’s given me the opportunity to know
you as a person.”

Vivian gritted her teeth and satisfied
Camilla’s questions even as she blinked back tears, trying to defy
her pain with anger.

“
Are you okay?” Camilla
gave Vivian a comforting squeeze. “I know you loved him. You were
close to him and all this time…”

“
Well, I had to get my
desperation out eventually.” Her eyes burned at the thought. The
only emotion Milo evoked in her heart was cold
resentment.

“
I know things are going to
get tough in the days ahead,” Camilla said. “You’ll feel like the
world is crashing down on you. I’ve never told anyone before but
I’ve felt the same way. I’m also going to tell you something I wish
I knew back then. You will forget about this pain by the time your
next relationship comes around. This will be a distant memory, but
only if you let it go. Stop torturing yourself. Your wounds don’t
have to become scars. You can heal if you want to.”

The truth hit Vivian hard.

“
Thank you.” The tension
seemed to unwind in Vivian. “Have you ever considered how odd
humans are? We’re all looking for something to make us happy or
make the pain go away. I’m not sure which one is driving
me.”

“
Countless times. Sometimes
a lobotomy sounds downright appealing when you put it that
way.”

“
No, we just need to hit up
a bar and trade life stories.” Vivian sighed and kicked at the
snow. “How do I deal with reality now? The feelings were so intense
it’s like…”

She bit her lip hard.

I depended on him. As much
as I hate to admit it, I depended on him so much that it makes me
sick.

Camilla nodded at the unspoken truth.
Her eyes brightened and she smiled.

“
Trust me, you’ll find
someone special and you’ll be happy. Do I really have to remind you
you’re beautiful, intelligent, smart, and warmhearted?”

“
You forgot impulsive and
stubborn.” Vivian cracked a forced smile. “Sometimes I feel like
I’m just stumbling around in this strange world. Now I’m in the
stage of processing everything. I’m trying to make sense of what
was real and what I imagined.”

Vivian almost broke down in that
moment but she held on firmly to the façade. She felt Camilla’s
arms around her and she couldn’t hold the tears back any
longer.

“
That’s what I’m here for.
You don’t have to stumble around in this world alone.”

“
Thank you… so much. For
everything.”

“
I’ll always be here for
you, Vivian. And in case you haven’t noticed, I need you right now
as much as you need me.”

Vivian held her close, afraid to let
Camilla go. Finally, she watched her dear companion depart into the
mist. Camilla looked once over her shoulder and smiled, confident
that she helped a friend in dire need.

Vivian stared at the ebbing fog as the
minutes turned to an hour.

She reached into her jacket and felt
the gun she lifted off Camilla.

Vivian’s search for answers had ended
but not without everlasting damage. Her involvement with Milo cost
her coveted place in the nursing program. Adding salt to the wound,
it wasn’t due to any fault of her own. She was humiliated and cast
out of the University Hospital on account of an anonymous
memo.

Even if she submitted to another blood
test and proved she didn’t contract HIV, it would be a lengthy and
dramatic process trying to reinstate her. In spite of it all, she
wasn’t sure she wanted to rejoin a program that tossed her out like
garbage. Her murky future in school was the least of her worries
now.

Depression hit her in a wave and
suddenly she was drowning. She clawed out of that spiritual rift
once before but how many times could she escape before her strength
failed her?

Worst of all, she couldn’t process her
relationship with Milo. Her rage boiled over until her flesh was on
fire. Was anything they shared actually real? Was it all a ploy to
get closer to Camilla?

She opened up her heart to him and
revealed all who she was. She shared things she never dared confide
in any man. Vivian imagined spending the rest of her life with him,
raising children together, and growing old by his side.

He was supposed to be the
one.

She could feel the Red Widow persona
coming back, the violent urges tugging at the seams of her sanity.
She felt physically ill for falling in love with a man who tortured
and murdered for sensual pleasure.

His psychological manipulation was on
par with molestation. His gentle face seared into her mind,
juxtaposed against the feral visage of Ezran Vesely. Perhaps Milo
was just a mask concealing the raw hatred and insanity
beneath.