This confession is going to be different from any other because it’s a declaration of war.
“Bless me, Father, for I have sinned, and I’m about to do it again…”
1
Natalia
La Paz, Mexico
My head throbs like a thousand knives are slicing through my skull at once.
I know even before I open my eyes that the cold pressing against my cheek is the floor.
I’ve slept on the floor enough times to know what it feels like.
What I don’t know is what I’m doing on the floor.
I try to wake myself up, but the fog surrounding my mind fences in my thoughts like it’s protecting me from the truth. As I move my head from side to side, the pain intensifies, and I screw my eyes shut tighter.
What the hell happened to me? I’m hurt.
The pain is coming from one side of my face, which feels numb and swollen, and is spreading all over my head.
It feels like … like someone hurt me.
Like someone hit me.
The instant that thought hits, a dark feeling of doom settles in my heart and beckons to me to wake up.
It tells me to get the hell up because something isn’t right.
Something more than what’salreadywrong with my life.
When I open my eyes, I’m met with the hazy gray surroundings of where I am.
There’s a dark ceiling above me, barely visible in the dimly lit room.
Room?
No, I’ve been here before. This isn’t a mere room.
I’d know the ceiling of the dungeon below the estate anywhere. Asleeporawake.
Counting the grooves on the ceiling was how I passed the time when Raul locked me in here last time. And that weird smell of death and decay filling my nostrils was my only companion.
To me, it always smelled like the end.
Clinging to the edge of that scathing scent is blood. When I move my right hand and feel something sticky between my fingers and the cold concrete surface of the floor, I know what I’m touching is blood.
Blood.
Where did it come from?
What the hell happened?
Why am I back here?
I make the mistake of rolling onto my side. That’s when I’m met with the grotesque sight of the headless body of a man lying next to me.
