로그인I was at the city's police station the whole day. They showed me Charles' statement. It was almost as thick as a book, and every page had tiny words scribbled all over it.His statement began with how he arranged Queenie's first test to see if she was a match, the whole kidney removal surgery, Rachel's every transfusion, every forced marrow donation, to Queenie's three escape attempts, and his men recapturing her on his orders.The statement ended with, "I confess I have assaulted Queenie Shayman. I illegally removed her left kidney, forced her to give up her blood and bone marrow multiple times."My actions caused irrevocable damage to her body that resulted in multiple organ failures and her eventual death. I am willing to take all legal responsibility for my crimes."My fingers crinkled the papers in my shaking hands. I wasn't shaking out of fear, but out of sheer unadulterated rage that the fact that every single word was true. Queenie had endured hell on earth because of that
My memories eventually took a darker turn. I recalled how Queenie's smile started shrinking, and it shrank until… it wasn't there anymore. Her voice grew smaller and quieter with every passing call. I could sense the growing exhaustion in her voice every time she called, but she would always assuage my fears when I asked her if she was alright, claiming that she was just tired.Then, she started telling me to study hard so I'd never end up like her. Eventually, even those nagging calls began to get scarce.Dawn was breaking through the horizon, and Charles finally moved. He pushed himself off the ground and tried to stand, but his legs were barely harder than jelly. He wobbled, but the man found his bearing in the end. His face was covered in soil and tear tracks. His glasses hung askew on his nose, while torn grass sat on his hair.He turned to me. "I'm taking her to the city. I'll bury her there.""No, you're not," I replied with a calm that I didn't know I possessed."Why?"
Charles' hands slid off his face, revealing a face that only a mother could love. His eyes were puffy with tears. "She hated me," he said."No," I answered truthfully.He froze. I crouched and met his eyes. "She didn't hate you even when she was dying. Pitiful, isn't it? Instead, she tried to grasp at excuses for your actions. She said you used to be different, and it was Rachel's fault you changed. "She told me you'd hold an umbrella over her on rainy days even if it meant you'd be drenched. She told me you'd drive to the other side of the city only to get her the snack she wanted. "She missed that version of you. Unfortunately for her, that man is long dead. He died when Queenie died."His tears wouldn't stop coming. He parted his chapped lips, and the sound that came out was something akin to an animal mourning their lost love. How ironic. "I didn't know…" he whispered. "I didn't know she would…""Would what? You're telling me you don't know that extracting too much blood ki
Charles was petrified, frozen like a stone statue. His eyes never left that piece of wood, and he tried to say something, but not a sound came out of his lips. The flashlight fell out of his hand and hit the ground with a soft thud. Its beam of light spun and swung before it landed on the tree's trunk."This can't be…" Charles eventually spoke, but his voice was raspy enough that I mistook him for an old, wizened man talking. "You're lying.""What would I get out of lying?""She…" He stepped ahead but stopped right before he could take another step. "She can't be dead. My family would've gotten the news. The cops would've told me. I'm her husband.""You've never been one," I said flatly, barely keeping the murder out of my tone. "Not after you used her like an organ bag for three years."Charles turned stark white. He went down and touched the wood, but he yanked his digits back the moment they made contact with the rough surface. If I didn't know any better, I'd think that the
Charles didn't come the next day, or the day after that. I thought that was it and that he had given up.Violent banging on my door woke me up in the dead of the morning on the fourth day. Yes, someone was banging on my door like they wanted to push it down. The metal door was rattling and clanging, while my house shook as if an earthquake had hit it.Before I could even open the door, someone slammed their foot into the metal and forced it open. The door crashed to the ground with a sickening thud and kicked up a cloud of dust.Charles was at the entrance, while four men in black stood behind him. The blinding beam from his flashlight rammed into my face, causing me to squeeze my eyes shut in response."It's been three days." His voice was raspy, and there was an unhinged look in his eyes. The man looked like he'd lost sleep for days. "I've given you more than enough time. Where is Queenie?"Rachel peeked her head from behind Charles, but there was no gloating grin on her face th
Rachel left. Charles sat down on the living room's bench and lit a cigarette. "Where's she hiding?"I didn't dignify that with a response. My gaze drifted out the ajar door and landed on the black Maybach outside the yard.Rachel was lazily scrolling through her phone on the car's seat, her face pink and healthy. My sister wasn't. When we met for the last time in our lives, my sister was sallow, her lips were nearly white, and her eyes were sunken. She was barely more than a breathing cadaver.She was subjected to regular blood extraction for three years, and not the voluntary kind. They took her blood by force every other day, and every time they did, they stole 400cc from her body.When the nurse told Charles it would kill my sister, he replied nonchalantly, "She'll be fine. A bit of supplement and she'll be good as new."They would drain my sister of her blood whenever Rachel's condition flared up. When Rachel's kidney started to fail, they took my sister's kidney. When Rache







