Chapter 678: I want to Keep Her

Mina stared at the gun in her hands. It felt hot and heavy, but she could not let go of it. She had taken the life of two people, and it was by choice. The worst part about it was that she felt no remorse. Leal told her about Nael's 'friends' and they were beyond vile. If she had not killed them, someone else would have, and Mina was glad they were gone.

"Do you want to know why our parents hate you?" Mina heard. She looked up and saw Sadie stalking toward her with the look of determination in her eyes. She started to retreat, knowing what her sister was going to tell her and not wanting to hear it. "You aren't just smart; you are evil, and you are a murderer."

"Stop," Mina whispered. She covered her ears as the hushed voices of her parents started to play in her mind.

"What are we going to do David? Our daughter is a monster."

"We will teach her how to be normal."

"You heard what the doctor said, even if she learns to mimic the behavior, she will still be dangerous."

"We will help her get better."

"So that she can go on to kill someone else's child?"

"Anne, you don't know that Mina did anything."

"She was the only one in the house David. I'm telling you; I was pushed!"

"Lower your voice. Do you want her to hear you?"

"It's not like she will care anyway. You see the way she looks at us, the way she looks at everyone. We are expendable to her. How long will it be before she turns her aggression onto Sadie?"

"I won't," Mina said. "I'm better; I'm not a monster. Haven't I proved it to you?" Mina was responding to the memory of her parents speaking while they thought she was asleep, but it was Nael standing in front of her, slowly approaching so he could remove the gun from the woman's hands. He could see that her mind was not in the moment, and he was afraid to startle her and end up like the men on the ground.

"I put locks on her door. Anytime she's home, we'll lock her inside of her room."

"Please don't," Mina said. "It's lonely in there. I don't like it," she continued, still responding to voices only she could hear.

"And then what? That will not change the fact that we are raising a monster. What if she gets married? What will she do to her children? What if she kills them?"

"I'm not a killer!" Mina shouted. The gun in her hands suddenly felt scorching as she realized that her words were now a lie. She was a killer; she was a monster and a murderer. She had not blacked out, she had killed those men intentionally, and it was in part because she wanted to. "I am a monster," she said, pointing the gun to her head, but before she could squeeze the trigger, someone had snatched the gun from her and had her body pressed against the wall.

"Ami, you need to come back now," Nael said.

"I'm a monster," she repeated, and the man pressed his forehead against hers, hoping to force her to look into his eyes.

"You aren't a monster. You saved me, and you saved my brother. Look at my hand Ami." Mina's eyes struggled to focus, and when she looked at the man's hand it was covered in blood. "That is my blood, and I'm sure I need stitches. If you had not done what you did, he would have overpowered me, and they would have ganged up on Leal. Would you have wanted that?"

"No," Mina whimpered. "But I'm a-"

"You are confused; nothing more. I told you before, and now you are seeing it for yourself." Nael held the sides of Mina's face, making the woman shut her eyes. "Forget everything you were told because it's wrong. Leal and I will teach you all you need to know. Just come with us, and everything will be okay."

Nael took a step back and extended his hand to Ami, who tentatively raised her own. As soon as her hand was within reach, he grabbed it and pulled her away from the area. She became worried because Leal had stayed behind, but Nael promised that they would go back for him. The man was not lying, and after removing a large bag from the trunk of the car, he pulled Mina back to where the two dead men were moved.

"Nothing good on either of them," Leal said, rubbing at the wrist that had been hit. "They plotted this." He pointed to a corner where several cigarette clips were littered on the ground. Mina could not see the connection, but Leal tossed a near empty box of cigarettes at her. "Same brand," he said. She stayed quiet as she watched the men shove the bodies in large trash bags and zip tie them shut.

Because Nael was badly injured, he was not much help, and Mina found herself assisting Leal in carrying one of the bags back to the car, putting it in the trunk before going back for the other. She had removed herself from the moment and was acting purely on the desire not to end up in prison. With the bodies loaded, they drove back to the docks, where Leal made arrangements for the car to be brought onto the ferry as well.

Mina was nervous the entire ride, and both men took turns keeping her mind calm, but she was finding it difficult. Her mind kept replaying Sadie's words in a taunting manner, and while she may have appeared okay on the surface, on the inside, she wanted nothing more than to curl up into a ball and die. As soon as the car was hoisted onto the ship, she made a beeline for their suite, where she planned to do just that, but Leal and Nael followed her closely.

"What are you doing?" Leal asked, seeing that Ami had gone straight to her room and had not checked the computer.

"Nothing," she lied.

"Then come do nothing on the couch," Nael replied. He pulled her by the wrist and sat her down, gesturing for his brother to get something. "I have questions for you," Nael said, squatting down to remove Ami's shoes. "You scared me today."

"I'm a murderer," Mina said, and Nael lifted her chin.

"That isn't what scared me; it was your reaction afterward."

"I don't want to live like this."

"Ami, look at my brother's head," Leal added, and Mina's eyes involuntarily snapped to the man, who had dried blood on his shirt. "Do you think they were going to let us live? They waited for us."

"Because we started it. Nael shot their-"

"Their what?" Nael asked. "Were you going to say friend?" The man walked away and returned with a camera. He pressed a button and a recording of him and the two men discussing terms started to play. "They asked me to kill him the last time we were here. He wasn't their friend; he was their competition."

"Then why did they try to stop me?"

"It was an act." Nael paused, and closed his eyes, scaring Mina who could see he was struggling to stay awake.

"Nael, please don't sleep." Mina looked at Leal who was already returning with a first-aid kit. She took the box and started to scan its contents. Unhappy, she asked Leal to get her own kit from her room.

"Ami, do you know what I was doing in Pan when you contacted my brother?" The woman shook her head as she gently cleaned the injury. "I was helping someone kill their husband. She wanted us to think he was abusive, but the truth was that he couldn't afford her upkeep anymore and wanted a divorce. That woman is evil, not you."

----

Mina timidly sat across from her father who just stared at her with red rimmed eyes. The man was staring at her accusingly, and she racked her brain to figure out if she had said anything 'rude' to an adult. She opened her mouth to speak, but her father held up his hand, and she shut it, knowing that he did not want to hear her voice.

"Please tell me it wasn't you," he said, and Mina's brow furrowed.

"Daddy?" she said as a question.

"Mina, do you know what you did?" She shook her head, genuinely confused by her father's dreary expression. The man stood and kneeled to her level, looking into her eyes as he spoke.

"Baby girl, when mommy fell, where were you?"

"I was writing," Mina replied.

"Shouldn't you have been outside?"

"Sadie fights a lot because of me. I didn't want to get her in trouble." Mina stared back into her father's eyes, too innocent to see anything other than sadness in his gaze. "Daddy, did I do something wrong again?"

"You hurt your mother."

"I didn't," Mina replied resolutely. "I love mommy."

"Mina, were you angry with Mommy for anything?" Mina looked down, she knew lying was wrong, but she also knew that it was sometimes necessary. Sadie had told her that she should only tell the truth if she had to, and right now felt like one of those times.

"She didn't want me," the little girl said, still not understanding what she was being accused of. She expected her father's warm embrace, but instead the man yanked her by the arm and practically threw her into her bedroom.

"What did I say wrong?!" Mina screamed. She ran toward the shut door, hearing its locks click. "Please daddy. I do not like being in here by myself. Tell me what I did wrong, please, I will not do it again. I promise. I promise I will change. I'll get better."

Leal had been asleep on the floor of Ami's room when he heard the woman shouting for her father to forgive her, and not knowing what to do, he just watched her cry in her sleep. It did not take Nael long to come investigating, and they exchanged glances that conveyed their thoughts to one another. It was obvious that the woman was tormented, not just by the fact that she killed or the man who shattered her heart, but by her own parents.

They knew that she spent most of her childhood locked in her bedroom, and they knew why, but neither man believed she was capable of such a thing. She told them stories of being bullied, and tales of her sister having to fight for her, so it made no sense that a child with violent tendencies would need a protector. Either Ami's parents were sadistic and punished her for the fact that she was not a son, or she was lying to them, but the intensity of her nightmares did not seem like they were crafted from lies.

"She is going to kill herself," Leal said. "She isn't cut out for this."

"I wonder how many people took advantage of her in life," Nael replied. "She must have been a doormat."

"I like her," Leal added. "She reminds me of mom, and I don't want her to leave." Leal looked at his brother, who wore a sympathetic expression. "Please keep her on this ship."

"Leal, you know I can't do that. What if she meets someone who can look past the scars? What if she wants to start a family of her own? What if you find someone tomorrow?"

"She isn't property. I just want to spend as much time with her as possible. I want to help her the way we should have helped mom."

"We didn't know mom needed our help."

"But we know that Ami does."

"And how do we do that? Kill everyone who hurt her?"

"If that's what she wants."