Chapter 55 Midnight visit

Chapter 55 Midnight visit
~Jeremy's POV~

Cold. Sharp. Metal.

That's exactly what I could feel right on my throat.

It felt like a dream..not until I flew my eyes opened.

A face stared down at me.

My heart stopped.

Not because of the blade pressing into my skin. Not because of the blood I could already feel trickling down my neck.

But because of the face.

That face.

A face I had buried in my memory. A face I had told myself was gone forever.

"Dear brother." Benjamin said. Smiling wide. Eyes bright. Like this was the best morning of his life. "Nice meeting you again."
Then he laughed.

Not a normal laugh. It started low. Rumbling. Then it cracked open into something wild and broken. Head thrown back. Shoulders shaking. The kind of laugh that had no joy in it. Only madness. Only years of something dark and festering finally finding its way out.

It was the most terrifying sound I had ever heard in my life.

I couldn't move. Couldn't speak. Couldn't breathe.

He was dead. I watched him fall. I watched him go over that mountain edge. Into the lagoon below. Deep. Dark. Endless.
Nobody survived that fall. Nobody.
But here he was. Standing over my bed. Blade on my throat. Smiling like a man who had been waiting a very long time for this exact moment.

"I heard you're expecting a baby." He tilted his head. The smile stayed. "How nice. A Lakewood heir." He clicked his tongue slowly. "My little brother is having a child." He laughed again. Loud and wild. Like it was the funniest thing he had ever heard in his life. "What a time to be alive."

I tried to sit up.

The blade dragged.
Pain. Immediate. Hot. A line cut across the side of my throat. More blood now. Warm. Running down my neck onto my pillow.
I went completely still.

My whole body was screaming. Not from the blade. Not even from the blood.
From the regret.

The deep heavy regret sitting like a rock in the middle of my chest. All the things I wished I had done differently. All the things I wished had never happened. All the ways I had told myself it wasn't my fault. All the ways I had believed that.

Looking at his face right now. I wasn't so sure anymore.

"Benjamin." My voice came out low. Careful. "It's really... so nice... seeing you here."
"Is it really now brother?" His smile widened. Slow. Dangerous. "How does it feel? Seeing your brother's ghost? After you pushed him down that cliff?" He intensified his gaze on mine. Locked his eyes to mine like chains. Then he lifted his free hand and waved it slowly. Telling me to answer. Waiting.

The weight of that question sat on my chest like something heavy.

"I was already waiting for you since yesterday." I said. "And I know you're probably going to kill me. But can we at least talk first?"

I summoned some courage to say that but I meant every of those words. If I was going to die I needed to say something on behalf of Lakewood. On behalf of the people inside these walls who had nothing to do with any of this.

But something in my words triggered him.
He burst out laughing. So loud. So immense. Like I had said the most ridiculous thing any human being had ever said.

"I? Kill you?" He shook his head still laughing. "Noooo. No bruv. Trust me. Death is never part of my plan for you." He paused. Let the laughter fade slowly. His eyes found mine again. Quieter now. Darker. "But who knows. In the process of my plans... you may actually beg for it."

The silence after that was worse than anything he could have shouted.

"Benjamin. I know you're angry right now—"
He laughed again.

Threw his head back and laughed. Long. Loud. The kind of laugh that fills every corner of a room and leaves no space for anything else.

"Angry." He said it like he was tasting the word. Testing it. "Angry." He laughed harder. "Angry." Louder. Wilder.
Then he stopped.
Just like that.
The laughter died. Completely. Instantly. Like someone blew out a candle.
His eyes dropped back to mine.
Cold. Completely cold.

"You said angry." His voice came out soft. Almost gentle. Which was somehow worse than the shouting. "Anger is not the word for this kind of discussion Jeremy." He pressed the blade deeper. I felt the fresh sting of it. Felt my jaw lock hard against the pain. "I am not angry." He leaned close. His face inches from mine. Close enough that I could see everything in his eyes. The pain. The years. The fire that had not gone out. "I am motivated. Properly motivated." He whispered. "I mean... if my innocent. Cool. Kind. Most loved by all little brother had the courage to kill his own big brother..." He smiled. Soft and terrible. "What other motivation does a man need?"

"Benjamin listen to me." I kept my voice as steady as I could even though everything inside me was shaking. "This whole thing is still crazy to me. But I am sorry. I am truly sorry for what happened. You know this whole thing was out of my—"

He drove the blade deeper.

I groaned. Couldn't swallow it. The pain ripped right through me.

He pressed harder.

"You've done enough talking Jeremy." He said quietly. "So many things have changed I see. You even lost your pretty memory....My little brother cannot even remember how he killed me?"

"You jumped Benjamin." I said through the pain. Through the blood. Through the burning in my throat. "I did not push you."
The blade went deeper.
I sucked in a sharp breath through my teeth.

"I need you to shut up." His voice didn't rise. Didn't shake. Didn't crack. That was the most terrifying part. He was completely calm. Like he had rehearsed this moment ten thousand times and nothing I said could surprise him. "I said you've done enough talking. I am the only one permitted to talk right now. You hear that?"

I said nothing.

The pain was blinding. But I said nothing.
"Good." He straightened up slightly. The blade stayed. He started moving it slowly. Dragging the tip gently across my neck region. Like he was drawing something. Like he was thinking. "You killed me for what exactly? My own birthright." His voice cracked for just one second. One tiny second. And in that second I heard it. The thing underneath all the madness. The real wound. "Was I not your brother? Was I not good to you? Was I not good to your mother?" His jaw tightened. "I was so open. So trusting. I let you both in. And you used every single bit of that against me." He stopped moving. Looked at me. Eyes wet now. Just for a moment. Just one moment before the coldness swallowed it back up. "You took my position. You became the great Alpha of Lakewood." He smiled. Slow. Bitter. Broken. "How wonderful for you. Right?"

No.

No this is wrong. This is not what happened. He knows this is not what happened.

The rage inside me was enormous. Pushing against my ribs. Pushing up my throat. I wanted to speak. Wanted to tear every single one of those words apart piece by piece.
But the blade was not joking.

So I swallowed it. All of it. Every word I wanted to say.

"What do you have to say for yourself dear brother?"

"I—"

"Shhhh." He pressed one finger directly to my lips. Gentle. Like hushing a child. "Before you say anything else. I want you to think. Very carefully." He lifted the blade away from my throat.

First time in minutes.

I gasped. One deep breath. Then another. My hand flew straight to my throat. Felt the blood. Felt the cuts. Felt how close each one was to something that mattered.
Not deep enough to kill.

Just deep enough to remind me he could.

"If you are allowed to say just one sentence." He held up one finger. Eyes steady on mine. "Only one. What is it going to be?"

I coughed hard. Let everything out that I had been holding in my chest.

Then I looked up at him.

At my brother. My dead brother. Standing in my room. Alive. Burning. Broken and dangerous in a way I had never seen before.

"What do you want Benjamin?"

Something moved across his face. Fast. Like a shadow. Something that looked almost like relief. Like satisfaction. Like that question was the only thing he had wanted to hear for years.

"Now." He pointed the sword slowly at me. "You're talking."

He turned away. Started walking around my room. Unhurried. Like he owned every inch of it. Running his free hand along the wall. Touching the furniture. Picking up a small trophy from my shelf. Turning it slowly in his hand. Examining it. Like it already belonged to him.

He walked to the window. Pushed it open.
Morning air flooded in.
He stood there. Looking out. At the pack houses. At the land. At the warriors beginning their morning duties below. At everything that carried the name Lakewood.
He was quiet for a long time.
Then he laughed. Soft. Almost to himself. Like a private joke only he understood.

Then silence.

He turned around slowly. Faced me. Sword loose in his hand. Eyes dark and steady and full of something that made my stomach drop.

Hunger.

Pure hunger.

"What do I want?" He repeated it quietly. Then shook his head. "Actually I don't want anything."

That was a lie.

I knew Benjamin. I knew him before all of this. That was his way of saying he wanted so much that words hadn't been invented for it yet.

"I don't want anything to be candid." He continued. Walking back toward me slowly. Step by step. "All you have. Everything you are. The whole of Lakewood." He stopped right in front of me. Looked down. Voice dropping to almost a whisper. "It belongs to me. Every. Single. Piece of it."

The picture became clear now.

Completely clear.

Benjamin was back.

And whatever he was planning. Whatever he had spent all these years building in the dark.

It was going to be far worse than anything that came before.