Ruin (Rhodes #1) by Rina Kent

                             “So you chose her over us.”

                             My head whips to the source of the frosty voice. Aunt Ariel, in the summer dress she died in, stands by Mae’s side. She watches her with a glare, so tense, so black, a shiver travels my spine.

                             I blink.

                             This isn’t real, right? I can’t see Aunt. I don’t see Aunt. She’s usually rambling in my head, why is she out?

                             I close my lids. “This is a dream. This is a dream...”

                             “No, it’s not.” Father’s calm voice fills the room. Not my head. The fucking room. “This is us coming to finish what you couldn’t.”

                             My eyes pop open. He’s standing next to Aunt, a hand in his pocket. He’s wearing the same suit he died in, looking at me with the same eyes he passed to me. What in the gates of hell are they doing out of my head?

                             “Poor girl.” Mother comes from the opposite side, her voice a notch above a murmur. “She’s another version of me.”

                             The three of them encircle the bed like pathological doctors ready to eviscerate a corpse. Only Mae isn’t a corpse. She’s alive. Her chest is rising and falling with the same tranquil rhythm, unaware of her surroundings.

                             I run to them to erase their heinous faces. My fingers connect with thin air, and I slump beside Mae. They stand their ground, three pairs of eyes pinning me down.

                             “Leave!” I shout. My head hurts. Their emergence from it weighs more than them being inside.

                             “I killed myself for you, Nephew.” Aunt Ariel points a finger at me, her wrist scars as vibrant as I remember them. “All I’m asking in return is to live through you.”

                             “I gave you your voice back.” Father stands tall in front me, his face darkening. “I sacrificed myself for you, didn’t I? I even offered Eva. The girl’s blood will be payment.”

                             Pounding fills my heart. My hands shake prominently as if I’m nearing a seizure. Maybe I am. I wish I could, to wake up from this nightmare.

                             “Let them have her now.” Mother sighs. “At least she won’t suffer for long years.”

                             Closing my eyes, my hands clutch the sides of my head. It hurts. Their voices, their words, their presence. All of it hurts.

                             When I open my lids, they’re still there, repeating the same words. They play on my auditory senses like dragging nails through a chalkboard. Over, and over, and over.

                             Then, I see him. My lips part. The demons’ atrocious voices almost hush to the background— almost.

                             “Uncle?” I ask, incredulous. He was never with them in my head. No matter how much I wished he was.

                             He stands near the door, a shadow of a smile on his lips.

                             “Help me, Uncle.” I can’t recognise the weakness in my voice. “Take them away, please.”

                             “I can’t fight for you, Son.” Uncle’s brows crease. “No one will save you if you don’t have the wits to do it yourself.” He disappears as if he was never there.