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Back The Ursulina Save as PDF
Chapters (45)
  1. I know you'll never forgive me...
  2. Part One - Your Father
  3. Chapter One
  4. Chapter Two
  5. Chapter Three
  6. Chapter Four
  7. Chapter Five
  8. Chapter Six
  9. Chapter Seven
  10. Chapter Eight
  11. Chapter Nine
  12. Chapter Ten
  13. Chapter Eleven
  14. Chapter Twelve
  15. Chapter Thirteen
  16. Chapter Fourteen
  17. Chapter Fifteen
  18. Chapter Sixteen
  19. Chapter Seventeen
  20. Chapter Eighteen
  21. Chapter Nineteen
  22. Chapter Twenty
  23. Part Two - Your Mother
  24. Chapter Twenty-One
  25. Chapter Twenty-Two
  26. Chapter Twenty-Three
  27. Chapter Twenty-Four
  28. Chapter Twenty-Five
  29. Chapter Twenty-Six
  30. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  31. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  32. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  33. Chapter Thirty
  34. Chapter Thirty-One
  35. Chapter Thirty-Two
  36. Chapter Thirty-Three
  37. Chapter Thirty-Four
  38. Chapter Thirty-Five
  39. Chapter Thirty-Six
  40. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  41. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  42. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  43. Chapter Forty
  44. Chapter Forty-One
  45. About the Author

Ajax lay on the bed, naked and very dead. Not suicide. Not a sex game. This was the past come to life again. Just like Kip Wells and Racer Moritz. Just like Gordon Brink. His wrists and ankles had both been tied, and his fixed eyes were wide, filled with a kind of terror I’d never seen on Ajax’s face before. His body had been flayed, sliced open head to toe. His organs were on display, some squeezing out like worms where his abdomen had been severed. The entire mattress below him was soaked red, completely red, as if it had been sewn out of burgundy fabric. Blood made a lake on the floor, too, and splatter filled all the concrete walls, where it had dripped into long streaks like pinstripes.

“No,” I murmured, grabbing my head and blinking over and over in pure shock. “It can’t be. This can’t be happening.”

But it was.

Months had passed, but the monster had returned. There on the wall, we saw the message scrawled in blood taken from Ajax’s corpse. Four deaths with the same signature, the way it had been left every time:

I am the Ursulina

Chapter Twenty-Three

Chapter Twenty-Three

Upstairs, I needed a drink of water. I found Ruby alone in the kitchen. Her deep-red hair was greasy and loose around her shoulders. She gripped the counter with both hands and stared out the window at her expansive backyard. Her tears had dried on her face, and a fierce, almost wild expression had replaced the sadness. Her jaw was clenched so hard I thought she might bite through her tongue. Her survival instincts were kicking in, the mother of three kids left alone. One thing I knew about Ruby. She was hard as nails.

“I’m really sorry about Ajax,” I told her.

Her head jerked around on her swanlike neck when she heard me. Her eyes looked ready to light me on fire. “What are you doing here?”

“Darrell needs to ask you some questions.”

“That’s not what I mean. What are you doing here? I can’t believe you’d show your face in my house.”

I shook my head in complete bafflement. “Ruby, I don’t understand. I mean, I know you’re a wreck over Ajax, but what exactly did I do to piss you off? Is this still about the thing at the 126? Because I’m sorry, but that wasn’t my
fault.”

She didn’t say anything, but her eyes made an eloquent shift from my face to my belly and then back up again. My forehead wrinkled with a moment of confusion before it dawned on me what she thought.

“Are you serious?” I burst out, unable to control my reaction. “Do you think this is Ajax’s baby?”

“Isn’t it?” she snapped.

“No! I hope to hell he never said it was.”