Chapter 18 #2
Rhett raised an eyebrow. “Could’ve fooled me.”
That was it.
For a moment, I thought Max was going to lunge, drag Rhett under until he stopped breathing. But instead, Max turned sharply, water splashing as he stormed out, muscles tight, shoulders bristling with fury he couldn’t unload.
I didn’t follow because he hadn’t denied it. And I was heartbroken. I wanted to grieve, run away, hide, but as always, fear was watching me. It was always watching me, waiting to torment every single small piece of happiness I had left.
Like a nightmare rising from the deep, Jackson stepped into view. His presence sucked the warmth from the air. The air emitted a loud, screeching cry around him.
He didn’t speak right away. He just watched me with a smile too sharp to be human, his eyes glinting like he’d been waiting for this exact moment. To get me alone.
“Lover’s spat?” he asked, his voice velvet and venom combined. “Looks like you touched a nerve.”
He then turned to Rhett. “Get lost.”
I barely registered his words. My mind was stuck in a loop.
She said you guys hooked up tonight.
Max was a damn good actor. He had fooled me. He had made me think we were something more; that we were meant to be together. Why would he tell me he loved me?
“You new here?” Jackson asked, voice low and threatening.
Rhett blinked, disarmed by Jackson. “Yeah, Rhett. I’m—”
Jackson cut him off. “Right. Rhett. Just so we’re clear—” He got close.
Close enough for the threat to be unmistakable.
“Mackenzie is my property. I own her. There are some other boys here claiming she is theirs, but don’t be mistaken; a man actually takes her.
Me. Don’t ever fucking look at her again if you want to keep breathing. ”
“Dude, chill.”
“I am chill.” The danger in Jackson’s eyes was cold and terrifying.
Rhett held his hands up and took a step back. “Alright. Got it. Jesus, Mackenzie. You sure get around. Everyone has a claim on you tonight.”
Jackson didn’t say anything, but I could see the darkness in his eyes. He finally turned to me, his eyes dragging down my body with possessive heat.
“Nice bikini,” he murmured. “You always did like being the center of attention.”
I swallowed hard. I took a step back into deeper water. “It’s just a bikini, Jackson.”
He followed.
“I’ve never seen it before.”
Before I could respond, his hand was suddenly on my waist, sliding down my back. His touch was too familiar, but compared to Max’s, foreign. I tried to shrug him off, but he pulled me closer.
“Don’t,” I snapped, but he wasn’t listening. His mouth was in my ear, whispering.
“You think they’re all staring because you look hot?” he said. “You think Max is jealous because he wants you? Or because you’re making yourself look easy?”
My lungs clenched tightly. He pulled me even closer, a predatory grin on his face. Suddenly, his hand slammed against the back of my head, smashing me under the dark, suffocating water.
The water was freezing as it forced its way into my lungs, a numbing sensation that made me scream in agony while he held me down mercilessly.
In an instant, darkness consumed my vision.
At first, it felt unreal—a cruel joke, a twisted display of power.
I flailed desperately, expecting him to loosen his grip, but he didn’t.
Instead, his hold grew tighter. Water shattered my eardrums, muffling the screams. I thrashed around, panic ripping through my chest like a beast unleashed.
The seconds dragged into eternity. I opened my eyes underwater, darkness pressing in around me. My lungs screamed for air. I clawed at his arm, desperate to scream, but only bubbles escaped my mouth. A suffocating weight enveloped me. I was drowning.
Memories of my father’s motorcycle outside our burning home flashed violently in my mind. I could almost hear his screams, “I’ve had enough!” He often shouted that from his basement.
I broke the surface of the lake with a harsh cough, but the terror still gripped me.
Then I was pulled under again, drowning in darkness.
I could hear Jackson’s mocking laughter through the water.
Was this a cruel joke to him? A wave of panic and adrenaline surged through my veins as I blindly kicked out, desperate to break free.
I managed to hit something, and then he yanked me out of the water.
“Oh, shit. You, okay?”
I opened my eyes, rubbing the water out of them.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” I choked out, wiping water from my face, my voice shaking. Everyone around us seemed too far to hear. No one was paying attention. “You trying to fucking drown me?”
Jackson’s smile was calm.
“You needed to cool off.”
My entire body trembled.
“You’re an asshole.”
His eyes were dead—flat, empty, terrifying. For a moment, they stayed that way before suddenly snapping back to their normal honey brown, the horrifying emptiness still lingering behind.
And then the tears began. They flowed down his face, hiding his evil.
“I didn’t mean it! Promise,” he sobbed. “Please don’t be mad at me, Kenz.”
My entire body shook. My chest felt like it was on fire.
Tears, mingling with the lake water, poured down my face in torrents.
I was consumed by an overwhelming terror—much greater than anything I’d ever known.
You always expect to escape terror by running.
But in moments of pure panic, your mind turns against you.
You struggle to accept what’s really happening because it’s impossible, right?
You’re not going to die.
It’s impossible.
You feel sluggish, unable to process any emotion except the fear pulsing through your body.
That’s exactly where I was. I was facing the impossible. My breath came in frantic, searing bursts as I fought to keep myself together. My mind was an empty void, churned by terror and devoid of any rational thought.
He put his hands on my waist, and I quickly slapped them off.
“Don’t touch me, you fucking psycho,” I threatened him.
He put his hands up, the sobs continuing.
“Okay, okay! Look, I’m sorry for what happened back home. I was an idiot, and I’ve been trying to call you for weeks. It’s unfair that you ghosted me when we broke up.”
Was he… serious? He had to be bipolar. His dueling personalities were giving me whiplash.
“So, you’re trying to kill me now? Way to get back at me,” I scoffed, nearly sprinting out of the lake. The water clawed at my legs like tiny hands, dragging me backward as I fought to move forward.
I grabbed my towel, wiped my face, and looked around for Max. I needed him. I didn’t care what had happened with Heather. I needed him. I was terrified, shaking with fear. And I just fucking needed the one person I knew who would make me feel safe.
But he was gone.
Where the fuck was he?
Probably fucking Heather, my subconscious thought.
A fury like I had never experienced consumed me. I turned away from Jackson, who was now glaring at me with such coldness that the hairs on my arms stood straight up.
“You’re mine. You know that? You’ll always be mine. Wherever you go. We’re blood-oathed.”
His words catapulted me back to a memory of myself when I was five.
The hallway was really dark. My toes felt cold when I walked, and the floor was slippery. I wanted my Mommy because I had a scary dream. I walked to the bathroom. I saw Daddy’s room. The door was open just a little bit, so I peeked inside.
Daddy was in his chair, looking at the wall. He had a big shiny knife on his lap. He talked to it in a whisper. I froze, but Daddy saw me anyway.
“Come here, sweetheart,” he said, smiling at me.
I wanted to run to Mommy, but my feet just kept going, so I went to Daddy. If I didn’t, I’d get in trouble.
He touched my hair, and it felt weird.
“You’re mine, you know that?” he whispered. His breath smelled bad. “No matter where you go. You’ll always be mine.”
I didn’t cry. I knew I wasn’t allowed to cry with Daddy. Because that was bad. Really bad. So, so bad. I was bad.
I turned back to Jackson.
“What did you just say to me?” I stilled.
Jackson smiled, the black centers of his eyes widening beyond the honey brown. “Kenz, don’t be like that, come on. You know you’ll always be mine.”
“I’m not yours, and I never was.” My entire body was frozen with fear.
“Yeah, alright. So, all those times we fucked, you weren’t mine then?” He tsked his tongue, wringing his hands in a move I recognized as anxiety. “Why did you stop talking to me?”
I couldn’t believe him.
“That’s what happens when you break up with someone. You generally don’t speak again.”
I was trying hard not to hyperventilate. The lake water was still inside my chest, and I felt like I was about to puke.
“We were together for eight months, Mackenzie,” he said, upset. “I can’t believe you’d let all that go away.”
I stared at him. Jackson was the kind of attractive that made people look twice.
He was tall, with rich, tan skin that glowed golden in the sun, and a chiseled jawline that looked as if it belonged on a magazine cover.
His eyes were deep brown, almost black, intense, and unreadable.
But when he was sweet, the Jackson I had loved, his eyes were honey.
His hair was cropped close, neat, and always styled just enough to look effortless.
He smiled easily, the kind of smile that could charm a room while hiding something sinister.
I had fallen for it, too. Jackson was so precarious because he could make you believe he was a good person with good intentions, then turn everything on its head with a single look or action.
I should’ve known back then that he was evil. The problem was that I never knew what he was thinking. He had always been so closed off.
He gave me whiplash, and I didn’t know what was real with him. He lived in a different world from mine—a fractured reality where he was two beings. And I spent most of our relationship wondering which version of him I would end up with.
The human version, or the demonic entity that had consumed his soul.
I should have picked up on the signs back then, but I didn’t. He was a fuse, always seconds from being lit. People noticed him because of his looks and charm, but I saw him for what he truly was: completely unhinged.
A monster.
Memories of that night during spring break flashed through my head.
Three Months Earlier
“Jackson. Oh my god!” The girl screamed as he forcefully thrust into her.
All I could see were his lean arms, his muscular back, muscles tensing with each movement.
I shrieked, covering my mouth with my hand, frozen in the doorway of that stupid party.
I had just received my acceptance letter to GCU and made the soccer team.
I couldn’t wait to tell him.
He whipped his head around suddenly, his eyes locking onto mine, still pounding into her with brutal intensity. He paused, then stared directly at me with a cold, deadly stare that sent chills down my spine.
“Oops,” he muttered. “You weren’t supposed to see this.”
Anger boiled underneath my skin. I was done playing the victim.
“Let’s think about this a bit. You slept with another girl. Not only were you still inside her when I caught you, but you said ‘Oops’, and continued to fuck her in front of my face,” I screamed. “You think that’s appropriate? Do you think I’d want to talk to you after you fucking did that to me?!”
“Oh yeah, like you’re some saint? Oh, Max is my best friend, Max needs to talk to me. I need to call Max.”
“You need to get over this obsession you have with Max!”
“I see the way he looks at you. He’s fucking in love with you.” He ran his hands through his hair, pulling at the edges.
He wasn’t in love with me, I thought. Because he went with her.
I stared into Jackson’s dark eyes that had killed me repeatedly. I wanted him to hurt. I wanted him to die like I died when I heard him fuck her, when I saw him fuck her, when he held me down and fucked me repeatedly afterwards.
I had told Max that Jackson and I had only had sex twice. It was a lie. Jackson had forced himself on me so many times.
I had been so delusional in thinking I didn’t deserve love that I allowed it.
“Fine, you want the truth?” I asked. He looked at me expectantly. “I’m in love with him. He’s in love with me. We’ve been fucking for years. All those things I wouldn’t do with you, I do with him all the time. Happy?”
He was consumed with rage when I said that, and I smiled.
The change in him was immediate. Jackson vanished in an instant. I could see it in his eyes—jet black, unrecognizable. The true monster lurking within had been revealed. Rage overtook him when I described it, and I couldn’t help but smile.
Because if he was the devil, I was the devil incarnate.
“You lied to me,” he said, his voice cold.
“Yeah, I lied,” I said, staring directly into his devilish eyes. “Oops.”
Anger twisted his features, shadows twisting darkness in his eyes as he struggled to suppress his rage.
“It doesn’t matter because you and I are bound by blood,” he hissed with a sinister edge. “It’s unavoidable. As soon as you graduate, we’re getting married. You have no say in it.”
He clenched his fists tightly at his sides and stepped dangerously close to me.
“I’m going to kill him, anyway,” he hissed, leaning in. “He’s in my way. And if I find out he’s touched you, I won’t go easy on him.”
“It’s too late, Jackson. He’s always touching me,” I said coldly.
“How many times?” His voice cracked with panic and rage.
“Want numbers? Or just highlights? First time? Camp. Two years ago. In his bunk bed. Then the shower. The floor. Twice in his car. Three times at the lake. Once right here on the dock.” I was getting creative with my lie, and Jackson finally looked at me with a haunting expression, making me feel like I was in control of him.
I tilted my head, my eyes daring him to explode.
“How many times does that make it, Jackson? Oh, right. More than you ever managed to get without lying or forcing.”
“Shut your fucking mouth,” he snarled, grabbing my arm violently and pressing two fingers viciously against my forehead.
I gasped as his grip tightened around my throat, cutting off my air.
His twisted smile grew as I struggled for breath, then he made a chilling gunshot sound, aiming an imaginary barrel at my head.
"Bang," he whispered cruelly.
Before I felt the blackness overtake me, Max’s hand shot out from behind me, gripping Jackson by the throat with terrifying force. A guttural voice, unrecognizable as Max’s, snarled, “Fucking walk away. Now.”