Chapter 25
ESSENCE
I try to swallow, but my mouth is so dry. I try to open my eyes, but my eyelids are so heavy.
Am I dead? Did I just wake up in the afterlife? What the hell even happened?
God, my head hurts like a bitch.
I’d come here hours ago to talk to Evan. He invited me inside and…
And then he attacked me.
I remember him pushing me to the floor and unleashing the most horrible torrent of abuse he’s ever inflicted on me.
His blows were relentless and full of hatred. He’d called me every insult and slur under the sun for choosing Dante over him, and I couldn’t believe he’d even think of me that way.
“So you’ve been cheating on me this whole time, huh?” he’d asked before kicking me in the ribs. I cried out from the pain and nursed my sore side, unable to form words.
“You.” Kick. “Fucking.” Kick. “Slut!”
My side is throbbing now, and I have no doubt that my stomach is all bruised up. I wouldn’t even be surprised if my ribs were broken.
Sighing heavily, I slowly push myself up and open my eyes. It’s dark in here. The familiar glow of my alarm clock illuminating the darkness hurts my eyes, so I turn it around.
Carefully, I push myself off the bed as slowly as I can to avoid hurting myself any further.
How did I even get up here? Last I remember, I was on the floor.
Broken and bleeding. Enduring blow after blow until my body couldn’t take it anymore.
Reaching out, I feel my way around the dark room until my hand reaches the light switch. I instantly regret flipping it when the bright light fills the room and burns my eyes. I groan in pain and lean my head down as I make my way out of the room.
“Evan?” I call out into the dark hallway. “Lunchbox? Where are you, baby?”
I pause to wait for the sound of his little paws running up the stairs, but I don’t hear anything. Then I remember that I’d left him at Dante’s house. Thank God I didn’t bring him and further traumatize him.
I peer down the stairway into the dark. Is Evan passed out down there? If he is, this is probably my only chance to leave.
I look around for my phone and find it laying shattered on the floor in the bedroom. As soon as I pick it up, the whole screen falls onto the floor at my feet.
Angry tears burn my eyes, but I close them and force myself to take several calming breaths. Now isn’t the time for crying.
Turning the bedroom light off behind me, I tiptoe back to the stairs and carefully descend them into the living room. It’s so dark that I can’t even see any moonlight shining through the edges of the windows.
I call Evan’s name again, and this time, I get a response in the form of a cruel chuckle.
I scream and clutch the front of my shirt. My heart is racing so fast that I need to bend over to catch my breath.
“Evan, that wasn’t funny,” I say in a shaky voice.
“And yet, I can’t stop laughing.”
I freeze in place. My fingers are gripping the front of my shirt so hard my fingernails dig into the palms of my hands.
That’s not Evan’s voice.
Even though I can’t see, I know exactly who it is.
“Where’s Evan?” I ask in a shaky voice, slowly taking a step forward.
The man is quiet for a moment before he says, “Come here.”
I want to, so bad, but my feet are rooted to the floor. My breathing quickens; I try to take deep breaths to calm myself down, but I’m so scared right now that all I want to do is run out of this house screaming at the top of my lungs.
“Is it you?” I whisper.
“Do you want it to be me, baby?”
Do I? I’ve been so wrapped up in Dante that I’ve barely thought about the masked man after I texted him earlier.
Letting go of my shirt, I take another step forward and whisper, “Yes.”
He opens the curtains over the window behind the couch before reaching out a hand towards me. “Come here, little flower. Come see what I’ve done for you.”
As I walk further into the living room, a fire bursts to life in the fireplace. The silhouette of the masked man standing right in front of me makes a weird mixture of dread and excitement swirl in my belly.
The man gently takes my hand and gestures to something on the floor by his feet. I look down to see a large mass covered in a white sheet.
When he pulls it off, I scream in horror and run out of the house. He’s right behind me, so close that I can feel the reverberations of his heavy footsteps vibrating through my core.
I start to run towards my bike, but he grabs me and pushes me in the direction of the woods.
What the hell?
I turn around to face him but walk backwards to put as much distance between us as I can.
“You better run, flower,” he growls in warning. “Because there’s no telling how gentle I’ll be when I get my hands on you.”
Despite the fear that’s spread through my body, wetness pools between my legs at his words.
There’s no way I’m getting turned on right now. Not now when I’m covered in bruises and just witnessed something that horrific.
“Run, flower,” the man says again, going to stand on the porch. “I’ll give you a head start.”
I turn and sprint into the darkness of the woods. Warm tears burn my eyes and nausea roils in my stomach at the thought of what the man did to Evan.
I try to push away the sight of his body lying there at the feet of the masked man, try to erase the unnatural angle of his fingers from my memory. But nothing will ever make me forget the sight of his round, dead eyes staring right at me, mouth full of his dismembered penis and severed tongue.