Chapter 32
Idon’t know how long I stayed there on my knees.
The world narrowed to dirt, blood, and the obscene grin carved into her flesh.
Every breath scraped my throat raw, like the air itself didn’t want me to live in this place.
My palms dug into the earth, my fingers curling around roots, as if the ground could somehow anchor me without him.
But nothing held me anymore. I was like a lifeboat without anyone to save.
Nothing but him.
I told myself it wasn’t the same woman. It couldn’t be her. She had escaped. Not with her dignity, but she survived my assault.
But the longer I looked at the gruesome smile on her face, the more I remembered the curve of her jaw, the slope of her cheekbones, and the blonde hair spilling wild around her shoulders that night I held her against the tree.
It was her.
I pressed my eyes shut. The memory came hard and fast, her mouth against mine, my teeth scraping her lips, her screams spilling out into the dark.
How I’d fucked her, hard and fast.
Her denials meant nothing.
I’d given her my reckless abandon, my furious hunger, and cold cruelty. I was stupid enough to believe the woods were quiet. That the moment I stole from her would disappear with her escape.
She was alive. And now she was dead.
Was it my fault?
The questions gnawed at me as she lay there, turned into a sick message just for me.
Yes. Her life ending was my fault, because her death was a message for me.
My chest heaved as the grief for the stranger tangled with something deeper. Rage. Not just at whoever did this, but at myself. At every goddamn choice that led me here…to her broken body.
I closed my eyes, dragging my hands over my face, smearing the dirt, blood, and sweat.
The smile stared back at me even through my eyelids. I was unable to shake it from my thoughts.
I couldn’t handle this, not now. Not when I was already so close to snapping.
And then Xanthy’s face cut in, uninvited.
Her smile, the soft, warm, real glow…
The one who looked at me like I was worth something, worth saving.
I hated it. I hated that I could see her face in the shadow of this one. I hated the thought of walking her into that wedding, standing beside her while people whispered vows and forever. It all felt like another kind of death.
One I couldn’t escape.
How could I promise her anything when her forever decayed in front of me, grinning like a damned fool with cut lips?
This was Xanthy’s future with me.
A branch snapped in the distance.
I froze.
My head jerked up, my breath held tight in my chest. But the forest was silent again. My skin prickled with the certainty that I wasn’t alone anymore.
I scanned the treeline. The shadows thickened under the branches, long and still, but no movement was detected.
“Who’s there?” My voice came out hoarse, cracked, because I was carrying far more than I wanted.
Nothing.
Just the weight of the trees leaning closer, like they were listening.
I pushed to my feet, my legs trembling underneath me. My eyes darted back to her body, to the smile carved deep, etched in her skin as sure as a brand of my name. The bile rose in my throat again.
This wasn’t random.
But the question carved into her face was one I couldn’t answer: ‘Why do you get to live when I don’t…because of you?’
I stumbled backward, my boots slipping in the dirt. My pulse hammered in my ears as I tried to hear another sound, tried to locate another snap of a twig.
The woods stayed quiet. And my mind stayed loud.
Her screams echoed off the walls of my skull, but this time she didn’t get away. She was killed by my hand, forced to smile even in death, at the brutality I gave her.
Her face warped and turned to Xanthy’s, and I screamed.
My mind filled with the corpse, but this time it was Xanthy’s voice calling my name. She was still so soft and hopeful, immune to the horror of what had become of her.
“Shiloh. I love you, Baby. Don’t you love me? Marry me. Breed me. Feed me. Let me live. Let me consume you.”
The warped voice of my girlfriend continued, and all I could do was shield my ears from the shrills.
“You killed me, Shiloh. Is that what I get for protecting you all this time? You’ll kill me? You should have killed him. Save me, Shiloh. Save yourself.”
“Stop. Please.”
The eerie shrieks and shrills of the animated corpse continued to torture me, Alexandra Harding’s voice so strong in its taunting. I backed away from the scene, pulling myself away from the grappling hands that reached for me like spindly roots determined to take me forever.
“I’m sorry,” I cried, just out of reach of the gnarled hands that clawed at my flesh. “I’m so sorry. I should have never touched you. I should have never tried to use you to be normal.”
Xanthy’s twisted, demonic tone faded as I clawed my way out of the clearing, my breath ragged, making my way back to the buck.
The rifle was still on the ground where I had dropped it.
I got to my feet, tripping and running, trying to grip it in my hand.
I held on so tight my knuckles burned, and I pointed the barrel at the clearing, waiting for the monster to try to take me again.
I’m losing my fucking mind.
I wiped the snot and tears off my nose, lowering the weapon just slightly. The cold wind blew, and the trees swallowed her again, closing over her body like the woods wanted to keep their secret.
But I knew the truth now.
The hunt was never mine.
I wasn’t the predator in these woods.
I was always the fucking prey.
And it was only a matter of time before they claimed my body too.