One Kassen
CHAPTER ONE
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SOMEONE, ONCE UPON A time, said life flashed before the eyes of a person about to die.
I had news for that guy.
It didn’t.
My life never flashed before my eyes when I’d been denied oxygen in some sick sex game. It never flashed when I’d been beaten into unconsciousness by Storymaker.
And it didn’t flash with my fondest moments as I lost my footing and fell off the cliff.
Maybe it was because I had no fond memories.
Perhaps I’d spent too long erasing my life that it honored my wishes to remain forgotten in my final seconds.
Or maybe...maybe, I was never meant to have a life at all.
Death had shadowed me since I was born.
It’d been the reason I had no childhood, why I’d been a slave, and why, when I’d finally found someone who had the power to affect me, I was about to die.
The Grim Reaper had finally found me.
Down.
Down.
Down.
Trees whacked me, rocks pummelled me, air carried me to the end.
Twisting, turning, a rag doll with no direction.
I didn’t fight it. I stayed limp, accepting, ready.
I let pain explode and bruises bloom.
I closed my eyes on the falling blur.
Three things I thought of before the ground caught me.
One, I’d honored my promise and kept my Fable family safe.
Two, I was glad, glad I no longer had to fight.
And three...
Well, three was the only wince in my entire death experience.
It was about her.
Gemma.
Brave, tenacious, beautiful, and strong.
She was the reason my end had come.
She’d cursed me, and now she was free.
Hatred existed between us, lust and need, confusion and fear.
But the simple fact was if life had been kinder, if I had been less of what I was and more of what she deserved, things might have worked out differently.
If I was braver.
If I was saner.
If I hadn’t trapped her or used her or thought I could own her like I’d been owned by others, she might have stayed.
She might have cared.
And I might’ve fallen hopelessly in love with her.