54. Reign
CHAPTER 54
Reign
I nnocence.
I could taste it on her lips when I kissed her one last time before stashing myself away in the secrecy of the thick woodlands surrounding the farmhouse. She had no idea what kind of man I could be. She’d seen the ugly part of me that I kept under wraps from most, and still, those three little words almost slid right off her swollen lips.
As badly as I wanted, needed , Anna’s pure love, I wanted her to witness this first. Before she confessed the sentiment that would bind her to me for the rest of her life no matter what. Even if one day she no longer wanted it.
I was going to break my promise to her. She made me pinkie swear, futile but meaningful to her, that I would refrain from unnecessary murder anymore. I clasped her tiny digit in mine as I said the words, being truthful at the time. But I couldn’t stand by and watch the wretch who planned to rip her virtue away, turn it into something vile, and let him continue to breathe.
No, today would be the end of Randall Walker's life, and I planned to bask in his suffering. Fuuuuuck, the things I wanted to do to him. Bloody images played before me almost as a hallucinogen.
I watched Anna’s panic unfurl the moment her knuckles rapped on the door. The way her knees trembled even with my peacoat going nearly down past her mid-shin.
A cloud of dust, as if no one had opened the door in years, obscured my vision as I watched a man with a strikingly pale complexion greet her at the door. His thin frame was that of someone who lacked nutritious sustenance or the ability to grasp onto muscle.
It was a miracle he was up and walking. I almost felt bad for what awaited the old man. The pain he’d know, would be like nothing his sick imagination could fathom. Not even in his wildest dreams. The things he was going to see right before I sent him to meet the sick fucking God that he used as a crutch to do his dealings for years.
Yes, the urge to barge in and create the bloodiest masterpiece I’d ever made clawed at my insides. The beast was desperate to be freed.
He will feel all of Anna’s pain.