Shadowface

Chapter 12

CHAPTER

TWELVE

MIKAEL

TWO WEEKS EARLIER

B link.

My eyes shoot open, and the dark room expands into my vision.

Blink. Blink.

The fog in my mind begins to lift. With my head down, I struggle to breathe through the cloth covering my face. As I try to adjust to my surroundings, I stumble around in a disoriented, half-awake state.

I scan the room and see her through the two slits in my eyes. A precious bundle in front of me. She’s sleeping sitting up, as if she was positioned that way, her head hanging to the side, her hair flowing over her face. She’s positioned the way Shadowface positioned all his victims.

Being around her always brings about a tightness in my chest that threatens to consume me.

My eyes are alert now.

Pretty girl… My pretty girl is in front of me.

I roll my shoulders and tilt my head from side to side, cracking my neck. My body is tight, unfamiliar, and twinges in places it shouldn’t.

I lift my hand and curl my fingers into a fist as I regain my senses and get a good feel for my body again. It’s stronger than I remember. A surge of power pulses through me.

My vision strays to the open window, the way the moonlight streams in over her perfect face. Everything is the same, but different.

The vein in my neck pulses.

What was he about to do to her? Why is he in her room?

I look around, my eyes finally adjusting to the light. This space is nothing like her childhood bedroom, where I would visit her a few times a year when I was able to. If it were up to me, I would have visited her more, but distance was a factor.

So where are we right now, pretty girl? All grown up.

The trees outside cast long shadows against the small bedroom walls and arched ceilings. Everything about this place seems to belong to a different time and a different reality. The only constants are the open window and the pretty girl sleeping in front of me.

The rage that ignites inside me is familiar, too. So much rage. A wave of it nearly consumes me.

My attention draws right to her smooth neck and her chest, that rises and falls with her precious breath. As if waiting for me.

My cock stirs to life, remembering the last time we were together. My final memory?—

If it’s possible, she’s even prettier than she was before, and I hate her for it. I hate her perfect face. So flawless.

My senses are now dominated by a painful erection.

Summer shifts in her sleep, and I move on instinct toward her. To touch her, to kill her before an invisible string pulls me back.

There he is… I was wondering when I would sense him. My instincts were screaming at me to act, sending electric jolts through me, a constant reminder that I am not in complete control of my body.

Lincoln’s been in control for a long time—I can tell by the unfamiliarity of my senses. The muscles are tighter, the bones are bigger. Like the elasticity of my skin doesn’t match my movements.

So why am I awake now?

Summer. Summer woke me.

I remember now, when he saw her in town only a day ago. I jolted awake at the sight of her. My consciousness flooded with memories—his memories. My desperate need for her awakened me, overwhelmed and revived me. That must be why he’s here; he must miss her as much as I do.

When we saw her, I pushed ahead for one second, seizing control of my body before he stopped me.

It was smart. If it were two seconds, there would have been mayhem. There would have been slaughter.

I close my eyes, reliving the memories that haunt me. The memories swirling in my head. The memories I can’t get rid of.

Blood. Tears. Carnage.

Witnessing my mother’s murder.

All the memories that made me realize I couldn’t handle living anymore.

A cool breeze hits my face, reminding me I’m no longer in that slumber. I was happy in the darkness; it was bliss there.

Now she’s awoken the monster.

I move out of the dark corner of her room and step toward her. I watched her for years this way, in the dark periphery of her life. Admiring her beauty while simultaneously dreaming of skinning her.

She likes to sleep in the dark, pitch black, like a baby, with her window open, inviting death inside her room.

She sleeps so soundly and looks peaceful, as if she doesn’t have a care in the world. As if she doesn’t have a fucking conscience because she’s such a fucking liar.

I admire the way her pale face blooms under the small stream of moonlight she captures with her beauty, causing her white hair to shimmer.

She appears frozen, as if there is no air flowing through her lungs. Yet, to me, in her vision of death, she’s never been more beautiful.

A knot forms in my stomach as her lungs expand. I resent her for simply breathing, for merely existing.

With a gentle movement, I lower myself and carefully trace my fingers an inch away from her face. The air is thick between us.

I’m familiar with every curve of her body, every dark expression she thinks no one else notices. For years, we lived in the crevices of her life, in the darkest parts she can’t see. We filled her soul, even if she didn’t realize it, filling her mind with poison.

I reach into my pocket, and a small, sharp object settles into my fingers. I can’t help but play with the blade, maneuvering it.

Blood blurs my vision.

I’ve been sneaking in here since she was young, always knowing deep down that I would eventually kill her. The desire is overpowering, surpassing my love for her. He is the only thing that kept me from slaughtering her.

He is the only reason she wasn’t completely and utterly soiled. He wouldn’t let me touch her until the end.

I relax and breathe, not letting him gain control, even as he tries to push to the front. We have awareness of each other when we confront—we always did. But when he was in full control, everything seemed darker. I was still there, watching as a separate entity, but I was paralyzed. I watched everything he ever did.

The day I went to sleep, I was in full control until that moment I let go, and since then, I have no recollection of anything.

But the sensation is different now. I sense him as if we are one, and I instinctively know what he wants me to do.

He may be stronger, smarter…ancient. But his fascination with her borderlines insanity, even more than mine. Tonight, he must have slipped because I have full control. For the first time in a very long time, I can breathe.

And I really fucking like it.

She takes shallow breaths, making the same sweet whimpers she always makes while asleep.

That moment seems like seconds ago, not the years I suspect have gone by.

I remember it vividly. For an entire hour, I couldn’t take my eyes off her while I was consumed by pain and anguish. After years of simmering anger, I reached a breaking point, and I needed to destroy her.

I covered her mouth and nose with my hand, her body jerking with each passing moment as I withheld oxygen from her lungs. I held it there, stifling those breaths with her body withering beneath me, waiting for her to die.

Eventually, her body slackened, and her hands reached for my face. Scraping, pulling and yanking the cloth mask. It wasn’t the frantic clawing one would expect someone to exert when they were dying.

She wanted to see me.

Her body and mind gave in to me, and my hand found her soft breast. I leaned down and brushed my lips against her, tickling her earlobe with my mask.

“Pretty girls shouldn’t sleep in the dark,” I had whispered. “It’s where the monsters hide.”

Her clawing hands froze, and her body stiffened in response. She didn’t move or scream, even though I could clearly see the whites of her eyes sparkling from the light in her window.

She stared right at me…for the first time, she could see me. My fractured essence manifested through her vision of my mask.

Her heart rate evened out. Not a single uptick in its beat as I enjoyed her soft, supple flesh under my fingers. All she could do was part her lips and stare at me, unblinking.

I pulled the blankets off, revealing her supple body. Her legs parted, allowing me to slide between them as she wrapped her thighs around me.

I fit into her like the last piece of a puzzle.

I leaned down and kissed her neck and nibbled on her earlobe. My hand drifted between her legs, and I slipped my fingers between the fabric of her underwear, teasing her clit before slowly removing her panties.

Her little cunt was dripping like I knew it would be.

I unzipped my pants, pressed my cock into her, and I fucked her slowly, lovingly. And I enjoyed how tight her pussy was as I worked my way into her.

Blood on the sheets afterward caused my heart and head to split. I’ve never seen anything so beautiful. I truly loved her.

That’s when I let go.

That’s when everything went dark.

I have no idea how long ago that was, but I can tell Summer is older now. Her face has matured, her tits are slightly bigger, her curves more defined.

Her life almost ended that night, but I’m thankful it didn’t. Because I prefer blood to asphyxiation, and when I kill her, I want there to be lots of blood.

My fingers run over her face, visions of her crystal blue eyes gouged out waking up the part of me society can’t handle.

I usually go for the eyes first, petrified and pretty. Eyes that cry. It’s what Shadowface did to all his victims, too.

Her breathing becomes shallow, and her body relaxes under my touch. She remains in a deep slumber, her body completely limp.

My hands slip to her breast and her nipples instantly tighten, and in her molten state, she moans like she missed it.

“Did you miss me, pretty girl?” I whisper.

Given she still sleeps with an open window, even after I defiled her, I would say she does.

My hand finds her cunt, my fingers slipping just inside her folds. She parts her lips and arches her back, but it’s not because she’s awake; it’s how her body always responds to me.

I keep pushing her until the muscles tighten around my fingers, and she finally lets go and squirts her juices all over my hand.

He must have given her something to keep her unconscious, which means she’s not in the semiconscious state I want her in.

The state where dreams seem real.

With my fingers deep inside her, I lean over her tight body. “I’m going to kill you soon, Summer.” I press a kiss on her cheek. “Sweet dreams, pretty girl.”

It’s a promise.

I smile at how easy it would be to take her—to slide my blade over her throat and move it up her ivory face until all she sees is the sharp shiny edge.

The pressure in my cock is too much to bear as it throbs to life thinking of how good that would be.

“Fuck,” I mutter as my erection presses hard against my pants. The frustration is nearly killing me.

God, I want to fuck her so badly.

I want to fuck her until she can’t breathe, and I drip every ounce of my cum deep inside her. I want to fuck her until she’s lifeless.

I reach into my pocket and pull out a phone—his phone.

I instinctively understand exactly what I need to do and the reason he was here in her room. I don’t know the code, but my face opens the screen easily enough. I open the camera and snap a photo. And for a moment, during the flash, I can see her clearly.

Her white hair is splayed out over her breasts, her angular face, the tiny dimple in her cheek. How pretty she is with an afterglow of the orgasm I just gave her.

I pull off my mask and place it over her head and take a few more photos.

My dick twinges at how peaceful she looks.

I’ve missed her. I haven’t touched her in a long time, but I can’t bring myself to kill her yet. She hasn’t experienced enough pain.

A cold dread settles in my soul. The pull of the other side of my psyche is undeniable, and I sense my time is drawing to a close.

In his eyes, I am powerless, barely a flicker of existence. A demon lurking in his mind. I am all of those things, but now that I’m back, I will grow stronger.

There is nothing he can do to stop me.

I step back and smile as I stare down at the pictures I just took of her. The millisecond it took for the light to flash, and now I have a memento I can look at forever.

Once I kill Summer, I’ll reap chaos in the town that ruined me. I am aware of who they all are that made me this way, and nothing will stop me from killing every single one of them.

It’s time to bring Shadowface back.