Chapter 11
TRACE
Violence coils in my gut. The need for blood warps my vision as my desire for pain—anyone else’s or my own—cages me in just like the rough, warm hand that I had wrapped around Olivia’s throat moments ago.
I watch her now as she dusts herself off before she stands up from where I left her.
I like it a little too much, observing the way she rubs at the fingerprints I left around her neck, recalling the way she squirmed as I choked her up against the tree.
It gave me so much pleasure hearing her gasp for air as her eyes were rolling back.
Call me a monster, or a psycho or a fucking weirdo, but I revel in the way it feels to make someone succumb to my sadist tendencies. Olivia won’t be exempt from that even if I am here to save her.
I wasn’t always like this. I certainly never had to ask twice for anything I wanted and I had no problem showing my aggressiveness.
But I only transformed into a nightmare personified because why the hell not?
I took the pain I was gifted so generously and turned it into something worth suffering for.
So now, I am a man cut from the shadows, hungry for bloodshed, and forged by the need to watch people suffer simply because my darkness can’t be stemmed by anything other than inflicting pain.
And the prettiest one of all is going to feel my wrath because she’s the one who craves it the most.
I am not done with her tonight. Not by a long shot.
I keep my eyes trained on her figure as she throws her hair up into a ponytail—my little flower proving to me that she’s rather defiant.
She starts to weave in and out of the trees, trying to find her way back to the path acting as if she wasn’t writhing in beautiful agony against me while I threatened to haunt her.
And I will haunt her.
I’ve come back for revenge and though I have no doubt that I will succeed, I know that no matter what I won’t be leaving empty handed because I will be leaving with her.
The promise I made to her will prevail as my truth and I don’t care if I have to take her kicking and screaming and even more broken than she was when I found her.
But even so, when all is said and done here, she'll be free.
She'll understand her pain and her fear a lot better, and she'll accept herself as one thing and one thing only . . . mine.
“Don’t you think you took that just a little too far?” I look over my shoulder to see Sage taking off the yellow mask, one that mimics my own. He pinches his fingers together, leaving little space between them to display just how little too far he thinks I went.
I don’t face him completely when I answer him.
“I don’t recall asking you for your fucking opinion,” I spit out before walking over to the next set of trees, making sure I don’t lose sight of Olivia as she starts to disappear down the path that’ll take her to where everyone is gathering for the next big event of the night.
“I’m just saying. I’m all for the cause and all but you do know she lost her memory of that night and you took-”
I turn and charge, pinning Sage up against a tree with my forearm to hold him down at his chest. He rolls his eyes with his hands up in defense as Evrin chuckles a few feet back.
“Should have kept your mouth shut,” Evrin sing-songs to Sage who starts to relax under my hold.
“Oh, stay out of this. Not my fault that you’re TK’s favorite.”
I don’t hate the guy, but I smirk knowing damn well that my choice to let Sage tag along was not really my choice.
I only did it to keep Ev happy and to have as many eyes as I can tonight knowing I wasn’t going to be able to have my sights everywhere this weekend.
I gave each of them someone to watch, keeping tabs on whereabouts and actions while I devise a plan.
While they are here with me, giving me their loyalty and doing what I say, this is all my doing.
I’m the one with the agenda, I have the need for revenge and if everything goes according to the plan, this weekend I will end in bloodshed. Lots of it.
The guys only know what I want them to know, because even though I have high doubts that they should be on my hit list, I don’t trust anyone.
They also know that what I do with my little flower is none of their fucking business and should keep their mouth shut when it comes to what my plans are with her.
And of course, I know she lost her memory.
I remember how it was the talk of the town the week following everything that had happened.
People were saying that she was guilty because of it, that she pretended to not remember so she wouldn’t have to lie.
I don’t know exactly what she’s forgotten and what she can still recall from that night.
But I have inside information that no one else has.
And I’m going to unveil the truth, I just have to find the right time.
I have to wait for her to realize what she’s forgotten.
“Can you let me down now, Loverboy?” Sage huffs behind strangled words, seeing as I’m assisting in the lack of his ability to breathe. But he pissed me off which is not a good thing to do when I’m already on edge.
“Think I might just push a little harder-” I press my arm into his chest, pinching his body between mine and the tree. “Don’t fucking question me again, got it?”
The glow of my teal mask positioned on top of my head illuminates in his blue eyes as I watch him tighten his lips and stare at me. I let up, dropping him from the position and he sucks in air.
“Not too rough on him, TK. The only marks I want on his back are mine.” Evrin walks over to Sage and grabs him by the throat, removing his mask before pulling him in for a kiss.
“You two have your own fucking cabin, you know?” I roll my eyes. “Go fuck around there.”
“Don’t be jealous, T. You’re not the only one who gets to have a little fun. Just because you can’t act out whatever fucked up fantasy your sadistic mind has developed,” Sage says with a chuckle.
I scoff. “It’s not my fantasy.”
“Oh, yeah? Then whose fantasy is it?”
I turn my back to them, facing the path that Olivia has since vanished from, lowering my voice as if projecting the threat in my tone to her. “It’s hers.”
“How would you know that?” Evrin joins the conversation, and normally he has half the mind not to ask stupid fucking questions that are none of his business, but I guess this weekend we’re all prone to do something that can get us into a little trouble.
“I just know,” I respond, not wanting to divulge the source of my knowledge. That remains a secret between me and Olivia. A secret that she doesn’t even know I’m aware of and one of many of hers that I am keeping.
Sage chuckles again before Ev crowds him one more.
“And what about you, little one?” Evrin swipes his finger across Sage’s chin.
“What about me?”
“You think you’d like getting chased through the forest?”
“I don’t know, let’s find out.” Sage places the mask back over his head—the one I reluctantly let him borrow just for the weekend—before taking off behind the trees. Evrin tilts his head as he watches him disappear and after a silent count in his head, he chases after him into the darkness.
I walk further along the edge of the path, closer to where Olivia disappeared.
The warmth of her body against mine still lingers on me—my dick twitches recalling just how afraid she was.
Though, she pretended like she had nothing to fear.
I guess being afraid of something and having a fear are two different things though.
I want her to fear me.
I don’t wait to see if Ev and Sage will make their way back, instead I keep walking the path that Olivia took, needing to have eyes on her once more.
I’ve been watching Olivia for quite some time now—watching the whole town in fact—and I’ve waited even longer for this moment.
But fuck, this girl is dangerous. I never anticipated just how fucking soft I’d be for her sweet gasps and her pretty fucking skin.
Though, she’s not the precious little flower I once knew all those years ago.
Granted, she is still just as fucking addicting as she’s always been. Maybe even more so.
I saw her when she grabbed Borden by the neck.
Fuck, it hardened me; turned me on so bad that I almost came in my pants like a fucking teenage boy.
But I stayed and watched, lurking behind the trees.
She can take care of herself I see and it makes me very fucking proud.
But the only one she truly has to worry about protecting herself from is me.
Whatever demons she hides from, whatever dark secrets she keeps locked up, I am worse.
And she’s going to succumb to my darkness just to unleash her own.
As I approach the clearing where everyone seems to be gathering for the movie, I make sure to stay out of sight, looking around to find anything suspicious. But so far, other than the one person I already plan to visit later, everyone seems to be acting normal.
I walk around the edges of the now crowded clearing. Everyone starts to find seats on the ground and on logs, laying out blankets and handing out popcorn to their friends. And as I look around, finding that everyone is completely oblivious that there is a killer amongst them, I see her.
I can tell she’s not really digging the crowd.
She never really was one to want to be caught up in large groups, always wandering from the path to go revel in her own world.
And though I can tell that some things have stayed the same with her over the years, my little flower seems to have found new ways to grow into herself.
Her new hair color, for one, is my favorite.
It was dark brown back then and I know that she dyed it pink shortly after the deaths had happened.
Part of me wants to ask her why, to shatter her walls and find out what darkness she’s hiding behind such a vibrant change, but the other part of me only wants to know how it looks wrapped around my fucking hand.
She also never used to wear makeup back then and I don’t know what I find more attractive, her thick lips when they were bare and plush or the dark wine coloring she’s painted them tonight.
Either way I’ve missed her fucking mouth.
I almost lost my control back there and pressed my lips to hers, needing to feel them more than I could take.
But I was able to maintain my composure. Thank god the mask was in the way.
And her body. Goddamn, she has a beautiful fucking body.
I am going to prove just how much of a mad man I’ve become by breaking the bones of anyone who dares to touch her.
Her soft fucking thighs and her heavy breasts.
And when she dug her fingers into my thigh, pressing her rings into my skin, I almost fucking exploded. She felt irrefutably like mine.
I’ll admit, knowing that she kept those rings did something to me that I refuse to let fester.
It was a stupid, pointless gesture back then—having them custom made and gifting them to her shortly after I saw some slime ball attempt to grope her ass.
I paid him a visit that night, of course, and made sure he couldn’t fucking breathe out of nose anymore.
But I needed to make sure she had something with her at all times to protect herself.
So I gave her the barbed wire rings. They’re little but they’re mighty, just like her.
Though, her trying to get a rise out of me with them might have made my dick weep just a little bit, it only angered me more.
Reminding me of just how fucking foolish I was for allowing myself to fall for her only for her to tear me to pieces.
She’s a divine drug wrapped up in sugar and steeped in wicked desire.
And fuck, I bet she begs just as pretty as she looks.
I watch Olivia closely as she steps over a few logs, the slit in her skirt falling open as she lifts her leg and I have to hold back the territorial thoughts that grow.
I follow her with my eyes as she looks around, and she must see what I see, her friend Alli cuddled up next to Banks which is exactly where I want them.
I want Liv as free as possible while we’re here, nothing to get in my way. I want her to myself.
I observe her as she turns to find a spot to sit by herself. But before she does, she looks toward the sky to make sure that she’s under the protection of the tarps that are tied between the high points of tree branches to prevent any snow from falling into the space below.
I notice Jensen from the corner of my eye, peering at her even as he’s surrounded by a group of girls.
He’s fucking lucky I didn’t slam his fucking head in for doing what he did to Olivia earlier.
I wanted to intervene but instead, I watched her handle herself, knowing that my time with him will come.
I get angry even thinking about him touching her.
How she just fucking let him. Witnessing her breaking up with him a few weeks ago felt like fucking Christmas but it angered me that it came so late.
I don’t get jealous. I’m territorial. And I was this fucking close to wreaking havoc on him just to prove a point.
She was never his to begin with. How could she have been when she was already claimed?
I step around one tree and dip down behind another, working my way closer to where she sits. It’s still too loud for any of my movements to be heard. But I know that I have to be patient, and when the time is right, I’ll make my move.
My mask still sits on my head, lights turned off so that I don’t pull attention my way, wanting to stick to the shadows. Not that I truly care if anyone sees me, but I don’t want them to know that I see them.
So I crouch down; watching. Just like I have been for months, hell, even years; waiting for this moment.
This weekend, I will enact a little chaos, inflicting pain on those who have no idea what it truly means to suffer.
I will clear the guilt from others, and I will obliterate those responsible for what was done to my little sister.