Eighteen
Callum
Was it a risk? Sure. But necessary. I followed her home for not only obvious reasons, but because I wasn’t entirely lying about the lurking monsters. But she doesn’t need to know that.
Not yet, anyway.
I’ll let her rest tonight. Who knows what she dreams about when I’m not invading. Making sure she’s safe and sound, it takes no time at all before she’s knocked out. No matter how much I would love to play, there’s some business that unfortunately can’t wait.
The playroom is still exactly how I left it. Stephan and all. Although enchanted metal shackles keep him confined to the chair, I would’ve thought he would try to escape.
Guess not.
Curious. He doesn’t stir when I enter. His head stays stationary, lulled forward.
Fucking pathetic.
I poke his head. Still nothing. For good measure, I rear my fist back and let it soar, the sound of bones cracking filling the empty space.
“Fuck!”
“Good morning, sunshine. Hope you slept well,” I say smugly.
“What the hell do you want?” His vocal cords strain, rubbing together like two pieces of sandpaper.
“Now, Stephan, is that any way to talk to your caretaker?” He lunges for me but only gets so far. “Ah, ah, ah. I am curious, though, what would you do—hypothetically, of course—if you got free?”
“I would tear you to shreds.”
“With what fingers?” I challenge maliciously. That shuts him up. Stephan’s severed fingers lay discarded beneath his chair, and he stares at them almost longingly.
“What’s the end game?” he asks. “Keep me locked here forever? Send me to the Forest of the Forgotten to finish out a life sentence? I mean, really, Callum, what are you doing?” I send a knife flying across the room, knowing it hit its mark by the grunt of pain.
“You don’t ask questions. You answer them.” Pulling up a chair, I push the blade deeper into his shoulder for good measure. “Answer correctly, and you’ll get food and water.” I gesture toward the table with a sandwich and bottled water. “Answer wrong…and let’s just say I have a lot more knives where that came from. Nod if you understand.” It takes a moment longer than I would like, but after stabbing one in his leg, he relents and agrees.
“Glad we came to an agreement.” Pulling up a chair, I make sure the glint from the blade is showcased before asking, “First question, why were you trailing Kallie Wilson?”
Morning came too soon. It was a long, bloody night. But if everything goes according to plan, I should be getting a well-deserved sleep very, very soon.
Waiting for Kallie outside of her astrology building, I’m already annoyed I have to attend this fucking joke of a place, but she’s late. Not completely out of the ordinary, but it still draws some concern.
My patience is running thin, and my concern grows larger, until I see her hustling across the courtyard. Consider my interest piqued. Keeping a safe distance, I stalk her like a hunter would its prey.
Fuck, I’ll never get used to the way she reacts when I’m near. Even if her mind doesn’t know, her body does. Like her soul recognizes mine while I lurk around the corner, igniting a flame inside that she’s oblivious to.
Unsurprisingly, she ends up at the gym. Guess I could’ve guessed that one. I stay and watch her, and after each victory, she looks unsatisfied—for her, anyway. I could watch her all day.
Seeing her like this makes me want to give her the world, run away, create something new just for us. But those weren’t the cards we were dealt. The universe has had the stars stacked against us from the beginning. We never stood a chance. In another life, things would be different, but this fight would have to be lost, only for us to survive in the next, and even then, the future is unclear.
After she’s finally done, Kallie steps out of the ring and downs cup after cup of water. Once she grabs her bag, I hang back a safe distance, ready to follow her home. However, before we get too far, I follow her to the dorm, she gets stopped by a girl who seems oddly familiar. I hang back and zero in on their conversation.
“Kallie?” the girl asks.
Turning around, Kallie looks at her in surprise. “Alex?”
“What a small world! How long have you been coming here?”
“Since I moved in,” Kallie answers warily. Her body language keeps me on edge for the duration of their talk, which thankfully, doesn’t last long, and I make a note to check up on who this Alex is.
The cool Maine air caresses her face, tracing over her limbs, goosebumps rising in its wake. My thoughts wander to places forbidden. Like how it would feel if it was my touch causing her body to have that reaction, what movements she would make under my control, what noises I could coax from her pretty little mouth.
Back in the courtyard, I wait to say anything until she pulls out her phone. “Didn’t see you in class today.” Her body stutters, and those emerald eyes swing to meet mine in shock.
Her expression turns furious. “What’s it to you if I skip class? What, we hang out one time—not planned, by the way—and you think you can keep tabs on me? Look out, Pennbrooke, we got ourselves a stage-five clinger!” She starts shouting, and I have to force my mouth shut, clenching my jaw so it doesn’t completely fall to the floor in utter surprise. My hand flashes forward, gripping her by the arm and hauling her into me.
“What the hell are you doing?” Her cheeks flush with embarrassment, looking anywhere except at me, trying to regain her composure.
“Stop sneaking up on me like that! Next time, I’ll put you on your ass.” I don’t even try to contain the smile that stretches from ear to ear, chuckling into the wind while shaking my head. “I would love to see you try.”
The unspoken truth lies between our battling stares, and it’s then I realize I could completely lose myself in her. Our eyes lace together, dancing in a perfect waltz, teetering on the edge of the eternal abyss that forebodes everything that comes our way.
After a few beats, she pulls her eyes away, sending me free-falling into the unknown. Her eyes bounce between me and where my hand is still firmly gripping her arm. Begrudgingly, I let go, wanting nothing more than to pull her closer and never let her go.
Without another word, she walks away, so I meet her stride for stride. “How about a jog tonight?” I suggest.
“Not interested.”
“I wasn’t really asking,” I clarify. Turning to face me, she looks dumbfounded.
“I don’t do well with being told what to do.” She crosses her arms over her chest, seemingly intimidating, but instead uses it as a shield. Some sort of armor to protect herself—from what exactly, I don’t know, but interesting nonetheless.
“Great, I’ll see you at eight.”
She looks at me like I’ve lost my damn mind. Maybe I have.
“Did you not listen to a thing I’ve said?” I try hard to keep my smirk at bay, but I lose the battle, and it slips.
“Oh, I listened, but I just don’t care. See you at eight, Princess, and if you think I won’t haul you out of your dorm room, kicking and screaming, you’re wrong.” I say those words as parting as I turn the other way. Her voice is like a symphony when it reaches my ears, a perfectly curated harmony of vibrations that sings only to a tune my soul would recognize as mine.
“You don’t even know what dorm I’m in!”
“Wanna bet?” I mumble to myself.
I stand outside her dorm building impatiently, constantly checking my watch, and with one minute left, I start to think I’ll have to hold up to my promise. Images of what state I would find her in play through my mind. Is she in bed? Jammies? No jammies? Possibly on the couch and just wearing a t-shirt, which would greatly test my restraint, and I’m not so sure I would be successful.
I imagine that she is sitting in the living room, watching one of those Gods-awful movies for the one billionth time while shoveling popcorn in her mouth. I think of her eyes growing wide to see me standing in her entryway before her and not knowing whether to run or stand her ground. Either would be great, but if she chose to run? I can hear the high pitch of her scream as I gain on her, wrapping my arm around her middle and laying her on the kitchen island, presenting myself with dessert.
Or how my gaze would rake down her near naked form as she gets up. With one move, I would have her pinned beneath me, withering under my touch, engraving her mind, body, and soul with the feel of me inside her. Tearing her panties off in one swift motion and plunge myself so deep inside her all she could see are the stars she so desperately wants to fly beneath.
Lust and want worms their way under my skin, and just when I’m about to barge in there, she steps out, causing the air to get stuck in my lungs. The sight of her standing in front of me causes every thought I just had to cloud my vision. Long raven locks tied into a high ponytail, begging to be pulled. The poor excuse of a shirt only covers her chest, exposing the toned lines of her stomach that’s normally hidden under baggy t-shirts. Her pants are skin tight, giving me a full outline of every dip of her legs and the curve of her ass.
Transfixed on the endless possibilities that could unfold between us, her voice barely registers in my head before I’m plunged back into reality.
“Hello? Earth to psycho.” Kallie snaps her fingers in front of my face, and before I can think about it, my hand strikes out, circling my fingers around her delicate wrist and twisting it away from me.
“Fuck! Let go!” she wails, bending her body back, attempting to ease the pain.
“Don’t snap at me.”
“Well, if you weren’t lost in fucking wonderland, I wouldn’t have to!”
Unclasping my fingers, her other hand immediately flies to her wrist, attempting to lessen the ache. Guilt sinks into the pit of my stomach. “Sorry,” I say in a sigh.
“You don’t seem very sorry,” she mutters under her breath.
“What was that?”
“Nothing. Are we doing this, or did you drag me away from Fast Five for nothing?” Wordlessly, I turn and start jogging into the woods, hiding my smile.
I fucking knew it.
Leaves and twigs crunch beneath us, and the moon shines through the tops of trees, casting a glow across Kallie’s face. She’s truly mesmerizing, unknowing of the deadliest parts of herself.
We’re approaching the same clearing as last night, never once stopping or speaking. It’s kind of nice, being in the presence of someone and just…being.
Once we’re past the brush, the trees outline the circular patch of grass, creating an open field with untapped potential. Reaching the middle, I slow and watch as Kallie throws herself to the ground, chest heaving with exhaustion.
“I can’t. Feel. My. Legs. Lungs. On. Fire,” she says between each breath.
I eye her inquisitively. “You know lying down is only going to make it worse.”
“Fuck. Off. Can’t. Stand.” Her eyes pinch together on the last word, and when they open, her breathing stops altogether as she stares into the sky.
Against my better judgment, I lie beside her, turning my head so all I can see are the stars’ reflection in her eyes as she stares up in awe.
“It’s truly amazing, isn’t it?” she asks.
“It really is,” I respond while keeping my gaze fixated on her. We stay like this for I don’t know how long, creatures of the night breaking up our silence every so often while I soak in the sight of her. I’ve never seen her so relaxed, so at peace with herself, and I would give anything to see her like this for the rest of eternity. Her breathing evens out, her eyes ricocheting across the starry sky, and a small grin plays on her lips. Then, out of nowhere, a single tear escapes the corner of her eye, getting lost in the soil beneath her.
“They started when I was sixteen,” she says, breaking the silence. “The nightmares.”
My body instantly goes rigid, stunned that she’s actually telling me. I don’t say anything, worried that I’ll break whatever bubble we’ve made for ourselves.
“They’re all relatively the same. I get lost in the woods, I’m chased, dragged, injured on the verge of death, and sometimes the pain is so real that I welcome it. I wish and pray that the Reaper will come and claim me to just make it stop.” More tears fall as she speaks, releasing everything she’s been bottling up inside. “Recently it’s gotten worse. Sometimes, I can’t tell what’s real or what I’m imagining. Last night while we were “playing”, visions came and went, and I was having an almost impossible time distinguishing fiction and reality. It was all starting to bleed together. Before you found me, I was terrified.” Finally, she looks at me. “And I have no idea how to stop it.” I lie there, stunned, not knowing what to say. I want to tell her everything, comfort her in a way I’ve never wanted to. Seeing her broken and helpless causes unknown emotions to surface within myself.
“Let it out,” I reply.
“Let it out?”
“That’s what I just said, yes,” I respond, standing, holding my hand out to hers. She takes it, the connection instantly sending a jolt through me. “Give me everything you’ve got, Princess,” is all I say while dropping her hand and stepping back a few feet.
“You want to spar? Here?” she asks, looking around, confused.
“Is that a problem?”
“I mean, what if someone gets hurt?”
Looking at the ground, I let out a chuckle. “I won’t hurt you, Princess. Let it out.”
“Let what out?!” she screams. Good. Get fired up. I want the flames. Burn me.
“Everything! All the bullshit, whatever has you so fucking scared all the time. Let out everything that has happened to you. All the anger, frustration, sadness. Tell me, what makes you hate the world so much?”
“I don’t hate the world,” she argues.
“You don’t? Could’ve fooled me. All the sulking and damaged pieces that you so flippantly discard like you’re trash.”
“Shut up, you don’t know me.”
“Come on, all those nightmares that make you feel so crazy. Hell, maybe you are crazy. What about Mommy and Daddy? Did they not love you enough?”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about!”
“But I do, Kallie. And you know I do. That’s why every word I say is getting under your skin. That’s why you’re itching to let me fucking have it. Well, go right ahead. This is your chance. Whatever it is, let it out!” And she does. A full-force blow hits me in the stomach, followed by a roundhouse kick to the side of my head.
“Shut up! Shut up!” she screams as she continues to wail on me, blow after blow. I block her right hook with my left hand and send a jab into her ribs. It doesn’t even faze her.
Brilliant.
Not missing a beat, she tries to kick my side, but I grab her by the ankle and twist, causing her body to turn and face away from me.
“Come on, Kallie. You have more than that. Let it out.”
“I am!” She flips forward, kicking me in the jaw as she completes her front flip, landing on her feet. She turns to face me, but I’m already behind her. Tapping on her shoulder, she swings around, but I’m not there anymore. “What the hell?” she mutters. “No, no, no.” Her hands grip onto her ears as she shakes her head. “This can’t be happening. Not again, please just make it stop!” she yells into the void.
This is it.
I tap her on the shoulder once more, but when she turns around, my hands clasp her upper arms, and when her eyes meet mine, she erupts , like a volcano that’s been dormant for a hundred years, reigniting and leaving nothing in its path.