Game Over (Kiss Me Like You Love Me #3)

Prologue Neil

Prologue

“Nothing can save you from the monsters.

Not love, not the power of the stars, not even fairy dust.”

Neil

It was the twenty-fifth of November.

Rain pattered on the windows.

Mom still hadn’t come back from work, and she’d called to let Kimberly know she’d be late.

My babysitter had then decided to take a shower and left me alone for a few moments.

As soon as she left, I thought, It’s all up to me.

I had to save myself and stop the woman who had been hurting me for a year at that point.

So, naked and covered in sweat, I got up off the couch.

The irritation around my genitals made me grimace in pain.

But I tried not to dwell on it because I had a concrete goal: Get to the phone.

The sound of running water from the bathroom meant I still had some time left in which to act.

I screwed up all my courage and grabbed the phone to call 911.

Trembling in fear, I felt tears building up in the corners of my eyes. I swiped them rapidly with the backs of my hands and waited for the operator to pick up.

“Nine-one-one, what is your emergency?”

I sucked in a breath at the sound of the man’s stern voice and spoke, despite my fear.

“I’m at home alone. My parents aren’t here.

There’s a woman here with me. She’s hurting me…

She does things to me that she’s not supposed to do.

I-I… Please help me…” It all came out in one terrified breath, and then I heard Kimberly calling for me.

My eyes bulged, and I immediately hung up, running back to the couch so she wouldn’t get suspicious.

She wanted to play with me again. This time, though, would be the last time.

“Neil.” Kim strode toward me wrapped in a white bathrobe.

“Go wait for me down in the basement with Megan,” she ordered, and I hesitated.

For a moment, I’d forgotten entirely about the little girl downstairs.

“What are you waiting for? Get a move on!” I flinched when she yelled at me but got up from the couch and crouched down to pick up my underwear.

She came closer to me, though, and I froze.

“No, don’t get your clothes back on.” She gave me an impish grin and stepped aside, gesturing for me to go past her.

I just nodded and, shaking, went down to the basement.

It was cold down there, and the cold seemed to sink inside my skin. The light was dim, and there wasn’t a lot of furniture down there. Immediately, my attention was caught by Megan’s sobs. She was naked as well, standing in front of a camera.

I was just a boy, but I had known for a while what Kim had in mind.

“Neil…” Megan moved cautiously toward me, one arm clasped over her chest, though I wasn’t looking at her naked body. “What is she going to make us do?” She wiped away a tear with the back of her hand and stroked her long black hair compulsively.

“I don’t know.” I lied so as not to scare her. “But I called the police. All we have to do is pretend for a little while,” I whispered to her as I cast a furtive glance back up the stairs to see if Kim was coming down.

“The police?” Megan managed. “Do you think they’ll…come here?” She blinked in bewilderment.

“Of course.” But I wasn’t sure, actually. I hadn’t even had time to tell them my address. I prayed, though, that somehow the man on the phone would be able to get here and rescue us.

“I think they’re ready, but I’ll try it and see.” I heard Kimberly’s voice and then the sound of the door shutting. She was on the phone. Megan hid behind me, and I tried to be strong for her. “I understand that the buyers are getting impatient, Ryan, but Neil is still too unruly…”

Kim began to walk down the stairs. Her shadow crept ominously along the dimly lit wall.

As she advanced on us, her shadowy silhouette looked more and more like some skulking monster.

“Yeah, okay. I’ll remember. I have to go now.

I’ll call you back later,” she said testily before hanging up the phone.

When she got down to the last steps, I could see she’d gotten dressed in a basic pair of jeans and a sweater. She tucked her phone into her back pocket and approached us before sitting down in a wooden chair. Never once did she take her eyes off our bodies.

“Christ, look how pathetic you are. Why are you shaking?” Kim crossed one leg over the other and sighed in irritation. “Megan, stand over there next to Neil and stop blubbering. Ryan’s coming to pick you up in an hour, and he’ll be very angry if he finds out you weren’t minding me,” she snapped.

The little girl came over by my side, her eyes downcast and her legs clenched tightly together. Kimberly was silent for a few moments before bursting into laughter, flinging her blond hair over one shoulder. I could never predict her mood swings, and I suspected that she was crazy as well as evil.

“I don’t know what to do with you two. Each of you is worse than the other one.

” She shook her head, pinching the bridge of her nose.

“Ryan and I taught you all of this for one specific purpose,” she continued.

“And today is the day you’re going to put it all into practice.

So quit wasting my time,” she barked irritably before stretching out an arm to turn on the camcorder.

The bright light blinded me immediately.

I covered my eye with one hand, the other still between my legs.

Megan hid herself behind me and started crying again, which annoyed Kimberly. She got up with a huff.

“All we’re doing is making a movie,” she explained, putting her hands on her hips. “And you two are going to be the main characters. You’ll play Peter and Wendy. It’s nothing to be afraid of.” She waved a lazy hand through the air before sitting back down.

“Now, Neil,” she called out again, her voice so hard that it made me flinch. “Show Megan how you love a woman,” she ordered.

I turned to look at the little girl then, and she shied away from me, afraid.

I knew what my babysitter wanted me to do to Megan, but I couldn’t bring myself to act like Kimberly.

“Do it or I go to Logan’s room. Your choice,” she added severely. I swallowed hard. Just the idea of her abusing my brother the way she had done to me was horrifying. But I turned to look into her glacial eyes and shook my head slowly, showing her clearly that I wasn’t going to do as she said.

“What the fuck is your problem, you little shit? Give her a kiss! Now!” Kim leaped to her feet but then frowned when she heard rapid footsteps on the floor above us.

It sounded like someone was running through the kitchen.

“Be quiet!” she whispered to me. Freezing in place as I approached the stairs, my eyes locked on the closed door at the top of them.

My heart began to pound in my chest; I staggered back a few steps when someone kicked the door down.

Kimberly gasped as two police officers came barreling down the stairs, weapons pointed right at her.

“Hands up!” The first one yelled while the other looked uncomprehendingly at the camcorder and then at Megan and me.

I felt an instinctive shame and a need to hide, so I backed into the corner and tucked my knees up against my chest to cover my body. Megan took refuge behind an old sofa, bursting into full-on sobs.

“Christ…” one of the officers muttered, running a hand over his shocked face.

“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you,” one officer recited, handcuffing an unresisting Kimberly, who just smiled mockingly in return.

Then she turned to look at me and appeared to realize in that moment that I had been the one who called the police. Her bright eyes went stormy, her lips curled into a sly, plastic grin, and her blond hair tumbled back over her shoulders as the officer forced her to walk.

All at once, her expression shifted, and her face became such a twisted mask of rage that I froze, staring at her, unable to react.

I felt nothing. I didn’t cry.

I couldn’t understand that it was truly over.

The child-eating witch was walking away from me wearing handcuffs, cloaked in her sins and perversions.

She was going to pay for the things she’d done, and I would never see her again.

The memory of her, however, would stay on me, indelible as a tattoo.

No one was going to be able to give my destroyed childhood back to me.

I’d ended the war that Kimberly started, but nothing would ever be like it had been before.

I wasn’t a child anymore.

I was a monster, made by another human’s wrongs.

A monster made by Kimberly Bennett’s wrongs.