19. Chapter 19 #2
This was a setup, a trap in the making of a twisted mind.
She baited me, grabbed me, knowing I’d protect myself after years of being conditioned by the military—self-preservation and all that.
What better way to punish me than to punish her.
Some things are not meant to be forgiven and putting my hand on her is high on the list.
Her grip tightens again, whipping me around and tearing strands from their follicles, my lips part.
Busted.
Bloody.
Pleading through the sound of her name rolling off my tongue.
Sadie
“Let me out! Let him go!”
My balled fists bang on the inside of my cell door, its hollow-metallic boom rattles my nerves, not phasing Kate in the slightest. Again, I swing my arms, crashing my already throbbing hands over and over against the door, screaming for her to stop.
She tossed me in here just to torment me as she attacks him.
All I can do is listen—hear shared thoughts boiling in our head as she wars with Elias.
I can’t explain how it feels to know he’s right on the other side of the veil, so fucking close, ready to pluck me out of this prison and bring me home.
But he can’t reach me. The darkness is too vast. Too thick for him to stab his arm through it, drag me to safety, and breathe life back into my deflated lungs.
Still, I cry for him. My roughened throat constricts with the rusty prongs of barbed wire hooked through my skin.
I can’t give up. If I’m loud enough, persistent enough, Kate will get annoyed and retreat—I hope.
Her anger for me will override the pleasure she gets from hurting Elias and she will throw me out.
Metal will whine beneath the pressure of her fury, free me from my cell, and cast me out of the daunting prison we share.
I’ll be left to fend for myself but I’ll take it over captivity.
On my own, scampering to safety, the witch will still be in control. If she ever lets me go, it won’t be for long. She’ll haunt me, mimic everything about me, and poison my world.
“P…please, Kate!” I choke.
The pathetic plea forms knots of webbing inside of my throat before the tickle of thousands of legs inch up and clamor out of my gasping mouth.
Hundreds of spiders skitter, jump, and tumble down my chin—gagging on their tiny bodies.
Several more patter across my face before diving into my hair, their webbing blending with the near-white strands.
I…can’t. I can’t get them off, they’re everywhere, swarming high and low, blanketing every inch of me. With a violent jerk, my body whips side to side, trying to fling them off with all my force.
Why won’t they come off?
Why won’t they just…leave me alone!
I’m only a girl, I…I didn’t do anything. I only wanted friends, to be seen, and loved, and I…
“Kate…please,” I beg, my knees crash to the floor.
Loose wiry strands of hair fall to the sides of my face, my head too heavy to hold up anymore. The tattered curtain of platinum, speckled with eight-legged demons rooting to nest, is my last remaining shield as I stop.
Tired.
So, fucking, tired.
I don’t know how much longer I can do this.
Closing my eyes, Kate and Elias still struggle beyond the edges of my vision as my voice breaks.
“’Lias…p—please help.”
Elias
I hate this bitch.
Hate’s a strong word, I know, but it’s the briefest description of the pure disdain and abhorrence I have for the witch.
Glaring into her pitiless eyes, waiting for whatever the hell she has to say, I know my girl is being tortured somewhere inside their shared mind.
Her body’s exhausted from the scuffle. My handprint’s a blinding red and darkening. We can’t keep going on like this. Kate might have unlimited energy but Sadie doesn’t, and she won’t be able to take much more before crashing.
My knees complain under me the longer I kneel here on this dark unforgiving floor, waiting for her to make her fucking move. I wish the refusing wretch would die and never come back.
Every breath I suck in scorches the inside of my ribs, forcing my chest up and down, matching her labored ones.
“T… The fuck do you want, Kate?” I ask, ready to give her whatever the hell it is as long as this hostage situation comes to an end.
Chilled air floods the room, coating my heated skin in a glaze of invisible ice mirroring the foul sneer stretching across her face.
One foot lifts and takes a step closer, lips I’ve not kissed near enough part for her tongue to meander past them.
It coils and rolls along the sharp edges of her teeth, feeling the points.
Then hot, sticky, saliva smears up the side of my face in one long provoking pass. Inch after inch Kate marks my skin, branding me, swiping her claim straight to the soul as if I will become hers on the day I cross over from this life to the next.
“You’re good for her,” Kate croons. “And we can’t have that.”
My violence is controlled, usually.
Right this moment? Her veiled threat has me teeming with renewed energy and on the verge of volatility.
Maybe Sadie was right this whole time; perhaps we can’t do this. That being around one another causes her riders to act more aggressively, and not to just herself. For the past few months, since I showed up persistently in her life, that’s all she’s done—deteriorate.
Explains why my platinum-haired ghost stopped contact after moving away from her parents and isolated herself near school.
Fuck.
FUCK.
I never listened. Didn’t take her words for truth and backed off. Now here we are, getting worse every time we’re around one another. And Kace? He trusted me to keep her safe. Not to get close or throw a wrench into her already insane life.
At her feet, after pushing me away for years, I’m begging for invisible forces to let Sadie go when I could have prevented this all along.
If I had just kept my goddamn distance. Seeing it all for what it’s worth, I hope it’s not too late to fix it.
To save her before she’s so far gone out to sea the waves swallow the sight of her and the current pulls her down.
How the fuck do you let someone like her go? What if I can’t? I’ve become attached, obsessed with her. She snaked her way into my chest, poisoned my heart with all the ways that make her beautiful, and set me up for failure.
Greed is ugly.
Can I sacrifice the both of us to right the wrong?
I’ll put myself in front of a bullet for this woman. Trade places with her at the guillotine. I’ll cut her free from the stake and set myself on fire for her to feel the soft blades of grass under her bare feet. I’ll throw every bit of myself into the pits of hell to save her.
Even if that means abandoning the girl I love.
Swallowing my pride—my guilt—I hold Kate’s nauseous stare and let misery thrust between my ribs.
“What are you going to do about it then, witch?”
Kate’s face contorts into a sneer, her uncanny laugh echoes around us soon after, filling the dimly lit living room. Its foreboding tone sends a chill racing up my spine.
Releasing my hair, her arm pitches backward. In an instant, my vision blackens when her knuckles crack against my temple.