CHAPTER 27
Sleep avoided us. Consumed by each other’s burning desire, the mere thought of letting go seemed wrong. Hands traced every inch of our bodies throughout the darkness in some endless ecstasy.
Finding each other again and again, it wasn’t until the sun spilt through the curtains that we realised.
Lying in silence, her arm draped across my stomach, her cheek resting against my ribs. My fingers traced patterns across her back, gliding over my own animalistic marks I’d left on her skin.
I didn’t move. Something in me was afraid that if I so much as breathed wrong, she’d disappear like the whole thing would turn out to be another twisted dream I’d manufactured to torture myself with.
Her pleasure-filled moans were still replaying in my mind, my hands still gripping onto her thighs. I could feel the scratches on my back like a signature she’d carved into me. For a second, I could’ve sworn the darker voice in my head let out a satisfied hum.
The room smelled like us, clinging to the morning air.
The sheets half kicked off and twisted around our legs.
Taking a deep inhale, she moved her head over to the pillow beside me.
My gaze followed her, a smile tugging at my lips as I shifted my weight to face her.
No words were spoken between us as she studied my face, maybe fighting against her own urges to speak.
Pulling myself closer to her, I rest my forehead against hers, contentment washing over me. God, I can't get enough of this girl.
Her hand drifted down my neck, resting on my chest as I tenderly pressed my lips to hers. Lingering on the touch, unwilling to pull away from her. She was irresistible.
After a moment, I dragged a hand over my face and sat up, pressing the heel of my palm to my eyes. What now?
There was no plan for after. Only the desire and that burning pull. My heart was still thudding stupidly hard. But not with panic or anger.
With… something else.
I stood and headed for the bathroom, glancing at her with a subtle smile as she pulled the sheets higher.
I stepped in, flicked on the light, and caught my reflection in the mirror.
Scratched and bruised in places, jaw swollen where she’d bitten…
hard. A dark patch at my throat where her mouth had lingered too long.
Biting down on my bottom lip to feel my reminder.
I ran a hand through my hair, stared at myself for a beat longer, then turned the light off and stepped back into the bedroom.
Her arm reaching towards the smokes on my bedside table, the sheets clinging to her frame.
I could feel my instant heat for her rush through me as I walked over to the bed, positioning myself over her back, locking her in place.
I leaned into her ear, “What do you think you're doing?” I said with a playful smirk on my lips.
She ignored my question, slipping out a cigarette and placing it between her lips.
Smoke curled around us as she took in a deep drag.
My lips find her shoulder, grazing them against the softness of her skin.
A flicker of a response, a subtle shift I couldn’t quite read, but before she could say anything, my phone exploded in the pocket of my jeans.
Our attention snapped to the floor as I shifted, pulling it out, seeing Squeeks’ name on the screen, and frowned.
I picked up, pressing the phone to my ear with a sigh.
“Squeeks, this really isn’t the time.” But the sound that answered wasn’t her ordinary voice—crying, frantic breaths. A stutter of words, overlapping and panicked.
“Ty? Ty, please … I don’t know what to do …
I’m in the bathroom … Danny’s lost it … he’s …
. he’s gone fucking mental!” Her voice was filled with pure terror through the static, so raw it punched the breath out of me.
My eyes widened as I looked at a now confused Misfit.
A loud crash sounded down the line as Squeeks screamed, something heavy slamming against a door.
He was trying to get to her, Danny’s voice, distant but unmistakable, roaring to her through the door.
“Open the fucking door, Squeeks! Don’t you fucking hide from me!” My blood ran cold.
“Squeeks?! Stay in the bathroom, ok. Do you hear me? Keep the fucking door locked! I’m on my way.” Misfit was reading everything from my expression before I even had to say anything.
“Call the police please! I don’t know what to do, Mum's out there! He’s not right … he’s not right in the head … he said he’d … he said he’d kill me Ty!”
The call suddenly cut out.
“Fuck!” I nearly threw the phone across the room. My heart was a war drum, hammering in my ears. Misfit’s brows creased as she looked at my shocked expression.
“What happened?” She asked, her voice deadly calm.
“Danny’s lost it. He’s gone for Squeeks. She’s locked herself in the bathroom. She … she sounded…” I didn’t finish, just hurried around the room pulling on my clothes.
Misfit’s eyes darkened, “Let’s go.” I didn’t argue. Didn’t hesitate. Flying out the door quicker than my legs could keep up with, our bodies hurled into the car. The tyres letting off smoke along the road as I set off at speed.
I barely remember the drive there, my eyes darting to my phone as I tried to call Squeeks back. My own anger clouded my concentration as I nearly drove straight into another car.
“Give me the phone,” Misfit demanded, snatching it from my hand.
Putting it on loudspeaker as it rang to the answering machine each time.
The tyres screamed as I swerved into the curb outside the house, the engine barely cut before I was out, door slamming behind me.
The shouting punched through the walls, Danny’s voice unhinged and monstrous.
I could already hear him, along with high, terrified sobs layered beneath it. Squeeks!
“Shit, shit, shit!” I sprinted to the front door, shouldered it open so hard it cracked against the wall, the entire house vibrating with noise. Misfit was right behind me, her boots pounding across the pavement. I froze in place, eyes frantically scanning the space.
“I’ll fucking kill you, Squeeks!” Danny’s voice ripped through the air like a jagged blade, bouncing off the walls, sick with rage.
Then I saw it. A smear, thick and dark weaving up the stairs towards the noise.
Was that blood? Who’s fucking blood was that?
My lungs locked as realisation hit like a train.
My voice was barely a whisper as I set out towards the stairs at pace.
“No!” Two stairs at a time, slipping once, catching myself on the handrail as my eyes followed the trail. It led up to the landing. A gory, bloodied hand smear streaked the faded wallpaper, and there at the top was a shape crumpled in the hallway. My breath left me all at once.
“Mum …?” I staggered forward. Her body lay face down, limbs twisted unnaturally, blood pooling out from beneath her head like a grotesque halo.
Danny's thundering continued, but the sound drifted into a dull numbness as I dropped to my knees beside her, hands trembling as they hovered over her back. I couldn’t touch her.
Couldn’t bring myself to. She looked… she looked like she might still move.
Any second. Maybe she’d turn over and mutter something under her breath, scold me for getting involved like she always would.
But she didn’t. The blood was everywhere.
Thick, dark. Already drying around her fingers, in her hair.
Her eyes were still open. And I just sat there.
Breathing shallow, as if I breathed too deeply, it’d all become real.
From down the hall, Danny’s voice punched through the static in my head.
“You’re dead! You fucking whore!” The door rattled violently under his fists. The kind of fury that makes your skin crawl. Then something broke through the noise. A touch. Not rough, not forcing, just… steady. Misfit’s hand, firm on my shoulder. Her voice was low and close to my ear.
“Screech.” It didn’t feel real. Nothing did.
But that pressure anchored me, made me realise I wasn’t floating.
“There’s nothing we can do for her now.” Her words hit like a hammer.
I still couldn’t look away. My mum. Gone.
Just like that. Gone. My body hadn’t even begun to process it yet.
I was a statue carved out of grief. And Danny’s voice, that constant, hateful roar from down the hall, kept snapping through the dullness like lightning.
Misfit was beside me now. Solid and unflinching.
“Screech, Screech, listen to me,” she said again, firmer this time, like she was dragging me up from underwater.
I wanted to stay down there. Wanted to drown in it.
But her voice wouldn’t let me. Then she was in front of me.
Fingers on my face, guiding my eyes away from the body on the floor and up towards her.
Her grip was careful, but commanding, and I finally looked at her.
The world started tilting back into focus.
“If we can get him away from that door, even for a second, you can get her out.” Her words cutting through the fog.
Squeeks. She was still in there. Still alive. And he was going to kill her if we didn’t do something.
“I’ll create a distraction. Something that will draw him out, or at least away from the bathroom door.
” Misfit whispered. “You need to be ready. The second he moves, you get to that door, get Squeeks, and get out. You understand?” She pressed her thumb into my cheek, grounding me once more.
I blinked. Once. Twice. I didn’t trust my voice yet.