Kai #2
Then she shifts, just enough to lift her head. Her eyes are red, rimmed with shadows, her lips trembling as she looks up at me.
‘You shouldn’t be in here,’ she whispers, broken.
The words gut me.
I shake my head, but she presses on, her voice cracking. ‘I’m not your problem, Kai. You were right… we need to just be brother and sister.’
Her throat works like the words hurt, like they’re poison in her mouth, but she still says them.
Brother and sister.
The words rip through me, crueller than any blade. I can’t breathe for a second, can’t speak, can only stare at her face—wet, bruised by tears, the soft line of her mouth twisting as if she’s breaking in half just to give me the absolution she thinks I want.
And all I want to do is scream she’s wrong.
Her words are still echoing in my skull when I force myself to speak, low, rough, my thumb still stroking her damp cheek.
‘Scar,’ I whisper, ‘who touched you?’
Her eyes flicker, glassy, broken, and she shakes her head. ‘It doesn’t matter.’
‘It matters to me.’ My chest tightens, my voice harsher than I mean, but she only curls closer, like she can hide inside me.
I pull her tighter anyway, arms caging her, holding her against me as if keeping her here will fix it, will erase it. But when her wet eyes lift to mine again, the words that spill from her mouth make my blood run cold.
‘I can’t stop seeing it,’ she chokes, her lips trembling. ‘Feeling it. Kai… will you take it away?’
The world tilts. My body goes still, my breath frozen, because I don’t trust what she’s asking me. I don’t trust myself.
Tears slide down her cheeks, spilling into the hollow of my throat. Her hands fist my shirt like she’s drowning, like I’m her last air.
Then she whispers the words that shatter me clean in half.
‘Kai… please don’t be my brother right now.’ Her voice cracks, splinters. ‘Will you replace where he touched me? Take it away… burn it from my memory.’
My chest caves. My heart stops. And for the first time in my life, I don’t know if I’m strong enough to save her—or if she’s asking me to destroy us both.
The words hang between us, jagged and impossible, and my body goes rigid. Every muscle locks, my breath caught somewhere deep in my chest.
Please don’t be my brother right now.
It shreds through me, cuts deeper than anything she’s ever said.
Her eyes are wide, wet, pleading, searching my face like I’m the only answer that exists. Her fingers twist in my shirt, desperate, her whole body trembling against me.
And I can’t move.
‘Scar…’ My voice is raw, unsteady, my forehead pressing hard to hers as if the closeness will steady me. ‘You don’t know what you’re asking.’
Her breath hitches, a sob tearing out of her, shaking through both of us. ‘I do,’ she whispers. ‘I do know. I can’t carry it, Kai. I can’t. Please.’
My jaw clenches until it aches. My hands tremble where they hold her, one buried in her hair, the other pressed to the curve of her back.
Everything in me screams to give her what she wants, to take it away, to burn out every trace of whoever hurt her. But I can’t move. I can’t breathe.
Once I say yes, I’ll never come back.
Her hands fist tighter in my shirt, dragging me closer even as my whole body refuses to move. Her tears hit my skin, hot and endless, every one of them burning me alive.
‘Please, Kai,’ she sobs, her voice breaking apart. ‘Replace his touch. Replace his hands.’
My stomach caves, my grip trembling against her.
She lifts her face, wet, shattered, her words pouring out like a prayer she doesn’t care who hears. ‘Make me feel something other than this. Please… touch me.’
Her voice cracks on the last word, and it destroys me.
‘Scar…’ My throat burns, my chest heaving. ‘You don’t—’
‘I do.’ She cuts me off with a sob, shaking so hard I have to hold her tighter to keep her from falling apart completely. ‘Please, Kai. I can’t keep feeling him on me. I can’t stop seeing it. Just… burn it away. Make it yours instead.’
The plea guts me. My whole body goes still, my heart hammering like it’s about to tear through my ribs.
I press my forehead to hers, eyes squeezed shut, breath shaking out of me like I’m on the edge of a cliff with no ground beneath.
Because every word she cries into me is the one thing I swore I couldn’t give her—
and the one thing I’ve wanted more than air.
Her voice shreds me raw, every please digging deeper until I feel like I’m bleeding from the inside out. My hands cradle her face, my thumbs catching the endless flood of her tears, but I can’t move the way she wants me to.
‘Scar…’ My chest caves as I choke the words out. ‘I can’t. Ask me anything, anything else—but don’t ask me to do that.’
Her sobs tear through me, her body shaking against mine like she’s going to splinter if I let go. She grabs at me, desperate, dragging my shirt into her fists until the seams strain.
‘Please, Kai,’ she cries, her voice splintering. ‘Please take it away. I can’t carry it. I can’t—’
Her words dissolve into broken sobs, her head pressed hard against my chest. And I’m at war with myself—every instinct screaming to shield her, to burn out whatever filth he left on her, while another part of me clings to the last shred of control.
My jaw aches from how hard I’m clenching it. My hands shake as I cup the back of her head, rocking her even as my throat burns with the taste of her pleas.
Finally, my voice breaks, hoarse and guttural against her hair.
‘Where did he touch you, Scar?’
Her sobs falter, her body stiffening in my arms.
And my blood turns to ice.
For a long moment, she’s silent. The only sound is her sobs, jagged, breaking against my chest. I hold her tighter, waiting, praying she’ll give me something, anything.
Then she shakes her head hard, her wet hair sticking to her face. “I can’t,” she whispers, her voice wrecked. “I can’t tell you.”
My throat burns, rage and helplessness twisting together until I can barely breathe. “Scarlett—”
Before I can finish, she moves. Her small hand trembles as it slips down between us, closing over mine. And then she drags it lower, pressing it against her thigh.
My stomach lurches.
She pushes my hand higher, guiding it clumsily, mimicking the exact movements someone else made on her body. Her tears drip hot onto my skin as she chokes out a sob.
“This,” she whispers brokenly. “He—he touched me like this.”
My vision goes red. My fingers twitch under hers, wanting to tear away, wanting to burn the memory out of existence, but she keeps holding me there, forcing me to feel what she felt.
Her voice splinters as she pleads, the sound carving me in half. “Please, Kai… replace it. Please.”
I go still, my jaw locked, my chest heaving.
Because nothing in the world has ever destroyed me like this.
Her hand clamps over mine, pinning it against her thigh, dragging it higher in that broken mimicry. My body locks, every muscle taut, my breath sawing ragged through my teeth.
I should pull away. I should tear my hand back like it’s on fire. But I can’t.
I can feel her shaking. I can hear her sobs. And I know—this isn’t her wanting me. This is her trying to scrape him off her skin, trying to turn something foul into something else.
My hand trembles beneath hers, caught between rage and ruin. My chest heaves, heat flooding through me until I can barely see straight.
“Scarlett…” My voice is rough, strangled. “Don’t make me feel this. Don’t—”
She presses harder, her tears soaking through my shirt as she cries into me.
And I break.
My head bows against hers, my jaw grinding so hard it hurts, my whole body quaking. “I’ll kill him,” I whisper, the words guttural, ripped from somewhere deep. “I swear to God, I’ll fucking kill him.”
Her grip on my hand only tightens, her sobs sharper, rawer, like my rage is the only thing keeping her upright.
And I sit there, trembling, my hand burning where she holds it, torn between ripping free and swearing I’ll never let her go.
Her sobs rip through me, hot against my chest, her hand still clutching mine like she’ll never let go. And then she moves again.
Guides me higher.
My stomach lurches when she drags my hand between her thighs, pressing it against the seam of her jeans. The heat of her burns through the denim, her legs trembling around my wrist as she holds me there.
“Scar…” My voice breaks, shredded, my body stiff as stone.
She pushes harder, grinding me against herself like she’s desperate to erase him, desperate to drown in anything else. Her tears fall faster, wetting the back of my hand.
“Please,” she sobs, her voice cracking. “Please, Kai. Replace it. Burn it away. I can’t stand feeling him—just make it yours instead.”
Every nerve in my body shakes. My jaw aches from clenching, my chest splitting open with rage and something darker.
I should pull away. I should tear my hand free.
But I don’t.
Because her broken voice pins me harder than her hands ever could. And the way she shakes beneath my touch carves me open until all that’s left is ruin.
I tremble against her, breath ragged, forehead pressed to hers, whispering like it’s the only truth I have left.
“You don’t know what you’re asking, Scar.”
But my hand doesn’t move.
Her fingers clutch mine so tight they’re white at the knuckles, forcing me harder between her thighs. The denim bites against my hand, her heat searing through it, her whole body trembling against me.
She sobs, ragged and desperate, every word breaking apart on her lips. “Please, Kai… harder. Don’t stop. Just make it go away. Please. Please.”
Her hips jerk, helpless, grinding my hand against the seam of her jeans like she’s chasing something she can’t reach on her own. My pulse hammers in my ears, my throat raw as I try to hold on.
“Scar—” My voice fractures, useless.
She shakes her head violently, her wet hair sticking to her cheeks, her eyes wild when they meet mine. “I need you. I need this. Don’t let me keep feeling him. Take it away, Kai, I’m begging you—”