My fingers tangle in his hair as I pull him closer, savoring this while I can. There’s no telling when he’ll be back.
He laughs when he tries to break the kiss, only to be pulled back down by me. Unfortunately, his phone rings again, and I’m forced to let go.
This time it’s a text, and he reads whatever it says. He puts it away, his face expressionless as he looks up at me.
“I’ll take you on another date soon. And another. And another. I’ll make all this worth it. I’ll also be back here tomorrow. And the next day. And the next. It’s not much, but right now—”
“Stop acting like you’re not enough,” I tell him, kissing him again.
I want to tell him he’s too good for me.
I want to beg him to save my soul from damnation.
I want to plead with some powers above to take away the pain that drives me…
To let karma step in and handle the rest.
But I’m the only reckoning there will be.
“Scream for me, little Victoria. Scream loud.”
“Always knew you were a little whore.”
“Hold her down!” Kyle says, laughing as I struggle in vain, holding back the sob on the tip of my tongue, refusing to let them see me break.
“Leave her alone!” Marcus cries from behind me, and my heart clenches as excruciating pain slices through my body.
“Open your eyes, sweetheart. You don’t want to miss this.”
“Do it, Marcus. Do it or we’ll make it so you never do it again.”
Hours and hours and hours of taunts. The night I should have died is forever seared into my memory. Their sins stained my soul with so much darkness that their deaths are needed to cleanse me.
To make me feel whole again.
I need to replace their taunts and evil laughter with the sounds of their screams.
I sleep better with each new scream I get to add. The screams override the scent of their breath, the strikes of their hands, and their dirty, disgusting fingers.
They’ll never hurt anyone else. Even if they rise from the dead, they lost their tools of pain.
The rest will join them soon enough.
I can’t stop now.
Not even for Logan.
Chapter 6
The superior man is modest in his speech, but exceeds in his actions.
—Confucius
LOGAN
“All is quiet since that last kill two days ago,” Craig says, stating the obvious.
I nod, my mind buzzing a thousand miles a minute.