It drenches me in a second. Cold. Freezing.
I shriek, my clothes and hair getting soaked and sticking to my skin. I gurgle as the strong flow hits me in the nose and mouth, cutting off my air supply.
Choking on my open breaths, I trip and slip backward. He grabs my arm in a painful grip, his skin ice cold on mine. He tugs me forward, I fall to my knees, and his onslaught continues.
“S-st…op…” I gasp, fighting for air.
The water comes out of my nose and my mouth at the same time.
“Stop?” He laughs with enough menace to make chills erupt all over my skin. “You’re only tasting your own medicine, Reina. You claim you’re not a monster, but how about that dare in high school? Do you know what you did back then? You dared a second year to hose a freshman in the boys’ locker room. He had fucking asthma and almost died. You’re lucky you don’t have asthma. You can survive a little breath play, can’t you, my ugly monster?”
Tears spring to my eyes, mixing with the water. My heart tightens, suffocating with my lungs.
“Come out,” he challenges, as if I’m a bet he’s trying to win. “Show me your ugly face—your only face. Stop pretending you’re a saint when the devil runs in your veins.”
I flail my arms around, trying to protect my face.
It doesn’t work.
For a second, I feel like I’ll die. I can’t face death twice in one day and come out victorious.
He cuts off the water. I gasp on air, panting and choking on my own breaths.
Oxygen burns the more I gulp it in.
“Are you going to stop this nice-person game?” His voice is so low it’s threatening.
“I…I’m n-not…pretending. I’ve changed.” The old Reina isn’t me anymore.
Water splashes my face again. “Wrong answer.”
I gurgle on unsaid words as I gasp and fail to breathe.
God. I think my lungs will bail on me.
“We’ll try again. When I turn off the water, I want you to…” He trails off. “No. You love dares, so let’s do it your way. I dare you to be who you truly are.”
The water stops. I gasp in as much air as I can, knowing it probably won’t last me for long before he asphyxiates me again.
With all the defiance I can muster, I stare him in the eyeballs. “This is me, the only me. If you’re too afraid to accept that then fuck you, Ash.”
His hold on the knob falters for a brief second before he points the showerhead in my direction again.
I take one last breath, bracing myself for the hit, but I don’t close my eyes. I’m going to glare at him as he does it.
I’m going to look straight into his empty soul and make sure he sees my fight.
Reina Ellis wasn’t born to be trampled on.
Instead of drowning me, he steps away.
“I promise you one thing. You will break.” The coldness of his eyes nearly freezes me.
But it doesn’t.
I don’t let it.
I jut out my chin. “Never.”