3
Bronywyn
While my hands grip the sides of the toilet, the contents of my stomach come back up, everything I’ve ingested over the last twelve hours returning with a vengeance. Muscles clenching, I heave as hot tears stream down my face.
I killed her.
But it was more than that. I could feel her life slipping away, her dark magic clinging to mine like a magnet. The transition was smooth, so smooth that I barely noticed it until the voices in my head—until my magic—called for Delaney’s.
It recognized her as a threat, and it wanted me to consume her.
“Please, no,” I choke out, as another wave of nausea slams into me. I have nothing left inside me, but apparently, my stomach never got the message.
My phone buzzes on the floor of the run-down gas station bathroom, but I ignore it. No one can help me now. Even if I wanted to get rid of it, I don’t know that I can. Its claws are in me, twisting even the purest of thoughts into complete and total fucking nightmares.
They’ll be at my house by now, probably looking for me because they’ll want to save me.They need to save themselves from us,the power whispers to me. I cover my ears with both hands and shake my head.
“No. No. No.” Tears stream down my cheeks as I flush the toilet and take my seat on top of the lid. Once upon a time, I never would have stepped foot in a place like this. Soggy paper towels litter the flaking countertop and the ground beneath the trashcan, most patrons far too lazy to ensure their trash actually made it inside the metal can.
A broken-down diaper changing station serves as a table for my purse. “Get it together, Bronywyn,” I urge myself. Taking a deep breath, I force myself to stand and lean against the countertop as I stare at my face in the aged mirror.
My hair is still blonde and pulled back from my face. My eyes are green as they’ve always been, though they’re now rimmed with black. My cheeks are flush, my makeup smeared beneath my eyes. For the most part, I’m seeing me, and yet, I feel so damn different on the inside.
I jump when someone bangs on the door. “Open up! You gotta share the space!” a woman yells.
Show her who has to share,my magic coos. “No,” the word sounds pathetic leaving my lips.
She bangs on the door again, the sound so damn loud it’s like a drumline in between my ears. “Yo! Open up!”
I reach forward and turn on the squeaky faucet. Brown water rushes out, but I wash my hands anyway, not bothering to dry them as I grab my phone and purse and yank open the door. Afraid of what the shadow magic might make me do, I don’t meet the eyes of the tall woman on the other side. “Sorry,” I mumble, as I push past her and into the dark parking lot. The light overhead flickers on and off, the buzzing like a freight train horn in my pounding head.
It’s nearly empty and far too late for anyone with honorable intentions to be out and about. Someone slams a car door, and I wince. Every sense is intensified by a thousand as I force myself to take step after step.
My shoe meets gum, and I have to yank it up, making my foot nearly pull out of the heel.
“Hey there, sweetheart,” a man calls out.
“Leave me alone.”
“I just want to talk. What’s a pretty little thing like you doing out so late? Do you need a ride? I can take you wherever you want to go.”
Magic pummels me, and before I know it, I’m whirling around and gripping him by the front of the shirt. His eyes widen, and he gapes at me. “I said leave me alone.”
“Fine. Don’t have to be a bitch about it.”
Kill him.I squeeze, obeying the voice, but when the man grips my arm, face turning a deep purple, I realize what I’m doing.
Horrified, I drop him. “I’m so sorry. I’m sorry.” Turning, I run as fast as I can, heels clicking against the asphalt until I’m on the other side of the gas station, tucked away from view. Then, I sink to the ground and press my shaking hands over my face. “Please, stop. I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
No? What a shame. He probably deserved it. They all do. No one is innocent.
“I am not a killer.”
But you’ve killed before.
“Only when I had to.” My phone rings again, vibrating in my pocket. “What?” I snap, after pressing it to my ear.
“Where are you?”