Page 3 of Necessary Cruelty

King of Deception.

Vice Lord.

The guy who has never heard the word no.

My reputation is as big as the waves crashing onto the beach and as powerful as the undertow threatening to pull us out to sea. I tell myself I’m more than the things people say about me, but I’m not convinced that’s true.

Maybe it has never been.

I see a dark shadow in the meager light, and I fight through the water toward it, driven by instinct.

Everything about her is dark. Her hair. Her eyes. Her thoughts, at least the ones she shares with me. But that didn’t stop her from becoming the only spot of light in my otherwise colorless world.

And I let all of my worst impulses nearly destroy her.

When I squint, there is the barest outline of a figure moving through the waves. The white dress is what gives her away. She has gone far enough out that the water has to be past her waist.

I’m running without a conscious awareness of what I’ll do when I reach her. Like every other interaction we’ve ever had, I’m operating on an instinct I’ve never fully understood.

As I chase her into the water, I realize I would give anything to rewind the clock to a time before we became what we are.

Before tragedy robbed me of a real childhood.

Before I stole her voice.

Before fate and bad luck forced us together.

Before secrets and lies drove us apart.

Before it all went wrong.

I follow her into the sea like I’d follow her to the ends of the earth if that is where she leads me. Even if it is impossible to go back, I can move forward. Into tomorrow. Into the future. Whatever place she chooses to go.

Even death.

If she throws herself on the mercy of the gods, then I’ll jump off the cliff after her.

At this point, it’s only a question of who gets to her first.

Oblivion or me.

---