Page 1 of Free Fall

Prologue

Zelda

Thewaterturnedpurpleat my feet, the temporary hair dye streaming down my body and pooling at the shower drain. Every piece of me ached. Every single bit.

My pussy, stretched to the extreme, stinging and throbbing with each step I took. My wrists shredded from the string gouged into my skin. The bite mark on my thigh still open and seeping blood. Paired with the confusion, the shock, of what I found on the floor of the room where it had all taken place… it shattered me. Fatigue and heartbreak mixed with my fogged up brain, making it hard to figure out what the hell had just happened.

His ring.

My eyes had snagged on the glint of silver as I’d come back round from what he’d done, as my mind had recovered from the intensity of what occurred between us. I’d been on autopilot as I rearranged my clothes and scooped the jewelry up, shoving it into my bra and stumbling through the club to the exit.

He was supposed to be a stranger.

The whirls of faces — both plain and decorated for Halloween — the pulsing music, the crashing bodies, fucking, dancing, jumping, wrapped up in tangles… I needed out. Not looking for my masked deviant, nor the friend I arrived with.

Flashes of the mask he wore, the neon scratched-in smile, crossed my vision at every turn. Was it him? Dozens of men had their faces covered with the same thing. He could have been stalking me through the haunted house again, controlling my exit like he’d controlled my entrance to this place, and I wouldn’t have known.

Sobs ripped from me when I broke out into the chilly night air and found the taxi already waiting. It had been… what we’d done was beyond comprehension. Incredibly so.

But.

Him.

Luca.

He’d done those things to me knowing who I was to him, he manipulated me, coerced me. If I’d known who was touching me, overwhelming me, I would have stopped it.

After scrubbing the purple hair spray out until the water ran clear, no energy remained to dry myself. The cool of the fall air tickled across my skin as I left the bathroom, crossed the hall and crashed onto my bed. My violated, abused body, all welcomed at the time, sang with the pain of his ministrations. Why him? Why the man I’d called Uncle Luca until just a few years ago? There were pictures of him holding me when I was a newborn, for fuck’s sake. He’d been there my whole life, taking me for ice cream when my parents couldn’t get away from work. Watched me graduate from high school with a cheer.

His wedding ring tight in my fist, I let everything wash over me. The panic and anguish turned into something else as I welcomed every moment. He twisted me up and spat me out, pulled at the strings of my puppet costume and tricked me into things I would never have wanted him to see. To know.

But now I knew about him too. Uncle Luca, family man, world-class father, and happy husband… well, maybe he needed fucking up a little too.

One

Zelda

Hekissedhiswife.Just on her forehead. A sweet little peck between spouses at the edge of her hairline as he wrapped a loving arm around her and squeezed her body into his. She told a joke, or said something funny that I couldn’t hear. And he chuckled, a proud husband who wasn’t able to resist pressing his lips to her.

Lips that explored every inch of me, whispering the dirtiest and most depraved things in my ear. Things that kept me up all night. How could they be the same lips?

Let me ruin you, I’ll stop if you say cherry… I’m going to stretch you, little puppet…

Luca caught me staring, and I blinked away my thoughts, turning back to the fire pit and the people surrounding it. I’d done a good job avoiding him since Halloween, but my luck had run out for thisfamilybarbecue. The last one before it became too cold and we’d have to move indoors.

My younger sister, Jules, was in the middle of a retort, her voice low as she grumbled at Cole, the worst of Luca’s twin boys. He was more of a cunt than his dad, and he didn’t care to hide it like the elder Diaz.

“Just because I’m still in high school doesn’t mean I can’t take you, Cole,” she said, scowling. She was the youngest by a few years. Cole and his brother, Jesse, born only months after me. We were all finishing up at the same college. And each time I saw Cole, I wanted to punch him.

Raised together, Christmases, vacations, schools all the same, it was hard to see them as anything but family, family I was starting to despise every member of. Jesse not withstanding, but only because he never had anything to say.

“What do you think, Zelly?” Cole asked, his brother paying us no attention, just staring at the dwindling flames. The sun had only just set, but we’d had the fire going for warmth.

“Fuck off.”

Cole laughed. “Oh, I think Zelly needs a pick-me-up. You’re crabbier than usual.”

Truth was, this crabby state was my new normal. And with Luca looming in my presence, with what I understood about him. The secret he didn’t know we were sharing consumed me.

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