Page 27 of Unholy Bonds

When I saw the resigned acceptance settle over her features, I finally pulled. Harder. Stronger. My body trembled with desire.

I watched as she thrashed, struggling to get out of my hold.

I listened for the soft pause in her heart. Once, twice. Her scream had become whimpers now.

“Just… stay still.”

When her body slackened in my arms, I exploded. “Aah.”

I pulled her closer to my body and held her there, singing a lullaby.

Guardian angels God will send thee,

All through the night.

Soft and drowsy hours are creeping,

Hill and dale in slumber sleeping…

Sighing, I grazed her breasts. So full. Heart thundering, I rubbed a finger over her underwear. I removed it and plunged a finger into her pussy with a groan. She was soft, tight. Perfect. My fingers moved in and out softly, and I came again.

I wished they were Yara’s breasts, her pussy. But it wasn’t time for that. Not yet.

After a few minutes, I wiped her tears and blood.

Pulling on gloves, I took out the bottle filled with oxygen bleach. I removed her clothes and sprayed her with the bleach from head to toe, wiping every trace of DNA and blood from her body until she was squeaky clean. Pulling on a silk dress down her naked body, I cleaned her again.

I wrapped the red silk lace around her throat and made a bow with it before tying the letter to it. The paper fluttered against her satin skin, which was now so pale and cold.

I clipped a lock of her hair and put it inside a zip-lock bag. She would find her place with the rest of the girls.

“Sleep tight, angel. When you wake up, you’ll be in heaven.”

12

HOME AGAIN

THE STRANGLER

Ileaned against the seat as the train began to move. The sound of chatter felt like nails down a blackboard. It made my teeth and head hurt.

The woman from the seat behind me was telling her husband about a mole that looked like cancer.

Their relentless jabbering, the laughter, the mundane conversations—it grated on my skin like a vicious itch. I wanted to peel my skin away, to make it stop, to make everything stop.

The sound grew until all I heard was a cacophony of noise around me—a tall wall, unbreachable by silence.

How I wished I could shut them all up!

My finger mindlessly crawled up and down the misted window, drawing a twisting snake, trying to collect myself. I couldn’t lose it here.

I couldn’t stop them from chattering, but I could not listen to them. I knew what would always bring me peace. Grabbing my phone, I started Yara’s podcast.

Her voice always brought me a sense of comfort. Familiar, and yet strange. It helped me escape the abyss slowly forming inside me. She had always been the light in a dark tunnel.

Behind her masks, in the comfort of anonymity, she remained confident in her world, in her words.

I burned to tear away her masks. To let the world revel in something marvelous, something grand.

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