Page 43 of They Break Beauty

Brianna: I don’t.

Hell Spawn: Too late. I gave you a choice. You chose wrong.

Brianna: You think you can bully me, you’ve got another thing coming.

Hell Spawn: There it is. That’s the side of you I’ve been waiting on. Come out and play, Wildflower, then we can dispense with all this bullshit you’re pushing me to employ.

Brianna: You don’t scare me.

Hell Spawn: I’m not trying to.

Brianna: These threats would indicate otherwise.

Hell Spawn: Not threats. Promises.

Brianna: What exactly is your strategy here?

Hell Spawn: To inundate you.

Brianna: With you?

Hell Spawn: Me. The version of you that’s been left behind. Our shared past. All of it that you’ve been trying to foolishly bury.

Brianna: Don’t do this. I can’t.

Hell Spawn: You need to. You’ll recognize it soon enough.

Brianna: You do this and you’ll regret it.

Hell Spawn: See? I’m already making strides. There’s my girl.

Brianna: Not your girl.

Hell Spawn: Watch this space.

“Argh!” I yelled, smashing my fist into the wall by the door.

Then I shoved my phone into my bag and stormed out of my apartment.

Immersing myself in what I enjoyed and what I was also damn good at was really helping to take the edge off the other insanity.

Granted, it had taken years of practice and constant learning, as well as keeping up with developments to bring this about. But now I was at a point where it was most definitely my jam.

It was why, even with barely any sleep, I was still able to kick ass in my coding lab and even push ahead of where we were expected to be at this early stage of this new academic year.

I finished typing the last piece of code, then ran the program to test it.

Perfect.

No bugs.

It was doing everything it was intended to do, and it was doing it well. I’d made sure of it.

Despite this… setback… with Levi, then Chloe being on the verge of slipping away too, at least I still had the stability of this. And it was exactly what I needed to throw myself into.

My career path.

My future.

---