Page 64 of Repossess My Heart

“You’re dead.”

“I’m not.” He quips out stretching his arm, “You sound disappointed.”

I stare at him and huff, while keeping her screams echoing in my head, "We have to leave. Now Michael.”

“Ten- my name is Ten.”

“All this time… you’ve been him?” There’s a hatred…angerin my voice I hadn’t expected. One I’m not sure he deserves.

“They took me that night, gave me a choice. It was an easy one.”

“Why the fuck didn’t you say something!” The words leave me in a roar, one filled with so fucking much goddamn pain my mind slips again.

Bring me back, sweetling. Bring me back.

“You don’t look well, big brother.” He takes a step forward and I can’t bring myself to step back despite every warning system in me screaming to.

“I never would’ve hurt you, Michael. I never-“

“My name is Ten! I’m the top collector of the Repo Men! Most trusted of the Officials and you will fucking recognize that.”

I stare at him, my heart dropping to my gut. “They lied about everything.”

He shrugs some of that empty rage he’s so well known for fizzling out, “So did she.”

“I don’t have time for this, we need to go.”

When my body finally responds, moving towards him, bile rises in my throat. He unsheathes a blade and shakes his head at me, not wasting any time ripping my heart to shreds. Implanted eyes aren’t known for their ability to display emotion, but his brand of emptiness is one you can feel, one that’s soul deep.

Nothing at all like hers.

“You aren’t coming with me, are you?”

“Neither of us are going anywhere, Nine.” I can’t seem to compile words as a new burn builds in my chest, the child Michael blipping out. When I don’t speak, he continues, “We can fix this. Fix what you broke. We’ll do better than the Officials, we won’t beruledNine.”

I huff, a strange smile filling my face. I don’t feel like smiling. My whole sense of self is being forced through a fucking meat grinder. “When corruption runs this deep, you can’t weed it out. It’s better to wipe the slate clean and start over. Or I guess that’s what I would have said if I gave a shit about all that.”

“Why?” He asks, like he genuinely can’t understand it. Like he wasn’t there at all that night.

“You know damn well why I'm doing this.”

His laughter sounds so much like mine, I can’t stand it. “For her? You think mom would want all this destruction? All the death?”

I back up, leaning against the metal wall, my eyes finally ripping from him as my head spins. “She’d be so disappointed in the both of us. There’s no fixing anything. So yeah,TenI think she’d want me to blow it all to shit.”

I don’t want to do this.

“She hated violence.”

“She didn’t have all the information then. Plans change. Sometimes, violence is the only thing that will get people’s attention.”

Please don’t make me do this.

“I'm not leaving here, Nine.” He steps closer, circling me… again. He’s unbothered by the thought of it.

I’m sorry I couldn’t save you that night.

I swallow down the bile burning my throat, slipping into the name he’s given me. The name I fought for all these years as I shove off the wall, “Guess I'll have to kill you then.”

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