Page 13 of Sick Bargain

“Hey! He back-talked first!” Monster rats Kyd out, but all it does is earn him a massive smile from Kyd, the youngest and most vividly deranged of us all. Monster moves to the end of the line, making the rest of us shuffle up a position. Rank earns us perks, and fuck Ransom for holding the top position for so long. He and Seven have been the top two for too long, and the rest of us are itching to knock them back down. Ghost, Menace, me, Riot, Facts, Glitch, and Kyd make up the middle, and now Monster sulks at the end.

“Why’d you kill the girl?” Director asks me.

I have nothing to lose and even less to prove, so I lift my chin and say, “Because I wanted to.”

“She looked like Gia,” Riot adds.

I stiffen and glare at my brother. “Fuck you.”

“Gia is dead, Krypt. You can’t kill her again,” Director says, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Give me a better answer than that.”

I’m not about to admit that I got triggered, so I repeat, “Because I wanted to.”

Director glares, and then he tilts his head towards Monster. Took me fucking forever to get back to the middle! For nothing. I barely breathe as I move to the end of the line, ignoring Monster’s sick smirk as I join him at the bottom.

“This bargain too much for you?”

“No.”

“Good. Stop fucking up then. Sit down.”

Everyone scrambles to the massive table in the centre of the room, fighting over pastries and baked goods like they’re precious. I’m not hungry. My appetite gets morphed by other cravings, making it hard for me to determine what I’m actually hungry for. I could be horny and think I’m starving; it’s always been hard to tell.

Today, it’s annoyance and frustration clouding my mind. Because I tasted him. Pressed my lips to the cut in Remiel’s neck and licked the blood away like a fucking crazed lunatic. I touch my lips, getting a dopamine hit from the memory. I’m so put off by what happened because having a sexual reaction to something isn’t me. I’m not comfortable being physically close to anyone. I’d rather fuck a silky pillow than a person, but something came over me in the cemetery’s forest last night, and when I give into my impulses like that, I can’t escape them until they’re seen through.

“We need to talk about initiation,” Director’s voice butts into my thoughts. “There are a lot of applicants this year, and since we’re short on understudies, we need to decide who we’re bringing in. We’re going to be hunting Benton Wentworth. Moros doesn’t want anyone buying the town, and we’re going tofeed them this billionaire for breakfast. He’s up to something, and it’s time we find out who he’s working with. So, he’s the prey on initiation night.”

I’m shaking again. Unsure why. Agitated and jittery. My ears muffle and my vision blinks and darkens until I’m seeing nothing but the terrified look in Remiel’s eyes as I fucked his face like he was nothing.

“Krypt,” Ghost calls, nodding at the door. Director gives me a nod to leave, and I follow Menace and Ghost out the door.

I light a joint as soon as we step onto the back patio. Weed does nothing for me except signal to my brain that it’s time to chill out. It’s an auto-response I’ve trained myself to accept, so as soon as the herbal tang hits my lungs, I’m able to inhale a full breath and stop jittering so much.

“What happened?” Ghost asks, sitting on a partial stone wall that faces the misty forest behind Vile House. Menace leans next to him, reaching out for the joint.

I pass it to him. “I raped him.”

Both their eyes widen. Ghost glares at me, but Menace laughs. “What? You suddenly sexual?”

“His mouth,” I add.

“And?” Ghost asks, unsure how to feel. “Did you come? Fuck, I don’t wanna know.”

I nod anyway and look into the forest.

“Never again, Krypt,” he warns, and I know it won’t be the first or last warning I get about Remiel from Ghost.

“The whole night went off the rails. I was supposed to meet him at his dad’s grave to go over the first name on his list, but then this fucking chick…”

“Did she really look like Gia?” Ghost asks, taking a drag and passing it back.

Gia is my mom, and she’s one of the things I hate. Or, she was. “No. But she…fuck!”

“Said your trigger word?” Menace fills in. I hate confirming it, but I nod. “So you killed her and Remi saw it?”

“He didn’t see it, but he saw her after. She was dying, and I watched him walk up just to see what he’d do.”

“What’d he do?”

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