Page 54 of Sick Bargain

Krypt said that if I ever told anyone, he’d force me to kill myself. “You know I can’t tell you that.”

He leans in more, almost conspiratorially. “Do you know the one in the blue mask?”

“I can’t tell you, Cain. I’m sorry, but you should definitely stay away from him. All of them. They’re…” I don’t want to say sick since Krypt doesn’t enjoy the word, but they’re something like it. “Unstable.”

“They’re Vile Boys.” Cain laughs. “Of course they’re unstable.” There’s a sense of curiosity in his eyes, and it’s going to get him killed. “What happened after you killed Matterson? Why did you get dropped off here?”

Because I triggered a madman’s feelings, and he doesn’t know how to process them. Because I’m gross and vile and feel something for the man who made me his prisoner and then forced me to like it. Because life is finally exciting, and now that I have a taste of the more sinister side, I’m finding a home there. With him. I don’t need him, just like I told him, but I want him. Because my days are numbered, and the ones with him are the first ones I’m truly enjoying. Which is pathetic.

I’ve been in more pain, suffered more, hurt emotionally harder, and been the most terrified of my life since meeting Krypt, yet the feeling oflifeis so intense it makes me feel truly alive for the first time in my pitiful existence.

Maybe—like a massive maybe—I feel stronger. Strong enough to beat the Sauder curse. Maybe I don’t have to die…

“He needed space to… maim and murder off all his energy.” I finish my beer and set the empty bottle with five others. Not wanting to talk about it anymore, I get up to grab anotherfor each of us. “You ever going to tell me what happened on Initiation Night?”

“You ever going to tell me what happens when you stay with him every night?” he fires back.

I sit down and slide him another beer. “Better get drunk for this.”

“Why?” He’s grinning now, his septum piercing reflecting the light from the candle on the table.

“Did you fuck the one in the blue mask?” I ask instead.

“I’m… I have a girlfriend.”

“Yeah, and I claimed I wasn’t gay.”

Cain barks out a laugh. “Are you?”

“Well, I’m fucking something. He forced me… and now…”

“You like it.” His grin turns wicked. “I cheated on Sadie,” he admits his own truth. “Not like I had much say in it, but…”

I laugh into my bottle, feeling crazed. Two best friends, drinking beer in the middle of the night, talking about our sexual assaults like they weren’t assaults. No wonder we live in Moros. We’re as twisted as this town is.

Did Moros mold us into these people, or would we still be this version of us if we were born somewhere else? I guess we’ll never know.

19

AM I IMPORTANT TO YOU?

KRYPT

“Line up!”Director shouts, forcing us into rank.

The ten of us stand in a line, and it tugs on my already frayed nerves to be at the very end. I glare at Monster before he even opens his mouth to say something about it.

“A fucking cult?!” Director yells at us. “A whole goddamn cult? How the hell do you think we’re going to cover this?”

Director approved Reeven Matterson’s death, but not the death of the entire cult. I didn’t mean to kill them all. I mostly wanted to scare them, take out a few of the more brainwashed ones, and set the rest free with wounds and new outlooks. That’s why we left our masks on. But after Remiel… well, I lost myself in a manic episode, and when I came to, I found the eyes of all my brothers the same as mine. We all dipped into the same depravity last night.

Even Facts, who lifts his jittery hand. “Hello. I have an idea for that.” He pulls a tablet from inside his jacket and hands it to Director.

“A mass suicide?” Director asks. “No one is going to believe that when they worshipped his bloodline.”

“Hello,” Facts repeats. “I wrote a suicide note. It claims that the bloodline has been tainted, and none of them could bear it,so they chose to eradicate it altogether. If you’re wondering how to explain away the state of the… uh, bodies, well, we can use these microchips to our advantage. We can implant them, and when the police and forensics study the bodies, they’ll conclude that they were all chipped and mad. It will also aid in our search to find Axel Graves.”

Kyd sighs dreamily at Axel’s name.

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