Page 1 of The Pretty Psycho

1

VEGA

Dreams wovenof gold often saved those whose reality was wrapped in barbed wire, cutting into the very essence of who they truly were. And the gold might have been hiding only the ugly truth people wanted to hide, but it was the saving grace in those moments when that line between wanting to live and wanting to die was at its thinnest.

I wished I could wrap my dreams in gold, because maybe then the darkness I was surrounded with wouldn't have such a hold on me. But living in the darkness for so long meant I no longer knew what the difference was between the dark and the light, especially because not every bright thing was good.

I was living proof of what could happen to those of us who started believing in the light, only for it to turn out to be the worst possible choice.

I had no idea what I expected to see, but as my consciousness slowly came back, lifting me up from the dreamless state I was in, I realized that I was no longer in the dorm. I had no idea if I was anywhere else at the Academy either.

The dimly illuminated cave seemed to go on and on until my eyes could no longer track it, while glinting bright water hummed as it touched the stone it was surrounded with. Sunraysslowly trickled in from an opening where the water entered, but it wasn't enough to light up the entire cave.

My mind held tightly on to the memories that kept pushing in and in and in, reminding me all over again who the real traitor was—my Tyler.

That familiar ache seemed to spread from the center of my chest through my limbs, reaching the very tips of my cold fingers, hovering above my head. I tilted my head, my eyes locking on the chains holding me hostage, while every single muscle in my body rebelled, wanting to break free. My old injuries flared to life with every new move, and I knew there was no getting out of this, not when the chains keeping me in this unnatural pose could only be released with a key I didn't have.

"Motherfucker," I bit out, scrambling to think, to figure this out, because I refused to believe there was nothing I could do to get myself out of this situation.

Bits and pieces flickered through my brain of Tyler carrying me here, mumbling incoherently, constantly repeating he was winning this time, and I had no idea what it was that he had to win. I wanted to get him back a thousand times over. I wished he had never gone to the Academy, but I didn't want this.

The person that chained me and left me here looked like my Tyler, but he behaved nothing like the person I knew. Granted, it’d been years since we last saw each other, but the fury glaring at me when I tried to push him away from me was nothing like the person that held me during those nights when the nightmares were too much and when the reality of my life was nowhere near close to what I wanted to have when I was younger.

But when his fist connected with my temple, almost knocking me out momentarily, I knew this person wasn't the Tyler that had left. Or maybe I never truly knew who he was and just like many other people, I loved the version of Tyler that suitedme without actually seeing the true monster hiding behind the mask.

The chains clanked, echoing around the cave as I moved, while my eyes tried finding something, anything that could help me to get out of here, but there was nothing, and worst of all—Tyler was nowhere to be seen.

I hated this helplessness, but I would've been happier if he were here. Seeing my enemy always gave me an opportunity to learn things from them, because like it or not, people talked, and people like Tyler who were obviously missing a couple of screws in their head, talked more than others. I had to know where we were.

It was impossible for me to calculate the distance between the dorm and here, especially because I was unconscious for most of that trip. But it couldn't have been too far away. Tyler carried me, that much I knew.

We were obviously in a cave, and the area where he had me chained was elevated above the water coming inside. I was high enough to stay dry, but was I safe with Tyler?

I just hoped we were still close to the Academy. Maybe they would look for me. Someone had to report me missing. Yolanda knew I wanted to leave, but she also knew I was going to stay until the road cleared. Now look at what staying got me.

I was in a situation I never would have foreseen, and this one actually had nothing to do with the Academy.

I thought I would get killed by Adrian and his men. I thought I would meet the same destiny Tyler had met all those years ago. I'd spent years mourning him, crying over the smiling boy who was like a brother to me, and this was what I got. This was the reality I was slapped with, because I've spent years fighting for those who lied to me, who used me and abused me in their own fucked-up ways.

I gave my trust to undeserving people more times than I could count, and instead of learning something from all of that, from my fucked-up life, I still fell into the trap. As if I hadn't known Heinrich would send me to the one place that could destroy me, just to show me that he still had control.

Master.

The fucking murderer.

Those documents at Adrian's desk were proof there wasn't a single person in this world that I could trust. That emblem of The Schatten on the documents giving him all the information about me and my history was a slap in the face, but it was the wake-up call I needed.

My heart clenched painfully, reminding me of my own foolishness, of my own desire to be loved. I acted like a desperate, mindless little fuck instead of the warrior I was raised to be. I allowed him to slither inside, to see the broken parts of me, to hold me, to lie to me, to fucking use me. I allowed myself to fall for the one man I was supposed to destroy, and instead of doing what I was trained for, I allowed him to destroy me.

But I could patch the broken shards of my heart, sewing them back together, and I would do it by myself. I didn't need a man. I didn't need Adrian, no matter how much it hurt even thinking of him. There was a permanent ache in the left chamber of my heart where his name resided, where all of those emotions I had for him were shoved. And they would stay there, hidden, and just like with every other person in my life that had betrayed me, he would be forgotten even if it was the last thing I would do.

I had more pressing issues right now, and none of them involved thinking of that motherfucker.

The Schatten wanted me dead, that much was obvious. My best friend, the person I thought of as my savior, was the one behind all those murders. He didn't need to say it out loud, I could connect the dots myself.

I just needed to know why.

Why would he kill all those girls? Why target me when I never did anything to deserve Tyler's wrath?

---