Page 1 of Stitches

PROLOGUE

SIN

Iwatched as the blood dripped onto the white tiles at my feet. My body screamed at me for mercy, but I refused to obey.

Clenching my teeth together, I delivered another crack of the already bloody whip across my back, the searing ache making me let out a snarl, my chest heaving.

“I admire you,” a soft voice called out to me.

Asylum.

“Your dedication is so. . .refreshing.”

“Go fuck yourself,” I muttered, sinking to my ass on my bed.

A bed that was now tucked away in the corner of Seth Cain’s dorm room. Or Asylum’s room. Whoever the fuck it belonged to. I still couldn’t wrap my mind around the shit I knew, so I didn’t even bother thinking about it.

Asylum managed to get me assigned to his room after my best friends tried to torch my ass in the cemetery. I had it coming though, and I didn’t have one ounce of anger toward them over it. I got what I deserved after what I’d done to them and the shit I’d caused.

Stitches trying to hang himself.

Sirena being. . .

Fuck.

I couldn’t even think the word.

I looked to Asylum to see him leaning against his dresser, his arms crossed in front of his chest and a dark eyebrow raised.

“You think too much,” he finally said, dragging that intense blue-eyed gaze over me.

“Or not fucking enough.” I got to my feet again and went back to beating myself.Self-flagellation.Every fucking day for over a week now. That was how long it had been since I’d left this room. Church had told me to punish myself.

I was really fucking working on it.

The bite of the leather snapped against my skin again, making me swallow down a cry, and my breathing stuttered.

Again.

Again.

Fucking AGAIN.

“AH!” I dropped to my knees, my eyes stinging with unshed tears. My bare torso was chewed to fuck. I’d spent nearly every waking hour devoting my time to my punishment.

“You should rest,” Asylum said.

“No. I don’t need your fucking pity.”

“I’m not saying it because I feel sorry for you. Quite the opposite,bestie. I’m saying it because if you let your body heal a bit, the delicious bite of justice will hurt that much more. Isn’t that what you crave?More?”

I looked at him through my long curtain of damp blond hair before I forced myself to stand. Asylum was wicked. His heart was black as pitch, and he’d been buried inside Siren not two weeks before. It sickened me, but if it had to be a monster, he was the best kind to do it because deep inside that tarry heart of his, lay a twisted love I didn’t think I’d ever be able to match to the girl who had captivated so many of us at Chapel Crest.

“Your wounds need cleaning,” Asylum continued, eyeing me with his piercing blue eyes.

“Fuck ’em,” I muttered, wincing at the sharp ache throughout my body.

“You also need to return to classes.”

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