Page 21 of Stitches

The blood continued to leave my body as the darkness teased the edges of my vision. I breathed in and out, praying that each one would be the last.

A face appeared over me. He cocked his head to the right, his brows crinkled, his blue eyes flashing. I didn’t see him often these days.

“Mirage,” I rasped softly.

“What have you done?” he whispered, going to his knees at my side.

“Please. Finish me,” I managed to choke out. “I want to die. Let me. Kill me. Tell them I did this. P-please.”

“Now isn’t the time,” he murmured, placing a hand towel over my chest and applying pressure. “You self-sabotaging prick. You’re running in the wrong fucking direction.”

A tear leaked out of the corner of my eye.

“I n-never could find death,” I said, my voice hoarse. “It’s found everyone else and has forgotten me. Perhaps I’m not even worthy of it.”

Mirage pushed a button on his phone while giving me a look I couldn’t read.

“There’s been an accident in my room. Yes. Room 444. My roommate cut himself. No. Yes. Of course.” He stuffed his phone back into his pocket and stared down at me.

I shivered, the room growing darker by the second. “Please. Kill me.”

“You won’t die today, Sinclair. No amount of begging will make it happen,” he said softly. “We won’t let you.”

“Why?” I whimpered, my vision blurry from the tears and blood loss.

“Because Death doesn’t want you.”

I let out a soft sob.“Why?”

“Because,” he murmured, the darkness beginning to overpower the light. “Death is nothing compared to wrath, and you, my friend, will bring it in spades. We’ve seen it. Now close your eyes. When you wake, you’ll learn.”

I breathed out a shuddering breath, not sure if I’d even heard him correctly. Weakly, I wrapped my hand around his wrist, feeling the rough scars beneath my fingertips.

“Does she know?” I mumbled.

“Of course she does,” he called out as my eyes shuttered closed. “And she knows we’re coming for her to bring her home.”

Good. I wanted that. I wanted her home.

Wherever the fuck that was.

SIRENA

“So I set his car on fire.” Cady grinned at me, her eyes sparkling. “He was pissing me off, Rina. Seriously. Shit was bad. I knew I needed to get here to take care of you, so I did what I had to do. Mom is pissed.” She rolled her eyes. “It’s whatever though. She has her head so far up Jerry’s ass I can’t tell where he ends, and she begins. Dad would be livid.”

I swallowed at her mentioning our father.

He hadn’t cared in years, so what did it even matter at this point?

“Jerry was in the car when I did it,” she added. “That part is important. I wouldn’t have been able to get in here if he wasn’t. Had to make it look legit.”

I stared at her. She was an enigma. And braver than I could ever be.

She took a bite of her ham sandwich and chewed it. I watched her, fascinated. She hated ham, but she always ate it. It made little sense to me.

“I wanted him to die.” She swallowed. “But you know how shit goes, right? Never in our favor. I gave him a good scare though. Pretty sure he pissed his pants.” She grinned at me and polished off her sandwich. “So. These watchers. What’s that like?”

I continued to study her as we sat on the couch in the watchers’ house. Well, my house too now since Dante had decided I was to stay. I was still uncomfortable being here. It wasn’t that I felt unwelcome. Quite the opposite. The guys were incredibly accommodating. Seeing Stitches was a rarity though, which was beginning to bother me. I wanted to see him. Be alone with him. Whenever there was an opportunity, he darted away like his heels were on fire.

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