Page 2 of Brutal Empire

The small bathroom echoed with my desperation, the words trying to shove an answer that was just out of my reach.

For the last six years, I had been living my life between the present time and flashbacks. Everything that came before the last eight years had been forgotten or hidden deep in the chambers of my mind, coming only when I least expected it or wanted it.

Do you have any idea what it’s like to forget who you are? To live your past one memory at a time, slowly driving you insane? Every time the past came barreling into my mind, it was like a scene from a movie you once knew but didn’t quite remember anymore, coming briefly and fading before you could even get to the next scene. When I tried to reach for more—poof, it disappeared.

I didn’t know who I was, but I did know I had been forged anew, and the last four years had not been kind but brutal. To survive, I needed to adapt. I was reinvented to be something stronger.

Somethingmore—something so sharp that it didn’t just hold its own. It fought, bit, killed, and it burned.

I looked at myself one more time. I supposed I was beautiful if what you looked for was skin-deep because, on the inside, I was dark as night and as cold as ice—make it look pretty and train it to kill. I didn’t know who I was or what had made me this way, but heaven help them when I finally remembered my name.

Taking a deep breath, I walked out of the door. The cabin I was in was familiar. It was minimal, just a bed, a few essentials, a safe house, and the closest thing I had to call home. I’d been staring at these walls for years. There was a safety I felt being in here. We found safety in familiar things. They didn’t necessarily mean that it was safe. You could grow up in a nest of snakes and get used to killing them, dealing with them, and thinking that handling them is all part of your safety routine. Environmental change gave us perspective.

“Petal,” the voice warned, and I halted.

A shiver slid down my body. It wasn’t personal. It was just ignorance. His bravado and tone reminded me of someone else.

You’re mine.

And there it was, that voice that nagged me around. That clawed its way into my tarnished soul and refused to leave. I could feel the claws begin to choke me.

I took a deep breath to remind myself that I was safe, that I had survived, and that I was now living. Before taking another step, I listened more to what was being talked about.

“It’s dangerous,” Daphne spoke this time. Her tone was soothing, and when she wasn’t trying to mask her accent, it sounded hoarse and lovely to me—comforting.

“He’s going to die,” Gideon spoke, and I braced myself for his tone, reminding myself that he was there the night I was rescued. He did not do anything to me. He had not hurt me.

I began to walk until I made it out of the hallway. The light in the kitchen was on. The blinds were all closed, and at the small round table, Daphne was sitting down. She was still in herworkclothes. Black cargo pants and a black long-sleeve. Her hair was still tightly wrapped in a side braid. She was so pale and beautiful that, at one point, I thought she was an angel coming to save me from hell.

But sometimes, we didn’t need to leave hell. We just needed to embrace the flames. To let them devour you and become the chaos you were meant to be.

Across from her, standing, was Gideon. Where Daphne was petite and graceful, he was tall, his presence demanding, and just like me, he also had a scar on his face. It went from the top of his eyebrow to the lid of one eye. Another thing about him was that he was covered in tattoos.

I didn’t understand it. Why would people purposely harm themselves? Give themselves pain? I guess at the end of the day, life was all about choices, and if we felt like we could control what caused us pain, then we felt as if we had the upper hand in this fucked-up life.

Daphne and Gideon cast their gazes my way. I could feel the weight of their stares, but I forced myself to look up at them both. And you know what I said about the environment? I was with two killers, and I had never felt safer.

“No,” Daphne said between gritted teeth.

“Then he’s going to die,” Gideon spat and walked away.

As he passed by me, he offered me a smile and a wink. The smile didn’t do anything to diminish the fact that he was dangerous.

“How long are you back for?” I asked her.

“Not long,” she said.

At first, her responses infuriated me. It was like I went from one cage to another. At least in this one, I wasn’t being defiled.

When I got rescued from that house of evil, I didn’t expect my life to turn out the way it had. Daphne took a scared little girl and turned her into a monster.

“Who’s going to die?” I asked.

There was a ninety percent chance she wouldn’t give me an answer. She never did. She’d saved me and forced me to come out of my shell. Like a snake, I was forced to shed the skin I was born with and replace it with scales.

“Nobody,” she replied as she looked at the closed window.

“Anything I can do to help?” I asked.

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