Page 13 of Darkest Fantasies

“Not, yet, my little shadow. Not yet.” She scowls at my comment. “But it’s something better.” Right on cue, the lights turn. She blinks a few times, adjusting to the brightness in the room.

“What’s the surprise?” she asks when she’s acclimated to the light. I grab her shoulders and turn her body around to face the bed where a half-dead Matt is lying down, hands and legs tied, mouth covered with tape, face bloody, purple bruisesstarting to make an appearance where his skin shows and blood pulling from his skin from the swatches I made. At first, nothing happens, as if she is trying to grasp what’s in front of her. After a long second, she lets out a scream and tries to run away from me, but I grab her waist to stop her. Lifting her off the floor, she starts kicking and screaming for me to let her go.

“Stop,” I command, covering her mouth and her nose with my hand, forcing her to stop. “I suggest you stop if you want to be able to breathe again.” She nods and becomes very still. I put her back down on the floor. “You better not scream when I take my hand off your mouth. Do you understand?” She nods quickly, her chest heaving from her crying.

“Good girl.” I remove my hand and take a step back, trusting she is not stupid enough to do something she will regret. The moment I’m no longer touching her, she walks backward to the wall and slides down onto the floor, her shoulders shaking with silent tears.

I stare at her in silence, giving her a moment to process everything before extending my knife to her.

Chapter 10

Draven

“Want to finish the job?” She lifts her head up to me, eyes red-rimmed. “He is still alive.”Barely alive.I really did a number on him before she got here. I may have gotten a bit carried away, but once I started I could hardly stop. I needed to mark his body in every place he left a bruise on hers. “He is just unconscious,” I shrug tilting my head to the side.

She shakes her head, closing her eyes. “Please let me go,” she sobs. “I won’t tell anyone.” Her body becomes rigid as if she is forcing herself not to look at Matt's body on the bed or to her body that is covered in his blood. “I promise. This will be our secret.”

I kneel in front of her. No, that won’t do. I did this all for her. Everything I have planned up to tonight has been for her. She has a darkness inside of her that matches mine. I’ve read her diary and I’ve heard the conversations she has with herself when she thinks no one is around. That’s why I’m doing this. I know what’s best for her.

“He deserves your retribution, my little shadow. He deserves all the marks you leave on his body.”

Her eyes fling open. “What are you even saying? No one deserves that.”

I chuckle. “A monster like him does.” Her eyes widened in surprise. “A person who abuses an innocent woman does.” Her mouth opens and closes, but no words come out. “Take the knife, Cat.” I push it towards her. “Take the knife and get your revenge.” Her eyes lock on the knife. “He is a dead man anyway.” He was never going to walk out of this house for harming what is mine. His death was segmented in stone the moment he laid his eyes on her.

She reaches for the knife, transfixed as if she is in a trance, when suddenly her eyes connect with mine, and her hands stop moving forward.

“How do you know my name? How do you know he abused me?” Her voice is shaky as she speaks. “Who are you?” she sobs. “Why are you doing all of this?”

“All in good time, Cat. Those questions are semantics. What matters is your revenge on the people who have made your life hell.” I push the knife towards her again. “It’s time for those who have wronged you to feel the pain they caused you.”

“Stop,” she yells, slapping the knife out of my hand. “Leave me alone. You’re fucking insane,” she screams, rocking her body back and forth.

“That's my good little shadow. Get fucking angry. Let the rage consume you. Let all that bottled-up anger burst like an exploding volcano. Think about all those times your stepmother locked you in your room without dinner because she said you needed to lose weight. Think about all those insults she threw your way, think about all those times she made you feel so horrible about yourself you used a blade to alleviate all the ache, think about all those times that bastard lying on that bed put his hands on you, think about every time he has humiliated you in front of his closest friends.”

She places her hands over her ears and screams stop over and over again. Tears cascading freely down her face. “Let theanger you feel for your dad for marrying that gold digger and leaving her responsible for you while he travels all over the world for work.”

I grab the knife where it landed after she threw it and try to hand it again. “I’m giving you the opportunity to start with a clean slate.”

She becomes still, her screams and tears turning into empty laughter. “Who are you trying to be, my fairy godmother or some sort of guardian angel?”

I scoff, unable to help myself. Me, her savior? No, I’m the devil on her shoulder. “You’re trying to make me seem like I’m a sort of saint or some hero who has come to rescue the poor princess.” I grab her chin with my thumb and index finger, forcing her to look at me. “You’re a queen who doesn’t need saving. You can save yourself. I’m only here to aid Your Highness in eliciting revenge.”

Her eyes flick from mine to the knife in my hand. “Didn’t I say I was going to makeallyour darkest fantasies come true?” She sucks in a breath, eyes widening. “How many times have you thought about grabbing a gun or a knife and ending all the lives of the people who caused your suffering?” I push the knife towards her again, this time she takes it. She has a darkness that I’ve never seen before swimming in her eyes. She looks as if she let the dam rupture inside of her.

She lifts herself up from the floor and walks to the bed, hovering over Matt’s body with a determined look on her face. “You said he is still alive?” she asks, her voice soft and broken. “Just unconscious?”

“Yes,” I reply, getting up and standing by her side. Her eyes trailing down his body.

“Then why is the bed covered in blood?” She looks down at her arms with furrowed brows and falls pale from the realization. With a wrinkled nose, she turns to me with wordlessaccusation that I’ve fucked her on the bed covered with her boyfriend's blood.

Correction, soon-to-be-dead Ex-Boyfriend.

“This is wrong,” She whispers. More to herself than to me. “This is so fucked up.” I stand behind her, wrapping my arm around her waist, and resting my chin on her shoulder. “No, what’s fucked is all the times he put his hands on you. What’s fucked up is the amount of bruises he left on your skin. What’s even more fucked up is he hurt and abused you all for a ruse.” She needs to learn the truth. She can’t go on any longer thinking that he has feelings for her. That is not how she should be treated. He and her stepmother are using her so they can have a relationship without being discovered.

Her head turns to the side so fast I’m sure she got whiplash. “Ruse? What ruse?”

Hook, line, and sinker. “The only reason why that asshole started dating you is to hide his real relationship with your stepmother.”

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