Page 213 of Vile Boys

“This is how it’s always been. Twisted, don’t you think?”

“You motherf—” I grip his shirt and pull him forward, sinking the blade into his flesh until more blood begins to roll.

“Where’s that smile gone, little rose? The one you so desperately carried on your face even when you wanted to tear out my heart with your bare hands?” he taunts. “Is it finally gone?”

“Smiling was the only way I could keep you from taking the last shred of dignity and hope I had left,” I retort.

“So that’s the reason …” He sighs and smiles almost like a forlorn lover, and it shakes me. “You were the only one who ever smiled at meafter watching me kill.”

Why is he talking like he’s reminiscing?

“Now do it. Kill me.”

My face contorts. “Why are you so eager to die?”

No matter how much the blade pushes into his skin, the smug smile on his face refuses to fade.

“All of the pain I’ve endured, all of the sacrifices I’ve made … all of it was for nothing because I knew in the end you would still come for me,” he says.

I frown.

Sacrifices he made?

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I respond. “You’ve sacrificed nothing but other people for your own gain!”

“Do you want to kill me without regret? Then do it now,” Ares says, licking his bottom lip. “Look at me,” Ares says. “Look at the man you wish to kill.”

I push the knife farther into his Adam’s apple until he swallows. “You can’t do it, can you?”

My lips begin to quiver.

“This is what you fear,” he says.

My fear.

That’s what he wanted from the beginning.

The one thing I vowed not to give to him.

Ares

“Shut up,”she growls, desperate to block out my voice.

“You hate me so badly, yet you can’t help but wonder if there’s another choice.”

“Stop.” She forces herself to steady the weapon in her hands now that she’s finally so close to taking what she’s wanted all this time.

My life.

“Even if you so desperately want to kill me to get revenge, you can’t bring yourself to actually take my life and put an end to your suffering just like I haven’t been able to put an end to mine. Because I didn’t just take your sanity … I stole your fucking heart too, and there is nothing in this world I wouldn’t do to keep it, little rose. Whether you kill me now or years from now, it doesn’t change the fact that your soul already belongs to me.” My hand slowly curls around hers as it begins to shake. “And my soul has never been anything but yours.”

She pulls away, desperate to unlatch from whatever feelings have just grasped her heart.

Suddenly, she snatches the key card out of my pocket and backs away from all of us, still clutching the knife like it’s her only lifeline.

“Crystal …” Caleb mutters, holding out his hand, hoping she’ll take it.

“Don’t,” she says, shaking her head, her jaws clenched. “This, whatever we had … It’s over.”

---