Page 9 of Sinner's End

A weightlessness, floating above everything, or below. Up is down, and down is…

I slam face-first into the ground. My hands smoke before my eyes, and those eyes water with the returned sense of mortality that clearly isn’t mine. Ash drips from my shoulders. I hope the man was dead before I exploded, or whatever the fuck just happened. Not a pretty way to go, otherwise.

That’s twice it’s happened, now. I have no idea what set off my first round. But killing clearly lit the ember within me this time. Or maybe it was the spike of protective lust I experienced at helping the girl. Maybe I could do something else wrong today, and make it a hat trick.

“What a pretty display.”

I can fucking wellfeelMana’s smirk.

Swallowing, I straighten and dust the ashed man’scinders from my shoulders. “I’ll clean up and be right back.”

“You’ll work exactly as you are.” Mana’s eyes narrow in the darkness where he loiters in a doorway, not a single toe over the threshold like he can’t bear to tread the ground outside Harken Asylum.

I growl, the sound ripping at my still searing teeth as my body cools. Our eyes lock in a battle of twisted wills, though neither of us manage to be the victor in our combined, merging anger.

And while we fight it out in silence, the sister—a poor facade of my obsession—emerges from the building beside Mana, dressed in a pink piece of candy floss and looking far less edible. Her chirpy voice screws with my zen, or maybe my anger where it filters into the night over the souls trapped within Mana’s home.

“Oooh, fireworks!”

She claps her hands and squeals like a child. Finally, Mana looks down and takes her hand in his, drawing her back into the bowels of the impromptu club no doubt to pump her full of alcohol and drugs and other bodily fluids.

I dust the remaining ash from my exposed nipples and follow them, the taste of a ruined soul bitter on the back of my tongue.

That won’t wash out anytime soon.

The door to the asylum slams at my back, locking me in with the other tortured souls.

****

“What a fucked-up night.” I lean into the cold water that won’t wash off the taint of the man who threatened the girl no matter what I do. How hard I scrub, how hot the water.

I resort to turning it as cold as it will go in the hope of dousing the ember still lit somewhere so deep inside me that Iwouldn’t be able to find the wretched thing, even if I let Mana carve me open and dig through my flesh with his bare fingers.

“For a first night, it wasn’t bad. You killed someone and disposed of the body neatly, from what I heard. Made a lot of people happy, I’m sure.” Kaleb steps under the spray beside me in the cavernous, communal showers the asylum afforded its prior occupants.

How many souls were tortured here? How many inmates were physically assaulted? I swallow back bile, the acid rupturing my throat until iron coats my tongue.

Good. Anything is fucking better than ash.

“Toughen up, princess.” A hand—an unwelcome one—slaps my ass.

Kaleb gives me a hard sideways look and walks away, leaving his shower running.

I flick his faucet off.Thanks for the support, my man.But not paying attention to the asshole at my back is my mistake, if only for a moment.

His body slams mine into the cold tiles, courtesy of the icy water I’ve been drowning myself in for half an hour.

“Fuck off,” I grouse, placing my hands on the tiles. The faintest hint of bleach lifts to my nostrils, burning my nose hairs.

My ember ignites, and I close my eyes, already wary.We’ve been here before tonight.I have no idea what will happen if I explode inside a building, and I doubt Mana wants to find out, either. That he was witness to my uncontrollable shame darkens the room for a moment. My vision flickers, or maybe the lights do.

“Such a pretty boy. Maybe you should kneel for Mommy,” my assaulter’s voice hisses in my ear. Alonzo, Alonsi? I can’t remember the asshole’s name. They’re running together.

One hand reaches around me to grip my cock hard. An unwelcome and disgusting touch. I grit my teeth, willing mycontrol back before I swallow ash again. Once a night is enough for me.

“Hands off, you withering penile stain,” I murmur. Breath flows in, and my ember settles.

I smile against the bleached tiles.Now we get to play.

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