Page 81 of Deviant

I open my mouth to challenge him, but before I can get a word in, he turns around and heads to the porch, tilting his head for me to follow him outside. I do so silently and watch him lean against the rail as he lights up his cigarette.

“Those things will kill you.”

“That’s the idea. Better these fuckers thanThe Scourge.”

My forehead creases at the statement.

“Does that really concern you? That you might be selected?”

“Shouldn’t it?” He lets out a puff of gray smoke.

“Maybe it shouldn’t. Everyone, including your own brother, believes that the games don’t want you for some reason.”

“My brother, alongside everyone in this town, is an idiot.”

“So you haven’t found a loophole to evade being selected like everyone believes?”

“If I told you I hadn’t, would you even believe me?”

“Yes.”

His cocky smile slips off his lips, confusion once again setting in.

“You actually mean that shit, don’t you?”

“Why wouldn’t I? If you knew of a way to avoid the games entirely, then you would have told Nora. I know you would.”

“Ah,” he lets out another puff of smoke. “What makes you think I didn’t?”

“She would have told me if you had,” I retort with certainty.

“You really think you had her wrapped around your little finger that much, huh?”

“I never said that,” I take offense to his remark. “I just know… I mean, I knew Nora. She would have saved any life if she had the means to, even one as pathetic as mine.”

“On that, we can agree. That your life is pathetic, I mean.” He chuckles.

“Do you always have to be like that? Cruel when you don’t need to be?”

His eyes dim a darker shade of blue until all I see is black.

“I’m only cruel to those who are deserving.”

“And I deserve it?”

“I think you know the answer to that.”

I let that hang in the air.

I do deserve it.

We both know I do.

“I don’t like you,” he says after a long pause.

“I’m aware.”

“I mean… I fucking despise you.”

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