Page 49 of Sugar Coated

My stomach warned me not to do too much; my body wasn’t fully healed, but I ignored the dull throb in my abdomen as I got my keys and unlocked the trunk. A black bag sat, pushed all the way up, so as to not draw too much suspicion if anyone ever opened it. I tugged it toward me and unzipped it.

The contents were the same contents as always: a clean change of clothes, all black, and some gloves—but the one thing that drew my attention was the mask buried beneath the clothes. My devil’s mask. It wasn’t a cartoony mask; it was older, all gray. More old-fashioned-looking than anything you could walk into a store and buy today around Halloween. I’d found it in the trash when I was a kid, and it had stayed with me ever since.

I dug it out and stared down at it, my resolve hardening. I’d told myself I wouldn’t wear it again after leaving Laina the key to her chain, but I couldn’t follow her without it. Tonight, I needed it, just like I needed these clothes.

I changed as fast as I could and brought my mask with me to the driver’s seat. I was out of the house after that, on my way to Laina, wherever she was.

When her location stopped moving, I got my final destination. I parked my car down the street from that blinking dot—this must have been Kelly’s doing, if I had to guess. Looked like a party at one of the houses near the college campus. Laina would never go to one of these things by herself, so she had to be with Kelly.

Kelly. That girl was a bad influence on her. I didn’t like her. No, the only bad influence on Laina should be little old me.

After slipping on my gloves, I grabbed my mask and got out; I must’ve moved too fast in the process of standing, because my stomach screamed at me. Now would’ve been a good time for those pain meds the doctor prescribed, but I hadn’t exactly had lots of free time to make a run to the pharmacy. At this hour, everywhere would be closed, anyway.

The pain could wait. Everything could wait. I had to find Laina and make sure she wasn’t doing anything stupid.

The party was definitely packed. The house was full, the front door sitting wide open. Everyone was already deep in their drinks, too busy socializing and playing various drinking games outside to pay attention to me as I stalked around the house and peered into all of the windows I could.

I went the wrong way, checking windows, clockwise when I should’ve started counter-clockwise. I finally spotted Laina in the living room area, where a bunch of people her age were drinking, talking, and yes, even dancing. She was alone, by herself even though I spotted Kelly not too far from her, holding onto a cup of something, her pink and blue hair on display for the whole world to see, not to mention those pink contacts.

The relief I felt was short-lived, however, because mere moments after I spotted her, a random guy approached her frombehind. She turned around to face him, said something to him, looking quite shy. He smiled at her, and I could tell just by that smile he thought he hit a goldmine.

But she wasn’t free for anyone to have a piece of. She was mine. She’d been mine for years now.

I’d kept her safe, fed her, given her new clothes. I’d made sure she was surrounded by pink. When she’d said she felt like she was going mad with her thoughts, I’d brought her down a TV. And then, when things had finally calmed down, I’d left her a key.

I never thought… when I’d first seen her at the hospital, beat-up and missing most of two fingers on her left hand, I’d been shocked. I’d never laid a hand on her—despite how badly I’d wanted to—and she made herself known to the world as a fighter, someone who fought tooth and nail with her kidnapper to escape.

A lie. A miracle if you were anybody else, but I’d always known it was a lie, and I let her have it.

The devil mask was never meant to be worn again. I was never supposed to contact her as her kidnapper again, but when I saw the way Fang had looked at her, like he wanted to devour her whole, something in me snapped. I had to make myself known once more, tell her that her Devil was still alive and well—and watching.

My jealous tendencies shined through every now and then, what could I say? It was hard sometimes to act like the man I should’ve been instead of the man I was. Sometimes Laina made it impossible for me to act sane.

She drove me crazy. She made me lose my mind, and that was why, tonight, as I stood there outside of the window, watching as the stranger made flirty moves with her, I knew I had to act. Whatever her goal was here tonight, she would not accomplish it. I wouldn’t let her.

Something was said, and the guy turned away from Laina. Laina chugged the drink, got a thumbs-up from Kelly, and then went to follow the stranger. I hurried around the house, slipped my mask on, and stood just beyond the front door, where I could see the stairwell. I saw the guy round it and head up, and she was right on his heel.

And then, it was like the universe sought to remind her of our connection. She tossed a glance outside, a quick one, haphazard with her peripherals, but she saw me. She had to, because her feet immediately halted. I sidestepped, knowing she was about to turn around and get a second look—I couldn’t let her see me. Not yet.

I wanted to see how far she would go, and if she went too far, I’d have to punish her.

I waited a few moments more, until I was sure she turned back and continued heading up the stairs, and I stepped inside the house. I got a few questioning glances from nearby college students, but no one said a word to me. They shrugged off my mask as something weird before returning to their conversations and their drinks.

Laina and the rando were out of sight, so I made my way up the stairs, my hands in a constant battle between flexing and relaxing. I checked every room I passed; most doors were closed, but not locked. It seemed many didn’t give a shit about privacy, only hooking up.

My search for her on the second floor turned up empty, so I went up another flight to the third. Room by room, I glanced in, and if the door was locked, I listened for a few moments, waited until I heard voices—or moans.

I knew what Laina sounded like. The one time I’d lost control of myself, I made her unravel, and I drank up every sound she made.

As fate would have it, it was the last room I came to, the last room I lingered outside of, trying to eavesdrop, that was my ultimate destination. Unfortunately, I didn’t hear a single sound in the room, which led me to think Laina was in the process of doing something she shouldn’t.

Steeling my resolve, I grabbed the door handle and pushed inside of the room, and what I saw infuriated me in ways nothing else could: Laina and the stranger were on the bed, their legs entwined. Clothes were still on, but that was a tiny mercy since they were clearly kissing.

I wasn’t quiet about coming in, so a moment later, the stranger tossed an annoyed look over his shoulder and said, “Dude. The room’s taken. Go somewhere else.”

Righteous fury filled me, and I imagined taking the boy—because that’s what he was: a worthless, nameless boy who didn’t deserve to know what those lips felt like—by the throat and squeezing the life out of him.

He frowned at me. “It’s not fucking Halloween, man. Take that mask and go fuck off.” He was more annoyed at my intrusion now, but if he honestly believed his angry words would get me to leave, he had another thing coming.

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