Page 91 of Monster
Vincent
Present
I watchas her already pale face drains of all color.
That’s right, baby. Be fucking scared. Be terrified.
I close my eyes for the briefest moment as I try to get a hold over the anger coursing through me, but every passing second, it becomes increasingly difficult. I can feel the monster inside of me, digging his claws in and shredding me apart from the inside. I want nothing more than to let go.
So I do.
I can’t do what needs to be done by trying to hold on to the one thing that fucking ruined me.
But first, I need fucking answers.
“To start things off, I’m going to ask questions and you are going to answer them.” I don’t give her time to answer me before I start. “Tell me about what Ben did to you.”
Her head begins to shake before I even finish speaking, and I grit my teeth. I press my front against hers and the coldness of the chains holding her midsection to the tree seeps through the fabric of my T-shirt. I raise my hand holding the knife and press the tip into her temple before dragging it down the side of her face slowly. Her skin splits open as the blade moves, and I hear the hiss that escapes her lips—a hiss she tries to hide—but our close proximity makes that impossible.
I’m too close to her to see the blood, but I know it’s there. I brush my lips across her cheekbone as I speak. “Answer me, Essa.”
“No,” she says and although she says the word with confidence, her tone betrays her. I can hear the fear she doesn’t want me to.
I lean back and let my eyes lock on hers. “Don’t play your stupid fucking games right now. I promise you will regret it.”
She matches my steely gaze with one of her own and I hate how strong she is trying to be right now. Why can’t she just remain the same hopeless girl she was months ago? She was much easier to break. This version of Essa is going to be the end of us both.
“I’m not going to talk to you about Ben, Vincent.” She attempts to straighten her back to feign confidence, but the chain prevents it. “I can’t talk about it.” She mumbles the last words and I barely catch them.
“What do you mean, ‘you can’t’?”
“I mean exactly what I fucking said!” she screeches in my face and my brows jump up in surprise by the sudden ferocity in her voice. I don’t necessarily need her to talk to me about it. I may not know the details, but I do know what happened overall. It’s not like it matters now when he’s nothing but ash and bone. I suppose I merely wanted Essa to fucking open up to me. Towantto tell me—but it’s too late for all of that now.
There is more important shit to discuss, anyway.
“That’s okay, baby doll. You don’t have to tell me. I have a pretty fucking good idea anyway.” I step away from her and move back to lean against the tree off to the side. I cross my arms over my chest with the knife still gripped in my right hand. I drag my gaze from the ground back to Essa’s face.
She’s staring at me with hatred and fear—like always. I pull my gaze from her icy green eyes and drag mine down her body, burning as much of her as I can to my memory because I know this is it. After this, it’s over.We’re over.
Essa the Creep will be gone and all that will be left is an angry, malicious fucking monster.
Essa’s pale skin stands out in the sunlight barely peeking through the heavy clouds above, even more so with the silvery metal of the chains wrapping around her arms and torso. Her jeans are dirty and tattered, most likely from running around the woods and her feet rest on the ground right next to the tree trunk. Her Sublime hoodie appears the same as it did the very first time I met her. Only difference now is instead of her wearing it at the beginning of us, she will also be wearing it at the end too.
“You know, I killed your parents without a second thought. I burned their house to the fucking ground for you. And what do I get in return? You killing my fucking baby.” I bring my gaze back to hers and the pain in her eyes has me tensing up. Tears flood her eyes and I stare, conflicted, as I watch them flow down her face with no signs of stopping.
Essa doesn’t say a word as she silently cries in front of me and my heart beats faster in my chest as my own tears burn my eyes. I step up to her and bring my left hand to her face. I catch one of her tears on my thumb and suck it into my mouth before bringing it back to her face. I run my thumb back and forth across her frigid skin which is slightly pink from the cool air.
“Lie to me, baby doll,” I whisper as I hover my lips right above hers. “Please fucking lie to me. Tell me it isn’t true. That you didn’t kill our baby. Lie to me.Please. Fucking. Lie.” A sob escapes through my lips without my consent and I feel the tears fall down my cheeks, hot and fast.
I keep my hand on Essa’s face as we both cry together, lost in the fucking moment of our pain. Pain she doesn’t deserve to feel, but in this moment, I let it be. I let us both feel it before it’s over. Before ithasto be over.
My heart beats wildly in my chest as I think about what I have to do next.
“You don’t get to blame me for that. It wasn’t my fucking fault, okay! It wasn’t my fault!” Essa screams in my face and something inside of me snaps. My left hand wraps around her throat and I flex my hand as hard as I can, instantly cutting off her voice. Everything around me blurs and the only thing I can hear is her words repeating over and fucking over again, taunting me, killing me.
It wasn’t my fault.
“It was your fault!” I roar. I drop the knife in my right hand, and I vaguely hear as it thuds to the cold, hard ground beneath us. I bring my right hand to Essa’s throat and lay it over my left so I can double the pressure as I squeeze. Essa squirms against me and although it’s not exactly the best time, my dick springs to life inside of my pants from the friction. I groan at how good her body feels against mine.
