Page 48 of Sway's Peace
“I’m not joking,” he said, his tone firm but not hard. Sincere. “I’m a murderer. I’ve killed a lot of people. I don’t know how many. I lost count. No. I don’t think I ever kept count.”
“Sway, seriously, this isn’t funny.” She finally pulled her hand back, holding it to her chest as she took a reflexive step away from him. Annoyed, because this was a bad prank.
“I spent most of my life on Rik-Vane.”
Grace’s breath caught in her throat. “Rik… Rik-Vane…?”
“I escaped a few years ago. But while I was there, I hurt and killed a lot of people just so I could keep on living.”
Grace’s heart was pounding. Despite the voice in her head yelling, insisting, that he had to be making a poor joke, fear was licking at her belly. But that was stupid, because he had to be joking. She tried to tell the burst of fear that. But it did no good. Not when he was looking at her with those eyes. Those soulless eyes again. The same ones that stared down the barrel of a gun and beheld a dead man on the floor and felt nothing.
The fear was rising up her throat to choke her from within and she couldn’t make it stop.
Rik-Vane was possibly the most infamous cesspool of criminals in the universe. The station was all but abandoned by authorities and instead had been taken over by the demented and the lawless. Only the worst of the worst went there, and only the truly terrible survived there.
Grace had heard of Rik-Vane like it was a monster. The kind of place that parents didn’t mention to their kids. The kind of place drunk, young fools would claim they could definitely dominate if they ever had a chance to go there. It wasn’t mentioned in polite company, and the people that lived there were spoken of like fetid beasts scrounged up from the deep.
But Grace had never heard of someoneescapingRik-Vane. That wasn’t even possible. So, this had to be a joke. A gag. A prank. Right?
Sway couldn’t really be…
He just continued to look at her, his eyes distant. Cold. Empty. Unfeeling. He didn’t have that gentle smile on his lips. His crest was plastered tight on his head, his tail pulled thin. Unnaturally still. Totally without feeling. It was like there wasn’t anything sapient there.
“You’re lying,” she breathed. Needing him to say that he wasn’t being for real. That it was all just an unfunny laugh at her expense.
“I’m not,” he said simply.
Just like that.
He wasn’t joking.
He was a murderer.
A murderer fromRik-Vane!
“Grace, I-”
He reached for her.
She turned and ran.
Didn’t even think about it. Didn’t give herself permission to do it. She just took off. The only thought on her mind to get away. To put distance between herself and the self-proclaimed murderer!
“Grace!” He called out, but she didn’t stop. Didn’t turn around.
Oh, stars, was he chasing her? Was he hunting her down.
There was nowhere she could go! She was stuck on a ship!
The captain!
She should get help from the captain. Surely, he would-
Do nothing. Because he knew. He had to know. Right? Otherwise, why else would Sway ask him for permission before committing acts of violence? Why would he act like it was totally normal when Sway showed up at his window so he didn’t leave a comm trail?
If the captain was compromised…
Then the crew was too.
