Page 34 of Mated To The King's Gamma
I’m not good enough for anyone.
I’m nothing.
I don’t know how long I lay here before I notice the warmth beside me.
Azalea.
She’s lying next to me, her face soft, her breathing slow. Her eyes meet mine in the dim light, filled with something I can’t bear to see.
Pity.
That is what makes it worse.
That is why I need it to end.
I’m so tired of people looking at me like that. Like I’m some wounded, fragile thing they have to protect. Like I’m less than them. But I am. I always have been.
“Abbie?” she whispers.
Her voice sounds far away. Like I’m already slipping into the abyss. Maybe I am.
I try to answer her, but my throat closes. The memories have started again, curling around me like dark vines, pulling me under.
The butcher.
Daley.
Kade.
Their faces blur together, their voices overlapping, whispering to me in the dark. It’s like a never-ending carousel of horrors I can’t escape. I never fought hard enough. I never ran fast enough. I never screamed loud enough.
And now I’m trapped.
I should have fought harder.
I should have listened to Gannon.
I should never have gone down to that basement.
That is the one that haunts me the most.
That is the one I can never outrun.
I don’t belong here.
I shouldn’t be here.
I have been so close to finally escaping, to finally letting go. And then he stopped me. Gannon. He took away my one last choice, my only way out, forcing me back into a life I’m too weak to keep living.
I want peace.
But there is no peace. Not for me.
I barely notice my surroundings as I curl up on the cold tiles of Azalea’s bathroom floor, my cheek pressed against the freezing surface. My skin is wet, and the dampness is seeping into my bones, but I barely feel it. My thoughts are slipping, shifting, pulling me under.
“Abbie?” Azalea whispers, her voice soft, hesitant.
I don’t answer.
