Page 13 of Monsters Like Us
Katana nods, small and unsure. She has no idea.
My blood turns molten in my veins. The name alone is enough to rot my composure. Dr. Vale.
He calls me his challenge. His project.
I let him live with his delusions, playing with him like a mute beast. A twitch of my fingers, a tilt of my head at the right moment, and he salivates like Pavlov’s dog, hoping I’ll speak.
I let him believe he’s breaking me down. Let him believe his therapy is working. Just enough to make him think I’m making progress. To want to set me free.
And when he does? The world won’t know what it let out. Until it’s too late.
The memory of my last session with him slices through me. Vale sat behind his desk like a king on a throne, his loafers polished, his gold watch catching the light. He fired question after question at me, and I answered with silence, staring him down until the vein in his forehead pulsed purple. Until the mask he wears slipped, revealing the evil beneath.
He cracked. Slammed his hands on the desk, his eyes blazing. “I will break you, Micah. I will dig until I find something that makes you show emotion. Something that reveals who you really are.”
I smirked, said nothing, and walked out victorious, holding all the power.Good luck, Vale.
But now… now the game has changed. If Vale knows I feel anything toward Katana, he’ll use her to get to me. To try to break me.
And that cannot happen.
Her arms are wrapped around her, like she’s hugging herself. Her eyes dart around like a trapped bird. She’s pale from the thought of meeting with Vale. To have him poking inside her mind.
I’m more concerned that she’s too unprepared. She has no idea how dangeroushe is.
My jaw locks. My hands curl into fists.
If Vale so much as looks at her the wrong way… He’ll learn what it means to play with something far darker than his ego.
Already, the machinery in my head turns. Vale holds his sessions in his office. He likes control, order, and quiet. He doesn’t let guards hover close—says they disrupt the “process.” That arrogance is my opening.
I know the schedule here better than the staff. Who patrols which halls, which cameras are broken, and which guards linger too long at the vending machines. It wouldn’t be hard to arrange something. A distraction. A fight. A spill of blood in the cafeteria timed just right to pull him away.
Or maybe something simpler. A whisper in the right patient’s ear. Push the right button. This place is a nest of broken glass—I only need to tilt the jar.
I could keep her from ever stepping through his door.
Because Katana is mine. Not Vale’s to probe and pry open like one of his case studies.
He thinks he’s playing chess with me. He doesn’t realize I flipped the board years ago.
Tomorrow after breakfast, she’s supposed to sit across from him.
Tomorrow won’t go the way Vale planned.
CHAPTER 11
Katana
The office smellslike leather polish and stale coffee. Dr. Vale’s oak desk gleams under the fluorescent lights, every pen lined up like soldiers. He motions to the chair across from him.
“Katana, please. Sit.”
I sink into the seat, my palms damp and my heart thudding. I’m terrified of how this will go. I can’t reveal what I did. He’ll know I’m a monster if I do… and then, who knows what will happen to me?
He folds his hands, a practiced smile curving his lips. “Now, why don’t we start with?—”
The intercom on his desk crackles, a clean, ordinary sound that breaks the room’s little bubble.
