Page 52 of Cedar Edge
Leaving me here, alone, is dangerous for so many reasons right now.
The false narrative telling me I was safe, despite the threats a week ago, had shattered. Royce coming for me shouldn’t be a shock but I had allowed myself to relax, allowed myself to think I was safe, and now that illusion is shattered. The silence in thehouse feels oppressive, as though it’s sinking into me, crushing me slowly. My skin itches as I pace the living room. My hands running through my hair over and over again until I’m sure it’s a greasy mess.
“Fuck.” The word comes out in a huff of breath as I find myself standing in the kitchen.
I know what I’m needing, what would help me. But Ace is gone. Working some fire and no where in sight to fucking help me through this. I glance towards the kitchen, the knives in the butcher block a tempting alternative. I nibble on my lip as I go back and forth in my mind. While it isn’t what I would usually use, my preferred method is no longer available. Nor is the person who is supposed to help when this happens.
The knife is in my hand before I’m thinking, pressing to my bare thigh.
“What the fuck did I tell you Cricket?”
My stepbrother's voice locks up my body, the cool blade lightly kissing my skin. He stands off to the left, his silhouette in the doorway caught out of the corner of my eye.
I hear the rustle of movement, his boots clicking on the hardwood floor, until his heat is pressed in against my back and the scent of smoke that seems to permanently cling to him wafts over me.
“Asked you a question Cricket.” His voice sends shivers over my body and his breath huffs out warm against my neck. His fingers drift down to my hand and slowly grasp the knife, dragging it away from my body. “I told you that your pain and blood belong to me.”
I gulp as he traces the knife blade over my body in light, tantalizing movements. “Do you need to bleed, Cricket?” His purr vibrates every part of my body as my eyes flutter shut. Words don’t come, my mouth dry and throat tight. He keepsrunning the blade up and down the bare skin of my legs and arms.
“You don’t have to speak, just nod and I’ll help you float away.” He says, as if reading my mind. I swallow nervously as the words settle into a deeper part of my brain. My body relaxes into him and I nod, the movement small but evident. I feel frozen as he presses the knife harder into my skin, not enough to draw blood yet but it’s a promise. I hear him take a deep inhale pressing his nose to my skin before I feel his teeth sink into the junction of my shoulder and neck. It wakes me up enough that I jolt free of the freeze I had been locked in. My heart kicks into gear and thuds hard against the cage it’s trapped in.
Ace sucks on the bite mark, his tongue swirling over the sting left behind by his teeth. “That’s my good girl.” He growls. “Safe word is ‘red’. Now run, little Cricket, run fast and pray I don’t catch you.”
When his body steps back I bolt, like a deer no longer caught in the headlights. I'm sprinting out of the house and towards the back pastures as the adrenaline courses through me in intoxicating waves. No doubt he expected me to head towards the woods to take cover in the dark trees but I have no interest in doing what he expects.
The barn that holds Katana flies by and I ignore it, instead aiming for the other one. The one that I haven’t seen up close yet. It’s a calculated risk, given I have to cross the open field, but to be fair this whole thing is a calculated risk. The sun beats down on me, sweat trickling down my cleavage and peppering my forehead as I hit the shade the old building throws off. The momentum from my run catapults me into the old wooden doors hard, the structure giving with little to no resistance causing me to fall head first into the space.
I hit the ground with a thud, wincing at the impact my knees and hands take. I’m hit with the smell immediately, a metallictwang trying to cover up the scent of death. My eyes track up from the dirt ground and horror has me scrambling backwards as I take in the macabre scene around me.
“You really had to come in here didn’t you?”
Ace
The moment Thea fell through my workshop door it felt like relief and utter terror melting through my body. I had gone back and forth for so long on how much I should tell her, or if I should tell her, that the relief for that fight to be over almost overshadows the fear of how she’ll react.
Her whole form froze in the space where the sunshine is eaten by the shadows but I know what she sees. My latest assignment in pieces, ready to be given to the pigs. I hadn’t had a chance to clean up when Law texted saying Royce was looking around, and I’m glad I hadn’t, because if I had tried to clean up I would have missed Thea with the knife to her body.
I step around her slowly, into the dark, bloody space. “What… what is this?” She breathes out.
I can’t look at her, not yet, because if I look at her I’ll see the fear she has for me now. It’s why I kept this part of my job so secret. So instead I keep my back to her, the reaper wings spread wide as my arms gesture around the room. “My office.”
She snorts, the sound so unlike her it almost has me turning to look. “Your office? You are a firefighter… this… this isn’t a firefighters job.”
“No, but it is my office nonetheless.” I hear her press her body to a stand. I wait for the inevitable, for her to flee from me in a way that doesn’t beckon a chase.
“Who was it?” Her question startles me but still I don’t turn. I feel her walk up beside me, deeper into the dark pit. “Was he bad?”
I can’t help the laugh. “Just because he was a bad man doesn’t mean I’m a good one.”
She steps up in front of me now. The way she examines the room makes me squirm. I see the moment she spies my mask hanging from the work bench. Slowly, she picks her way through the carnage towards the half skeleton. When she delicately plucks it from its resting place and turns towards me I feel all the air leave my lungs.
“I’m not afraid of your darkness, Ace.” Her voice is melodic and soft, the sound of her boots muffled as she walks towards me with that damn mask. “I probably should be. In fact I know I should be running and screaming from you. Is that why you didn’t tell me?”
My hands curl to fists the closer she gets. Her steps measured and controlled, somehow avoiding the blood and body pieces littering the dirt. “I’m not a good person. I fucking enjoy it Thea, I enjoy it all.”
She stops, finally, when she’s close enough that I can see the flush under her skin but not so close that I could touch her with ease. Her eyes stay locked on the mask for so long that I’m close to begging her to look at me, to put me out of my misery and just tell me that I’m the fucking devil.
“You’re right Ace, you aren’t a good person.” The words suck the air from the room before her next words breathe life back into me. “But I don’t need a good person. I need you.” She looks at me finally, her blue eyes locked onto my own and holding such determination and resolve that I almost fall to my knees. “And I’m not afraid of the blood on your hands.” She tosses my mask at me as she walks past me. I follow her movements, mesmerized by her and utterly speechless.
