Page 2 of A Twist of Poison

He knew he could. I hadn’t uttered a word except for those two times. The first time I tried, I reached out to a family friend in confidence but was told that mylieswould not be tolerated. They had shoved me out the door with a barrage of threats.

The second time I reached out to the police. A woman came to meet me at a cafe where I knew I wouldn't be recognised, and I proceeded to give my statement. The next day, local news reported her death as a suicide. I followed it up but my statement was nowhere to be seen. He demonstrated how far he would go to keep the truth under wraps. I was punished for it, and never reached out for help again.

“Good.” He rose, making his way to where I was. Towering above my five-foot-six frame, he stood over me. He really was a beautiful human being, all six feet of him, with his blonde hair and blue eyes. But I saw beneath the handsome veneer. You’d never believe just what he was capable of.

And therein lay the problem. Not one person would believe me. They’d say I was mistaken; they’d make me out to be a girl trying to gain attention from someone like him. Little did they know I wanted none of it. I wanted to sink into the background. My sanity separated his two personalities; abuser and friend, it was the only way I could cope daily.

When your abuser was also someone you once loved and cared for deeply, the bonds between you were jagged and messy. Never knowing which version of him I’d get, I always wanted to believe the good in him even when he proved time and time again what a monster he truly was.

“Are you positive you want to return?” he voiced, a furrow marring his eyebrows.What?Was he concerned? That made no sense, unless…

“Yeah. I’m sure,” I told him, my tone determined.

Smoothing out his expression, he cupped my head in his hands, drawing my lips to his and kissing me goodbye. “I’ll see you back on home turf, angel. We’ll be using the apartment in Upper when we spend time together. I’ve left the address, key and access codes in your bag.” I nodded in acknowledgement. He kissed me one last time before leaving.

I waited until the door clicked shut before falling back onto my bed. Breathing deeply, I inhaled through my nose and exhaled from my mouth.It’s going to be okay; I can do this. I know I can do this.

From somebody looking at the situation as a whole, they’d wonder why I put up with it. Why didn’t I take my own life and rid myself of the hell I barely survived, but I wouldn’t. Simply, there were no comebacks when you traded in your death card.

Why give him the satisfaction of pushing me to my limit? I knew he didn’t want me dead. Sometimes I wished I was, but a small part inside me that I tucked away wouldn’t allow me to follow through on it.

You wanted this, Milla. This was your decision. Own it.

But I had to be cautious. I had more than one secret to conceal.

Chapter2

Hollis

Bathe in the light, drown in the dark.

I gazed at where the tattoo sat in bold, italic letters running sideways down the inside of my forearm, remembering why I had it permanently inked there. Grazing my hand over the writing, I felt the quote resonate through my entire being and knew it suited me perfectly.

But there was no light. Not really. The light we once had was returning here. She’d be within our reach soon. Drowning in the dark was as easy as breathing, especially with the world we were immersed in. There was no one to stop the depths of our descent.

My phone vibrated on the vanity counter; I watched my reflection in the mirror. Looking for what? Some sign? Some divine intervention? I had no idea.Fucking hell, it’s too early for these in-depth thoughts.I may not have always liked what I saw reflected in my ice-blue eyes, but my decisions were my own.

“Yeah?” I answered without looking at the caller ID, schoolboy error.

“Alright, brother?” He greeted, very happy and… this was just way too early for Preston’s overall vibe.

“Let me guess, it’s too early for your precious ears to hear me? Well, fuck you.” He laughed. “Did you knowshewas coming home today?” His voice turned serious.

I didn’t even have to confirm whoshewas. There was only one person whom he would be all over with puppy dog eyes. Our Milla. Not ours, but yeah, basically ours. Our childhood friend, the one we’d known for years until she upped and left without as much as a word to anyone but her family.

Milla scurried off to another state to attend a private school with boarding onsite. It seemed she was crawling back home taking her place at Coldharbour, like the rest of us who knew our place. It was a legacy tradition to join Coldharbour University before moving onto our careers, not that I had to worry about that. Mine was secured already. It was a shame I couldn’t be open and discuss it but working behind the scenes was what we did best.

“I was informed a few weeks ago,” I confirmed. “Thought you’d have heard from somebody.”

“I wasn’t told. I should have heard from you though,” he stated, clearly unhappy with me keeping my mouth shut.

Obviously, I should have told him, it slipped my mind. Well, not slipped my mind as such, but I’d put it off. Why—because it was a disaster waiting to happen with her being around again. Why get our hopes up when we couldn’t be with her like we wanted. We all feel for her—felt for her—always had, and more than just friends. Being around her as one of her best friends again? Yeah, no… that would be torture.She needed to leave.

We’d changed. We weren’t the boys she once knew. We’d grown up and moulded ourselves into harsher versions of who we used to be. Things couldn’t ever go back to the way they were before. Too much time had passed with no way to bridge the chasm that’d formed between us all.

“Why are you calling me? Where are you anyways?” I asked, wondering why he hadn’t stormed his way uninvited inside my room as per usual. He never cared for boundaries much.

“On campus, my dorm room,” he affirmed. Ah, now that made a whole lot of sense. We only used our allocated rooms on the university grounds to satisfy our needs.

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