Page 104 of Petrify

My legs spread willingly.

“Mine to fuck. Mine to keep. You need me, Mallary. We need each other. Don’t you feel it? How you’vebewitchedme? Just be good and let me take care of you.”

I’m so tired of trying. I’m so tired of having to prove myself.

“Please,” I whisper, and it’s so fucking pathetic, I almost pity myself. “I’ll stay. I’ll stay with you.”

“You will.”

I can hear his grin. Something is burning in my chest, and I’m not sure I have the words to name it. The prospect of leaving him?—

And still, he won’t touch me, even when I can see the ridge of his cock through his pants. Even when I know he wants to plunge deep inside of me, make a home of my rib cage. He’s right, I can feel it like our viscera and sinew are melting into one. Whatever he is made of, so am I.

“The plan never was for you to leave,” he says. “You were always going to stay.”

My breaths hitches, my head dizzy with the lack of oxygen.

“Once you entered those gates, you were trapped. But it’s alright, you don’twantto leave anyway.” He finally,finallyleans closer again, fingertips dancing across my knees, pushing my legs further apart. “See how you took almost no convincing? Because we weremade for each other.”

I’m shaking my head, even when he settles between my thighs, even when the thick length of his cock presses against me.

“I can’t?—”

He props himself up with a hand on either side of my head. “Stop denying it.”

“I—I don’t?—”

“You killed him, didn’t you?” he murmurs, his face so close to mine. He grinds his cock against my clit, forcing my thighs further apart.

My eyes slam shut at the sudden intense sensation. “Stop.”

“Didn’t we just agree you’d be good for me?” Leaning closer, so the nose of his mask brushes mine. “You killed him, and you’ve been running ever since.”

I try to pull myself out from under him. “No.”

“You murdered him.”

“No!”

His grip is harsh at my hips, holding me in place. He’s enjoying this. Of course he is. “You killed Jason.”

“It was anaccident,” I sob, gripping at his hoodie again. “I didn’t mean to.”

“Still murder, Mallary.” He groans, burying his face in my neck. “It’s okay. He deserved it, didn’t he?”

My lungs constrict like the weight of the earth is crushing my ribs, shaking my head, denying, denying,denying.

How does he know?

“Please,stop?—”

“And you were able to slip away so easily. No one suspected a thing.”

He knows too much, he’s always known, taunting me with it. I never had to fear Jason’s ghost, because this one’s been haunting me for weeks.

“Blunt force trauma to the skull, Mallary. Was it you?”

“No.”