Page 351 of Coal Hearts

A jagged kind of needling.

Urgency I’d never felt before hurtled me through the rain in search of something...someone...her.

The girl who’d run.

The girl who’d awoken me.

The girl I had to find.

The undone weight between my legs kept me far too ferocious. The memory of her using me to chase her pleasure only ensured I chased her to relieve mine.

She owed me.

I wanted her to put me out of my misery.

To accept her place.

To respect me instead of ridicule me.

I needed her.

I needed her to need me.

I need...more.

I ran harder.

Searching.

Needing.

A plastic gemstone glittered at the base of a goddess statue, her marble hair cascading to the ground and her arms wrapped around a bowl of forbidden fruit.

I didn’t care what was inside.

The only treasure I wanted was Ily.

But I snatched it up anyway and kept running.

Where are you, little nightmare?

Hunting her was not good for my sanity.

With every step, I reverted deeper and deeper into a prehistoric animal.

I couldn’t stop images of what I’d do when I found her.

How I’d fall on her, fill her, bite her—

Christ.

“Ily!” I charged through bleeding water and flinched beneath the might of nature. “Where the fuck are you?”

I wasn’t the only animal out here.

There were others.

Too many others.