Page 72 of Burn Me Down

“Derek!”

The sound of Beck’s distraught voice had my feet moving, and I dodged Mark’s flaming arms. I could see Adalyn standing at the next turn, and as she looked in my direction, I didn’t know what I had ever seen in her. She looked the same, her smile just as pretty as it ever was, yet there was an ugliness to her that shimmered under her skin.

I tried to run around her like I had the others, but she appeared in my way again until I growled in frustration.

“What the hell do you want, Adalyn?”

“I want to get back together. I’ve been lonely without you.”

“No, not interested.” I veered around her again, and her hands gripped my arm, but it felt more like talons trying to claw me to shreds.

“But don’t you love me? I know you still have feelings for me, or you wouldn’t have left me alive. Please, Derek, give us a second chance.”

I yanked my arm away, and lines of blood showed up where her nails had been digging in and dripped down my arm.

“I said no. Get out of my way, or I’ll teach you another lesson, and this time, I won’t leave you alive.”

Adalyn’s expression turned dark, and she hissed at me but let me pass. My feet were loud as I ran, each footfall echoing in time to my racing heart. I couldn’t hear Beck anymore, and the panic grew until I saw my father standing outside of a closed door, and I knew she was behind that one.

“There he is, my son, the fucking piece of garbage. I always knew you would amount to nothing. You were born a nothing and remained a nothing your whole life. I mean, look at you. You can’t even provide for the one person you love without fucking it up. Worthless.”

With a yell, I rammed into him like a football player. We slammed up against the door with a bang. He didn’t yell or hit back, but the laugh was just as sinister. Just as demoralizing, and I punched him in the face to shut him up.

“I killed you once, but I’m happy to do it again.”

“Derek!” I heard Beck call my name and knew that I didn’t have time to waste on my father anymore.

Standing, I stared down at the man who gave me life but was no more a father than a random stranger. “I will never think of you again. You have infected my mind and heart for too long, and I will never let you hurt me again. You mean nothing to me, and I no longer give you the power or the space to infect me with the toxicity you loved to spread. You were dead to me long before I killed you,” I said, and he slumped over his eyes wide and unseeing.

Bursting through the door, Beck was on her knees with Adam behind her, a blade touching her throat. Her eyes were pleading with me to help her, tears shimmering in them, and my rage spun together with the terror of losing her. The two felt like hands gripping my feet as I stood frozen.

“So we meet again,” Adam said.

“Let her go. She had nothing to do with what happened,” I said, but instead, Adam wrapped his hand around her throat and forced her to her feet. She gasped and smacked at his arm.

“You think you can stop me? No one can stop me,” he said, and energy surged through my body as I ran across the floor and pushed Beck away before tackling Adam to the ground. We rolled around until I finally got him pinned, my hands around his throat.

“I’ll kill you for touching, Beck. No one hurts her, no one.”

“Der…ek.” I could hear Beck, but she didn’t sound right, and I shook my head, the images of the terrifying dream still gripping me. “Der…ek, please.”

Beck needed me.

The remaining fog vanished, but I’d stepped out of one horror movie and into another.

Beck was pressed up against a wall with a hand around her throat. She was hanging onto the arm, fear in her grey eyes as tears streamed down her cheeks. I roared, ready to attack who had her, but confusion overwhelmed me when the arm led back to my body.

Beck’s hand touched my cheek, her fingers soft and warm. “Please.”

I sucked in a ragged breath as reality punched me in the face, and I let go of Beck. She slumped to the floor, her hands going to her throat as she coughed. In and out, in and out, in and out, my breathing was rapid as I stared at her on the floor. A bruise was vivid on the side of her face, and a little drop of blood trickled from her lip.

“Oh fuck,” I said, and stumbled back. “I’m so sorry. I’m so so sorry.” My body shook as I looked at my hands. “Beck, I’m so sorry, I…I…I….” I couldn’t catch a breath, and as Beck turned her eyes up to mine, I was stabbed in the heart. I’d almost killed the one person in this world that I loved, that I would die for. I’d nearly taken her life because the demons in my mind wouldn’t leave me alone. I was still the monster I’d always been. I’d just been dressed up as something else for a short time.

“Derek, it’s okay.” She coughed and held out her hand.

I ran backward until my back hit the far wall. “Don’t touch me, I…oh my god.”

“Derek, stop. Breathe.” She slowly stood, and I knew I needed to stay away from her. I couldn’t hurt her again. I would cut off my hands first. I would never become the thing my father had been. Tears filled my eyes as I bolted out of the room.