Page 36 of Kill Me

“Who the fuck are you? What do you want?” He steels his face to try and intimidate me. Unfortunately for him, intimidation is not something I respond very well to. Years of homelessness and fending for myself taught me better. So I straighten my shoulders and stand up straight.

“As I explained to your mum, I’m here to check on Quinn. I’m her friend.”

“She doesn’t have any friends. And from what I heard, she doesn’t need to be wasting anyone’s time in therapy. She needs to be put down like the dog she is.”

“Excuse me?”

“You heard. You’re not going to see her. You’ve been told no. Now, get the fuck off my property before I put you off myself.”

“If I don’t see or hear from Quinn in the next ten minutes, I’ll be calling the police. You might scare her, but you don’t scare me, and I think it’s about time that someone put Quinn first and put you fuckers in your place.” He irks me, and all I want to do is rearrange his fucking face. With a twelve-foot barge pole straight to his nasty ass face.

“Care to demonstrate just how you intend to do that?” He steps over the threshold, and we’re nose to nose. I don’t move.

“If you think for a second you’ll be able to lure me into whatever trap you are concocting in your head, you’re stupider than you look. But you best believe, if I wanted to demonstrate how, I would be the one walking away and you’d be the one put down like a dog.” His face drops, and I smirk as I turn to leave.

“I’ll find her myself. And when I do, I hope you're ready for the storm she’s about to rain down on your heads. You may not think she’s worth much, but I’ll give you fair warning. When she’s better, I’d suggest you start running and never look back. They say there’s nothing scarier than a woman scorned, and they’re right. But imagine a woman scorned who wants to set the world alight, with a man by her side that will help fan the flames.” I take a pause for dramatic effect. “You won’t stand a chance. It was nice to meet you. I’m sure I’ll see you again soon.” I glance over my shoulder and chuckle to myself at the sight laid out before me. Temu Hulk is flexing his muscles like he forgot to take his steroid shot, and the egg donor is whispering sweet nothings to him, trying to calm him down.

Looking at those two, you would think they were husband and wife, and that shit’s just fucking creepy. Incestuous activities in books are hot, incest in real life? Absolutely not.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Quinn - Present Day

Breakfast finished over an hour ago, and I was escorted back to my room. I cannot get those rules out of my head. Consequences?? What consequences? No talking? Different houses for people? What criteria is used to decide who is worthy and who is not? Who the fuck do these people think they are?

It’s at this point I’m wishing I’d hidden my phone in the toilet tank so I could contact Harley again, although based on the rules I wouldn’t be allowed there without an escort anyway. Still not having had my medication, the withdrawals are starting to kick in. Sweat coats my forehead, and my body is shivering despite the fact that I feel like I’m overheating. My pain is off the scale, radiating through my body in waves.

I reach for the scratchy blanket to pull it over myself in an attempt to combat the shivers. I know it won’t work, yet it’s a cycle I start every time. It’s not the first time my medication has been withheld from me. My mother does it for fun, but I have yet to find a way to minimise the symptoms of withdrawal. My t-shirt is soaked from the sweat perspiring from my body.

Within seconds, I throw the blanket off of me and switch positions, trying to find a comfortable spot, to no avail. I try to distract my brain and think of other things. Another few seconds pass, and I switch positions again, pulling the blanket back over me as my shivering increases. It’s a vicious cycle, finding a position that eases my suffering to then have to switch it all up again almost immediately.

I’m pulled from my thoughts by Darla’s voice. “Quinn, are you ready for your meds?”

“Yes, please. My body is crying.” I almost sob from relief.

She laughs. “I think that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but okay. Here you go.”

She hands me the pot of medication, and I look at the tablets. They all look familiar, so that’s something. I tip the contents into my mouth and use the remainder of my water from breakfast to wash them down. One thing you get used to when you have a chronic illness is swallowing bundles of tablets all at once. At this point it’s a party trick. “Tell me something, Darla. Do you suffer from chronic pain? Have you ever been hit by a car and your body destroyed for the rest of your life?”

“No. I don’t believe in chronic pain. Pain is pain. We’re all in pain at some point in our lives, Quinn. Most of us just have to get on with it. We don’t have the privilege to lie on our backs and do fuck all all day.”

“Wow. How ignorant of you. I hope you never know what it’s like not to be able to trust that your body will look after you or praying to things you’ve never believed in, that you’ll be able to do basic everyday things and not be stuck in your bed unable to walk for days on end. I hope no one close to you ever has to feel the trauma that many of us feel at the betrayal of our bodies and the inability to enjoy life as a ‘normal’ person would.”

“Sounds a bit dramatic if you ask me, Quinn.”

“Good job I didn’t ask for your opinion then, isn’t it?”

“Don’t get it twisted.” She stalks towards me, a fire in her eyes that shows she isn’t the pushover she shows on the surface. “I may be the nicer one out of Richard and me, but if you push me too far, trust me when I tell you, you’ll know about it. No one is coming to save you, Quinn. No one. You’re at our mercy.”

“That’s what you think,” I mumble under my breath.

“What was that?”

“I said, ‘It won’t happen again, Darla.’”

“Good, that’s what we like to see. You’re learning already.”

“You have an appointment with the doctor in an hour after your exercise. I’ll take you to the exercise area now and will escort you to see her afterwards. Remember the rules: no talking to the members of the other house, and during exercise hour you must be continuously moving.”