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Perhaps we’ve all been mad for years. I’m simply done pretending otherwise.

My principles never allowed me to kill. I’d look away while Roman and Alec watched the life drain from a man’s eyes without losing a second of sleep.

Even when they hunted down the men who trafficked me, I stayed behind the screen, breaking into computers, and leading the guys straight to them.

But for some reason, I’d love to see this motherfucker begging for mercy, hoping for forgiveness he would never receive.

Holding onto sanity no longer seemed like a task I wanted to accomplish.

Elara was hurt. She’s at home hurting. She cried in her sleep while I sat beside her, while I caressed her cheek and wiped her tears dripping from her closed eyes.

I shouldn’t have let her leave. She would’ve been here, in my home, where I could’ve kept an eye on her. Where I would’ve known. Where no one would’ve touched her.

Fuck.

This feeling of helplessness makes me want to murder people—a certain blonde arsehole who thought he has the rights to touch a woman, my woman without her consent.

NINE

Sergei

It’s baffling to fall under the same category as this human waste.

This moral rot was all smiles when he was touching Elara.

I wonder where has his smile gone.

The fear I saw in her eyes is the only thing forcing me not to end his life with a quick snap of his neck.

That would be mercy.

I don’t want mercy for him.

I want this to last. I want him begging for it with every breath he has left—only for me to deny it. I want him on his knees, pleading, wishing he’d never acted on his twisted desires.

“Please…” The word tears from his throat as he staggers across the empty stretch of land, desperately trying to put distance between us.

I bought this land and house in the most secluded area of the city, believing I would never have any use of it, because I don’t plan on killing anyone secretly but I was simply deluding myself.

A sick part of me wanted to kill one day.

I was my father’s son after all; the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

Elara’s tears did something to me. I didn’t want to be good anymore; I would unleash all my demons upon this world just to keep her.

And this motherfucker is the one I had to begin with. I knew the illegal fight was only a step towards the demise of my humanity, gradual but very much noticeable.

I am about to kill a man and I won’t be regretting it.

I let him escape once we reached the secluded area of the city, giving him foolish hope, just to have it snatched away in a second.

I told him if he reached the house before I could get to him, I’ll let him go.

He stumbles, gasping for air, running like the coward he is. I’d enjoy watching him cry if his pathetic wailing didn’t grate on my nerves.

“I didn’t know she was yours.” He chokes out. Lie.

The entire campus knows. The moment I wrapped my hand around Elara’s wrist to stop her from touching Roman, the rumours spread like wildfire.