Page 145

Dust coats the furniture, like it hasn’t been used in years, and yellowing blinds cover the window. The same blinds that blocked the world from seeing the monster within.

I run my fingers over the bed, breathing her in. It has been years since she lived here, but I can still smell her on the bedding.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” I say, turning to see Ambrose trying to sneak up on me, bat in hand. Even if I didn’t hear him wake up or hear the spike in his heart rate when he realized someone was in his house, I’d have heard his heavy breath, smelled the stench of liquor on his tainted lips.

“Who are you?” he grits, pointing the bat at me. “How did you get in here?”

My back straightens, and I crack my neck. “I’m here to relay a message.”

“Yeah?” He glances around the room, making sure there’s no weapon in reach for me to use against him. “Well, get talking.”

“In time.” I take a step in his direction. “First, you’re going to tell me a story.” His brows fall together. I take another step. “It’s a story about a little girl. She was young, with two colored eyes.”

He staggers back. “What the…?”

“Come on. I know you know this one. She lost her mom, had to move around a lot. Found her way to you.” I toss my hands out to the side. “This was her room, was it not?”

“That girl’s a liar. If she sent you here to⁠—”

“Ah, so you do know this story. Enlighten me. What happens to the little girl when she’s left in your watch?”

“Not a damn thing.” He raises the bat higher. “Get the hell out of my house before I call the police.”

I tsk, shaking my head. “Do you think anyone would help you if they saw the skeletons you keep?”

He swings the bat for my head. I catch it easily, pulling it from his grip, then turn it against him, holding it at his neck while his back presses against the wall. His eyes look straight into mine, a wicked curve tilting his lips. “Sure, I remember the little bitch. She was a pretty one. Did anything I asked her.”

I press my weight onto both sides of the Louisville Slugger, pushing until he’s choking out for air. “And what was that?” I seethe through teeth clenched so tight I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them cracked.

The bastard grips the wood, then fucking smiles. “Seems you already know.” He chuckles through a cough. “Her tears tasted as good as her cries sounded.”

I drop the bat, taking several steps in reverse. Ambrose falls forward, catching his hands on his knees while he sucks in the oxygen he doesn’t deserve to breathe.

The dark thing bubbles inside of me, feeding on the growing vexation. It fills my veins, pumping more than just molten crimson through them. It runs rampant through my chest, unwinding itself from the parts of me that once worked so hard to hold it down.

With a slow exhale, I close my eyes, letting go of the thing I swore I’d do everything to keep in. It courses inside me, breaking free from the cell my body has held it captive.

It’s like breathing for the first time. Years of weight being lifted all at once. In place of the deep ache I’d been living with is power like nothing I’ve ever known. It’s almost hard to keep my footing as it jars through me, sweeping like bolts of electricity.

My inner shadow flows through my fingers, drinking in its first sight at freedom. It feels so fucking good finally letting it go. And now, I’m going to gift it its entire purpose, because we want the same thing.

This man’s soul.

“Tell me, boy,” Ambrose grunts, “do you believe in the devil?”

My shadow circles him, moving effortlessly in the open as it positions at his front. The whites of his eyes double in size when he sees it, shuffling back before falling over his own feet.

His pleas won’t save him. Running wouldn’t save him.

His death is inescapable.

“I am the devil,” I tell him, watching the shadow climb over top of him and drain down his throat. I feel it, running like cool fire through my veins as it devours him. It’s better than any chase. More addicting than any hunt. It’s the very reason I always kept the darkness at bay. Locking it away again won’t be so easy. The shadow is hungry, and it wants to feed.

I’ve tried so very hard to be good, but I was born for something else. Ambrose couldn’t stop me. No one can stop me.

For her, I am unleashed.

-Now-