Page 167 of Sin Like the Devil

Jaw locked, I fight through the pain as I wrench myself upright. It takes a lot of fumbling in the darkness for my fingertips to catch skin. My cuffed hands skate over her, blindly searching for some identifiable body part.

When I’ve found what feels like an arm, I tug with my remaining strength. Ripley grunts at the force of being dislodged from her perch against the wall and pulled across wet concrete.

“S-Stop,” she moans in pain.

“Don’t g-go quiet on me, then.”

“No…”

“I’m not dying a-alone in here.”

With some awkward manoeuvring, I get her close enough to tuck her into my chest. It takes some serious mental gymnastics to justify cradling her naked body against my chest. It’s just self-preservation, right? I can steal her body heat.

Lifting my cuffed wrists over her head, I hold her in a tight embrace. My hands rub up and down her knobbly back to stimulate some warmth. I’m acutely aware of every naked inch pressed up so close to me, it’s like we share the same skin.

Any personal space or privacy has deserted us. I can feel each quiet inhale and exhale that tells me she hasn’t curled up and died in the dark. Her lungs expanding pushes her soft breasts into my chest each time.

Despite her quivering, body heat is soaking into me due to our extremely close proximity. My teeth stop chattering, allowing me to speak.

“Talk to me,” I plead in a painfully neutral voice.

“T-Tired. Cold.”

“I know. Me too.” I keep rubbing her back, desperately fighting her shudders. “How did we end up like this, Rip?”

“Karma,” she jokes feebly.

“I guess we’ve earned it.”

Ripley sniffles in my arms. “I have.”

“You’ve survived.”

“So h-have you.”

A wave of tiredness washes over me. “I never cared about me. Just them.”

“Your family?” she whispers.

“The one I chose.”

“Tell me how. P-Please.”

I don’t know why I comply.

“Xander was an accident. He’d never admit it, but I knew he needed a friend. Then Raine came along. They both just… snuck in. Became important. I’m not sure how.”

Silence is a heavy blanket in this freezer, but not a warm one. Instead, it sucks us deeper into the barren emptiness. A place that lives within us, born of guilt and desperation, used to justify all manner of evils.

“W-Why Xander?” Ripley asks.

“What do you mean?”

“Why d-did he need a friend?”

“The clinicians were always interested in him. I guess I was too. It wasn’t hard to break into the office one night and read his file. I wanted to disprove what I suspected so I wouldn’t care anymore.”

Ripley drags in a shaky breath. “You… know?”

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