Page 72 of False Idols

“I watched you last night, Nevaeh. I followed you. I saw you with Beau. When did you start cheating on me with him?” Dean takes a step forward and I take one back to match it.

I look around the graveyard. I need something else other than the hairbrush in my hand, but there’s nothing around. I don’t even see the candles people sometimes leave at graves to use as a weapon.

“What did you see, Dean?”

“I heard what you told him. You love him? Him?! He hurts you, Nevaeh!” Dean throws his arms out at me as he continues to approach. “Why would you pick him? He doesn’t love you! He doesn't know how. I would treat you so good. You’re making the wrong choice, Nevaeh, because you don’t know what’s good for you, but that’s fine. That’s fine. I know what’s good for you.”

I hold out a hand to stop him. “Stay away from me. Stay right there,” I order when he doesn’t listen and keeps stalking towards me. “I mean it, Dean! Stay back!”

“You’re not going to get in the way of us anymore, Nev. You aren’t.” He laughs and pulls something out of his coat. It’s a length of rope and Dean wraps it around his hands as he walks towards me. “I’ve been good to you. Do you know what the other students say about you? Have you heard the foul things the boys say? And I still want you! You’re lucky I still want you! Because I’ve seen you. I’ve seen what you do with that fucking asshole!”

My eyes are on the rope. What is he planning on doing with the rope? I’m still too far from my car to make it without trouble. I’ll have to fight Dean and the bandages they’ve used on my arm won’t hold if I do.

“Dean, listen we need to calm down and-”

“I saw you at the party! I know you fucked him that night!” Dean’s face twists in rage and he lifts the rope in his hand with a sneer. “You would let him do that to you? After everything he’s put you through?”

“Beau hasn’t done anything to me,” I lie.

“He hurts you!”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” I dart to the side and put a few smaller headstones between us. I want to keep eyes on him or I’d run, but giving my back to Dean right now is a dumb thing to do. I go to the side but so does Dean. He has the rope between his hands and he pulls it tight when he sees me watching his hands.

“I do! I’ve been watching you and I see what’s happening. I know exactly what’s happening. He hurts you and you like it, so you let him. And you know what I think, Nevaeh?” Dean tilts his head to the side and smiles at me. It’s such a cold smile. Even in the mean smiles Beau gave me it was never like this. Beau was pushing my limits. Finding how far I’d let him go. Dean isn’t doing that. The wild light in his eyes tells me everything I need to know. It’s manic. Intense and obsessive.

He’s making a decision to hurt me.

“Dean, please, don’t do this.” My voice shakes but I can’t help it. I’m panicking, because facing The Reaper makes sense. He’s evil. A killer. A monster. But Dean? What is Dean doing? He’s a normal guy that I thought was nice to me. This isn’t who I’m supposed to be fighting. Nothing about this is normal.

“I think if I hurt you, then you’ll like me too, Nev. So I’m going to hurt you now.”

After last night I’m not strong enough to win in a fight against Dean, so I don’t wait for Dean to move. I shove my keys in my front pocket and throw my bag at his face with a scream before I take off through the graveyard towards the parking lot.

“Get back here, you bitch!” Dean’s voice echoes and bounces off the gravestones and statues of the graveyard. I loved it before for how empty it was. How safe and calm it felt for me after the chaos.

Now that quiet has turned deadly. Dean is going to hurt me out here and no one is going to know it. Everyone is on the hunt for The Reaper. They won’t be looking for Dean. If anything happens to me they won’t expect it. I was so fucking stupid coming here on my own. Why did I do that? No one even knows where I am but Sunny.

I should have told someone else, I know that. As I run, I realize something. There was no one else to tell. Up until this morning when I ran into that lobby full of students, no one has really looked at me. Yes, they’ve stared and hated me. Yes, they’ve made it a point to leave spaces where I am.

But looked at me? Seen me? No. That only happened today.

Sunny and Dean were the only people that were kind to me. My gut turns sours. How the fuck is it that out of the two people I thought liked me, one of them is now chasing me through a graveyard.

What is it about me that makes people hate me?

My toe catches on a headstone marker and I scream when I go flying. I land on my injured arm and I know the bandage isn’t doing its job when I feel my wound open up again. Fuck. Of course I would land on my arm. The air has been knocked out of my lungs and I roll onto my back, coughing. I barely have time to open my eyes and suck in a lungful of air when Dean is on me.

“You’re done running from me,” he growls and grabs my arm. I scream in pain when his fingers dig into the gash The Reaper gave me. “Is this what you like?” He asks me and twists my arm. I sob and almost throw up from the pain that hits me. It’s too much.

Dean gives me a shake and loops the rope around my neck. “Why are you so fucked up that you want me to do this to you? Why would you make me do this to you?!” he asks and ties off the rope. The knot he’s made digs into my neck, putting pressure on my windpipe and I can’t swallow because of how tight it is.

What is he talking about? Why is it always someone blaming me? I didn’t force him to do anything to me. Men like Dean are all the same. He would hurt me any chance he got, I know this. He’s just taking the first opportunity given to him because he’s a sick fuck that loves hurting someone weaker than him.

“Stop, Dean! No!”

Dean stands and gives the rope a yank as he drags me behind him. “I would have treated you good. You ruined everything.”

I claw at the rope and try to dig my feet in but I can’t get a foothold on any of the headstones before Dean drags me away.

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