Page 14 of The Games We Play

It can’t be his cum… He’s still inside of me?

His hold releases and my arm falls back to its normal position. His cock slips out of me so fast I whimper in pain. He touches me, and I swing out at him to get away, my hands shaking as I push up to stand.

Death. I want to die. I wanthimto die.

My hair falls into my face, and I walk toward the stairs, where I keep my razor blades.

“Puppet,” a male voice says, and I freeze. Not any voice…his voice.

What is he doing here?Why now?Will he be as disgusted with me as everyone else?

Boots come into my view on the floor in front of me. I lift my eyes to his legs and stop at the knife clutched in his left hand. Blood drips from the tip into a pool around my feet. I lift my toes, and it makes a suction sound. “Look at me,” he says with more authority this time.

I blink up at him. A black mask with neon blue X’s for the eyes hides his features. I’m thrown into the moment of my surroundings. Seth’sbody lays behind me, his throat sliced and eyes lifeless. His pants are around his ankles, and his limp cock droops to the side. I reach over my shoulder and run my hands through the drying, thick liquid on my back. Red stains my fingertips, and I look back at my stranger.

“Nobody touches what is mine. He deserved so much worse.” The masked man reaches a hand out to cup my cheek, and I shy back. “Don’t hide from me, Puppet. Go upstairs. Get cleaned up. I’ll be right there to rid you of the nightmares this boy has created.”

What is his?Me? My body obeys, while my mind is a blank canvas of brokenness. He doesn’t want me. How could he?

His hand falls away, and I robotically walk upstairs, turn on my music, and sit on the tiled shower floor. A wet nose presses against my hand, and I run my hand over Roxy’s fur as she snuggles closer to me. Her body shakes, and I tell her it’ll be okay even though I don’t see how it ever will be. I sit there so long my butt goes numb. I should turn the water on and wash the blood off my back and the sticky cum from between my legs. But I can’t move.

Did he leave me? Decide that I’m not worth the life he took?

Seth is dead. My masked stranger in a neon X mask killed him in my living room after he —

A feather-light touch ghosts my shoulder, and I shudder. Roxy disappears from my side, and I look up. He still wears the mask, and dried blood covers his hands.

He crouches beside me, pinches my chin, and turns my head side to side like he’s inspecting me. “Are you hurt?” he asks, his tone sharp and emotionless.

Am I? “Physically, no.”

“Good. I should punish you for entertaining someone else. You’re mine, Puppet. Perhaps I haven’t made that clear enough.”

I shiver and blink back, the tears threatening to spill over my cheeks. Biting on the inside of my cheek.

“I thought it was you, you ass,” I snap. Anger burns through the hopelessness I was feeling.

He scoffs and turns the shower on. The frigid water pelts my skin before it turns warm, then finally hot.

“Stand and wash while I watch,” he orders.

With arms folded, he leans on the vanity and does just that. He watches my every stroke, every soap suds sliding down my body. When I arch my back to rinse my hair, I spot the bulge in his pants. He doesn’t move from his stance, though, as if he enjoys the torture of being teased.

“I’m offended you thought I needed permission to come see you. To be invited inside this house.”

I glare at him through the steam filling the bathroom. The water turns from hot to cold, and I step out, a puddle pooling around my feet. It reminds me of the puddle of blood downstairs, and I get lost in the vivid image of Seth’s dead body.

“Puppet,” he says, his voice softer than when he first came upstairs. “Come.” He leads me with a hand on the small of my back to the middle of my bedroom. He stops, and Roxy lifts her head off her paws and watches us. “Let me help you.”

He takes care as he pulls a shirt over my head and my underwear up my legs. His hands spread around my hip bones, and I suck in a breath.

“I didn’t want him,” I state evenly. Why I care what this man thinks is beyond me. But I do. And I need to make sure he understands I didn’t call Seth…well, notintentionally.

“Hmm.”

“I thought you left a note on my car,” I whisper, and his hands ghost my arms until he takes my hand and leads me to the bed.

“I don’t knock,” he states as I climb into the bed, dazed and confused. I’ve barely had time to process the fact that I was just raped. Had a man murdered in my house, and now my stalker is…tucking me in? I need my medication reevaluated. “As punishment for disobeying me, I’ll be gone for a while.”

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