Page 69 of The Cute Psycho

I keep banging my head against the wall until bright red mixes with the clear water.

"Vlad?" I think I hear a voice calling my name. I'm barely conscious as Sisi climbs into the shower with me, her arms wide open as she takes me in her embrace.

"You're safe," she whispers in my hair. "You're safe now." Her soft hand caresses me and my body slowly regains its function.

"I..." I start when I regain lucidity, "I'm sorry," I say in a small voice, seeing the situation I find myself in.

"What happened?" Her gaze is gentle as she looks at me, her touch so comforting.

"Project Humanitas..." I barely manage to say the name out loud. "They killed my sister."

"What?" She frowns. "How do you know?"

"Not Katya..." I whisper, "My twin sister, Vanya."

And they made me what I am today.

16

SISI

"Sisi, you don't look too well," Lina mentions when she sees me at breakfast. I give her a tight smile, even though I know I must have pretty bad dark circles, since for the last week I've been sneaking out almost daily to see Vlad. I don't even remember when I last had a full night's sleep.

Still, I wouldn't trade the time spent with Vlad for sleep, not when everything about him is so... fascinating.

True to his word, he's shown me around the city and taken me wherever I wanted. But we spend most of our time at his house, where we talk about everything and nothing.

What I've found about him has just confirmed my first impression. Loneliness clings to him like a second skin, and I can tell that even the small things I do surprise him. It's like he expects me to bolt at any point.

"Are you afraid yet?" he'd ask, almost jokingly, but I can see the truth in his eyes. He's afraid that he's going to do something and scare me.

He's afraid I'm going to leave him.

Frankly, the more I see how his life looks, the more I feel sorry for him. He barely talks to people outside of his right hand, Maxim. Evenwith him, he exchanges a few sentences here and there, mostly via text. The rest of the time? He might be planning his revenge or world domination, but he's doing it all by himself.

With his bare room, or the fact that his entire home is underground, it's hard not to feel sad for his bleak existence.

But I can see why. He's not... normal. Hell, he's probably the definition of unhinged. Even knowing that, I can't stay away though. He's just... him.

And in a wicked way, we complement each other. He feeds my need for destruction and I feed his need for sanity.

God!

I fan myself as I find my thoughts heading into R-rated territory. He hasn't kissed me again or asked for me to kiss him, even though it's all I can think about sometimes when I'm near him.

The sensations he'd wrought from my body had been simply otherworldly. There's no other way to describe the way my body had opened up for him, showing me it was capable of great pleasure instead of pain.

Ah, and his kiss... The fact that he's never kissed another woman before had delighted me beyond measure. For the first time, I felt that something was truly mine. No one had been that close to him, and no one will if I have anything to say about it.

Because one week's been enough for me to decide something.

I'm going to keep him—dysfunctional personality included.

He hadn't mentioned the bathroom incident and I hadn't probed. Seeing him so lost, so full of suffering, had done something to my heart. I'd wanted nothing more than to hug him and take away all of his hurt.

"You aren't hungry?" I'm brought down to earth by Lina's voice—again. I've been so absent-minded lately, mostly because all my thoughts revolve around one man—and his wicked lips.

"Oh, sorry, just woolgathering." I smile, helping myself to the food on the table.

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