Page 16 of Under the Bed

I should be headed out.

Except two things are missing.

Two things that were stolen from me.

A quick search beneath the driver’s seat and I find Dick’s backpack. I look inside, and what’s left of my heart warms at the sight. My mask is there. On top of it is her photo.

Beautiful, sad Shiloh. Those blue eyes, so serious, so big and deep as they stare at her dad’s backyard. Pinched, puffy lips I’ve jerked off to so many times.

It’s criminal that they haven’t been around my cock yet.

I’m hard all over again, knowing she’ll be the first person to blow me. The first woman I’ll fuck.

My days of being a virgin are about to be over.

Sex never interested me before I got that photo of Shiloh. An eighteen-year-old Shiloh. Since then, it’s been constantly on my mind.

I want to hurt her.

Go balls deep inside her.

Own her.

I will.

Mask on. Photo inside my jeans pocket. Hood up and over my head.

Dick’s wrist is next. I grab it with one hand. Hold on to his middle finger with the other.

Twist. Pull. Twist. Twist. Pull.

It’s amazing how fragile the human body is. How effortless it is to tear off a person’s finger. There and gone.

I shove it into the pocket of my hoodie.

Fall leaves scrunch beneath my boots as I start the walk back home.

Ready or not, little sister.

I’m coming for you.

2

SHILOH

For the past eleven years, I’ve lived with the biggest hole in my heart. A hole that’s grown blacker and more painful with every passing October.

Objectively speaking, it’s the most beautiful month of the year. The world changes before my eyes. Green turns to gold. The dark of the evening arrives earlier each day. The glow of each street lamp outside my window is a comforting beacon.

Beautiful.

And lonely.

So lonely.

I thought that returning to Seattle after years of living in LA would change that. That being physically closer to Kaleb would make me feel better about this time of year. That it’d be worth blackmailing my father to let me come back here finally.

Yes, I did that. After over a decade of being cast outside of my hometown, I had enough. I gathered enough strength to stand up to him. To threaten him back. I reminded him therewere freelance reporters out there who would be drooling to hear all about our violent little family.

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