Page 58 of Under the Bed

Her pleas go unanswered. I’m not the forgiving type. I don’t stop, destroying her face one bashing at a time.

No one comes to her rescue. In this crappy neighborhood, this shit must happen all the time.

At last, Marina lets go and departs this world. The air leaves her lungs in a vapor that sticks to the window for all of a second. I pop open her trunk, throwing her and her boyfriend there.

Oh. Almost forgot about this.

I reach in for her hand. Push her shoulder down. Yank on her finger.

Twist. Twist. Snap.

Another memento for Shiloh. I stuff it into my pocket, set the wool hat on fire, and shove it into the fuel tank.

Bye, bye.

A loud-as-fuck explosion goes off behind me. Heat licks up my back on this otherwise cold night.

In the car, I take a moment to appreciate my creation. Orange and red flames devour the darkness. Smoke coils upward, slithering into the sky.

My job here is done.

But my night isn’t.

Shiloh sleeps like the dead.

I know, because I’d spent many nights watching over her.

Tonight, I’m hovering over her bed for a different reason.

I raise my hand over her angelic face, almost touching her. My sweet stepsister. My unsuspecting Shiloh. She hasn’t locked her balcony’s sliding door. Again.

She thought I came in through the door last time. I’m responsible for her misconception. When I walked out that way this morning, I meant to trick her. Apparently, it worked.

The asshole who’s supposed to be keeping tabs on her snores in the bushes, so he hasn’t seen me climbing up her balcony.

Enough about him.

Her. I’m here for her. Fuck, isn’t she adorable. Curled up into a ball in her bed instead of the closet. Clutching onto one of her pillows tonight, instead of my mask.

It has to be her way of telling herself that she doesn’t care that I hurt her. That she truly hates me.

She can lie to herself all she wants. She can keep acting like I forced her this morning.

I’ll drag the truth out of her.

Forcefully. Painfully.

That’s why I’m here, after all. To be this person in her life.

Her nightmare.

After placing Marina’s finger on Shiloh’s nightstand, I pull the covers off her. I’m hard in a second. The moonlight permeates through the window, casting a silvery glow on her half-naked body.

In nothing but a white T-shirt and matching panties, she’s a sight.

My hands ball into fists, clenching and unclenching at my sides. I’m dying to sink my dick inside her. Wake her up with my shadow snuffing out the light around her. My cock soaked in her hymen blood.

A low roar rises in my throat. I lean over and bite the inside of my cheek. Pull back.

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