Page 1 of Roque

PRESENT DAY

“DO YOU EVER SLEEP?”

Pausing, I lift my pen from paper as the girl I saved from certain ruin crosses my penthouse toward me.

“You don’t sleep much either.”

“That’s because I keep having nightmares of what would’ve happened to me if you hadn’t saved me and Freddie that night before Christmas.” She tried to give me a hug, but I stepped away. She’s too good. Too kind. Too trusting for a monster like me to ever get close.

“I don’t bite.”

“I do.”

“Gross. TMI.”

I shrug, “Don’t get any ideas. I’m—”

“Blah, blah, blah. I know. You’re an evil monster… the Grim Reaper who sucks blood and chops body parts… You’ve said it a million times and yet I sleep safer in your home than any home I’ve ever known.”

“Don’t get too comfortable. I’m sending you away.”

Her face pales to the color of the moon glowing over the city I rule. The city I’ve made mine—Chicago. “No, please. I-I’ve lived too many places, slept in too many strange beds.”

“There’s no other choice. The life I live… there’s no place for a girl like you in it.”

She rolls her eyes and it shoots me back in time to the last girl who loved doing that to me.

My heart sneezes. I’m allergic to love. Never again. Never will I ever, let myself get close to that flame. The burn was hotter than even I ever imagined.

“You should go back to bed, Chloe.”

She huffs and before I can stop her, the little shit has the poem I was working on in her little hands.

“Give that back.” My voice is soft thunder rolling over hills. It’s the voice I use on my enemies right before they’re dropped. You’d think it would scare the fuck out of a teenage girl.

Nope.

She clears her throat, pauses dramatically and spills my darkest secrets. My innermost thoughts…:

Blood falls like rain.

It drips from the cut in my heart.

The one you made.

First it was small. A tiny tear.

But now it’s jagged. Goes from corner to corner.

You left me standing in the rain.

It was cold and dark.

Just like you.

Just like me.

I was always the dark one. The sinner.

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