Page 245 of Fragments
Then something crashes, shaking the walls around us. It feels like an earthquake.
The ceiling splits.
And concrete falls like a wave, pulling me under.
Moments earlier…
“Where the f-fuck are we going?!” I shiver, stumbling over something on the wet ground. “I can’t see shit… And it’s freezing out here.”
“For the last time, inmate…” The guard who’s pulling me along growls, yanking my arm while cold rain pelts my bare skin. “Shut…the fuck… up!”
I know it’s not the time, given this messed up situation, but I can’t help smiling as I breathe ocean air deep into my lungs—only slightly obscured by the bag over my head. Still, I’m savoring it, despite how cold it is out here, the winds so strong they’re pushing my body harder than the asshole with his hand on my back.
I haven’t been outside infive years. Even with this obviously brutal storm raging, and the fact that I’m shirtless with a bag over my head, most likely being dragged to an untimely demise, I’m managing to enjoy the feel of the elements…
For what little time I have left.
After the Warden separated me and Ren—and took my fucking computer, the prick—one of his guys brought me to a dark room just off the East Wing. It had an exam chair in the middle of it, like that room Ren and I fooled around in that time. Only this room was much dingier, and it smelled like dried blood.
Not the best vibes.
I was shackled to the chair with a gag in my mouth for hours while they roughed me up. Honestly, I’m grateful they didn’t go as hard as I’m sure they could have, I’m assuming because The Ivory told them to leave me alive.
So he could kill me slowly and painfully, just like he promised.
And when they put the bag back over my head and brought me outside, well… Let’s just say there are no mysteries about what’s about to happen to me.
They’re going to toss me into Shark Bay.
It’s not that I’m not afraid of death. I’m so scared I’m shaking while I shuffle in my shackles, feet sloshing through muddy sand and wet leaves. My heart is racing, and my teeth are chattering, from the fear and the cold rain hitting my exposed torso.
But more than all the worry about if it’ll hurt, and the general abyss of the unknown that is theafterlife, my chest is caving in for one reason, above all else…
Ren.
My poor, beautiful, broken man…the first man I’ve ever loved. The firstpersonI’ve ever loved, in any real romantic way.
Surely, he’ll be beyond devastated if I die. And nowI’mdevastated thinking about him being devastated, because he doesn’t deserve anymore pain. After everything we’ve been through, nearly five years of angst and tension, codependence, and obsession, and a lust that somehow turned into a fullydebilitatinglove, we’re finally to a place where we knowexactlywhat we mean to each other. We’re finally in a relationship, despite how unhealthy it might be at times.
Soof course, this is the moment when I’m going to be killed.
Ren changed for me. Overcame his emotional hurdles enough to be the boyfriend I always secretly dreamed he could be, forme.
I mean, shit… He fucked me tonight. We crossed over a line into something so blazingly brilliant…
Me and my boyfriend… my villain with the perfect hero’s disguise.
I don’t want to leave him. I don’t want to be wiped from this earth before I get to bask in the glory of his falling embers.
But I guess I don’t have much of a choice. Because these men are dragging me in chains through what feels like woods, directly toward sudden death. I can hear the ocean waves crashing. We must be getting closer… Either that or this storm is just that aggressive.
A large bolt of lightning flashes, visible even from inside this cloth sack on my head, which is completely soaked through at this point. And only a second later, the thunder booms, rumbling the ground beneath our feet.
“Hey…” I grunt. “It’s not safe to be out here in chains with lightning so close. We’re in the middle of the fucking ocean.”
“Won’t matter for much longer,” one of the guys mutters.
“Getting struck would probably do you a favor,” the other guy adds.
