Page 101 of Seven Oars
Rosamma quietly left, helpless and filled with worry.
She wished Fawn hadn’t come with her to the Habitat.Fawn wasn’t Alyesha.Rosamma wondered if she even knew what she was doing.
As she passed the turn to the Bridge, a shadow fell across her path.
A thin blade of a sharp knife prickled her chin, halting her progress toward the Cargo Hold.
“Funny creature.”
Massar.
Rosamma knew fear.
If she called for help, no one would come.
The blade slid to her chest, its tip pointing at where her heart beat like a trapped bird.
He seized her upper arm, yanking her in the direction opposite the Cargo Hold.
Struggling was futile. It would only annoy Massar, and he’d kill her slow-er.
But the self-preservation instinct could not be denied. Rosamma dug in her heels.“I don’t want to go with you.”
The rubber soles of her sneakers offered barely any friction against the mesh floor.
Massar smiled at her words.
“Why not? Don’t females like attention? You have all mine, wisp.”
“You don’t even like me,” she tried again.
“I want to know you.”
He stopped and leaned closer, the oily, pitted skin of his sharp cheekbones stretched tight under the glittering black eyes of a madman.
She struggled.
He simply readjusted his grip.
“Share your secrets with me.”
He pricked her again with the tip of his blade. She felt blood on her neck; saw it spellbind Massar as it slid, slow and wet, into the collar of her sweatshirt.
Leaning all the way in, he liked it.
She screamed then.
“Do that again,” he said, shaking her,“and I’ll carve out your tongue. First.”
“You’re sick,” she hissed and kicked him.
She had nothing left to lose.She was already dying.
She would never see her brother again.
Worthless, weak, and helpless—it was high time to quit her useless existence.
Still, she hated for Massar to be the one to snuff it out.
