Page 62 of The Sins That Bleed
I didn’t know this was possible, to have a soul-tie, especially with a human. I’d only ever heard whispers of it. A folktaleshared over dinner, and yet here I am, aching to be close to him, to make him permanently mine.
If Sunny asks me to forget him, for him to never see me again, then I’d do it. It would kill me, not physically of course, but everything within me would wither into dust. Watching him grow old from afar, to be in love with another, knowing he would never be mine. If that’s the cost of my betrayal to the only friend I’ve ever had in this life, I’d pay it.
Love comes at a price, and I sold my soul a long time ago.
But I am falling in love with him and there’s nothing I can do to stop it; the soul-tie doesn’t care how long or how well you know someone. There is no escaping the hooks that hold your heart in a punishing grip.
“How does it feel, huh? To be at my mercy and feel pain inflicted by my hands? You tookeverythingfrom me, and now I’m going to be the one to do the same to you.”
Sunny clears the thickness from her throat, holding the crank for the chains and, inch by inch, pulls his body taught until his bones creak and crack, dislocating his limbs from their sockets. A symphony of agony explodes past his lips as he shrieks in protest, the pitch is piercing and I grit my teeth against the sound.
I glance away from the stretched body and take Sunny in. Her eyes are squeezed shut and I see the tears streaming down her face. I’m in front of her in an instant, my hands raised to comfort her, but I hesitate, my hands frozen in midair as I calculate the likelihood that she’ll reject it.
Fuck it, she can reject me if she wants to, but I’m not cold-hearted enough to walk away when she’s in pain. I grab her and pull her into me, crushing her in my arms tight, as if that will leech the hurt from her body.
To my surprise she doesn’t push me away, her hands grip the red sweatshirt I’m wearing as if it’s her lifeline. I stroke her hairand hum softly. It’s the tactic I use whenever her mind wanders down a bad path to bring her back to me.
Her sobs dwindle and she sniffles before pulling back from me. I let her go until she’s taken a full step out of my embrace. I look down at her face, stained with tears that are now drying on her pink cheeks. I hate seeing her like this.
“I—I think,” she clears her throat and meets my eyes, “I don’t think I can do this anymore. Can you finish it after I leave? I need to be alone right now, and you’re so good at hurting people, I’m sure you’ll have no problem inflicting excruciating pain. Afterall, you’ve been a monster for so long, you’ve lost all sense of humanity, so it’ll be easy.”
She storms away from me, catching me with her shoulder as she storms past me. I stumble back from the impact, my mind and body numb from the strike that has sliced me to the bone. Her words inflicting more damage than if she’d hit me. I’m unable to move from where I stand as her footsteps fade away, staring at the dreary concrete wall staring back at me.
I knew this day would come, when those around me that had somehow thought they’d seen something good in me realised that there is nothing. The space where my soul should be is just a dark abyss, a direct portal to hell.
Realising I am the monster I always knew I was.
I snap out of my numbness, but my mind remains still like the dead heart in my chest as I stalk forward to the crank on the wall.
Killing people is what I do, so I don’t think or feel anything as I turn the crank tight and elicit more screeching from my next victim. I don’t stop until his skin stretches and tears, shredding open, as if I’m tearing paper with my hands.
I stare at the concrete.
I turn and turn the handle until he splits in half, his insides spilling out of him as though a bathtub is overflowing, his spineripping free from his pelvis with a loud pop. Everything in him explodes then, as if I’ve pulled the string on a party popper and his body fluids, organs, and all the other bits that make someone human are sprinkled around the space like confetti.
It covers me in a shower of blood and gore.
I get to work adding him into my maze of horrors and cleaning up what remains of him from my underworld. Anything to avoid the thoughts and feelings threatening to storm in and rage lying under the surface.
I take my time, not wanting to go back up and bump into anyone living with me right now. I shower in my underworld and changing into the spare clothes I have down here, then burn the gore-covered ones so I never have to see them again.
I don’t want to see the disdain for me on etched anyone’s faces even though I deserve it. They don’t need to be reminded that they’re living with Lilith.
CHAPTER 27
Psychic Sidekick
RAI
Idon’t see Valeska for nearly a week, and the only reason I know she is okay is through Nico, who got an update from Sunny.
I’m itching to see her, but my texts and calls remain unanswered, and no amount of waiting near or knocking on the doors of her apartment bring her to me.
I’m worried about her.
I can’t explain it, this ache in my chest, crawling under my skin and gnawing at my soul to find her, go to her. It’s tugging me toward her, but every time I follow it, she’s not there, and now I’m starting to think she’s avoiding me on purpose.
Nico and I are back at work following up on the details we were given by the men we’d already arrested, and who are back on the mend since their strange encounter. We’ve been escorted to work every day by some of Valeska’s security detail. One of them I recognise as the woman who was on the doors the first night we turned up at the tower.
