Page 31 of Welcome Home
“Not yet.” He coos, lifting her fingers to her mouth before inhaling deeply. I watch in part horror, part fascination as his skin splits, letting that long, serpent-like tongue free to lap up my arousal on his fingers.
“How do you look like… her? Why?”
He doesn’t answer. Her endlessly dark eyes trained on me until he’s finished cleaning her hand. The skin moves slowly and without help as if it’s an organism of its own closing the split. “Where does it all go?”
He shrugs. “My size is… altered to fit the skin I take.”
My eyes widen at the omission. Proportionally his tongue and his cock is huge, he must-Holy shit.
“You’re-“
“Large, yes.”
“How big?”
He rolls her eyes, almost looking embarrassed. My cheeks flush, my teeth digging into my inner cheek to suppress a smile. “I don’t know, never measured myself. Probably around eight feet.”
My eyes scan him, taking in the absurdity of it all before my chin is gripped again, my eyes pulled back to hers. I’m only slightly shocked to find myself searching for even a trace of the milky white ones. I find none.
“I don’t need to kill someone to replicate them. The skins are more… convincing that way, sure, but these are perfectly fine too with practice. The more flesh I take the easier, but I need very little after all these years.”
“Her memories! What does she know?”
He releases me, adjusting my clothes. They don’t fit her slender frame right, but they look far better on her than me. I swallow past the jealousy there. “I don’t get them all like this. It’s more… suggestions, feelings and then the recent memory is there but blurry… unfocused.” He brushes my hair from my face. “She knows a lot… too much. She saw me tonight, my face, at least part of it. She’s not going to stop.”
The metaphorical cold bucket of water serves its purpose, snapping me from languid bliss to unbridled anxiety. “What are we going to do?”
Her smile is comforting, knowing it’s coming from him. “You are going to take a bath, relax, and try to get some more sleep. I’m going to protect you, Cora. I’m going to make a reality where you get everything you ever wanted and I’m by your side.”
Another icy bucket.
I shake my head before I even mean to my arms falling limp to my sides. I know the moment he straightens; I don’t need to put words into action. He knows, I can see it in the clench in his jaw, the light rumbling in his chest.
I don’t want him beside me. I wanted to be alone.
“I’ll be home soon, love.” He leans in, kissing me softly on the forehead. The weight of my own unspoken lie choking me. I have no idea when it evenbecamea lie. I can’t pinpoint the moment Vosz made the idea of being alone seem sad instead of freeing. The moment I decided I can risk being destroyed again. He’s done everything he’s promised.
He’s made me feel loved and safe.
My breath shudders, tears fill my eyes as he turns, heading for the back door. Every muscle in my body rendered useless as my heart screams out to follow him, to tell him I want him too, but I don’t. When the door shuts those tears spill over, drowning me. Despite how quickly Vosz figured me out, he missed the most important part, the thing that ran and pushed all the others.
I’m a deviant, sure.
A liar, a good one.
I’m also a coward. I’m fucking scared.
It’s why I killed him that night,fear. I’d rather see him decay in the garden than face reality. He hated me, he’d always hated me, and he was going to leave me… with nothing to show for all the abuse. I stayed in the relationship, enduring years of suffering, because I was too scared to leave. He was going to move on, get his perfect life, his baby, and it left me with nothing but the bone-deep fear that kept me by his side. I’m flicking on the basement light, walking down the stairs before I realize it. When I reach the bottom, the unfinished concrete floors are like sandpaper on my feet, matching the way my throat feels. I don’t bother closing my robe, fixing my hair or wiping the tears and snot from my face. I stare at him, at the suit that is Oliver. I stare until my eyes go unfocused, the volley in my chest stilling. Until I sink back to that place I formed years ago, a place where his words don’t hurt, and reality can’t touch me.
Because I’m scared.
Cora Two Years Ago
My heart thuds harder in my chest as I pull the straps up my shoulders, careful not to disrupt the perfect brown curls I spent hours on. The Belle dress is large, filling up the bathroom, but it’s pretty and even I can’t kill the little smile that keeps sneaking onto my face. I never cared too much about Halloween, so when Oliver suggested we attend a costume party at Rachel’s, it seemed like a terrible idea. I nodded and agreed because that’s what I’m supposed to do. But now?
I spin again, my head going light, an abrupt giggle escaping from my throat. My eyes fall to my flat stomach, my hand splaying out there like it has so many times before, wishing for a little bump, something that would make him proud of me. Things have been… hard since we found out I couldn’t get pregnant, but every marriage has ups and downs. Tonight, I’m determined to make an up.
I smooth over the fancy golden dress again, feeling every bit a princess as I head from the bathroom, squirting the perfume he likes me to wear on my neck. “Oliver, I’m ready!” I call out, waiting for his response. My brows knit together when none comes. I descend the stairs quicker than I think I ever have before. The uneasy, excited knot in my stomach pulls me forward, through all the rooms, my heart dropping just a little when each one comes up empty. A quick glance at the time on the stove tells me I’m late.
