Page 10 of The Misfits
A bastard who was born before they wed.
I pledged to save Cleo’s future children from turning out like him. Her master—her taunter—the man who stole her away from me. Even if it kills me, I will keep my promise. I just need to work through the drugs numbing my arms and legs and push through the pain of the guards’ batons battering my skull hard enough to crack it, and the blackness attempting to swallow me whole. I need to remember that no one is higher than the king. I am a god, and everyone else is merely a pawn on the board I call life.
They are cowards.
When the sting of a needle hits my neck for the second time, my knees collapse beneath me. My limbs suddenly become heavy, and the guards’ shouts are nothing but a buzz of noise.
The unnamed emo’s bones stop crunching when I drop my hand from her throat to yank the sedative dangling from mine. I slot the lengthy needle between my fingers before swinging my hand wildly through the air. If they try to sedate me again, they won’t do it without injury.
As the world spins around me, the magazine article on a Rise Up’s band member’s latest wedding slips from my grasp. It floats across the stark white floor, only stopping when it reaches a pair of ankle boots.
Impassive of the ruckus occurring around her, Claudia bobs down to collect the thin slip of glossy paper. When her eyes lock on the article, they widen like mine did when I speed-read the document. She looks both angry and aroused, which is an odd combination, but it matches mine to a T.
Seeing Cleo for the first time in years thickened my cock, but the event behind the featured spread not only pissed me off, it also resurrected a devil years of counseling couldn’t control.
Feeding off a surge of inhuman strength, I stand with a roar. After knocking off three guards as if they’re weightless, I head in Claudia’s direction. She’s to blame for the hate thickening my veins, so shouldn’t she pay the penance for it?
My steps halt mid-stride when Claudia’s eyes lift to mine. They’re carrying as much violence as mine, and her quest for revenge is just as palpable. I take a step back, stunned by the sheer hate in her slitted gaze. I didn’t think a demure mouse could pull off such a horrendous look.
Before I can work out the cause of her repulsed expression, the third prick of a needle drops my legs out from beneath me and has me seeing black.
four
CLAUDIA
My breaths come out in ragged pants when the latch on the door gives way without too much protest. Usually, I’m breaking out of rooms, not entering them. After storing a hair clip and rusty nail in the hidden pocket of my dress, I stand from my crouched position and cautiously enter the room I’m breaking into.
I don’t know why I am here. I’ve deferred the attention of both the staff and patients for longer than I can remember, but there’s something about this man that draws me to him. I thought it was the magazine article he gifted me, but that was weeks ago, and he’s still in my thoughts every day.
He isn’t like normal men. His hair is as black as the devil’s heart, his eyes just as lifeless. He doesn’t look like my Nick in the slightest. My one true love is pure and innocent. This man is wicked and immoral. The ruckus he’s made in my life the past six weeks has been anything but pleasant, but his attention reminds me that I have a heart pumping in my chest. Its beat is weak and pitiful, but it is still beating all the same.
Perhaps that’s why I’m drawn to him? I’m not allowed to talk about Nick, much less have an opinion on any aspect of my life. Even the slightest utter about my love in a breathless whisper has me subjected to scrutiny by unpleasant doctors with bushy brows and malevolent faces.
That’s why I no longer talk. I’d rather be mute than controlled. The doctors say I have erotomanic delusional beliefs about relationships and that nothing I am feeling about Nick is true. They say being rejected makes me lash out and do violent things.
I think they’re the crazy ones.
Dexter has been a part of my life for a little over six weeks now, and this is the first time I’ve broken into his room. I didn’t even make it a week before I snuck into Nick’s home to watch him sleep.
My sneaky steps into the room slow when a deep, raspy voice snarls, “Ouch. Don’t bite. I’m trying to be nice, and you’re biting me. What the fuck is wrong with you?” He has the same clipped voice my daddy used when angered by something I did.
“I said regular Kool-Aid, this one is sugar-free.”
“Why do my trousers have pleats down the front? Do I look like I sit sideways?”
“You should go live with your mother. I bet the worms would make good use of your hollow head.”
So many criticisms for a man who preached godliness. My father was a horrible man. He was nothing like Nick. He didn’t love me with every fiber of his being, nor did he cherish the ground I walked on. He spat at my feet and called me names when I told him I had found The One.
He paid for his sins as I am now for mine.
I tried to hurt Nick’s baby, and in return for my error, he sent me here. One day he’ll return to collect me. I just need to be patient. I’m confident he hears my pleas for forgiveness and feels my sorrow. He won’t keep me waiting much longer. A love like ours can’t be undone. It’s a lifetime commitment that only ends one way.
I stop listening to the voices in my head blamingherfor keeping him away from me when an angry roar vibrates my eardrums. “I swear to god, Bryce, if that is you, you won’t leave this room with your heart still functioning. I don’t care how much shit you pump into my veins, nothing will alter your ugly face enough for me to suck your dick.” The man snarls, baring teeth. “I’ll rip off your little pecker with my teeth if it gets within an inch of my mouth.”
He rolls his head in my direction, his movements so slow it is as if his head is the weight of ten bowling balls. When he spots me standing frozen inside his once-locked door, he startles. He seems as shocked by my presence as I am to be standing before him.
This wasn’t my plan. I didn’t keep my head down and mouth shut for the past five years to have a stranger unravel my wish for freedom, but since this man confuses me as much as he excites me, I couldn’t harness my curiosity for a moment longer.
