“Small poke,” she informs me before the IV is inserted into my arm. Then a cold sensation runs through my veins, making me shiver.
It only takes seconds before my eyes get heavy and my body relaxes into the table. I hate the drugs. It feels like cheating. I’d rather kick and scream and make them fight me than succumb to drugs that pull me under and make me weak.
“I’m going to begin.”
I run my hand through my hair. This is why I choose to drink myself into a coma every night. To quiet the demons that remind me every day of who I once was.
How I had no say or control over my own body. I’m not sure what it was she did. Everything was always foggy after that. I would wake up in my room, hurting and sore for a few days. My father would come in and force pain pills down my throat. Just when I thought I was feeling like myself, the time would come to visit her again. It was an endless cycle.
If I were lucky, my addiction would have killed me, but that’s not possible.
Taking a swig, I gasp at the burn and rub away the alcohol that runs down my chin. I sit in the cemetery, like any other night, in front of the unmarked grave with a bottle of Jack in my hand. It’s cold outside. More so than it’s been.
I haven’t fallen into a black hole, but I’m teetering on the edge. The thought of diving off headfirst sounds good. Maybe the drop will kill me. But I’m never that lucky in life. Why would I be in a fictional scenario?
Tipping the bottle back again, I down what’s left of it and toss it aside.
I lie down on the uneven ground and close my heavy eyelids. I just want to sleep my life away. It’ll help pass the time.
The sound of branches has me jolting up. I slam my back into the unmarked headstone when I see someone step into the dim cemetery lighting.
“Goddammit, Kash,” I hiss when he makes himself comfortable against the same tree as the last time he followed me here.
“I went looking for you earlier.”
Even though it’s a cool night, he’s wearing a T-shirt and jeans with a backward baseball hat. He drops a black duffel bag by his feet, and it instantly makes me nervous. Mainly because I don’t have mine with me this time. I’ve let my guard down and allowed him to fuck me twice now.
“Don’t you have a life?”
“I’m looking at it,” he answers, eyes on mine.
I glance away, ignoring the butterflies in my stomach when he comes around. Instead, I get to my feet, brush off my jeans, and slap my hands together to dust off the dirt. “Go home, Kash. Quit following me.” I give himmy back and start walking through the cemetery, deeper into the woods. I need to clear my head, and I don’t have my bag on me, so I don’t have any drugs to knock him out with.
“I’m bored.”
His choice of words stops me. A cold chill makes the hairs on the back of my neck rise. Adam said he’d be bored. That I needed to be careful. Is this a coincidence?
The sound of the branches breaking under his boots swirls around the abandoned cemetery with the wind, but I stay grounded where I’m at. It gets louder before it comes to a stop, and I can feel the heat from his body on my back.
“I want to play with you,” he declares, making me shiver. His hands tangle in my wind-blown hair as he gathers it from around my shoulders and holds it captive at the nape of my neck. “Will you play with me?”
I’ve never had any friends toplaywith.
Swallowing nervously, I keep my back to him and ask. My curiosity is getting the best of me. “What do you have in mind?”
“Hide-and-seek,” he suggests, and it makes me smile.
I turn around, my hair sliding through his fingers, to glance up at him. “Hide-and-seek?” I arch a brow.
“What?”
I reach out, resting my hands on his hard chest. I can feel his heart beating slow and steady under the thin material of his shirt. “That…sounds a little below you. Childish.”
The corner of his lips twitch. “I have an adult version in mind.”
The smile drops off my face, and I whisper, “Meaning?”
“You hide, but when I find you, you belong to me.”
