I slowly stood from the chair and tiptoed to the window, and Ollie’s car wasn’t outside in its usual spot. Heart pounding, I whipped and scanned the room for my phone. I’d left it downstairs.
It could very well be Ollie, but usually, he’d find me as soon as he walked through the door. He’d already be up here. He’d be the one to wake me.
It was someone else.
And the single thought drove all fear into existence.
Slowly, I walked across the hardwood floors until my shaky palm wrapped around the door handle. Afraid to make a sound, I held my breath as the door pulled open with a small painful creak.
I peeked my head out and gazed down the steps to where the kitchen was. A girl was leaned over the counter with my phone in her hand, the bright screen beaming over her face. But her back was to me, and though I couldn’t see her, I knew it was Leigh.
She’d broken into my home.
I’d left Dolor a long time ago, but apparently, Dolor never left me.
With my gaze pinned on her back, I went through every scenario of how this would go. It was just her and me here, but this was my house. Leaving the door cracked, I pulled back behind the wall and released a breath while planning out my next moves. Knowing she had relations with the Links could mean she had a gun, but so did I. Under my mattress.
While her back was still turned, I made swift and quiet moves down the stairs to make it across the living room and into my bedroom. Each step closer was a threat, but my feet still moved forward with eyes trained at her back, knowing every turn of the house better than anyone. All the lights downstairs were off, and as soon as I made it through my bedroom door, I slid to my knees, pulled up the blankets, and shoved my hand under the mattress on Ollie’s side.
My heartbeat pulsed in my ears, and my eyes burned when my fingers never touched metal. I lifted the mattress. The gun was gone. Ollie took it with him.
Suddenly, a rope wrapped around my neck and tightened, cutting off airflow to the point I could no longer breathe. My eyes bulged, and I clawed at the rope, trying to pull it free. Leigh shoved my face into the mattress and pressed her knee into my back, yanking back tighter. My chest burned and my limbs fought, terror consuming my every sense as the twine cut into my flesh. “I’m sorry, Mia,” she said, “but you have to go.”
Ethan transported me to this place before. The place where I could drift into a world where only Ollie and I lived.
I felt myself slipping to that place.
My heart thumped.
It was warm and quiet.
My heart thumped.
Only peace and freedom.
My heart thumped.
But green eyes flashed before me. Promises, dreams, and a fight to never let go. My eyes squeezed shut as a single tear slid over the soaked sheets, and I threw my head back until a jolt of pain erupted inside my skull. The rope loosened, and my chest begged for oxygen, gasping and coughing as I flipped around to face her. Leigh launched back at me, and I bent my leg back and kicked her between the legs before standing to my feet.
Before she was able to steady herself, I took off to the kitchen. My cell phone was gone, and I grabbed the home phone off the wall. After dialing9-1-1, my entire body shook as I snatched open drawers in search of a knife. I’d set the kitchen up, placed everything in their spots, but couldn’t get my mind together to find a single knife. The call disconnected, and I tried calling again in a desperate panic. By the time my fingers clasped around the handle of a knife, Leigh had gripped my hair and yanked me backward as the knife crashed to the floor.
The two of us fought in a power struggle, hair pulling, fists flying, gasping for air as we both begged for a solid breath. Once I managed to maneuver and pin her to the ground with my legs straddling her waist, she punched my left temple, and my entire body flew to the tile. A deep moan from the pit of my stomach escaped. I lifted my head to see the knife had slid across the floor and against the counter.
Inch by inch, I crawled across the floor as blood dripped from my face onto the tile. But the adrenaline and fight to survive temporarily numbed the pain.
“Bloody hell, I underestimated you,” Leigh muttered under her breath. “You’re one crazy bitch.” She stood over me as I laid over my stomach, crawling and eating away the distance between me and the knife as the taunts continued.
Once the tips of my fingers touched the knife, I grabbed it and kicked her legs out from under her. Leigh fell on her back, and I shuffled back over her, pressing the cold metal to her throat. “You walked into the house of a certified psycho,” I reminded her. “You haven’t seen crazy.” Her dark eyes went wide, and she froze beneath me. Digging the edge of the sharp knife into her flesh, tears held in the corners of my enraged eyes as thoughts of slicing her open invaded me. It would be so easy. I had her right where I wanted her. The pulse in her neck slammed against the silver blade, and I couldn’t pry my eyes away.
Struggling to hold myself back, I reached my arm up and over the counter for the phone to call Ollie to stop me from killing her.
He picked up on the first ring.
“I’m sorry,” he immediately said, and the sound of his voice granted the tears to fall from my eyes. “I dropped Leigh off hours ago, but had to go back for anoth—” he paused, hearing my harsh breathing from the other end. “Mia, what’s wrong?”
I bit my lip as Leigh stared at me from the ground with tears in her eyes and a knife to her throat. “Ollie …” I croaked through a whisper. Sucking in a quick breath, I let it slowly release between my lips, my knife-holding hand shaking against her throat, threatening to stab her in the neck and watch her bleed out. The war inside wasn’t over. It would never be over. It was always there, lurking, waiting. Evil thoughts blurred. Visions of her life slipping away, her eyes closing, the void taking over the both of us. It seemed so peaceful. Final. And I was exhausted. “… I’m going to kill her.”
“Who, Mia? Talk to me. What are you doing?”
