“Maybe,” I say, well aware I am entering dangerous waters.
“Your apartment, it was arson, wasn’t it?”
“Looks like it,” I say carefully, staring at her.
“Who are you running from?” she asks and turns towards me.
A voice in me shouts to tell her everything, come clean, and kill her afterwards, but she just delivered me the perfect cover for incinerating the apartment myself.
“Who says I am?” I ask, and she rolls her eyes.
“Come on, Ella, I’m not an idiot.”
“I know you’re not,” I answer hesitantly and look away. She’s waiting for me to give her an answer. Her eyes x-ray me.
“It’s more like a what than a who,” I tell her finally. It’s not a lie. I just don’t tell her, I am not running from them, but after them. To kill them all.
“A what?” she asks and walks up to me until she is so close that one of her legs pushes between mine. “Tell me,” she orders with longing in her voice.
“Demons,” I whisper as my lips trail along her neck. “Demons from the past.”
I know I said too much already. I revealed too much of me, too much of the truth, but my body doesn’t listen to me anymore.
“Me too,” she whispers in my ear, and I can’t believe she did. “Maybe we can run away together.”
Goosebumps spread over my skin.
I want to say yes.
Loose myself in her and become whoever she needs me to be.
But I can’t.
Because I can’t outrun my past.
I cup the side of her face with the palm of my right hand and look at her.
See me. See the real me. So this can finally be over,I tell her in my mind, while the words coming out of my mouth are entirely different.
“Look at me,” I tell her. “You are Lilian Anne Knightley. Whatever you touch works out. You and your privileged ass have all the possibilities in the world.”
A weak smile hushes over her face. One that goes straight into my chest.
“You are a boss baddie who does what she wants and goes for it. We all have weak moments. So get your ass up and become the predator instead of the prey.”
At this point, I fully hate myself.
Why the fuck do I build her up when I should crush her? Why? Why am I even here?
Lilian’s ice-blue eyes light up as her mouth tugs into a devilish smile—one that tells why I am here.
The fingers of my right hand brush back a strand of her hair and follow it back behind her ear.
Life would be so perfect if not for your sins,I tell her in my mind.
“My mother celebrates her birthday on Saturday next,” Lilian suddenly says. “You’re coming with me.”
No words come out of my mouth except stuttering.
