The passenger door shudders under my sneakers. I know I’m going to die here. My body just refuses to believe it.
“That’s it. Fight for me.” His grip crushes. “Let me feel it. Every last twitch.”
My vision blurs. The dark edges crawl in.
“You think this stops me?” His fingers dig in deeper. “I’m still gonna make you mine. Just in pieces now.”
My arms won’t move. My pulse pounds sluggishly in my ears.
“You know what’s funny?” His breath is ragged, almost laughing. “They’ll look at what’s left of you and say a monster did it. But it was me. Sanctified by blood. Chosen by Light. Worthy of the kill.”
If I could move, I’d spit in his face.
But the abyss is waiting. It stretches its arms. Already pulling me under.
“Shh.” His lips brush my ear. “That’s it. Give up for me, baby girl. I’ll be here when your soul slips out. And when it does? I’ll hold what’s left down and fuck that virgin cunt until your bones remember me. They’ll bury you dripping with me.”
All lies. All fantasy. He’s too stupid to realize what’s already been torn away.
Eventually, my body relaxes, finally receiving the message that my time is up. A warm peace settles over me when I fully accept my fate. I don’t give two shits what he does with my body after I die.
When I get to the afterlife, though, I’m putting in a formal request to haunt this walking, talking, protein-slurping sack of smegma until whatever raw nerve still thinks his dick is attached screams in fear every time a ceiling fan spins too fast.
The darkness drags me under, then stops. A shape looms beyond the haze. A shadow prowling along the roof of the truck cab.
Of course, my last thoughts would be of the man who wanted to worship at my feet. The only one who ever saw me as something worth bowing to.
Ezra … Is he here? Or is this just a final hallucination? A dying mind’s last mercy?
I can’t tell what’s real anymore.
A guttural snarl rattles through the truck, too warped to be human.
Jameson goes rigid. His hands falter. Just for a second. Just long enough for fear to flicker behind his eyes. Then he snarls and clamps down harder.
Fuck, it feels good to let go.
Maybe I’ll see my mom. Maybe Gram will be waiting.
The last tentacles of peaceful blackness coil around me, gently tugging at my soul. It’s time to go. My chest aches. My body screams for air. But it’s distant now, only the echo of pain.
Something tries to anchor me. I let it slip away.
I sink into the blackness. Into the quiet. Into the nothingness.
And fuck, it’s beautiful.
Except … there’s something else. Warmth, curling through the abyss. Unseen fingers skimming over my skin. A whisper threading through the blackness, soft and unrelenting.
Pulling.
“I’ve got you, my brave little lupine.”
And then—
Nothing.
Ezra
