“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He laughed. “You’re so fucking pathetic. You’ve been so fucked by him and doing this for so long that you’ve forgotten your original little one? You know, the girl you named all your fucking slaves after? Yeah, don’t think I don’t know all your fucked-up secrets. You always acted like you were better than me, but really, you’re just a sicker motherfucker.”
I stared at him, exhausted from his gibberish.
“She’s the girl I slashed your fucking face for! Can you not hear me? Do you not remember? The fucking whore I stabbed you for!” He grabbed the neck of my shirt, and through gritted teeth, he added, “You fucking pathetic piece of shit. You even suck away the joy of my revenge. I won and you don’t even remember. I made your fucking life a living nightmare. I took everything from you. Everything. Especiallyher!” The last word shook with how hard he was grinding his teeth and how loud he spat it.
Even after I understood what he was yelling about, I kept my composure. My face was completely expressionless while the dagger of reality stabbed me to death.
Oh my God. She’s alive.How is that possible?Fuck!All this time I’d thought myself alone in the world. I thought she’d left me behind, but he’d lied to me.
I yanked his arm away from my shirt, but he was still too happy for my taste. As he stumbled, I lunged, grabbing him by the collar, and punched him in the stomach again and again and again. He tried to punch back, but it didn’t hurt me at all. I was numb. While I beat him, it all came together in my mind.
She’s Little One. My little one? Fuck… baby. I didn’t know it was you. I didn’t know I was going to have to save you again.As I thought of her, I couldn’t stop punching him. The boy in me was so excited she was still alive. He was bouncing off the walls of my soul. For all eight years that I’d thought her dead, I missed her like fucking hell. Then I realized I’d just gang-raped her, which ensured she would never be my little one. That’s what he’d been talking about, and it had not registered into my mind because I was in complete denial. It explained everything I’d felt since the minute I’d seen her in that blue dress.
My little one is alive. Little One.
I punched and punched and punched. It didn’t help that I had so much anger pent up inside me, so much self-disgust and hatred. Finally, a voice inside me told me to stop, and I released him. We both stumbled away from each other, him almost falling into the fire, but I saved him then pushed him so he’d fall to the side.
“I’ll be waiting in the car,” I said before walking away.
It can’t be. It can’t be. They told me she was dead. There’s no way. There’s no way that’s my little one. No! Noooooooo!
“How does it feel, Tristan?” He mocked my name like always. “How does it feel to know he lied to you? Do you still love my father?” he yelled as I walked farther and farther away from him.
I stormed through the bushes and trees, searching for her.Where the hell is she? She was here, right? Wait, where the fuck are the idiots?I circled the area, thinking I might have miscalculated the distance with my rage.
I stumbled over something. Slowly, I lifted my face and chest, realizing that beneath me in the dark was Gabin’s cold body. It must have been a while ago because the odor hit me—blood and shit.Fuck!
Was this you, Little One?Where was Sylban? Did he do this? If he did, then she was in even bigger danger. As I got up, Mael stumbled onto me, his head crashing into my back.
“What the fuck, man?” he yelled, then gasped at the sight before us. Surprisingly, his hands held on to my upper arms. Then he slapped my arm and clapped while cackling. “Oh my God. This can’t get better.”
“What the fuck is so funny?”
“She killed him, man! Can’t you see?”
“But…”But she’s so fucking small. How? And why would he want her to kill him?
“Oh my God. I knew it. I knew she was a fucking closeted psycho. This girl was always meant for me, man!” He ran away while yelling for Sylban, and I followed. On the way, we found Sylban’s corpse….
Thesunwaspeekingover the eastern horizon when I walked into the lobby of the Monte Carlo.
Ben:How’s Master?
Which was code for:he’s in the hotel room,so I walked to the gym and got in their shower. The water swirling down the drain was blood red. I got dressed and headed upstairs to the room and found him sitting on the bed. When I closed the door behind me, he turned off the TV.
“Where have you been? I’ve been here for an hour, and it’s almost morning. I’ve been calling you and Mael. How did it go?”
I shrugged. “He never picked me up. He told me his friend was going to pick me up. He never answered. I’ve been texting them both since.” I shrugged again. “I’m just coming back from the gym. I needed to let off some steam after having to fly all the way over here for nothing.” My tone carried bitterness, but other than that, I was very relaxed and tired. My hair was dripping wet. I dropped my gym bag on top of my small luggage.
He was too busy texting Mael and getting nothing, then calling him and getting nothing before calling his men. “He’s probably knocked out drunk somewhere. I’ll talk to him.” Master dropped his phone on what was to be his side of the bed as I took off my shorts and crawled in. I could tell he was upset at Mael as he went into the bathroom.
Lying there, hearing the shower running, I remembered the way she slashed at her legs with her knife while sobbing silently. The excruciating agony that emanated from her was thwarting and triggering me into remembering and feeling how it had been for me the first time. She didn’t understand she’d already survived much worse. Thank God she didn’t recognize me; if she had… she wouldn’t have been able to survive tonight or me at all.
Instead, we connected. Again.Fuck… the way she looked at me. Just remembering it sent pins and needles through my body. It lit a fire in me that flared and spread at the speed of light.
It was weird, but in the middle of her gang rape, we connected like we had the first time I ever saw her. There had been this pull between us, like magnets; hell, I couldn’t leave her alone.What the hell is it about this girl?Seven years and not only had I been wishing she was still alive by some miracle, but also, I felt exactly like I had the first time. The power she had over me was almost paranormal, and frustrating.
