My knees buckle as his words keep spinning the stab in my chest and my voice comes out hoarse. “How?”
His gaze looks up at the corpses then back at me. “I went to an abroad college and became the most brilliant student. I studied biochemistry and analyzed the human body, cell by cell. Until I started to stay up every night, experimenting. The money I got from selling Nocta all over Grimridge paid for my education. I came back home and built this house beside the lake I lost my Elsie in so I can be close to the last moment we had together. The last time her gorgeous eyes looked at me with a smile. I killed herparents, sneaked into their home at night as I did when I was a kid and injected both of them with a syringe of air to suffocate them. I didn’t want to hurt them much, but it was necessary to use their bodies. I was almost going to give up trying with how many failed versions I have buried around the house. Till one day, you came alive and I promised myself I won’t ever let anything happen to you. I hid the basement and the side of me that will have you running away. I refused to let you try to live in the outside world, scared you would abandon me.”
His eyes welled up with tears as mine fall down my cheeks in rivers with a blank stare.
“I thought..you loved me, Clayton.”
“I do.”
“No, you love that I remind you of her.”
“Doll, I—”
“No, you listen. I have done a lot of listening and now it’s my turn to finally speak!”
His eyes widened at my harsh tone.
“Youcreatedme, Clayton. You didn’t bother to choose a name for me cause I’m nothing but an object of your delusion .… I neverbelongedin this world. I have no family or friends or even a place that is my own. I trustedyou… I let you lock me in this suffocating house in the lie of your safety. I’m just your experiment that you are proud of, yeah?”
His lips hang open in silence, hesitating what to tell me as my vision blurs from tears. I get the answer I’m looking for.
“Well, Clayton. I want you to remember this moment vividly.”
I grab a dagger that is coated with dried blood on the table with both of my hands and stab myself.
“No!” He screams out.
I groan in pain as I pull the dagger out of my chest then stab myself again.
“Stop!”
The Dagger pierces into my body again.
Over my side.
Over my chest.
Over my stomach.
Over my heart.
Again.
And again.
And again.
And again
And again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again.
Blood slips out of my lips, nose and eyes as all I see is red. I only felt pain in the first stab until my body numbs and every stab brings me relief I never felt before. My knees buckle as I fall onto the floor, the dagger still over my heart as I see Clayton rushing towards me with tears in his eyes and he screams. His voice is muffled as I let out a breath in peace and my lips tilt up in a smile.
I was never meant to live.
Chapter Twenty
The Present
