“Ah, so you’re the birthday girl. Tell me, why is the princess up here on her lonesome during her birthday party?”
A frown settles on her face and for some reason, I don’t like it. There’s a seriousness to her that is also soothing. “I don’t know anybody here,” she replies softly. “All of my friends are in New York.”
I have no response to her sadness. I toe off my loafers and set them to the side, then climb the sofa and sit across from her to watch all the happy children make a mess of her property. Not to mention the ponies defecating in her yard. Disgusting. “Well, are you going to eat your cupcake?”
She grins at me, showing off her new teeth coming in, slightly large but perfectly straight. Incredible. She folds down the lining holding the cupcake and instead of taking a bite, she… she twists off the top until it tears in the middle and flips it, so the frosting is… sandwiched. She laughs at my expression, which I'm sure is bewildered, but her laugh is loud, and… and beautiful. It makes the irritation in my chest shake loose and even when she takes a large bite out of the cupcake and frosting drips onto her stockinged feet she… she moans happily.
It… it stirs something inside of me.
For a few moments I wonder what she would look like covered in blood. That little pink dress tie-dyed with crimson… for the first time, it makes me frown.
Age Fifteen
“Oh! Kane! Have you come to say goodbye?” Sabrina asks, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around herself.
“Grandfather says you leave tonight?”
She nods, wet hair slicked back from just now walking out of the pool like a little goddess. Her hair is lighter from the sun and her skin is flawless. I abhor that she always hides her body from me. “Just for the holiday. We’ll be back once the school year begins.” She smiles. She never needed braces. She’s… perfection. She’s also only thirteen and not interested in the things I’m interested in. And that’s fine. The girls at school are plenty interested in the only Ainsworth heir. It doesn’t take much to get them to expose themselves to me. It’s rather boring at this point. All I have to do is lift a finger and their skirts bunch up. Nobody’s a challenge. Even the girls on scholarship. I show them a few pounds, and they are eager to show me their shaved pussies. Very droll business. Besides, none of them are Sabrina.
Sabrina… she’s still… pure. And as sweet as frosting. Even if she currently smells like chlorine and chemicals.
“Sabrina!” Charlie calls from somewhere above us.
She looks up but my eyes roll at the sound of his voice. I loathe Charlie. I despise him as much as I despise mud. Actually, he might be worse. “Coming Charlie!”
“Hurry up!”
She groans and shakes her head. “Well, I guess I’ll see you around? I’ll be starting secondary school this year. Will I see you in the halls?"
I grin at her. “Absolutely. Let me know if you’d like me to show you around, princess.”
“Alright. Well, I’ll see you,” she says with a grimace when Charlie calls for her again, this time from the window.
This time, I do look up at him, meeting his cold glare with one of my own. He pulls his head away and I turn to leave. I open the back gate that leads to another section of the garden that follows a trail back to my summer home here in Kensington. A hand grabs me from the top of the shoulder and forces me to turn around.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
Fucking Charles Winters. The bane of my existence. The only thing in the way of me getting more time alone with Sabrina. “Just… came to say goodbye.” I smile.
His eyes roam over me and he shakes his head. “I’ve already told you to leave my sister alone, Kane.”
I could kill him out here, so far away from the house and so secluded… it would be so easy to strangle him and pull him into the thicket behind me… but, alas, Sabrina could say I was here and I would have no alibi. So instead, I tilt my head and peer at Charlie. We’re the exact same height. The exact same build as we’re both in swim. But I’m the one who made captain. He may be good, but I’m better. More agile. Faster. Smarter. I’msimply better. It’s not arrogance, it’s fact. “I was just wishing her a happy holiday. Can’t wait to see her in our halls this year. It’ll be so… fun, won’t it?”
He shakes his head at me. “You’ll stay away from her there, too. Come around her, and I’ll bash your fucking teeth in. You’ll need headgear from what I’ll do to you.”
“So vicious,” I grin. “Nevertheless, fine. I’ll stay away from her… unless she comes to me, Charlie. You won’t always be around her.”
I can see the violence in his eyes. The way he wants to murder me just as much as I want to slaughter him. And I will. Charlie’s only an obstacle. Only second-best. He won’t win. Never against me. He never has. He never will. I close the little gate and pause. “Oh, and Charlie?”
He cocks his head to the side, waiting for me to continue.
“You should probably break up with Miranda--” I grab my phone out of my front trouser pocket and flash him the picture on my lockscreen of his girlfriend in my bed, naked, and fast asleep. Well, shelooksasleep. She’s actually quite dead. I contemplate telling him, but I already have a mess to clean up at home. His face turns a beautiful shade of furious pink. “Her pussy just wasn’t very good quality, you know? I will give it to her mate, she did her best to resist me… but once my tongue was up her frothy cunt, she just…didn’t.” I lift a shoulder and let it drop casually. “Anyway,” I slip my phone back into my pocket. “Just thought you should know now that the semester is over and you’re leaving. It would be a nice little clean break.” I continue on my journey home to call my grandfather. The sooner that mess is cleaned up, the better.
Age Sixteen
Blood spurts and lands in the crevices between my fingers, on my knuckles, and I’m sure the red I’m seeing is because some landed in my eyes. Mason is on the ground, rasping wet, gurgling, nasty breaths as I’m tugged off him. Successfully, this time. The noise around me comes back with a force, like a steady ring, beating at my eardrums as I breathe in deeply, trying to calm down.
“Christ, take him to the infirmary!” Someone shouts.
