I should have picked up on the signs back then, but I didn’t. He was a fuse, always seconds from being lit. People noticed him because of his looks and charm, but I saw him for what he truly was: completely unhinged.
A monster.
Memories of that night during spring break flashed through my head.
Three Months Earlier
“Jackson. Oh my god!”The girl screamed as he forcefully thrust into her. All I could see were his lean arms, his muscular back, muscles tensing with each movement. I shrieked, covering my mouth with my hand, frozen in the doorway of that stupid party. I had just received my acceptance letter to GCU and made the soccer team.
I couldn’t wait to tell him.
He whipped his head around suddenly, his eyes locking onto mine, still pounding into her with brutal intensity. He paused, then stared directly at me with a cold, deadly stare that sent chills down my spine.
“Oops,” he muttered. “You weren’t supposed to see this.”
Anger boiled underneath my skin.I was done playing the victim.
“Let’s think about this a bit. You slept with another girl. Not only were you still inside her when I caught you, but you said ‘Oops’, and continued to fuck her in front of my face,” I screamed. “You think that’s appropriate? Do you think I’d want to talk to you after you fucking did that to me?!”
“Oh yeah, like you’re some saint?Oh, Max is my best friend, Max needs to talk to me. I need to call Max.”
“You need to get over this obsession you have with Max!”
“I see the way he looks at you. He’s fucking in love with you.” He ran his hands through his hair, pulling at the edges.
He wasn’t in love with me, I thought. Because he went withher.
I stared into Jackson’s dark eyes that had killed me repeatedly. I wanted him to hurt. I wanted him to die like I died when I heard him fuck her, when I saw him fuck her, when he held me down and fucked me repeatedly afterwards.
I had told Max that Jackson and I had only had sex twice. It was a lie. Jackson had forced himself on me so many times.
I had been so delusional in thinking I didn’t deserve love that I allowed it.
“Fine, you want the truth?” I asked. He looked at me expectantly. “I’m in love with him. He’s in love with me. We’ve been fucking for years. All those things I wouldn’t do with you, I do with him all the time. Happy?”
He was consumed with rage when I said that, and I smiled.
The change in him was immediate. Jackson vanished in an instant. I could see it in his eyes—jet black, unrecognizable. The true monster lurking within had been revealed. Rage overtook him when I described it, and I couldn’t help but smile.
Because if he was the devil, I was the devil incarnate.
“You lied to me,” he said, his voice cold.
“Yeah, I lied,” I said, staring directly into his devilish eyes. “Oops.”
Anger twisted his features, shadows twisting darkness in his eyes as he struggled to suppress his rage.
“It doesn’t matter because you and I are bound by blood,” he hissed with a sinister edge. “It’s unavoidable. As soon as you graduate, we’re getting married. You have no say in it.”
He clenched his fists tightly at his sides and stepped dangerously close to me.
“I’m going to kill him, anyway,” he hissed, leaning in. “He’s in my way. And if I find out he’s touched you, I won’t go easy on him.”
“It’s too late, Jackson. He’s always touching me,” I said coldly.
“How many times?” His voice cracked with panic and rage.
“Want numbers? Or just highlights? First time? Camp. Two years ago. In his bunk bed. Then the shower. The floor. Twice in his car. Three times at the lake. Once right here on the dock.” I was getting creative with my lie, and Jackson finally looked at me with a haunting expression, making me feel like I was in control of him.
