Page 864 of Coal Hearts

What was pain?

All of it had switched off the moment Ily had died.

She’s dead.

I’ll join her soon.

Who knew...maybe tonight I would finally get my wish.

Perhaps I’d bleed out and this could all be over.

Hop-running the rest of the way to my stashed orange Lamborghini, I threw myself into the driver’s side and cranked the engine.

I wouldn’t be able to drive this car come morning.

It might already have been reported stolen by anyone who went to the house and found five men with their hearts carved out.

I wasn’t proud of what I’d done up there.

I put it down to the black insanity slowly creeping over my mind.

Victor had wanted me to perform a Diamond Kiss to fully initiate me into his realm.

Well...last night I’d finally done it.

Five fucking times.

And I had to say, it was hard work.

Breaking their rib cage, hacking through gristle and muscle.

My hands had been bright crimson by the time five fat-riddled hearts lay on the mantle, lined up like gruesome Christmas stockings waiting for Santa to stuff them.

Blood pooled on the tan leather of the Lambo as I screeched down the hill, drove like a fucking maniac around the twisty, turny lanes of this quaint Tuscan village, then shot down the main drag out of town.

This entire place looked like a pretty postcard.

Yet it housed despicable monsters just like everywhere else.

My hands slipped on the steering wheel, smearing blood.

My blood or theirs?

Looking down, I snickered as yet more scarlet stained the car. The cleaning bill would be horrendous. My eyesight faded a little as streetlights vanished, and I turned on the high beams, slicing through the countryside.

It felt like I was the only one alive.

The only one who didn’t want to be.

I chuckled as I swayed. I blacked out for a second. The wheels juddered over the edge of the road, making the steering wheel dance beneath my fingers.

Whoops.

How funny would it be if I drove myself straight into a ditch?

Would it kill me quickly or slowly?

I grinned, feeling a lightness in my chest that hadn’t been there for so long.