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She nods. “Hold her hands.”

Megan thrashes in my arms as I wrap my hands around her wrists and hold out her hands towards Aliyah. Knowing her thoughts immediately, I angle my right hip towards her.

“There’s a small knife in this pocket,” I tell her softly. Her face is stoic as she reaches inside and pulls it out. Her hands shake violently, and she takes a deep breath to calm her nerves.

“Aliyah.” Her eyes dart to mine robotically. “Are you sure?”

Swallowing loudly, she shakes her head and hands me the knife. “I don’t think I can do it.”

I nod. “That’s fine, but I’ll need you to hold her,” I say gently, pushing Megan towards Aliyah.

She chews on her bottom lip and hesitates, and just when I think she’s going to change her mind, she knees Megan in the stomach and pushes her to the floor. The girl cries out in pain and fear but doesn’t fight Aliyah when she straddles her chest.

I crouch down and grip one of Megan’s wrists tightly.

“Please, please, please!” she cries, trying to pull away, but I drive the handle of the knife into her nose to get her to shut the fuck up. She spits blood from her mouth and tries to catch her breath, but I don’t give her a chance to before I start tearing into her flesh with the silver blade. Megan’s screams are like music to my ears as I cut through flesh, muscle, and bone until her first hand falls against her chest with a sickening thud. By the time I’ve started on the other one, her breaths have turned ragged and she’s struggling to keep her eyes open.

When I’m done cutting off her hands, I hold out mine towards Aliyah and help her up. The two of us stand over Megan and watch as she bleeds out all over the hardwood floor.

“How ya feeling, Meg?” I ask tauntingly. Her rasping breaths slowly fade away, and when her chest stops rising, Aliyah stares at the corpse in front of her.

“Are you okay, little one?” I ask softly, taking a slow, tentative step towards her.

She continues staring at Megan’s body, and for a second, I think she hasn’t heard me, but then she turns to me with tears in her eyes.

“Baby,” I whisper before taking her into my arms and holding her delicate body to mine.

CHAPTER 16

ALIYAH

Crying is not how I thought I’d react to killing someone.

Well, it’s exactly how I knew I’d react, but I didn’t think this would be my response to killing Megan.

There’s something else, though. Something deep down that’s bothering me way too much to ignore.

Gavin pulls back just enough for me to look at him. His fingers are gentle as they tuck stray curls behind my ears. “Tell me what you’re feeling.”

I swallow the emotion clogging my throat. “I feel… relieved.”

He cocks his head in confusion. “Then why are you crying?”

I look out the window at the full moon. “Because it felt good.”

He nods when understanding washes over his features.

“I’m not a murderer, Gavin. I thought I could do this, but I can’t.”

He nods again. “We can walk away right now if that’s what you want,” he offers gently. “But the rest of your friends still have to die. I can’t risk them going to the police.”

“Yeah, I understand,” I say. “I just don’t think I can kill them myself.”

Gavin cradles my face and presses a soft kiss to my lips. “I’ll do it, and you can watch as the ones who’ve hurt you the most perish painfully.”

That’s doable. I can live with that. What I can’t live with is knowing I’ve willingly taken someone else’s life; even though they were planning on taking mine, I’m just not like that.

I’m not like them. I’m a much better person than they’ll ever be.