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She grabs ahold of my hair just as I rip open the drawer and locate one of them, my fingers curling around it while she swings me towards the wall. I crash into it painfully, the back of my fist swinging out sightlessly to dislodge her from my hair.

Teeth sink into my shoulder, clamping down with all her strength. A high-pitched yelp escapes past my lips. I bite back the scream threatening to rip from my throat, feeling blood spurting from around her teeth.

Blinded with pain, I raise my hand and stab the pen anywhere I can reach, feeling the pen sink past flesh and sinew. She releases me with a strangled yelp, but before she can move away, I grab ahold of her and send us both careening to the ground, no longer caring if we’re caught.

Fuck this bitch.

We roll for a few seconds, fighting for control. I manage to gain purchase and twist on top of her, using one hand to slap away her claws, and the other to plunge the pen into her neck. My hand slips, the pen slick from her blood as I impale it into flesh.

Her nails rake across my face, leaving stinging trails, but they fade into the background as I keep stabbing her blindly, managing to hold on to the slippery pen only by sheer determination. Over and over, I stab her, exhaustion sinking into my bones quickly, but pure adrenaline and panic keep me going. Finally, she goes limp, blood pooling around us.

I’m panting heavily, soaked in blood, and delirious from the adrenaline. My body is going into shock, and all five of my senses are on lockdown, nothing penetrating past the shroud of numbness.

I just gaze down at her body, now riddled with holes. She stares sightlessly up at the ceiling, and I find that her eyes don’t look any different than when she was alive.

My door creaks open, and Rio rushes in. He stops in his tracks when he sees Sydney on the ground and me straddling her, painted in crimson. It’s… warm. I think I feel warm.

“Fuck, princesa. What did you do?”

I barely hear him, only interpreting his words from the way his lips move. I point at her, and croak, “I killed her.”

He quietly steps in and shuts the door, but not before peeking out to see if anyone else is coming.

The soft click is inaudible to the typhoon raging in my ears. He keeps his steps light as he comes around the other side of the bed to get a better look. His lips form a circle, and he must whistle, but I don’t hear that either.

All I can do is stare.

“Come here,” he mouths, waving me towards him. Blinking, I stand on quaking knees and manage a single step before slipping on the blood, barely catching myself on the bed. Rio’s hand grips my arm and pulls me up and away from the growing pool.

He grips my face in his palms, his dark eyes searching mine. And then he slaps me hard enough to knock my head to the side. The white noise bleeds into a sharp ring, and then all my senses come rushing back in. I hear, see, feel, taste, and smell everything.

Copper. That’s the first thing my senses notice. And then Rio is gripping my face again, forcing my concentration back to him.

“Look at me, mama. What the fuck are you going to do now, huh?”

I open my mouth, at a loss for words. Finally, I just say, “Escape.”

He shakes his head, drops his hands, and steps away. He stares at me, but as usual, I can’t decipher the emotion churning in his irises.

“I shouldn’t have said that,” I whisper, realization dawning that he’s not going to let me. Fuck. The situation catches up to me all at once, and I enter into panic mode.

I killed Sydney because she was going to out my escape plan, and now I’m going to be locked in a submarine somewhere, forced to live out my life alongside the fish.

With Rio catching me in the act—any chance of escape just went to complete shit and now I’m never going to get the fuck out of here. Rio isn’t going to let me go. There’s no fucking way. His sister is on the line.

“Shit,” I mutter, uncaring of my bloody hands and sliding them through my hair, pulling tight as I try to come to terms with being caught before I’ve even stepped foot out of the fucking house. “I can’t live with the fish, Rio. I don’t like sharks.”

Rio’s brows plunge. “The fuck are you talking about?”

“Shit, shit, shit. Fuck—”

Muttering something Spanish beneath his breath, he grabs my arms and brings me in close.

“As much as I appreciate the vocabulary lesson, I’m going to need you to shut the hell up,” he cuts in. “Look at me.”

I do, but my thoughts are elsewhere.

“You need to tell me how the hell you would even escape. Your two options are acres of forest that you will get lost and probably die in or walk a road that you can be easily found on.”