Page 60 of Caged

KIEREN

Present Day

Mid-September, Senior Year,

Sigma

How the fuck does this happen? Who fucked up?

A body was found and I was promisedthis would never happen. Weights were used. All precautions were made.

My paranoia starts to get the best of me.

Fuck.

“Fuck!” I scream loud enough to rattle the windows of my bedroom.

But then I sink back onto my bed, laughing.

“So stupid,” I laugh as I draw in a breath.

“So stupid, stupid, stupid.”

“Where the fuck did you go, Monroe?” I grunt, grinding my jaw so tight that it throbs in pain. “Your friends were here the other night, probably looking for you,” I say to my empty room. “I couldn’t stand to see their fucking faces.”

Goddammit, the pain.

Fuck that stupid car accident, I scream inside my mind. If I had only made better decisions four years ago. My TMJ issues will never go away, will they?

I stand and walk over to my desk. The bottle of prescription pain pills is already half empty. I pop one, swallow it, and then open a second pill bottle that contains my ketamine lozenges.

Flopping back onto my bed, I let my head hit the pillow as the tablet dissolves under my tongue.

In the corner of my room, the space her cage once occupied sits empty. I don’t know how I’m going to preside over another Full Moon Ceremony without her. I could hardly stomach the Ceremony last week. Leaving the dais to fornicate with the peons was out of the question. I forced myself to sit and watch as long as I could before telling Jace to come find me when X and Barrett were ready.

Going up to my room I feared would not end well, so I sat in the dank stairwell that leads down to the basement and remembered. I’d sell my left nut to go back to the night of the first Full Moon Ceremony and experience that side of Monroe again, high on ecstasy, riding my dick like a fucking carousel. Her pink, rosy cheeks and beaming, ear-to-ear smile as she came undone… And when she told me she loved me. The memory of her crestfallen face when I didn’t say it back plagues me more than I’ll ever admit.

I searched for you all fucking summer Monroe.

You better keep fucking running, because I’ll find you.

And you know what happens when I find you.

You did this to me.

If I could cry, I would. But I can’t. I feel nothing. Numb.

Numb like my broken heart, I chuckle to myself.

Never again, Monroe, will I be so careless.

When I find you, you’re coming home with me, and I’m going to keep you until the day you fucking die.

28

GABI

Present Day,