Page 39 of Grave Possession (Grave #2)
Chapter Thirty-one
Graves
Mallory’s ear-piercing scream breaks through my agony, and panic ravenously worms its way through me. Trying to sit up is a no go, the pain rushing through me almost causing a blackout.
Get up! Get up you useless fuck! What if he’s killing her, and you’re just fucking napping here? GET THE FUCK UP !
Rolling onto my side, the injury repels, but I get my good arm braced under me.
Pushing myself up and onto my knees, I cradle my fucked up arm against my chest. Kneeling behind Mallory, I watch entranced as she unleashes every bit of darkness that’s been caged inside her for twenty-five years.
She’s wholly mesmerizing, ensnaring me in her enchanting hold for all eternity.
Get him, baby. Make him regret ever looking in your direction.
Mallory loses herself to the bloodlust, completely surrendering to the sinister side of herself. Time no longer has any meaning as she slices and stabs, further mutilating Ted’s unconscious body.
There comes a point when Johnson has long since passed the moment of death, but she’s screaming, crying, and mumbling incoherently. I don’t want to disturb whatever trauma she’s letting go of and working through. She needs this.
Her movements slow then come to a stop. She stands, teetering from side to side. I’m worried she’s about to collapse so I struggle to get my feet under me.
“Baby,” I quietly say, but she doesn’t hear me. Looking at her hands, she begins to shake. A full-body tremor wracks through her, and I’m sure shock is starting to set in. I need her to hear me so she doesn’t have a downward spiral about what she’s done as the killing high wears off.
“Mallory,” I coax, a little louder this time, hoping she’ll hear me over the blood rushing through her ears. She freezes, her entire body still as a statue.
Yes, good. Hear my voice, follow it.
“Mallory,” I repeat firmly. Slowly she turns, taking me in.
Completely shocked, she looks back at Ted’s body beneath her then back to me.
“It’s okay, baby. Come here.” I wave her towards me with my uninjured arm.
She steps over the mangled corpse, almost slipping in the lake of blood that surrounds her.
She stands beside Johnson, turning toward me fully, and I can finally see the brutality of her rage.
“I-I-I…” she stutters. Blood and viscera cover her porcelain skin but I’m anything but repulsed.
She’s beautiful. My gorgeous, lethal siren.
Stronger than I ever imagined. She emerges from this wreckage, just as she did the last one.
Mallory’s a phoenix rising from the ashes, and I’m a moth to her deadly flame.
A sailor entranced by the beautiful melody of her siren’s song.
Drag me to the depths, baby, I’ll never fucking leave you again.
“It’s okay. I don’t care that you killed him. He deserved it. All of it. Just come here so I can fucking hold you.”
She takes a step towards me, then stops. “You’re alive,” she breathes.
“Yes, baby. I’m alive.”
“I thought he killed you.” Her voice cracks, again looking down at the body next to her then back to me.
“He tried to…and he would have if you didn’t stop him.
You protected the both of us.” I say, guiltlessly validating her actions.
“Now, Mallory, get your damn ass over here.” I growl.
Her eyes lock with mine through the mask and her lips quirk up.
There she is. “Little siren, now is not the time for games.”
“Why do you get to decide when we play and when we don’t? You’re still hiding from me, even now. ”
Fuck. I take a staggering step towards her, then another. It’s a fight to even stand upright. Woozily, I drop to my knees a few paces before her.
“Take it off,” she says flatly, working hard to keep her emotions in check.
“No,” I reply sternly. She takes a step towards me, and I’m damn near certain she’s about to rip the mask from my face.
“Take it off!” she screams.
I raise my masked face to hers as I apply pressure to the burning hole in my shoulder. “I can’t,” I rasp.
“Fucking. Take. It. Off.” Mallory growls at me, fully succumbing to the feelings flowing through her now. Teetering on the edge of insanity because of the events of the past month. This is my fault. I’ve broken her, or at least had a hand in it.
“You’ll hate me.” I hang my head in shame.
“I just killed for you, for us. Have I not proven myself enough? Do you not trust me to love you when I see what’s under the mask, Ghost?
You hide from me, yet I cannot hide from you.
You see all of me.” She gestures to her bruised, naked, crimson streaked body and I can’t deny her.
I see all of her, literally. This is her rawest form, fully revealed and no longer concealing herself or her emotions.
It’s fucking intoxicating. Her pupils are dilated, and I can see the hysteria waiting with bated breath to break free.
If I don’t show her my face she’ll snap.
“This is enough. It isn’t fair,” she snarls, fist clenching around the handle of my knife.
She’s standing her ground, and it’s hot as fuck.
Seeing that spark I planted inside her ignite in an inferno .
Fuck it. Let’s do this. If I’m going to die it’ll be after I see the look on her face when she finally knows who I am.
“Fair? Don’t even get me started on what’s fair, Mallory.
Carrying on with two men isn’t fair…to either of us.
” Her mouth snaps closed as her eyes turn to saucers.
That shut her up real fucking quick. Nothing to say now, eh baby?
Shock and slight traces of fear cross her beautiful face.
I wonder if it’s the last time I’ll see it.
“How did you know?” she stutters out on a hushed breath.
“Because baby…” I remove my hand from the wound and it leaks my life force out onto the floor of this dirty, wretched sawmill. Grabbing the front of the mask, I slowly pull it from my face. “We are the same fucking person.”