Page 76 of Grave Possession (Grave #2)

Chapter Sixty-four

Graves

I ’ve opened my closet and let all the skeletons out to rattle around, now it’s her turn.

She’s going to tell me willingly or I’m ripping off this metaphorical band-aid, whether she’s ready or not.

I scrub my face until there’s no remnants left of the oily paint I used to black out my eyes under the mask.

Turning off the water, I step out of the shower, and wrap a towel around my waist. The door is closed, and Mallory’s nowhere to be seen, along with my costume. The blunt-force trauma injury to my abdomen is healing, but still hurts, especially if I twist the wrong way.

I take a minute to gather my wits, formulating a plan on how to get Mal to open up to me without forcing it upon her. “Just tell her,” I say quietly to my reflection. “No plans or manipulations. Just talk to her.”

Something settles inside me. I owe her the time to talk openly and uninterrupted about this because I robbed her of that in the beginning.

It’s what held me back from revealing myself.

It never felt like the right time, and then she was gone.

I regretted not telling her every day she was kidnapped, fearing she would never know who I was, or how deeply my feelings for her ran.

I towel dry my hair, then brush it back.

It’s too fucking long. Grey keeps bitching about it, and how it’s unprofessional.

The next time he brings it up, he’s going to learn the real reason I refuse to cut it.

Hopefully, that will shut him up. I wouldn’t even be the least bit surprised if after I tell him, he lets his hair grow a bit longer.

Having your woman hold you hostage against her is addicting, the butterflies in your stomach alongside the throbbing of your cock make you feel a new kind of desire.

I move to leave the bathroom, swinging the door open.

The air stalls in my lungs as I suck in a gasp at the sight before me.

Mallory leans against the opposite wall, dressed head to toe in black, the creepy white doll mask sitting against her forehead the only thing of colour on her.

A black hoodie hits the top of her thighs, the skin tight black leggings hugging her curves have my mouth watering, and her usually untied combat boots are strung tight.

My mind floats to unholy places while I gaze upon her.

The Ghost mask swings loosely back and forth between her fingers, and for once in my life, I don’t have the upper hand.

I’m completely at her mercy, and have no idea what’s going to happen next.

“Better hurry up before someone finds my mess.” She says it so casually, like I better get a move on before we’re late for dinner reservations.

I snap back into my body, realizing that she’s letting me in to see this side of her, finally. “What?”

“Get dressed, stud. We’re going on a field trip. ”

Mallory

His eyes light up, looking at me like I hung the fucking moon.

I can’t for the life of me understand why I hid this from him for so long.

Self-acceptance is a gruellingly, painful road, and I needed to figure myself out before I could let him love this side of me.

I just wish I hadn’t hurt him so much in the process of learning to embrace who I really am.

There’s a dilemma warring on his handsome face, and before I can ask what it is, his deep voice is slicing through the tension. “I know.”

“Know what?” I ask.

“That you killed those three men.”

“I know,” I respond. He looks at me, mildly befuddled. “You danced around it enough, I knew you’d put all the pieces together eventually, if you hadn’t already.”

“Then why hide it from me?”

“Just because you knew didn’t mean I was ready for you to know. I had a lot of soul searching to do, coming to terms with myself was…harder than expected.”

“And you’re ready now? For me to see this side of you?”

“Honestly, not really. But I know I don’t want to push you away anymore. I just hope you don’t see what I did and abandon ship.”

“Well, that’s ominous as fuck.”

I shrug. He’s not wrong. That man is missing a leg, his brain, and his dick. I’ll be thoroughly surprised if Nox doesn’t lose his dinner.

He crosses the hallway to me, cupping my cheek and raising my ashamed eyes to his. “No matter what, I’m yours. Nothing you show me will make me run.” I smile up at him, then he kisses me quickly before turning and striding toward our bedroom.

A short time later, Nox is leading us through the woods back to the Haunt. He looks like he did the first night I saw him. A black hoodie, jeans, and boots cover his mountainous body, and his face is concealed behind the mask.

The music has quieted, and people are slowly filing out of the mill for the night. We move unhurriedly through the bush, trying to remain unseen by the attendees and Lennox’s squad, which was in full attendance. Even the two new recruits, who were stationed at the gate checking tickets.

My mind wanders as I follow closely behind him, our fingers woven together, letting him lead me through the forest as I recount his earlier confessions.

Guilt wraps tightly around my soul, pulling my mind to a dark place.

Nox has killed to protect me. I could argue I’ve done the same.

That my kills have been in self-preservation or self-defence, and they were.

However, deep down, I wanted to end those people’s lives.

I like the power and control I get from it, the fucked up way it inflates my self-confidence.

From a young age, I never felt safe, worthy, or strong.

I never had the right to choose anything for myself.

What I ate, how I dressed, and how I spent my time was all decided for me, and I detested it.

Stripped of all free will and abused for as long as I can remember rooted a dark seed deep within me.

Every hidden bruise, broken bone, and deprived choice fed the sprout of evil in my soul.

Long nights alone and hungry were the roots growing strong in my psyche.

Every tear I cried watered this bud until it became an independent being, living and breathing within me.

I can’t pinpoint when exactly I smothered that part of myself, but I know as a child, I was too cowardly to fight back.

By the time I was an adult, I’d become so beaten down.

I feared if I did fight back it would be pointless.

I’d have rather ended my own life than given Dennis the satisfaction, but something always held me back.

I thought it was my cowardice, but it wasn’t.

It was her. That part of me that was struggling, begging for me to choose myself and live.

I’d like to think if I could do it all again, I’d change my actions, but it’s the past, and it doesn’t really matter. What’s important is the life I’m living now, and that I make the most of it with the man pledging to stand by my side no matter what I throw at him.

“Nox,” I say, barely above a whisper. Planting my boots in the underbrush, I stop our advancement, and he turns to look at me. It’s dark out here, the lights from the Haunt barely penetrating through the foliage.

“What is it, gorgeous? Do you want to go back home?”

“No.” I pull him close, turning us face to face. Taking his other hand in my free one, the contact provides me with some false sense of security. I wouldn’t have a chance in hell at keeping him here with me if he really wanted to run after what I’m about to say.

“Are you okay?” Concern is heavy in his voice, and it takes everything in me not to break down and sob from the weight of this.

“I killed that girl,” I whisper.

Ghost sucks in a shocked breath, his body an unmoving statue before me.

“I didn’t lie when I said Johnson brought her to the cellar after hitting her with his car.

But he didn’t carve her up and make me watch.

He gave me the knife and let me do whatever sick shit I wanted.

Part of me was worried what would happen to me if I didn’t participate in his fantasy, but another side of me wanted to let loose every evil thought that’s ever gone through my head. ”

Knowing what he’s about to walk up on, this can only prepare him for the worst piece of who I am.

“Why are you telling me this?”

“What do you mean?” My heart feels like it’s been thrown in a blender, the blades slicing through any hope I had that we’d make it through this together.

“Do you think solidifying my theory will scare me away? That showing me the most heinous parts of you will make me tuck tail and run? It won’t.”

His theory… “Wait… you knew? This whole time?”

“No, not until you confirmed it was you who killed those men. One was autopsied like the Jane Doe from the cellar. Then I saw you completely drenched running home from the Haunt. It all just clicked. You like to make a mess, baby. Johnson didn’t.”

“Why didn’t you call me on it?”

“Just because I know, doesn't mean you’re ready for me to know,” he parrots my words from earlier back at me, and warmth spreads through my core.

All any woman wants is a man who listens, and actually absorbs what they say.

I don’t think I could love him any more than I do in this moment.

Squeezing his hands in mine, I hope to convey my feelings without words because I’m liable to crumble to a mushy, blubbering mass of emotions if I dare speak.

The clouds part and the moonlight beams down across his mask, green eyes sparkling beneath the mesh. “I see you…all of you. Even the darkest parts you refuse to show me. I see them…and I’m just as infatuated with them as I am with every other part of you.”

“How come you can see things I can’t see in myself?”

He lifts his mask first, then my own. “It’s a perk of watching you when you think you’re alone.

I witness a side of you no one else is lucky enough to see.

Not only did I watch the broken parts of you freeze over and dissociate, I saw the fire struggling to breathe inside of you.

Fighting to thaw that icy, emotionless husk you were becoming.

It called to me, trapped me, and wrapped itself so tight around my chest, I felt like I couldn’t breathe without being near you. ”

I release his hands, and launch myself against him. My mask falls from where it rests against the top of my head into the overgrown grass as I embrace him as tight as I can. “Thank you,” I mumble against his chest.

Nox’s arms band gently around me, holding me close as I listen to the steady beat of his heart. “For stalking you?” he questions.

“For saving me.”

“I didn’t?—”

I glance up at him from beneath my lashes, silently both daring him to challenge me on this and pick up what I’m putting down.

If he hadn’t barged into my life, I might not have survived being taken.

Whether he literally saved me or not, he freed me enough that I was able to save myself.

“Mallory, you did that all by yourself.”

“No, I didn’t. It was your voice in my head that told me to keep fighting. It was your strength I leaned on when I wasn’t strong enough. Even if you weren’t with me, you were with me. You dug yourself so deep inside my heart, I’d never be without you.”

The smile that splits across his face stalls the breath in my lungs. He’s so violently beautiful, sometimes I swear he was made specifically for me. “Just what I wanted,” he says, voice thick with emotion.

I don’t know how my disgusting confession turned into this heavy emotional conversation, but we need to get a move on before the sun crests the horizon.

I stretch up on my tiptoes, placing a gentle kiss on his lips.

Nox’s body relaxes against mine, as if he’s been holding his breath this entire time.

The lingering tension woven through his body erodes as he melts for me.

I start to pull away but his hold on me tightens as he deepens the kiss.

What starts out as soft and sweet quickly turns hungry.

I want to show him just how much I appreciate everything he’s done for me, no matter how unorthodox.

His soul recognized mine, and knew exactly what I needed.

Words escape me, they’ll never be enough to properly convey the depth of my feelings for him anyway.

I’m as desperate for him as he is for me.

I reach for his zipper, working my fingers under his hoodie, racing to have him inside me. Ghost swats my hands away. Spinning me around, he pins my back to his chest with his arm banded across my chest, effectively trapping both my hands between my tits in the process.

“What are you doing?” I breathe.

“Now is not the time, baby.”

I suppose he’s right but I don’t have to like it. “Fine,” I huff.

“Show me the darkest parts of you and let me love you anyway.”

“Ghost…” I whine, wiggling my ass against his erection.

“Show me,” he growls.

“Okay.”

He releases me, bending down to pick up my mask. Nox hands it to me then slips his back down over his face.

“Lead the way, my deadly little siren.”

Graves

Now that Mallory can see where we are on the mill property, I let her lead the way. The area is pretty much empty except for a few lingering partiers finishing a game of beer pong. She stops, looking left and right, takes a few more steps, then freezes in place. Well that can’t be good.

I step up beside her as the ground squelches beneath my boots.

The tang of iron lingers heavy in the air, and I suck it into my lungs.

The lethal aroma brings with it memories of carnage.

My dick fires to life beneath my jeans, and I’m seriously regretting denying Mallory’s advance mere minutes ago .

Her hand slaps against mine, cold and uncoordinated, pulling me from my thought of fucking her next to her latest kill. Mal’s breathing is fast and erratic, she’s on the cusp of a panic attack. The pulse in her neck thrumming in overdrive as I turn to look at her.

I quickly observe the area, but there’s nothing here.

Infiltrating her vision, I move to stand in front of her.

“What’s wrong, baby?” She doesn’t answer me as a tremor runs through her body.

I look around, making sure there’s no one close by before I slip the mask carefully from her face.

“Mallory,” I say a bit more firmly. “Come back to me.” I pull her shivering frame to my chest, and let her breathe me in, my warmth sinking into her.

“Lennox…”

“There you are.” I kiss her forehead, rubbing my hand up and down her spine comfortingly. “What happened? Forget where you hid the body?”

“I-I didn’t.”

“WHAT?!” I shout, like an idiot. “What do you mean?” I whisper this time. “Where’s the body?”

“It’s gone.”