Page 106 of My Girl

Every drop. Down, down, down.

“What brand is this?” he asks. He crumbles the plastic. “It tastes terrible.”

I lean closer to him. “I added a vitamin mix to it.”

He wrinkles his nose. I watch him. What will happen? How long will it take? Or is this another test? A final game orchestrated by Crave?

I want to fuck Crave for that.

Ned straightens himself, then lets out a long sigh. “So,” he says. “What’s next?”

“I should move back to Pahrump,” I say. “Vegas isn’t good for me.”

“How so?”

“Well, it’s?—”

Ned grabs his stomach, lurching to the side.

“Jesus,” he says. He grabs the wall. “Fuck. That hurts.”

Ned never curses.

He wipes his nose. Blood smudges his pale skin. “What?—”

His body begins to convulse. I peer down at him, watching every turn. Every twitch. Every movement of his body. It fascinates me. How long will it take for him to die? Or will he be in pain for a while? What will happen next?

“It’s an allergic reaction,” he mumbles. “Call an ambulance. Shit?—”

He doesn’t suspect me. Not even now.

I stand taller, towering over him as he falls to his knees. His mouth, eyes, and nose bleed as his body flails on the ground. So human. So natural.

Ned is wrong. Even if you don’t believe in others—even if you only believe inyourself—there are other reasons to live.

Sometimes, that reason lies in the darkness. And sometimes, that darkness finds you.

Ned rolls to his side, vomit splashing on the floor. Black and red lumps mixed with green bile coat the laminate. It’s beautiful in a putrid way.

I unzip his pants and pull out his cock. The shaft is small, like a pink hamster pup curled up. It could grow. It wouldn’t be so bad.

Still, it irks me. His willingness to give me orgasms was never about me. It was about hiding his insecurities. Even someone like Ned can lie.

I honestly don’t care about penis size. Sex has never been about my pleasure; it’s always been about getting what I want from others. Then I met Crave, and I learned that sex could be pleasurable for me too. Crave fucks me so good, he makes me forget myself.

I pull down my thong, then hike up my dress. I sit on Ned’s face. He can barely move, the poison paralyzing him. It feels good knowing that he’s dying now, and that it’s not just the poison that’s killing him, but I am too. My pussy is smothering him.

Part of me knows that this darkness was always inside of me. Now that Crave has entered my life, I’ll never know if I would’ve turned out to be a thief who eventually grew out of her pickpocket habit. I’ll never know if I would’ve always turned out this way, with or without my father.

I’m okay with that.

I smear my cunt over Ned’s face, painting him with his blood, his saliva, flecks of his vomit, and my arousal. Power fills my body.

I’malive.

In my mind, Crave’s mask fades away. Brown eyes glitter with greed. His entire focus fixated on me.

I always knew not to trust Officer Gaines. My mistake was trusting Crave.