Page 14

Fourteen

pretty & wrecked

chapter-seperator

T he drug burns through my veins like a molotov cocktail, but my mind’s awake before my body can move. Trapped in paralysis, I listen to the road eating miles beneath us, feel every turn as she takes us further from the bayou I call home.

My kitten thinks she’s claimed her revenge. Thinks drugging me is punishment enough for what she thinks I did. If she only knew the truth about me. About what I became in those fifteen years she wasn’t here to ground my more sinister desires.

She doesn’t understand - watching her become the monster I have always craved. An equal. It was the sweetest kind of torture. Every brutal move, every dark impulse, every drop of blood she spilled… perfect. The way she took down Spider with my shotgun? I’ve never wanted her more.

Fifteen years I spent getting clean, building an empire, searching for her. Now she’s found me, broken and beautiful and mine. She thinks hate made her stronger.

She’s not wrong. Hate keeps you alive, keep you focused, makes you hard enough that nothing can ever hurt you.

Love is conditional, fleeting, but hate lasts forever.

I taught her that.

And when this drug wears off, I’ll teach her so much more. Starting with what happens to little girls who try to cage monsters.

My kitten’s home is with me, and this time I’m never letting her get away. There’s no escape…