Page 17

Scars of Ghosts.

Deathbeds – Bring Me The Horizon

M y stomach jitters at the sight of her entering the water. All I want to do is take her against the hard rock, make her feel the need I have for her and how much that need grows every single second she’s by my side.

“Are you nervous about tomorrow?” she asks, her nerves clearly readable through her question.

“The only thing I’m nervous about is you,” I admit, showing a side of me I have never shown to anyone before.

“I make you nervous?” She giggles, softly grazing the water with her fingertips. “Why?”

“Because when you start asking questions, all I want to do is give you the answers. But I know once I do, you’ll run.” I step closer to her, the water now up to my waist.

She wraps her arms around my neck, circling her legs around me as I carry us further into the water, like I’m carrying her deeper into the island.

“I promise I won’t.” She licks her lips, eagerly waiting for me to divulge more information, and I laugh.

“If I’m going to ask you to promise anything, it’s not that you won’t run…”

She looks at me expectantly but instead of continuing, I take her lips with mine, my hard cock brushing her pussy as she kisses me back.

Breaking the kiss, she stares into my dark soul, the only light being the reflection of her.

“Promise me you won’t think differently of me.” I lower my forehead to hers and close my eyes, my traitorous heart now wild at the thought of her hating me.

“I promise,” she whispers back, taking me into a passionate kiss.

I believe her like I believe in the salt in the air and the sun in the sky. I need her to know I can’t be without her anymore. I knew it was over for me the instant I had her. I knew then that I couldn’t be with anyone else.

But now that I’ve had her, I can’t bear to disappoint her.

Will she be disappointed in me when she uncovers the truth?

Panic rises within me anytime I think about her discovering what this place is used for. When she knows the deals we’ve made, she won’t want to stay. She’ll tear my fucking heart out and take it with her, leaving me to bleed out on the floor.

Wouldn’t be the first time I bled out here.

As I gently place her back on a large rock beside the rush of water, she slips her panties off and they float atop the water. My fingertips caress the beads of water on her chest, her breasts rising and falling beneath my hand.

“You’re starting to consume me, Principessa ,” I breathe as I hover over her, tugging her bra straps off her shoulders until her breasts are bare before me. “Every fucking touch,” I whisper, lowering my mouth onto her wet skin, gathering the fresh water with my tongue. “Every breath…” Grazing her collarbone with my teeth, I fight the urge to sink them into her skin again. “I thought I had already lost myself to this island a long time ago, but the thing that terrifies me the most is how alive you make me feel.”

She raises her chin, her eyes begging me to take her hard against this rock, and my mind wanders to what she would look like on her knees.

“You dig into places I don’t even recognise.”

Grabbing my hand, she guides it to her mouth, her plump lips closing over my fingers as she sucks. Lowering herself into the water, she frees my hand and takes my cock, wrapping her fingers around it. My balls twitch, sending another shot of blood to my crown, the feeling almost painful as I stand there before her, fully erect.

“I think it’s your turn to beg me. ”

I huff a laugh, her hands coming around to grasp my hips as she stares up at me, her stunning features accentuated by the moonlight. “I’m not playing that game.”

She yelps when I grip her hair at the top of her head. “Open.”

Her knowing smile tells me I’m no longer the one in charge, but I’m okay with that because I’m done pretending this is a game. There are no more rules and certainly no winners. Just us, tangled in something neither of us can walk away from.

Her tongue is like a version of heaven I imagine exists, spreading warmth from the base of my spine up to my neck. She creates a suction in her mouth, her cheeks hollowing out as she swirls her tongue around the crown of my cock. My thighs tense at the intense pleasure, drawing out a guttural growl from deep within my chest.

There’s that smile again, hiding on the corner of her mouth.

As I thrust myself deeper, she tries not to gag, holding back her own body’s impulses as she opens up her throat.

“That’s it, Principessa , invite me in until you can’t fucking breathe.”

I fuck her throat, shoving myself further with each drive of my hips. “It seems you believe you’re the one in control.” I pinch her nose and she closes her eyes as my cock fills up her throat. Pausing, I enjoy the warmth and wetness as her hands begin to push me away.

“Uh-uh.” Clutching the back of her neck with one hand, I pull her to me, her mouth and throat swallowing my entire cock as my balls rest on her chin.

Tearing myself out, she heaves for air, but the only air she should be breathing is the one I allow her to.

“M—” Before she can speak, I push back into her mouth, silencing her.

“You don’t get to speak, Principessa , not until you suck every drop of my cum with that beautiful mouth and swallow.”

She moans around me, the vibrations making me grit my teeth at the sudden shock of desire. My crown rubs ever so wonderfully in the back of her throat as her choking is muffled by the loud rush of the waterfall stream.

The intensity builds, wrapping itself around me, and I groan as she works to get me off.

“Why don’t we raise the stakes?”

There’s a hint of fear in her eyes as I lower myself into the water and hold her under, taking my pleasure. The water sloshes around me as I pump into her throat, bubbles from the air left in her lungs rising to the surface.

“ Fuck ,” I groan, holding myself deep inside her throat. My cock twitches, the release pulling me into its hypnotic tide when she swallows around me.

I release her and pull her head out of the water as she splutters and coughs. When her beautiful, thunderous gaze is on mine, I see the pure enjoyment she gained from this and I curse to myself.

I am royally fucked.

The addiction that’s growing within me starts and ends with her, and addictions like this are risky because there’s almost no clean break.

This obsession will destroy us both.

FIFTEEN YEARS EARLIER

The only reason I’m alive today is because I refuse to fucking die. Maybe in ten years’ time, I will curse myself for coming here, or maybe, it’ll be the best decision I ever made. Either way, there’s no turning back now. I thought I wasn’t afraid of anything or anyone, that was until today.

Erhan Kara. Seeing him sitting there in his dark leather chair, at his black desk, makes me rethink this whole stupid plan. He motions for me to sit and I do. The chairs are comfortable, a lot more than the plastic ones back at the service centre I call home.

“What are you doing here, kid?” he asks, taking a breath of his cigar, his blue eyes brighter than the blue lights that shine across the bridge on the mosque. It was like a knee-jerk reaction, ending up here on the roof of a building in Turkiye. I knew if I wanted to show the Casellas just how much they’d regret casting me aside, I needed to do it with something extreme.

“I need your help.”

He huffs a laugh and sets his cigar down on the ashtray. “My help doesn’t come cheap.”

“I’ll give you my life,” I say eagerly, hoping he’ll give me the chance to explain my situation.

He shakes his head in disappointment. “Haven’t your parents taught you the value of life, kid?”

“I have no parents,” I admit.

He stops to assess me, and I try not to fidget under his stare.

“I’ll do anything you ask of me. Please, I’ll sell you my fucking soul if that’s what you want,” I plead like the worthless piece of shit I am.

“Hold on, kid,” he says, standing from his chair and stepping around to take a seat in the armchair across from me. “Tell me why you’re so desperate for my help.”

“I haven’t eaten a proper meal in two weeks. I survive off bread and butter and spend my days by the dock fishing just to try and sell the fish at the market to make a few euros to afford the bare necessities. I’m sick and I’m fucking tired of living like this!” Frustration is laced in my voice, but I don’t care. “I can’t do this anymore. I need to have something to live for, something to call mine. I don’t want to be another statistic. I want to leave a fucking mark on the world.”

“Even if that mark is black?”

“ Especially if that mark is black.” I hold his gaze. “My parents abandoned me, left me to grow up in a foreign country with a fucking stranger while they played house and built a whole empire. I need this.”

I’m not sure if it’s compassion or sympathy I see in his eyes, but I hope I’ve struck a nerve.

“I’ll do anything you ask,” I beg. “Please, just tell me what you need me to do and I’ll do it.”

He leans back in his chair, and I can see the cogs in his mind working as a small smile sneaks onto his face. He snaps his fingers and in an instant, someone walks through the door.

“ Bu cocu?a biraz sicak yemek getir.” He directs his words to the older woman who leaves as soon as he nods. I can’t understand Turkish, but growing up in Italy, there were a lot of people I met who were Turkish. Some were travellers, coming to the tourist hot spots and others worked for Enzo. That’s how I heard about Erhan.

“I’ll make you a deal, kid.” He smiles and leans forward, his elbows on his knees. “You have a nice warm meal tonight and sleep in a comfortable bed. Then tomorrow, we can discuss the rest.”

My stomach rumbles at the mention of food, my mouth watering at the thought of a warm dinner.

“Does this mean you’ll help me?”

“Actually,” he stands and reaches for his cigar, placing it between his lips, “you’re going to help me. ”

TWO YEARS LATER

Cocking the gun in my hand, I pause outside the doors of the bar, my only chance to turn in the opposite direction and forget about revenge. All it’ll take is one step after the other, and I can have a different life, move from Italy and start fresh. I consider it an option for a millisecond, then the vision of the garage flashes in my head and my lips curl back into a snarl. I know he’s not here, and even though my end goal is to make him suffer, I want all of them who had a hand in this to feel the same excruciating pain I felt when I stepped into that garage.

Taking a step forward, the bouncer checks me, and before he can refuse me entry, my foot lands on the door, snapping it into the wall. All eyes are on me as I step in, and within a second, I identify the five men responsible and raise both my handguns. The scrawny one spits his beer onto the bar top as a bullet fires from one of my guns, landing in between his eyes. Another tries to stand on the other side of the room, but another bullet pierces his right eye, his blood smearing the wall behind him.

There’s a shuffle as another reaches into his jacket pocket, hanging on the back of the barstool, and his screams smother every other sound in the room as a bullet lands in his hand, then silence as another enters his forehead.

The bulky one fires his gun, the shot missing me and landing on the wall beside me. Drunk bastard has shocking aim. I fire another shot, the bullet landing slightly off-centre on his forehead, but he’s across the room, so I give myself some grace. And finally, the last of them crawls on the floor beneath the tables, the bar now half empty since I step foot inside.

“ Vieni a conoscere il tuo Grim Reaper.” Come and meet your Grim Reaper. I taunt him, as he whimpers, still clambering through the tables.

Kicking the table, it lands on its side, revealing the fucker now on his back, his hands shaking as he struggles with the safety on his gun.

“Any last words?” I ask, but as he opens his mouth to speak, I pull the trigger, the bullet flying into his mouth and out the back of his throat, leaving a nine-millimetre hole. “Like I’d let you speak to me.” I pull the trigger again and his body falls flat against the floor, his eyes wide open.

Looking around the room, I notice there are still a few people who have stuck around. They are no doubt working for Enzo, too.

Good. I hope they report everything back to him.

“Just in case you don’t know, my name is Rafael. You can tell your boss I’ve resigned.”