Page 58 of Ricochet
“I came to tell you to be ready.”
She perked up, immediately stopping her actions. “Are we going to play?”
Was she for real? Was she so far gone that even in the face of danger she couldn’t show at least a little bit of humanity? A little bit of the girl I used to know.
“We are going to play, but I’m not sure if you’re going to like it.”
“Oooh.” She clapped her hands. “Are there going to be knives involved? Please, please, let there be knives.”
This was the problem with her. I never knew where her mind would wander. When we just took her here, that first day, she seemed frightened, and now… Now she looked giddy from excitement, even though I was pretty sure she knew what ‘playing’ meant.
“Maybe—”
“And are there going to be ropes? I looove ropes.” Of course she did. Knives were her favorite things to use, and ropes… She loved immobilizing her victims.
“Of course, you do.”
I didn’t even know why I came here tonight. It wasn’t necessary to let her know what was going to happen, so what then? Was I expecting to find the girl I used to know beneath this shell? She wasn’t emotionless, but she was also a manipulative bitch, and I questioned every single interaction I ever had with her.
I started retreating toward the door when her voice stopped me cold.
“Do you remember when I had just come back from Russia?”
Did I remember? Of course, I remembered. I remembered every single word spoken between us, every single touch, every single promise.
“Do you remember what you told me?”
I will get you out of this. That’s what I told her. That’s what I promised her, and I failed.
I am so sorry, baby girl. And I was, because after that trip, she was a different person. She was somebody unrecognizable.
“Does it ever haunt you how much you failed me? How all of you failed me?”
Her voice wasn’t sweet anymore. Oh no, it was as cold as the winter night in the middle of the Arctic, freezing me to my bones.
“Because you did. And then you tried to destroy me because you couldn’t control me.”
I turned toward her, but she was still in the same position as before.
“All of my scars, all of my demons, they were weeping for you. I needed you to take me away, and what did you do? You pushed me further into the darkness, never giving a fuck about anything else but yourself.”
She had no idea how wrong she was, but I wasn’t going to entertain her crazy ideas this time.
“And when it all exploded, you fuckers threw me off the cliff. You drowned me. You killed the last bit of humanity I had left inside of me.”
“That’s enough!”
“Why, Kieran?” She laughed. “Is the truth too hard to swallow? It’s so easy to make me look like a villain, when all you’re doing is avoiding the person in the mirror. But I guess you had to do it, didn’t you? You always needed your daddy’s approval.”
“I said,” I crossed the room, and pinned her on the bed, holding her by her neck, “that’s fucking enough.”
“Go ahead, K.” She licked her lips. “Hurt me. There’s nothing else you could do to me that hasn’t already been done.”
“Are you sure about that, baby?” She tasted heavenly as I licked from her ear to her mouth. “Are you sure I can’t do anything else to you?”
A sinister smile spread across her face, her eyes sparkling with amusement, throwing me off balance. I squeezed her windpipe harder, and the bone chilling laughter emanated from her.
“Oh my darling. I would have to have a soul for you to hurt me again. But you took care of that, didn’t you? You took it all away.”
