Page 67 of His Ruin
This time, they do hear me. A scream rips from my throat, shrill and loud. It bounces off the warehouse’s walls, making twenty sets of eyes snap to me.
“Melody?” Kaden whispers, his eyes wild and haunted as he stands quickly.
I shove back, kicking the rocks as I force myself up from the gravel. I wrap my arms around myself, the feeling of Kaden’s jacket burning my skin. My hands shake as I try to catch my breath, but it’s all too much.
“Who is that?” One of the men asks.
There’s muttering among the group, but everything is lost on me. The walls are closing in, but I’m not surrounded. My whole body is alight with nerves, making my limbs shake, and my knees wobble. Depth perception is nonexistent in this space, and I nearly crumble to the ground when my ankle rolls painfully.
“No one is to touch her,” Ivan commands.
“Melody…” Kaden whispers. He sounds closer, but I can’t make out anything beyond the ringing of my ears. It projects across my psyche, the gunfire playing over and over again like a haunted record scratch that won’t stop.
I witnessed someone die.
The man I’ve loved since childhood just killed someone.
Boots covered in deep red stains come into view, snapping me out of my shock as Kaden attempts to reach for me.
“Sunny—“
Snap.
I slap his hands away with so much force that it leaves my fingers vibrating. I finally take him in, the splatters of red essence across his face, and soaking into his shirt. Blood that isn’t his.
“Don’t fucking touch me!” I shout, my chest heaving wildly. My lips tremble as adrenaline courses through my veins like an uncontained wildfire.
Betrayal and hurt crack across his features. “Sunny—”
I place my hands over my ears, shaking my head as everything boils over. I’m catatonic, and I can’t think. “Don’t call me that!”
“Look at me,” he urges, his voice broken and pleading as he reaches out for me.
I stumble back, my legs nearly giving out as I create space between us. I hold my palms out as if I can stop him, making the distance between us stretch naturally. “You…“ I gasp, sniveling loudly. “You don’t get to touch me!”
That emptiness is gone from his eyes, replaced with something earth-shattering—an impending doom. “Melody, I need you to listen—”
His voice caresses my name so gently, forming each letter as if he’s practiced it a million times. How can he still speak to me like he hasn’t just destroyed every notion I had of him, every dream we were supposed to live? It turns to dust, scattering fractals whisked away on the wind as I hiccup and my voice transcends to a croaked howl. “Listen to you?! You just killed someone!”
“You weren’t supposed to see that,” he says quickly.
My eyes round as my mouth falls open. A bitter chuckle leaves me, making the ache in my chest grow stronger. “Weren’t supposed to see that…”
“No,” he reassures, shaking his head and still reaching out to me. “I’m sorry—”
“SORRY DOESN’T BRING BACK THE DEAD!” I shout manically, my vision dipping into clouded and unsure territory. This time, when I smack his hands, my nails scrape against his skin, leaving welts across his knuckles.
“Shhh,” he shushes me, closing in. There’s an expression I’ve never seen him wear so openly, stretching his features, taught—pain. “Please, Melody,” he begs, his boots sliding towards me. “Let’s go home—”
“I’m not going anywhere with you!” I sob, my throat scratching as I lift a hand to my neck. My face screws up, betrayal stabbing me so fiercely that it makes my whole frame wrack.
Those hands have touched me.
The same hands that just killed a man.
My breaths are broken and stunted, wheezing past my lips raggedly. I’m spiraling, and I can’t stop. I can’t even think about what I’ve let Kadendo to mewith those hands…
I suck in, my eyes creasing as my cheeks glisten with steady tears. My voice is barely a whisper. “I don’t want to see you ever again.”
