Page 358 of Once Upon a Fable

Fuck, I was finally free.

Free to make them pay.

Free to embrace the never-ending violence inside me.

I’d run from this level of anger for eleven goddamn years. I’d hidden from it. Ignored it. Done my best to forget it, but it was always there.

A companion inside me. A whisper in my head. A scar that never healed, just waiting to pour forth and killeveryonewho ever hurt me.

It wanted blood.

It wanted their blood.

It wanted apologies and pleas—it wanted to raze the world of every bastard and bitch who ever hurt my family.

It kept growing.

Swirling and hissing, blocking out the forest, the valley, the moon.

I forgot about Gemma and the way my entire being broke apart seeing her hurt by someone else. I forgot about any rules I’d fought to abide by. I gave up trying to begood.

Thiswas me.

This thing.

This monster.

Free.

The black virus spilled out of me, shooting down my arms and into my fists.

It poured out of me like a disease.

A plague ready to wipe out everyone.

It granted sick, sick power after a lifetime of imprisonment and amnesia.

It was a fever and a cancer all in one.

And it cracked me wide open.

I howled as I splintered apart, becoming more than just a man.

I was invincible.

I was reckoning itself.

I didn’t turn my back on my memories this time.

I didn’t hide.

I didn’t fucking cower.

I welcomed them.

The doors in my mind flung wide, the chains snapped free, the locks broke open, and every thrust, slice, curse, kiss, and torture flooded me.

Itallflooded me.