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My name is Elena Young.
Maybe I’ll even take Neil’s place one day—who knows?
“I wanted to see the face of the man who saved me,” I say cautiously.
“You’ve got it backwards, angel.”
“If you’re so concerned about my humanity, Elena, then reach into my soul and find it, because I’m not sure I have any left.”
But what I feel when I kill can only be described as relief. Relief that the monster inside me has been fed and will recede back into his decrepit cave until he’s hungry again, and that’s when I’ll kill next. Eight. I’ve given him eight souls since September sixth. It should have only been one. It should have only been me.
“If you could go back and time and change one thing, what would it be?” My heart aches at the question, and my response is immediate. “That’s easy. I’d save my father from so much pain by stopping his first family from being murdered. I mean, if they weren’t he wouldn’t have met my mom and I wouldn’t exist, but that’s beside the point.”
My dad had a family before he met my mother. A wife and twin girls. They were found shot to death in their home in 1989.
“You made a deal with a serial killer to protect me?”
“My parents died when I was six. For the past three decades, all I’ve done is focus on the past. You are the only thing in my life that’s ever made me consider the future. At first, the future was just the next day. I started sleeping better because I knew falling asleep would make tomorrow come faster and I would get to see you again. I wanted to get a glimpse of you, to see you smile, to hear you laugh. I made a game out of trying to guess how you’d wear your hair to the office. I was always looking forward to the next day because I wanted to discover one more piece of the puzzle that made
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On August 26, 1989, I, Officer Harold Fischer, responded to a 911 call at the Young residence. Dispatchers informed me that Mrs. Young called the emergency line screaming for help, and they heard several gunshots in the background. Five units responded to the residence, where Mrs. Young was found face-down in the kitchen. She had three gunshot wounds in her chest and no pulse. Officers checked the rest of the house and found Lisa and Mary Young, both age 6, with gunshot wounds in their chests and unresponsive. All three were pronounced dead at the scene.
[REDACTED], when interviewed, admitted to the murder of Diana, Lisa, and Mary Young. He was taken into custody on three counts of first-degree murder.
jury found insufficient evidence to indict [REDACTED]. The charges were dropped, and this case is now closed.
Though the Youngs have a history of stalkers, I’m not in this because I have some indescribable obsession with Elena. I know exactly why I desire her in my soul, and I’ll tell her about it one day, because she deserves to know why I call her angel.
“God, you’re so fucking wet, angel.”
“I still remember the way her hair bounced when she walked. She loved that old Hollywood glamor, and I don’t think I ever saw her without red lipstick on. Now that I think about it, that’s probably why it’s my favorite color.”
“Do you believe in soulmates?” The corner of his mouth tilts into a smile. “Not until I found you.”
“Name?” “Christian.” “Age?” “Thirty-six.” “Too old.” “Dad—I’m twenty-nine!”
“Don’t worry, angel. I’m going to send you straight back to heaven.”
“Your parents died on September 6, 1989, and we met thirty years later, on September 6, 2019. That’s why you said you started believing in soulmates when you met me.”
love you. I will love you forever. Even when we’re nothing but bones in the ground, I will find you in the afterlife and cherish you like I always have. I will hold you and kiss you and fall asleep with you wrapped in my arms. I will spoil you and give you a wedding ring with my last name to match. I will buy you yachts and islands and mansions all over the world so you can feel safe. I will do all of this even if you fight me because you know better than anyone that boundaries have never stopped me. One day, only when you’re ready, I will fill you with my love again, and I promise I will do
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all I want to do is kiss away her tears and hug her until I’ve fused us together.
“I’d rather chew glass than be friends with you. I’ll be damned before I let a Reeves tear apart my family again.” He lets me go, and this time, I grab him, shoving him against the exterior brick of the house. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Elliot chuckles. “It means the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and you remind me so much of Thomas. I wonder if you’ll end up with a bullet in the chest, too.”
“By remembering that a gilded cage is still a cage.”
“If she leaves, then you didn’t love her the way she wanted you to.”
Elliot sighs. “Man, that’s a shame. I loved Fat Lou’s.” My heart falls straight out of my chest and onto the floor. I can’t find it in me to tell him that Fat Lou’s doesn’t exist anymore.
Because I burnt it to the ground when I was eighteen.
“Thomas Caledon Reeves, when interviewed, admitted to the murder of Diana, Lisa, and Mary Young. He was taken into custody on three counts of first-degree murder.”
It’s no wonder he hates me. His punishment for killing my parents is having to watch his precious daughter fall in love with the son of his mortal nemesis.
I’m in love with a man who would move the sun with his bare hands if it meant giving me a little shade.”
“I love you.” I say through gritted teeth, her hair wrapped tight around my fist. “I love you so much it makes me insane. I love you so much it makes me dangerous. I love you so much that I would burn this world for you and all the people in it just to keep you all to myself. Do you understand me? If it comes down to a choice, you will choose me. I don’t give a fuck if it costs the remainder of your soul. You are mine and only mine.”
It warms my stone-cold heart to see her so excited about something. It makes my chest tighten, because I know it means that what she’s gone through hasn’t stolen all her happiness.
“Look, you’ve got to stop acting like I’m your enemy. If I can keep the past in the past, you sure as hell can too. If not for me, for Elena.” He turns to face me and then abruptly throws the drink in his glass directly into my face. The small crowd around us gasps. “Get out of my face,” he sneers.
Love is the most volatile poison in the universe.
“Don’t finish that fucking sentence,” I hiss. I shoot up from my chair, round the desk, grab her by her neck, and pin her against the wall. “You knew exactly what I was when you let me put that ring around your finger. You knew exactly what I was when you sat there and let me play the the entire fucking adoption system like a fiddle so that Caroline would be ours. Don’t you dare try and act like you’re on some moral high ground here. And don’t you ever even fucking think about threatening to leave me again. Ever, Elena, or you can kiss your freedom goodbye.”
“Hey, Gav?” “Yes, sir?” “Do you trust Kate? With Elena?” Gavin turns to face me and his face drops. “Didn’t you tell me you once paid her to cover for Elena at the Lounge?” I nod. “So her loyalty can be bought.” “And?” I prompt, knowing there’s more. “And I think for the right price, she’d hand over Elena on a silver platter to the highest bidder.”
“I’m going to burn this fucking world to the ground just to get some goddamn peace.” I nod, looking up at him from under my lashes. “Let’s burn it together.”
“I love you. I love every piece of you. Even the parts I shouldn’t love. Even the parts of you that have unraveled all the parts of me. Especially the terrifying parts that you’ve tangled into my soul.”
And I’ve decided I love the taste of poison.
“Hey Gav?” His eyes flicker up to mine. “Do you remember what you said to me in the gym after I was shot? About how if anything happened to Elena, I’d do far worse than fire you?” His face turns three shades paler as I crack my neck and point my gun at his forehead. “Consider yourself lucky that I’m making it quick.”
All he talks about is saving her from you.
Her words are cut off with a guttural gargle when I slit her throat and blood spurts from her neck across my chest and arms. I push her backwards, and she goes plummeting to the ground in the chair, still gasping for air when I place a strip of red duct tape over her mouth and leave the warehouse.
“Gavin?” she asks. I sigh as I shake my head and rub the back of my knuckles along her cheekbone. “He died because of me.”
As my fingers dig into her delicate throat, I find myself getting choked up, but I can’t find it in me to stop. “I have to save her, Beth, I have to. You just…you got in the way. But I promise, baby, we’ll all be together soon.”
“I didn’t realize until this very moment that killing him won’t save you.” The gulps. “The only way I can save you is by letting you go.” He presses his forehead to hers as she cries, and then softly kisses her cheek before turning his head to look me straight in the eyes. “How’s this for misery?”
