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inappropriate use of rice,
Have you ever wondered how long it would take for a lethal dose of arsenic to kill you? Thirty-five hours, twenty-nine minutes, and fifteen seconds. I should know. I counted myself.
It is not a choice to be stupid, though I gave my best efforts to be sympathetic.
Personal pleasures were like drying flowers, best kept away from the light to preserve their vibrance.
There was something comforting about people-watching. I liked to wonder what it was like to be different people.
I wish I could say that I made that man suffer—that I put his hands in jars and severed the tongue from his mouth. Instead, I did something far worse. I did nothing.
There was no need to change out of funeral attire, as men die every day—a cause for celebration.
It was like something had crossed a cicada with the chattering noise a cat made when it saw birds outside the window. A sound of curiosity and predation.
Oh, I just knew she would simply unravel me.
“I look forward to us, little shadow,” I whispered against her ear, tucking a bit of hair behind it before I allowed her one last night of rest. One more night before our games began.
“If you can get to your bedroom before I catch you”—something tugged at a piece of my hair, a hand brushed against mine—“then I’ll leave you alone for tonight.”
Believe me when I say this woman gave me butterflies in my stomach. Though that might just be internal bleeding. Either way, she had charmed me.
Those cold eyes never left the ink on those pages. The only effort she exhausted, aside from reading, was to bite into an apple after she muttered her apology. It was quite annoying actually. I wanted to shove her off the bridge, but she might be more upset about the book getting wet rather than the sight of me.
No, I did not watch her undress. I waited for her to submerge herself actually.
“You know, when a snake bites, it is usually because it gave you a fair warning to run.”
The blond figure innocently tilted his head up at me, but it did not take a saint to see that the man was dripping in sin. Those same gray eyes peered back at me in what could have possibly been adoration.
How arrogant, the way he was so comfortable in a place he did not belong. Typical of a man.
My threat only made his smile grow wider. “Sounds like a date.” “What?” “You heard me perfectly fine.” He winked, sliding me a calling card. “I try to kill you, and you take it as flirtation?”
I would have strung them with hair from my last grand gesture, but I thought using yours would do perfectly well, a more personal touch. —Silas
The little sounds she made satiated me far more than her screams. I wanted to devour her until there was nothing left, until she was just a shaking, pathetic mess in my arms. Alternatively, I wanted to shield her from the world and keep her in my room—like a pet.
No matter how good she might taste, I could not have that sort of fun with a corpse.
She’d pissed herself.
They say that if you were a good person, flowers would bloom on your grave. If you were a bad person, there would only be weeds.
It was an unusual rain, heavier drops than usual. Another tall tale would say that meant death was near as well.
It was like hearing me cry his name snapped something in him, but he could not decide how he felt about it.
Having my hair played with was one of my favorite feelings.
Red does look good on you. —S
The blade smacked into the wood of the wall next to his head as I turned the corner. His eyes were wide. I might have actually caught the elusive Creature off guard. He glanced at the axe and then back at my face. Genuine surprise. “Marry me,” he breathed.
“I will take anything you give me—
“You know, if you just gave in, I would be worshiping you right now instead of chasing you,”
She would make the most beautiful apparition, already haunting every corner of my mind.
She smells like black cherries and cyanide.
Against my higher urges, I chose to let her be, to admire her in the open for once.
“And this one looks like you.” I pointed to a four-eyed grub preserved in a jar of ethanol.
“Humor me. How do you think an irregular human could live without being noticed?” “Like many creatures, in plain sight perhaps.” He glanced at my face instead of my reflection this time.
They say time is a thief, but I say time, he is an escapologist. No matter how hard you tried to hold on to it, no matter how hard you tried to tether yourself, it would always slip right through your fingers.
You want to taste it paired with pleasure
“It would not be the same. I wanted to hear you dedicate your cruel words only to me. I didn’t care if you were yelling at me, screaming at me, telling me no…as long as it was for me. Soon, I didn’t want you to leave. When I was away, you danced around my mind like a man’s deepest regret, ferocious and intoxicating. You want to know what I want? I want you, Alina. All of you. Every hair on your head, every tear, laugh, and scream that rips from your delicate vocal cords will all become mine
want to taste every venomous word performed by your lips until you have to invent new ones just for me.”
That devilish tongue wiped the red tinge off his lips, peering off in the distance as he tried deciphering the taste. “Cyanide? Really?” He tsked as if I should know better.
“You say that you are an old soul. You look like you are barely twenty-five.”
He leaned forward only to disappear under my skirt.
“An accident in the lab,” I said simply. “His assistant was clumsy. He died of some sort of exposure.” “That is unfortunate, especially for an experienced chemist.”
As I observed one more closely, I realized even the rats that did not receive any blood were in the same condition. There must be some sort of cross contamination.
What was I missing?
“I am well, aside from the arms I had to bury this morning.” She threw me a side-eye as she passed. “Right.” I nodded as if I understood her euphemism, though I did not.
“I will not forgive you if you die without my permission,” I whispered. While it was supposed to be a joke, it was also truthful.
“My heart is yours to do with as you please! Even if you are to run blades through it!”
“Must you be so melodramatic? Are you not the one that eats flesh and chased me like an animal through this very house?” “Whatever do you mean?” he gasped. “That is the height of romance!”
Two dots of blue light peered at me from the corner, but this wasn’t my regular phantom.
