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To those who stand tall.
There has been a constant ache in my chest since I finally realized the painful truth: we live in parallel lines. Our worlds are never meant to cross. We were never meant to be.
For a long time, I learned how to turn weakness into a strong façade, something solid and hard no one would suspect.
I do bleed, both physically and emotionally. I’ve just mastered the art of deception and don’t show it.
Tonight, I’m leaving everything behind and reuniting with the one person who always loved me unconditionally. The one who gave me their life.
There’s something paralyzing about pain. It’s not the agony itself but the brain’s reaction to being metaphorically stabbed. It shuts down at the onslaught and chooses numbness instead, because sometimes, being numb is the only way to survive.
I trusted him. I was falling for him. I ignored all the signs and my instinct and went to him. I considered him my savior when he’s been my Grim Reaper all along.
I couldn’t smell the scheme or sense the manipulations. I suspected him, but never enough to think he was after my life—literally. I only felt the push when I fell. I only registered the fall when all the pieces scattered around me under that
I feel nothing, see nothing, and smell nothing. The world has suddenly become colorless, and I have no idea if I want the colors back.
Asher took everything from me. Maybe I have taken everything from him, too. Now we have nothing.
My sister was my purpose in life. The day she died, I died with her. The thing that rose from the ashes was a demon thirsty for blood. Reina’s blood.
In this godforsaken town, people like Reina and me rule—popular and beautiful and fucking monstrous.
Reina is mine. Fucking mine. And I’ll screw the world so she’ll remain that way.
The moment I had her, the moment I buried myself into her warmth and looked into her ocean blue eyes, I felt a strange energy. It’s like the ocean’s pull when it’s drowning you, or the sirens’ song when they’re luring you to nothingness.
Reina has that effect on people. She lures then traps. She manipulates then strikes. She’s the devil dressed as an angel.
The heart I thought was long dead pulses back to life at that voice, the deep voice with slight huskiness, the voice that brought me happiness right before he shattered it and left me in the clutches of this gloomy cloud.
Wait—is this another one of his games? If he wants me dead, why would he worry about me? It doesn’t make any sense.
Reina is mine to rule and own. That’s the only reason I’m letting her get away with occupying my thoughts.
If temptation had a name, it’d be Reina.
Reina. She’s finally here. We finally found our way back to each other after nine years.
“Reina…” My voice breaks. “I just can’t watch you slip through my fingers again. I can’t.” “I won’t slip away.” She rubs her hand on my arm in a soothing gesture. “We’re one, after all. You’ll feel me even if we’re apart.
Just when I was starting to give up, she showed me a sign. She came back for me like she’d promised back then.
I had a twin. No, have. I refuse to believe she’s not here anymore. We made a fucking promise.
Darkness never scared me before. It was a place to take refuge in. Darkness is where the monsters become invisible, and I’ve long since converted to the other side.
Reina. She’s the subject of my darkness now, and nothing will save her from the things my wired brain is planning. Nothing will save her from me.
Reina’s life is mine. Fucking mine. No one gets to take her away from me.
I don’t want her to know I saved her. I’m not her savior. I’m her worst nightmare.
She fits so perfectly, like she was made for my hands. She was made for me.
I’d met her before, but I had never felt the need to come closer to her like when she returned. There was something changed about her. Something more exotic, raw, and…broken. I realize that now. I was attracted to the broken side of her before I even knew what the fuck that was.
I lean my head over and suck her bottom lip into my mouth like I did at twelve when she was sleeping in our guest house. A shudder goes through her as I brush my lips against hers one last time. “You’ll never escape me, my ugly monster.”
He’s his own brand of atypical, not exactly a sociopath, but something similar. At times, it feels like he does care, but at other times, he completely eradicates that part.
This is karma biting me in the ass for stealing Reina’s life and throwing her under the bus. I had to fall for her psycho fiancé just so he’d plan to kill me. Wait…no. I didn’t fall for Asher. I can totally get over him. Right?
Asher is still one of the villains in my story—if not the most dangerous. I don’t feel drawn to other villains.
Still gripping my neck, his thumb strokes up and down my pulse point as if soothing it, feeling it, making sure it’s there. There’s something about the way he holds my throat prisoner. Sometimes, it’s harsh, dominant, and meant to prove a point. Other times, like right now, it’s almost…tender, meant to establish a connection.
My villain and my savior. My damnation and my salvation. The only person I ever told my secret.
He really needs to stop saying things like that if all he ever plans to do is hurt me. He needs to stop touching me, calling me his, and looking at me with those intense eyes that seem ready to strip me bare and devour me all over again. My brain is starting to disregard the danger and focus on those small gestures, on what his body is saying instead of what his mind is planning.
“Look at you blushing.” His finger traces along my cheek in a sensual caress, his expression filled with awe.
It’s only that she’s more spontaneous now, more maddening. Sometimes, I have no fucking clue how to deal with her.
Since I started eating her pussy, I’m a fucking addict going through withdrawal.
I keep coming back to her whether I like to or not. She has me under some black magic. It’s in the way she looks at me like she never looks at anyone else. Like I’m her one and only.
She’s mine. Fucking mine. And no one touches her but me.
This woman is my hell and I’m ready to burn.
Goddamn this side of Reina—it’s a one-way road to sin, to nothingness.
Who said it’s easy to find the right road? If Reina is the wrong one, I’m not leaving this fucking place for eternity.
This is what she turned me into. A fucking criminal with no regrets whatsoever. She pulled me by the gut years ago and since refused to let me go.
A temptress. She’s always been such a fucking temptress.
“You.” My mouth hovers inches away from hers. “You’re what’s fucking wrong with me, Reina.”
Reina is that forbidden fruit, something that tastes exquisite because it’s sin.
“Forget me, Asher,” she whispers. “I don’t deserve whatever you’re doing for me.” “Forget you?” I wrap my hand around her throat again. It doesn’t cut her air off this time; it’s only firm enough to keep her in place, to feel her pulse and know she’s indeed a human, not a robot. “You think that can happen with a snap of a finger? If I could, I would’ve done it ages ago.”
Call it an obsession, an addiction, or sheer insanity, but it just won’t stop. It keeps pulsing under my skin like a fucking beast, destructive and deadly.
