The Truths We Burn (The Hollow Boys, #2)

by Monty Jay

Separately, we are just kids born with tragedy leaking from our split veins. Together, we are utter chaos.

“What the hell are you doing here—” He stops abruptly, pushing off the side of his bike and meeting me in the middle. His eyes search my face, zeroing in on my streaming mascara and obvious tear-filled eyes. Something in his body language shifts, going from full of himself to tense. “What did he do?”

“I need you to help me take the mask off. You’re the only person I know not hiding from the world. You burn for it. This place, it’s eating me alive, turning me into a person I don’t recognize. Show me anarchy, show me something violent.” I shake my head, needing to feel that escape. “Show me all your truths, Rook. And I’ll show you mine.”

“Just selfishly glad I’m the only person who sees you like this.”

“Because I’d become a serial killer trying to fend off men falling in love with you.”

“I missed you, too,” I snicker, my voice raw and scratchy. “I did miss you. It’s just…” he whispers softly. “Can I keep you?” And my soul breaks because of it.

I promised myself, and I have broken it, because now I think I’ve fallen in love with the devil.

But she’s a goddamn tumor. Every time he tears a piece of her out of me, she grows back ten times more.

“Why didn’t you take me with you?” he cries. “I would’ve gone with you.”

I’m keeping him. I’m keeping all of the boys.

I had lost too many people that I cared about, and I’m not losing any more.

“You will never be alone again. Never. Our ashes will be combined,”