The Pawn and The Puppet (The Pawn and The Puppet #1)

by Brandi Elise Szeker

The eyes I gazed into as I lit her house on fire.

I catch myself holding my breath because I can feel Suseas’s eyes sinking into me like the teeth of a python.

said, If more people with compassion chose to see the ugly and not turn a blind eye, maybe this world would be a better place.

“If you value your life, your sanity, and if you prefer to remain employed by this asylum rather than be a patient inside of it—you’ll respect my order, drop your curiosity, and never pick it up again.”

won’t presume to guess how you feel on the matter, but I recently lost my fiancée in a tragic accident. My heart is no longer open—I only seek friendship from you.”

The Water Warden, as I like to call her in my thoughts. It’s a suitable title for her after what I’ve seen. She does not smile, her eyes are as black as her hair, and she specializes in drowning patients.

Her soul mangled inside her broken body. I

This asylum must have acted as a pair of scissors, cutting open her stitches and making her bleed all over again.

The obsession with starvation and sinless skin was all-consuming. It was like a virus in their brains, chewing away at them. They became erratic in public, vomiting up small bits of food in the streets to show their self-control and keep their figures intact. The societal standards had ruined them.

There isn’t a word for adults who lie with a child. At least, not in this city. Near the woods, where the working folk live, we call them cradle devils.

“The world has become so ugly, hasn’t it? Love has faded like a puff of smoke from a cigar.

home isn’t a home unless you can hide your secrets deep within it.

“This patient is the only patient to ever admit themselves. And… the council is petrified of them.”

“Miss Ambrose?” I freeze. I never told her my full name. “Don’t be frightened. He’s been expecting you.”

“You will find yourself going mad in this room, Miss Ambrose. He has a way of snaking around inside your head. Don’t be fooled; this is all a part of his game.”

He has a face that doesn’t seem to belong anywhere, like a gem in the rough from another world.

I thought his eyes would slice into me and leave me cold to the touch. Make me realize I was in way over my head, that not everyone can be saved.

“I’ll thank you kindly to keep your hands off of my conformist,” he says, his rugged voice quieting the panic in the room like a theater. “You wouldn’t want me to lose my temper.”

“I think people mistake great intelligence for insanity.”

Tell me something I can hold on to.

My trauma is my own. It will stay that way.

jaw—“when this game is finally over. I promise you will know everything I know.”

“I’m pleased we came to an understanding today,” I tell them. “Yes, I’m pleased because I wouldn’t want either of you to fall under the assumption that I don’t like to play games.”

The warmth of his hug reminds me how badly I miss the comfort my father used to share.

“Careful. You wouldn’t want me to believe you could possibly have a heart,”

“I need you to be safe. I need you to be safe.”

“Look at me,” he orders, “if he ever strikes you… You tell me immediately. I will cut off every piece of him that he believes makes him a man and shove it into his mouth until he asphyxiates.”

I wonder if there will ever be a human alive who knows my heart, passions, secrets, and demons through and through.

“Say your goodbyes,” he says, murder dancing in his chocolate eyes. “I’m going to kill them all.”

But I can’t imagine that after ninety days, I could ever leave him. My story is now entwined with his, fused together with every fiber.

“If you ever…ever… strike her again… I’ll make her watch while I castrate you.”

“You told me you would take me somewhere we could see the stars,”

“I think the puppet was your way of coping. It was your minds way of taking a tragic death and turning it into something harmless.

My eyes flicker to the night sky, sparkling with millions of diamonds suspended in the darkness. And my world doesn’t seem as significant anymore, not where we stand, below the glowing white lights. The dazzling map of stars.

“I need to know after everything, you’ll never let me go.”

“Yes. I’ve felt that bond to you since the moment I stepped foot in this room.” Since the moment I saw your smile.

Everyone I’ve ever loved—all gone—all chose to leave.