Then, Earth Swallowed Ocean

by Shiloh Sloane

“Something brought you here.” She smiles, folding her arms in front of her chest and swaying a bit on her feet. “Surely it wasn’t God,” she says. “Not when you look like that.”

“Are you the devil?” she asks. He rolls his eyes back in his head. Her fucking voice, like this, drills into the nerves of his spine and spills champagne over them.

She’s a sinner. A heathen. She can’t get enough of him.

“And if you don’t come for me,” he says, sinking to his knees. “I’m going to slice through your flesh and drink your dying blood.”

“Each time you come, my little fawn,” he says, spreading her wider with his free hand. He slips two long fingers inside of her, curving upwards. She shudders. That noise in the back of her throat. “I’ll spare your life another day. Do you understand?”

“You are mine,” he growls, stroking himself over the denim. “Aren’t you?” “Yes,” Sadie whispers. He groans. “Fucking right. If you risk what’s mine, I will punish you.”

For a long time, he’s savored the way sadness flavors a woman’s breath but now he thinks he’d pull the stars from the sky if it meant she never sounded like that again. It guts him. But her refusal to answer pisses him off, too. That she would think the Devil could get through him.

“I’ve played nice with you. If you think even your Devil can cut through me, I’ll show you how wrong you are. Because he could open the earth underneath our feet and I would fuck you in our fall. I would devour him and free every damned soul just to see you in the sun again.”

“I won’t let you prove that,” she whispers. “Then hide well,” he growls. “Because when I find you, you’ll have no other god but me.”

“Then, I’m going to make you choke. I’m going to keep you from breathing. Do you know why?” She’s panting but she keeps her gaze steady on him. “Because it feels good?” He smiles. “No. Because that’s how it felt when you left. You took the air with you.”

“But my little fawn, you’re prettier than the ocean. More beautiful than the blue mountains back home and more than a cloudless night with a full moon and the galaxy behind it. Never met a person who could put those sights to shame until I met you.”

For a second, she wonders what will happen if they both pass out in the waves. If they drown amongst the swirling creatures, will their ghosts be caught in this perfect moment?

“You are worth more than a thousand men,” he growls, shoving the metal harder against her skin. A tear rolls down his cheek. She’s so close, she sees a whisper of her own reflection in the sheen of it. “You’re worth more than me.” With that, he raises the gun to his own temple and fires.

“You are my gravity,” he says, his voice a near-growl. “You are my sky, my fucking ocean, my moon, my air. You’re my religion. You’re what I reach for, don’t…” He punches the wood of the dresser and it collapses inward. “Don’t leave me,” he breathes. “Don’t take yourself away from me.”

“So I’m gonna do it anyway, darlin’,” he says. “I’m gonna go to hell for you.”