Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 160041 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 800(@200wpm)___ 640(@250wpm)___ 533(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160041 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 800(@200wpm)___ 640(@250wpm)___ 533(@300wpm)
“You won’t feel a thing,” he says.
Within seconds, I’m totally out, floating in a black void of non-existence.
It feels like ages have passed in the blink of an eye.
When I wake up, I’m in excruciating pain.
Lights flash in my eyes, and I can hear the machines beeping right beside me.
The doctors around me, or whoever the fuck they are, rush me down a hallway.
“Quick, quick,” one of them says. “Before the cops get here.”
I don’t know what’s going on, or what even happened to me as I’m being whisked down the hallways.
Everything hurts. Doors crack open, and the blinding light of the sun greets me. I close my eyes, still half asleep and groggy from the medicine they’ve forced into my veins. I can barely stay awake, but I have to know what’s going to happen to me.
“Hurry up,” one of the other men says. “She’s bleeding everywhere, we can’t just—”
A car rolls up to the pavement, and the two men drag me off the stretcher and into the car. They throw me into the back seat, and I groan in pain as the meds slowly begin to wear off. Something went horribly wrong. I can feel it in my bloody bones.
“Jimmy. Take her.”
“What the hell, man? She’s bleeding all over my car.”
“I don’t care. Just get her out of here before the cops arrive. You know what’s at stake.”
Jimmy grumbles. “Fine, whatever. Where do you want me to take her?”
“Doesn’t matter. Anywhere. Just get rid of her.”
The door slammed shut, and I have no clue what happens, because my brain is still too messed up to register the passing of time. My consciousness is fleeting, and I can smell the scent of my own blood perforating the air, suffocating me.
The drive seems endless, even when it only lasts a few minutes.
The tires screech as the car comes to a halt somewhere off the beaten track. My door is opened, and I’m tugged out of the car by my feet. The driver drags me into the woods, but I know this place by heart. Priory Forest.
If only the trees could whisper, they would tell him how many bodies our family has left strewn all around these roots. His will be next.
My eyes burst open, and he immediately releases me, nearly falling over his own feet as he backtracks.
“Listen, it was just a job. I don’t know what’s going on, don’t blame me. You’ll be alright. I gotta go.”
He darts off, and I can briefly hear footsteps among the fallen leaves, and then the loud roaring of his car’s motor before he rushes off.
Silence.
My hands slowly come back to life, and I touch my skin to graze the wounds left behind, none so violent as the one between my legs. The aching makes me pull my fingers back, and I look at the blood spread all over my hands, turning my eyes red with rage.
I scream, the loudest scream I’ve ever released into these woods, before I turn around and crawl through the mud, inch by inch, toward the one thing I’m owed…
Revenge.
Atreus
Present
Her words echo in my mind.
The horror she’s gone through is beyond what anyone would be able to cope with.
Her body, her organ, her choice was stolen away from her.
Nothing—and I mean nothing—could ever compare to that kind of anguish.
It would drive anyone mad.
Even me.
And maybe now … I finally understand how one could become a killer like her.
I caress her cheek with my thumb. “You’re safe here. No one’s going to hurt you.”
It pains me to my core that she’s had to live with this pain in solitude for so long. No one should have to suffer like that.
Her eyes twitch as her tears have all dried up again. “They already did.” Her voice is full of disdain and mistrust toward the system I helped maintain.
I avert my gaze.
How could I even look at her when her misery is partly caused by my inability to protect this city?
The system failed her.
I failed her.
Sunny
“I’m …” He sighs and shakes his head, like he doesn’t know what to say.
Who would after listening to my words?
He sighs again like it strains him to ask me any further questions. “You targeted those men, and only those men, right?” he asks, tilting his head to look into my eyes.
I keep my mouth closed, but the stares we exchange speak volumes.
“But you weren’t done yet,” he says.
No shit, Sherlock.
I was nearly finished when he arrested me.
“I need to ask you something, Sunny. And I need you to answer truthfully for me.”
I don’t like where this is going.
“Have you ever killed an innocent person?”
I lick my lips then shake my head.
“Would you?”
What kind of question is that?
“You think I’m a serial killer,” I mutter. “You already made up your mind.”
He cups my chin, forcing me to look at him. “I want to believe you.”