I was no longer sure this was what other human beings were meant to do. Lily said it was wrong when I finally confided in her. I don’t know why I told her about the things they took me to do. After a month of not being able to shake her, she became someone to talk to, and when she still wouldn’t give in, and do what they wanted, she became someone to protect.

Lily.

I let my mind wander to her and all the good she was teaching me. She told me about home, she told me about her parents, her dog, and even her older brother, Keiran. I wished secretly that one day I could be Keiran. Someone with a family, home, and even a school to go to.

Finally, the man died with what might have been a gut-wrenching scream. His gag saved me from having to endure the sound of his life fading away, but somehow, the effect was just the same.

I stopped driving the knife into his lifeless body and desperately swallowed back the need to empty my stomach.

He was the fourth man I killed today, and when I looked around the room to see the other bodies, I knew he wouldn’t be the last.

Chapter Twelve

Lake

The tapping at my window started off as a figment of my dreams. A dream I didn’t want to wake up from so imagine my irritation when the tapping continued followed by the melodious chiming and buzz of my cell phone. Fantasy and sleep faded away to the less appealing reality of being woken in the dead of the night.

If it carried on much longer, my aunt would wake up, and then I would have to spend the rest of my night explaining to her why there was a teenage boy throwing rocks at my window.

I knew without answering the call that it was Keiran. He was the only one who dared to go against his own rule to pursue me.

“This is getting really old, you know. You can’t just pop up and worm your way inside my house whenever you feel like it,” I grumbled to myself, knowing he couldn’t hear me.

I stomped to the window, my bare toes gripping the plush carpet, muffling the sound of my anger. Frost covered the window from the cold night air, and when my fingers gripped the window to pull it open, it was a little more forceful than necessary.

“You’re kidding me, right?” His face and body were partially obscured by the night shadows. Even so, I could make out the dark hoodie he wore, the hood pulled over his head with the shiny locks of his dark hair peeking out.

“Did I wake you?”

“It’s three in the morning, Keiran. Care to take a guess?”

A boyish grin tugged at the corner of his lips. “I never took you for a cranky sleeper.”

“What are you doing here?”

He shrugged carelessly and looked away before meeting my eyes once again. “I wish I knew,” he finally answered and scratched at the stubble on his chin. I loved the light spattering of facial hair on him. It was a glimpse of the man he would one day become. A shiver worked its way through my body at the thought of an even more powerful Keiran.

“You obviously came for something or else you’re just a creeper.”

He snapped back his hood and narrowed his eyes, anger gleaming from his stormy gray orbs.

“Are you going to let me in?” he asked impatiently.

“I wasn’t planning to,” I answered back sweetly and twirled my hair around my finger for further insult.

He nodded once, and when a smirk appeared, my hand dropped apprehensively. “Baby, I’m getting in there one way or another. So you can either let me walk through the front door like a good girl, or I can make a lot of noise climbing through the window. Then I’ll watch you explain to Auntie dearest why I’m in your bedroom at three in the morning… especially if you were caught in a rather compromising position.” The smile that lit up his face was charming and playful, but the message in his eyes was anything but.

“I could call the cops.”

“And what will you do when I’m out again and standing on your front doorstep? Are you prepared to pay the consequences?”

“Stop trying to mind fuck me,” I spat.

“It’s not your mind I’m interested in fucking.”

“At last… the real reason you decided to look like an idiot in the middle of the night. Goodnight, Keiran.” I gripped and slammed the window shut before he could say anything more. Already, I felt myself caving under the powerful spell of his possession.

I slipped back inside my covers, closed my eyes, and pretended the complicated, emotionally wrecked boy standing outside in the dark didn’t occupy all my attention. We both knew what would happen if I let him inside. It was likely the same potent pull that always tugged at my heartstrings that led him here.

The sound of my phone chiming broke the silence. I knew it was him without having to look. Unfortunately, curiosity won the brutal fight over my resolve, and I checked the message:

Remember it was your choice.

Just as I read the last word, a hard noise sounded from outside my window. I was out of bed and down the stairs in no time, all the while praying my aunt didn’t wake up. A feeling akin to rage bubbled up inside me and took over my train of thought.

He was trying to get in.

What if he changed his mind and wanted to retaliate?

To hurt my aunt.

I foolishly believed in the justice system, thinking that finally Keiran would finally be the one caught in a corner with no way out.

The door opened wide under the force of my anger, and I was met with the smug face of Keiran on the doorstep before I could step outside.

“I—you were—”

“I told you I would get you to let me in.”