The night air was cold on my skin as I raced through the dark forest, my breath coming out in heavy white puffs. I ran and ran as if I could escape my demons. I was no fool. I was a demon.
I skidded to a halt at the edge of the woods and stared out at the dark, snow-covered cemetery before I made my way to the mausoleum and stared up at it, my white rabbit mask in place.
This was where Asylum took her. Where he made us players in a game where there were no real winners.
We always win.
I scoffed at the familiar voice in my head. Closing my eyes, I let my head fall back, feeling the darkness creeping around inside me.
Inside us.
Please, not now.
Why not?
Because I only want to be. . . me.
But we are we.
Let me, please. Just for. . . now. I-I want to have this. On my own. I never get to. . .
All went quiet in my head for a moment before that familiar voice came back.
Fine. Win her over. We need her.
I’m trying. It’s hard to get her alone.
Church is gone. Go to her. You know she will come to you. And for you.
I’m not doing that.
I have.
Not the way she’d have wanted.
More silence
Make a damn move, or I’m taking over.
I will. Give me time. Please.
Tick tock, little rabbit.
My head went quiet, and I opened my eyes and stared back at the moon.
I’d make a move tomorrow. Tonight was meant for the forest.
“You’re quiet,” Sin commented as we sat in the cafeteria the following day. I’d barely slept, but that was how life for me was. I’d been this way since I’d lost Sirena. Asylum bitched at me about it because it would give me dark circles around my eyes. He hated it.
Whatever. He hated a lot of things about me. The scars. The turmoil. The way I could get too violent when pushed too far. At least the depression had gotten better since Sirena came back to us.
You know I fucking love you.
I sighed, ignoring the voice, and looked across the cafeteria. I hated winters here. We were stuck inside with snow up to our backbones. The summers were short, but at least we could be outside. Seasonal depression was a real thing. I didn’t care what any of these bitch nuns argued.
Just read the Bible. It’ll cure everything.
That’s what they shoved down our throats.
I’d read the Bible. I was still sick.
“I’m tired,” I answered, wondering where the hell Sirena was. I hadn’t seen her today. I hadn’t seen the guys either, and that was unusual. I mentioned as much.
“I saw them this morning,” Sin said, picking at his French fries.
That offered me some semblance of relief. I shifted awkwardly, wishing there was a better way to carry carrots on me instead of my back pocket since sitting on them made my back hurt.
“Good.” I turned back to my food and frowned. “I don’t even think these fries are made out of potatoes. We kept one in a fish tank for two months, and it never spoiled.”
“How do you know it didn’t spoil?” Sin held a fry and looked to me. “Didn’t it get furry or some shit?”
I shrugged. “No. We ate it. Still tasted the same.”
“Fucking gross,” He shook his head. “And why was it in a fish tank?”
“Asylum. He named it Kevin.”
“You had a French fry named Kevin?”
“Asylum had a French fry named Kevin. I had a science project.”
“Fucking weirdos,” he said, going back to his plastic sticks. Er, French fries.
He wasn’t wrong.
“This sucks. Want to go do some listening?” I dropped my gross fry onto my tray.
“Listening? I don’t know if you got the memo, but I’m not psychic or whatever you are.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “I meant to see if we could hear anything about what happened to Sirena that night. Someone is bound to talk.”
Sin stiffened. He said nothing for a moment before he dropped his fry onto his tray and got to his feet. “Let’s go.”
I was quick to join him. We left the cafeteria and walked the hall in silence for several long moments. We passed a few of the wards who paid us no mind.
“What are you thinking?” he finally asked me.
“That we should talk to Danny Linley. He had a thing for her. It’s why he got his ass kicked.”
“You mean carved?” Sin raised his brows at me.
“Same thing.”
“Definitely not. Ask Andrews about that.”
“You mean Vanilla?” I chuckled at that name.
“He might be one of those quiet freaks.” He shrugged. “You know how that goes. I think of him as more of a shadow. Always around. Slinking. I’m sure he knows all sorts of Chapel Crest secrets.’
“Shadow,” I mused. “He could be a spicy little pepper. I know he wants Sirena.”
Sin let out a snort. “He had her. Clearly, that shit didn’t pan out.”
“He didn’t have her like the watchers had her. Like I had her.”
“You didn’t have her. Asylum did.”
“She was mine before anyone else’s,” I said fiercely. “Everyone who gets to hold her should be grateful I’m willing to share. Not many would be so willing to share their corpse bride.”
“Corpse bride? That’s morbid.” Sin glanced at me. “You do realize she’s alive, right?”
“She was dead to me, Sinclair. I-I thought I’d lost her forever,” I said, my heart aching with all those ugly memories I had from that time in my life. “Hearing she was alive has changed everything. And now I get to be here.”
We stopped, and he turned to face me.
“For how long?” he asked.
“Forever if I can help it.”
“And Asylum?”
I let out a soft chuckle and cocked my head to the right. “I can’t seem to shake him, but he loves her, and I do love him, so I guess that’s OK.”
Sin stared me down and looked like he was going to say something, but he narrowed his eyes and moved past me.
I turned to see what he was looking at and saw Danny Linley round the corner.
“Perfect.” I stalked forward, Sin at my side.
Danny caught sight of us and stopped in his tracks, his eyes wide as saucers.
“Hello, Danny,” I said, circling him in the opposite direction of Sin. “Just the guy we were looking for.”
“A-Asylum. I-I swear. I’ve stayed away from her. I-I jerked off to a picture of her last night, but I swear, I’ve not gone near her—”
“My name is Mirage,” I snarled in his ear. “Say it.”
“M-Mirage,” he choked out, squeezing his eyelids together.
“Now forget it,” I instructed. “Because I am he, and he is me, and we are we.”
Danny snotted and blubbered, nodding his head, his body shaking. “O-OK.”
“Prove to me you’re not the piece of shit who touched my girl in the woods,” Sin snarled out, nose to nose with Danny.
“I-I’m not. I swea-swear I’m not. I didn’t. I didn’t, Sin. Fuck, man. I didn’t.”
Sin raised his knee and connected it with Danny’s stomach, making him double over and fall to his knees.
I cocked my head to the right, watching Sin work. He was really something.
“Tell me what you know,” Sin demanded.
“I-I don’t know anything. I didn’t even know Sirena went to the woods without Ch-Church.”
Sin tangled his fingers in Danny’s greasy hair and tugged his head back.
“You swear you don’t know anything?”
Danny’s Adam’s apple bobbed, and he nodded.
“Then find out who hurt her in the woods for me. I want that fucking information.”
“W-why do you think I can get it?” Danny whimpered.
“Because you’re Danny-fucking-Linley. Your life is spent at the bottom of the fucking barrel, trying to scrape by. It’s where the monster is who touched my girl. Who hurt my siren. I want a fucking name.”
“O-OK. I-I need an incentive m-maybe. . .”
“How about this?” I asked, bending so I was eye to eye with him. “If you get us a name, the right name, I’ll not turn your trachea into my new wind instrument. How does that sound?”
“I-you’re going to kill me if I don’t get it?”
“Oh, I won’t kill you,” I said, smiling at him as I pulled the carrot out of my back pocket and bit into it before chewing slowly.
Danny’s gaze darted around, clearly terrified.
“Look at me,” I instructed.
His gaze snapped to mine, and he opened his mouth to speak, but I jammed my carrot deep into his maw, making him sputter and choke as I held it there.
“If you don’t fucking get us what we want, I’ll let Asylum out to play. You remember how fun he is, right?”
Danny let out a choked, garbling noise before I drove the carrot deeper. His face turned bright red, tears dripping down his cheeks.
I cocked my head to the right at him again and smiled.
“Do we have a deal? Blink once for yes. Twice if you’re ready to die.”
Danny blinked once and stared fiercely at me.
“Perfect.” I pulled my carrot free from his mouth. He let out a shuddering breath, coughing and wheezing roughly as I tossed the carrot to the ground. Sin released his hair, and Danny fell forward to his hands and knees, trying to suck in mouthfuls of air.
“Keep that. A token to remember this moment by.” I backed away from him, Sin coming with me. Movement caught my eye, and I swiveled my head swiftly to see a shadow dart away. With narrowed eyes, I watched the spot where I’d seen someone before I smiled.
A shadow indeed. . .
I’d give our shadow a freebie this time.
“A name, Danny,” Sin called out. “Sooner rather than later.”
Danny said nothing, but his soft cries let me know he was on the same page as us.
“Why the fuck do you carry carrots in your back pocket?” Sin asked as we walked down the hall, Danny’s whimpers fading away.
“For times such as these, Sinclair.” I gave him a megawatt smile.
He shook his head at me. “You might be crazier than Asylum.”
I smiled at that.
It wasn’t the first time I’d heard that. I doubted it would be the last.
