Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 45548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 228(@200wpm)___ 182(@250wpm)___ 152(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 228(@200wpm)___ 182(@250wpm)___ 152(@300wpm)
Come to think of it, I don’t think she’d been back home since then except for the odd holiday here and there over the years. I’ll have to go back through my notes and see if I’d missed something, but I don’t see how, since I’d ate, slept and lived in her damn life almost everyday of the five years I’d been locked away.
Nah it wasn’t that. I’d noticed the change in her from the beginning, when she first went off to college. Her updates were always the same mundane shit. No keggers, no all night parties, none of the shit you’d expect of a normal college kid away from home for the first time. Especially in a big city like the one she’d gone to. A waste of a good college experience if you ask me. But I guess if you have the life of another human being on your conscience it was kind of hard to yak it up. Not that I thought she gave a fuck.
I took one last look at the monitor before heading for the backdoor. There was no racing pulse, no sudden jolt of conscience, no second-guessing myself. In fact I wasn’t even angry when I made my way to the wall that separated our houses and scaled it before making my way to her door. Nope, I was focused as fuck and ready for this little meet that was a long time coming. At least for me it was.
I could hear her moving around as I rang the bell. I looked down at my tank and sweats, my arms covered in tats, my head still shaved really close and knew if the kill lights in my eyes weren’t on dim I’d scare the fuck out of her before I made it past the door. I didn’t want that, I wanted her at ease. It’s the only way to draw her into my web.
Her soft reply of ‘coming’ set my heart to racing a bit, but I was sure it had nothing to do with seeing her again in the flesh after all this time and more to do with what was about to transpire in the next few minutes. It was the beginning of my well thought out plan for the destruction of her life. It couldn’t happen to a better person if you ask me.
Like most small town denizens she didn’t even bother asking who it was before unlocking the door and pulling it open. I almost felt sorry for her naivety but that shit died a quick death. Her ass wasn’t that naïve five years ago; she could deal. I braced myself for what I have no fucking idea, but it was a good thing I did. Damn she’s gorgeous. Almost too pretty to destroy. Whatever!
Her eyes widened when she saw me standing there. “Todd…” I didn’t let her get the words out, just pushed her back into the house and closed the door behind me. “Hello Mallory long time no see.” She stepped back and all the color drained from her face. Her hand went to her throat as she searched my face. I gave her enough time to see what lived there behind my eyes and saw realization sink in.
“Don’t be afraid I’m not here to hurt you; let’s talk.” She fought for words and the smell of her fear was heavy in the air. I didn’t miss the slight tremble in her arms as she watched me as if expecting me to pounce. I made my way to the table and sat down like I’d been there a thousand times.
“Aren’t you going to offer me something to drink?” I stretched my legs out in front of me and stared her down, knowing that for once I had the upper hand and that shit felt good.
“I…sure, of course, what would you like?”
“Nothing I’m good. Why don’t you have a seat?” I indicated the chair across from me with my chin and she walked on wobbling knees and fell into the seat like she had the weight of the world on her shoulders.
Neither of us spoke for the longest time. I stared and she did everything she could to avoid looking at me. “So, how are you?” Her reaction would lead one to believe that I’d pulled a gun and held it to her head the way her body jerked and her fight or flight kicked in. I kept my tone deceptively mild and my pose as nonthreatening as I could muster under the circumstances. I hadn’t expected the blind rage that I felt even now.
I’d half convinced myself that I was over the raw anger but apparently just the sight of her was enough to awaken the beast. Before she fucked my life I was a different man. There were certain things in life, certain lines that I dared not cross. Five years in jail had erased them all. I had no filter left and what little humanity war and bullshit had left me had been wiped out between those four tiny walls that had been my home for the last little while. She’s fucked.