She did everything she could to avoid me. To escape, hide, and prevent me from winning. I should compliment her on her hard work, but I won’t. I like watching her squirm.
I glare down at her as I step further into the small room, forcing her to stand and step back to avoid me touching her. She hates showing defeat, but she hates me touching her more.
“What do you want, Langston? I’m tired of our game.” Her eyes drag up my body in my dark jeans and a fitted gray shirt.
“Really? Then why did you run? You know the only way to end our game is to finish it. Declare a winner once and for all. But we can’t finish the game if we keep avoiding each other.”
She shakes her head as the corner of her lip rises into a smirk. “You have no idea what finishing the game means.”
“Maybe. Or maybe I know more than you could imagine.” We talk in circles, neither of us speaking the truth. Neither of us showing the other our cards. Neither of us showing the other the final move we need to make to win.
“You owe me a debt, my huntress.”
“I already offered to pay you for that debt, even though you don’t deserve it. The arrangement was that I would kill the man, you would just be present to give me plausible deniability.” She pauses for effect. “Instead, you murdered him.”
I pet my chin, staring at her, as she continues to pout and throw a mini tantrum, reneging on our agreement. She’s forgotten our deal. One we made a long time ago.
“Are you finished?” I ask.
She folds her arms over her chest in a huff. “No, but I’m sure you’re going to interrupt me to spew your lies.”
“No, I’m going to interrupt you to remind you of an agreement we made a long time ago.”
Her wheels start turning as I speak. “We were five when we made that deal! You can’t hold me to that now.”
“We’ve kept every other promise we’ve made. We lie, but we keep our promises.”
She rolls her eyes. “I promised to hunt. You promised to kill for me. And if either of us failed, then—“
“Then, we owed the other anything we wanted—and I want you.”
You might think the promise was something silly little kids promise each other—like play getting married or promising to never give each other cooties.
That might be what it was for Liesel. She hunted down a spider in her room, but couldn’t go through with killing it. So she called me. I promised to always kill for her. She promised to hunt down any creature.
It may have started as innocent kids making silly promises. But for me, it was so much more. We promised each other a life if we failed. And we’ve both failed more times than we can count.
I’m ready for my life.
I’m ready to end this.
I’m ready to learn her truths while keeping my lies.
I’m ready to win and take the truth of that moment, along with hundreds of others to my grave.
Liesel will never know my truth, but before the end of this year, I’ll learn hers.
I watch Liesel closely as she realizes what’s happening.
“You’re really going to use a promise that we made when we were kids to get me to go with you? To take me as your prisoner? To convince me to follow you? To become your slave? To let you own me?” Her voice gets louder with each question.
I’m silent.
She knows I’ll use whatever I can against her to get her to come with me. She can either come willingly, or I’ll take her. She can’t keep running and hiding.
Her chest rises and falls quickly under her stained sweatshirt. She’s considering her options and realizes she has none. She needs answers as much as I do.
We both need answers.
We both need truths.
We need to continue to hide behind our lies until the bitter end.
What happened that day when we were five changed the course of both of our lives and led us here.
“What will it be, Liesel? Will you come with me willingly, or will I take what is owed to me?”
She shakes her head slowly. “You evil bastard. You have no right to take me. I’m not yours. I’m not your property!”
“I’ll take that as a no, you won’t come willingly.”
“I will fight tooth and nail. And I will never stop fighting. You know my past. You know the pain I’ve endured. You will never break me. You will never get any truths from me.”
“I know.”
“Then what do you want with me? My body? To fuck me every night like your whore?”
I’m silent.
“You want my money? My power? My name?”
I don’t answer her. I let her throw her theories out. I let her spill her lies. I let her expel her anger out. Better to get it out now than later.
“What do you want with me?” she yells.
I step closer, and to my surprise, this time, she doesn’t back away. She’s done running. She’s ready to fight. I’m prepared for her to draw a knife, a gun, even blow up the entire house with both of us in it if she has to. I knew she would fight when she was done running. It’s exactly what I want.
I grab her wrist and yank her to me until my breath is just above her mouth. I pause, lingering for my words to make the most impact.
“I want the same thing I’ve always wanted—I want to know what was on your half of the paper. I want to know the truth, not the lies. I want the treasure that secret leads to. I want to take everything from you. I want the truth, Liesel, and I don’t care what I have to do to get it.”
“Why do you want the treasure? You have more money than you could possibly ever need.”
“To ruin you.” Like you ruined me.
“You won’t kill me,” she says, her voice shaking, not sure if her words are true or more lies.
“If killing you gets me the secret, I will.”
Then I shove a sleeping pill into her parted lips and cover her nose and mouth with my hand.
She struggles for a moment as she backs into the corner of the wall. Her eyes go big, and the veins in her eyes turn bright red as she struggles for breath but still refuses to swallow the pill.
“I’m crueler than you’ll ever be, Liesel. You don’t know how far I’ll go. You may think what I did to Siren was savage, but it is nothing compared to what I will do to you.”
She stops fighting as more oxygen leaves her body. Soon she won’t have a choice but to surrender.
She closes her eyes hard and then opens them defiantly before finally swallowing. I may win this round, but she thinks she’s only allowing me so she can fight another day. So tomorrow she can slice my balls clean from my body.
I kiss her neck, thanking her for swallowing the pill that will soon knock her unconscious.
“I can’t wait for you to fight back, Liesel. I’m going to enjoy every second of it. But for now—sleep. Tomorrow you can fight.”
I remove my hand, and she gets one solid breath in before she collapses. I catch her in my arms, finally having a moment to really study her. To hold her close. To revel in the fact that she’s finally mine.
Mine—if only that were true.
13
Liesel
Life or death.
How much does Langston know?