Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 73423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73423 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 367(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
All because I was taken off the streets and turned into a fighting machine to please whatever man would call himself my owner.
Could it all come to an end today?
The mere thought makes me acutely aware of the gun that’s pressed into my hand, and I look down to stare at it, to feel the weight of it shift between my fingers.
“Kill him,” my owner says through gritted teeth.
“No!” Aurora screams, but I barely register it.
All I can focus on is that one word.
The word that was promised to me if I did as I was told and completed all my tasks.
Freedom. Freedom. Freedom.
The only thing I’ve wanted. The only thing I’ve craved for so many goddamn years.
Right within my fingertips.
“Go on then,” the guard growls at me.
Instinctively, my feet move toward the guy in the chair. His face is sweaty, and his thick body is covered in blood. He’s muttering words I don’t understand, but he panics once I’m in front of him and place the gun to his head.
“You don’t have to do this, boy. You can still be free. If you help me, I’ll help you,” he says in an erratic tone.
“Please, don’t do this, Beast,” Aurora’s voice makes me turn my head. “He’s the only family I have left. Don’t take him from me.”
Her words make it harder and harder to shove the gun into his head.
But I have to. If I don’t, my owner will hurt me. And I will never be given the freedom I so desperately crave.
“Shut up, girl!” the guard growls at her, and he puts a hand over her mouth.
“Pwease!” Aurora still mumbles through his hand.
“Ignore her, Beast,” my owner says as he hovers close by, his voice laced with poison. “Do what you were born to do. Kill.”
Kill. Kill. Kill.
Everything I’ve ever known.
All that’s ever mattered.
Until … her.
My head still turns as I look at the girl I once thought was a nuisance, a sidestep in my mission. The pain in her eyes causes such a visceral reaction in my body that I struggle to even breathe.
“You want her?” Blom suddenly says, drawing my attention back to him. “You can have her if you save me.”
“Shut up, you fucking fool,” my owner spits. “Do it. Kill him now, Beast!”
But my eyes are glued to Blom as I push the safety off the gun.
Time seems to last an infinity right now as I’m faced with my options.
Kill for freedom and destroy her forever.
Or …
“She’s yours, I swear,” Blom splutters, droplets of blood spilling from his mouth as he speaks. “I don’t even want her. I never did.”
His words make my eyes widen and my heart pulse in my throat.
“All my problems are because of her,” he says through gritted teeth. “She killed my wife, the only woman I ever loved, just by being born. She’s a monster.”
Aurora
What?
I blink through the tears, staring at my father, wondering if I really heard that.
I don’t even want her. I never did.
His words repeat over and over again in my head like a never-ending stream of hatred all directed at me.
I killed his wife.
My mother.
Just by being born.
I’ve always known it was my fault. I got stuck inside her and she bled to death.
Never once have I stopped feeling guilty because of it.
But I thought Papa loved me, and that pulled me through all these years.
Until now.
Until he uttered those words.
I don’t even want her. I never did.
She’s a monster.
“Papa,” I murmur, my voice tiny like that of a bug.
My heart feels like it’s been ripped out of my chest and stomped on.
Like I’ve been cast aside.
Made worthless.
Like the monster I was born into.
“What? Don’t act like you didn’t know,” my father shouts, his face all red. “Pretending to be all happy with those gloves.”
I stare at my hands, at the three deformed fingers, remembering how dutifully I covered them each and every time I went anywhere outside because he told me to. Because he made me promise to wear those gloves.
More tears form in my eyes. I shake my head, not wanting to face my own destruction, but a guard holds me back from turning around. All eyes are on me. Even my father’s, whose eyes show no mercy. Not a single ounce.
Beast’s gun pushes into my father’s forehead, his face contorting. “You …”
My father closes his eyes, scrunching up his face like he’s expecting the bullet any second now. But I only feel numb to the core.
Beast
This motherfucker dared to tell me, to tell her, that she wasn’t wanted.
I’ve never wanted to kill a man more in my life.
My fingers push against the trigger, desperate to pull it.
One shot, that’s all I’d need. One shot to end it all.
End my captivity.
End her suffering.
I swallow and gaze at her over my shoulder, but the tears running down her cheeks and the distraught look on her face still catch me off guard. I never expected I’d grow to care so much about another human being.