Chapter3:The Loose End
1004 Words
Damien
The call ended, and almost immediately I picked it.
I shoved my phone in my pocket and stood there for a second, staring at nothing.
She'll be alone. I'll make sure of it.
My own voice sounded strange to me. Flat. Like it belonged to someone else.
I looked around. The courtyard was empty. No one heard me.
Good.
I started walking back to my dorm, with my hands shoved deep in my pockets.
It's just business, I told myself.
That's what my father would say.
Marcus Black has said a lot of things over the years.
Keep your enemies close. Never let them see you sweat. And if someone is in your way, you don't move – you remove.
I used to think he was just a tough businessman. A survivor.
But now I know the truth.
He's a monster.
And he's turning me into one.
I just couldn't stop thinking about Mara.
I shouldn't. Thinking about her makes it harder.
She wasn't supposed to matter. She was just a job.
My father found out she was the real heir to the Crest board seat – the one we've been holding with forged documents for a decade. He needed someone to watch her. To keep her close. To make sure she never found out the truth.
So he sent me to do the job.
Two years ago, I was seventeen. I didn't know her. I didn't even care about her. I just did what I was told.
But then I got to know her.
She's not like the other girls at Crestwood. She doesn't have a trust fund. Not even parents who buy her way out of trouble. She has nothing, and yet she has found a way to survive in this school.
I admired that. Always.
I even wished I was her.
Now I just feel sick.
As I passed the library, I saw Lucian Vale through the window. Cold eyes. Dark hair. Sitting alone, reading something on his phone.
Lucian.
His family controls half the East Coast. My father hates him. Says he's too ambitious and too quiet.
"Watch that one," my father told me once. "He's the kind who smiles while he cuts your throat."
I don't smile much anymore.
Lucian didn't look up. He never does. He acts like no one else exists.
Maybe he's right.
I kept walking.
Near the chapel, I heard laughter. Kai Thorn, surrounded by his usual crowd. Loud. Warm. Everyone loves him.
My father's voice in my head again: "The Thorns buy loyalty. We earn it."
Do we? I wondered aloud.
Kai waved at someone. Not me, definitely. He didn't even see me.
I don't exist to him. None of us do. We're all just players on his family's broadcast network.
Whatever.
I turned the corner and saw someone else. Ezra Cross. Sitting on a bench, alone. Tattoos creeping up his neck. Reading an old book with a cracked leather cover.
Ezra never talks to anyone. His family's archive holds centuries of wolf history. My father says the Crosses are dangerous because they know where all the bodies are buried.
Literally.
Ezra looked up for half a second. Our eyes met. Then he looked back at his book.
Like I wasn't even there.
Fine by me.
I finally got to my room and closed the door, leaning against it in exhaustion.
Not tomorrow, I thought. Tomorrow, the wolf stays caged.
Tomorrow, I will stay human.
If you can call what I am right now ‘human.’
My phone buzzed. A text from my father.
Tomorrow, don't mess this up.
I just stared at the screen.
It's handled, I typed back.
Then I added:
I want out after this. After this, I can't anymore.
Three dots appeared. Then it disappeared. Then nothing.
He's not going to answer. He never does when I say things like that.
I threw my phone on the bed in frustration.
Out. Like there's a way out. Like my father would ever let me go.
Once you're a Black, you're a Black forever.
Even if you have to kill someone else to prove it.
I sat on the edge of my bed and put my head in my hands.
I lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling, as I thought about tonight.
The way Mara looked at me when she walked in. Suspicious. Hurt. Like she already knew something was wrong.
The way her body responded when I touched her. Even when her mind was pulling away, her body stayed.
She felt it too. The distance. The lie.
But she stayed anyway.
Why?
Because she's loyal. Because she doesn't give up on people. Because she's everything I'm not.
I remembered the first time I saw her. Two years ago. She was running on the track at dawn. Alone. No coach. No fans. Just her and the dirt and the rising sun.
She ran like she was trying to escape something.
I know that feeling now.
I closed my eyes.
Her face floated behind my lids. Not smiling. Just looking at me. Waiting for me to be honest.
I can't be honest, I thought. Honesty would destroy us both.
My father's voice again: "You're soft."
Maybe I am.
Maybe that's why this feels like dying.
I grabbed my phone off the floor. No new messages.
I typed something to Mara. You okay? Then deleted it.
Goodnight. Deleted.
I'm sorry. Deleted.
I threw the phone on the bed again.
“Coward”, I thought.
You're a coward, Damien Black.
I rolled onto my side and pulled the blanket over my shoulder.
Tomorrow is the track meet. Her biggest day. The one she's been training for her whole life.
She'll run, and I know she'll win and be happy.
And I'll be standing there, watching from a distance, pretending I don't know what's about to happen, when I literally handed her over to ona platter.
What kind of man betrays the woman he loves, on her special day?
- Writer
