A THREESOME AND TWO DEATHS
1124 Words
Adinna’s POV
“Let’s have a threesome.” Theo blurts out again for the tenth time in five months.
I stare at him, waiting for the punchline, but of course there isn’t one.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I say.
“Why do you always act like it’s the end of the world?” he shoots back. “Plenty of people do it. It’s not that deep.”
“Not that deep?” My laugh comes out bitter. “Theo, you’ve asked me ten times. Ten. Times. In five months. Does that sound normal to you?”
He throws his hands up. “All you ever do is nag about us getting a job and doing something useful. Do you know how exhausting that is to hear every single day?”
I turn on him, heat rising in my chest. “Exhausting? You want to talk about exhausting? Try working double shifts while two freeloaders sit at home brainstorming threesomes.”
“Don’t drag me into this,” Mia mutters, eyes glued to her lap.
“Oh, don’t worry, you’re already in it,” I snap. “Do you not think it’s weird? Him asking you, my friend, to crawl into bed with us like it’s some kind of group project?”
She flinches.
Theo groans. “God, you are so uptight.”
The word slices through me, because he knows I hate it. Uptight. Like my anger is an overreaction. Like the last five months don’t matter.
Five months since graduation.
Five months since I walked away from the only family I’d ever known, an adoptive home that felt more like a prison than a promise.
Five months since Theo found me again, and then Mia.
We were orphans once, surviving side by side in a crowded home with peeling paint and more rules than meals. Adoption split us apart, but we found each other again when we were older, scarred, and with stories too alike to be coincidence. All of us had been adopted into abusive homes.
So, we ran. And we swore we’d take care of each other.
Except somehow, ‘we’ became ‘me’. I’m the one keeping this roof over our heads, paying the rent, feeding us with every pay check. And now Theo dares to look me in the eye and say I’m uptight.
I grab my bag, my pulse pounding in my ears. “You know what’s actually exhausting? Keeping two grown adults alive while they disrespect me in my own house.”
Theo smirks. “Our house.”
“No,” I spit, hand tight on the doorknob. “My house. Because I’m the only one paying for it.”
The door slams behind me so hard the frame rattles.
And as I head down the stairwell toward another long shift, one truth follows me like a shadow:
If this is what freedom feels like, maybe we’re still trapped.
I make it to the bus stop in record time, rushing onto the bus before the doors can close.
The bus moves down the road, each stop swallowing another minute. The bakery’s only twenty minutes away, but every second feels like forever with Theo’s words still scraping at me. Uptight. Exhausting.
By the time I hop off, I’m ready to throw myself into work just to drown out the noise in my head. I dig through my bag for the keys but I’m met with an empty bag.
I freeze. No phone either.
I squeeze my eyes shut in realisation. In my rage, I must’ve left both on the kitchen slab.
Cursing under my breath, I spin back toward the bus stop and begin to run as fast as I can. I’m in too much of a hurry to be embarrassed about running like a lunatic down the street.
The apartment block rises in front of me and I reach the door, fumbling for the handle.
Then I heard it.
A sound filters through the wood. Low and breathy. A moan.
At first, my brain refuses to make sense of it. But then I heard Theo and Mia’s voices.
I press my ear on the door with my breath stuck in my throat.
“Theo” Mia’s voice cracks on a gasp. Then laughter, light and cruel. “If only that b***h would join in and stop being such a bitch.”
The floor seems to tilt beneath me. My hand trembles on the doorknob. Slowly, silently, I push it open.
The scene inside burns into my skull. Sheets tangled. Bare skin. Both of them frozen mid-movement, eyes snapping to me like I’m the intruder.
Theo scrambles up, pale, like he’s just seen a ghost. “Adinna” His voice cracks. “How long have you been standing there?”
“How long have you been standing there?” I repeat angrily. “Long enough to hear Mia call me a b***h. Long enough to see exactly what you think of me. Long enough to know I’ve been breaking my back to keep this roof over our heads while the two of you...” I gesture at the tangled sheets, my chest burning. “...have been busy doing this.”
Mia rolls her eyes, tossing her hair back like this is nothing. “It’s not that serious. Calm down.”
Something cracks inside me.
Theo stumbles closer, reaching for me, his voice smooth, pleading and infuriating all at once. “Babe, listen. It didn’t mean anything. You overreact to everything. We’re just experimenting. Why do you have to make everything into a war?”
Every syllable is like oil on fire. My blood surges, hotter, louder. My vision tunnels until it’s just their unrepentant faces. And then I heard it.
A voice. Cold. Sharp. Kill them.
Two words that echo in my skull, drowning whatever sense of reason I have left.
My hands clench and my breath shudders as I give in to the rage.
Heat floods my veins until it feels like my body is splitting open from the inside. The rage is too much for me to handle.
My vision fractures and darkness crashes over me.
----
When I wake, it’s to the unfamiliar weight of soft sheets under me and the muted glow of sunlight bleeding through tall curtains. My head throbs. My body feels like it’s been dragged through fire.
A voice breaks the silence.
“Thank the goddess you’re awake, Miss Malakai. You’ve been out for two days.”
I jolt upright, ignoring the way the room spins around me. My throat is dry, my voice rough.
“Where am I?”
The woman standing beside me only smiles faintly, her eyes unreadable.
“Welcome to Lunareth Academy.”
- Writer
