Twisted Love: A Dark Romance

by CM Wondrak

  God, I fucking loved how easy it was to read people like this.

  Putting the gun in the waistband of my pants, I headed down the stairs and went to the boy’s room. I didn’t bother going through his things; the less I touched, the better, especially here. I sat on the side of his bed, leaning forward, resting my forearms on my knees as I waited.

  I waited and waited, and then I waited some more. By the time I heard something downstairs, it was damn near eleven o’clock, which was way later than he’d ever stayed at Tenley’s house these past few nights.

  He was getting too familiar with her. Too at ease with her. I didn’t like it, and I was about to make sure he would never make that mistake again.

  This was stupid. Someone might see my car. A cop might drive by and give it a ticket, but I didn’t care. All that talk of me being careful, of me not doing anything that might put myself back behind bars, and it was thrown out of the window when I saw that boy with my girl. If there was one thing I did, it was protect what was mine, and I would rather die before letting someone like Kyle get close to Tenley.

  She was mine. She was mine in every way, and before he breathed his last breath, I would make sure he knew it.

  When I heard sounds of someone downstairs, I got off the bed and moved behind the door. The door hung open, so whoever walked into the room wouldn’t see me. I breathed slowly, evenly, my body itching for a fight.

  It was wrong, I knew, to look forward to doing something like this. It’d been so long, so fucking long, and yet the stone-cold morality I held was the same. Kyle was not the first. My first had been ten years ago, though I guess I’d done a better job at that than anything else, since they didn’t pin those on me.

  A lack of evidence was a wonderful thing.

  If everyone looked forward to killing, if everyone got off on it, society would crumble. Still, there were those of us who were more than willing to do it, and to grin while doing it. Society could take the man from the crime and lock him up, but it could never take the crime from the man. It was always inside, the hatred, the yearning, the lust for violence and absolute control. Always there, just waiting for the day it was needed again.

  And tonight? Tonight it was needed. Tonight I would make my move.

  I heard footsteps coming up the stairwell, and I held my breath, wondering if Tenley would know this was me. I hoped she would. She’d told me she was my good girl, but she’d lied. She was acting out, trying to get me to punish her—and I would, but first… first Kyle would be punished.

  Kyle walked into his room, flicking on the light. I heard him sigh as he went to drop his bag near his bed. I kept behind the door, my fingers itching to get around his neck and squeeze, but I held back as he walked out and went across the hall to the bathroom.

  He wasn’t gone for too long, which was good. If he had decided to jerk himself off in the bathroom while thinking of Tenley—because who the hell else would he think of after spending hours with her—I would cut off his fucking balls and force feed them to him.

  When he reappeared, I took charge. As the boy walked to his dresser to pull out a change of clothes, I shut the door and locked it, making enough noise to get him to spin around with a confused, surprised look on his face.

  “What…” He saw that I had a mask on, and it was quick: he thought he knew who I was, and he started to look around for a weapon or something he could use against me. A mere robber, a thief who’d come to a nice house in the neighborhood to get some shit.

  Oh, how wrong Kyle was in his assumption. I didn’t care about stealing anything from this house. The only thing I wanted to do was end the pitiful boy before me and make him regret ever laying eyes on my girl.

  Kyle’s eyes landed on the trophies lining his dresser, and I cocked my head slowly, waiting for him to make a move. I was perched and ready to make mine, but we could have a little fun, first.

  He darted for the nearest trophy, a tall, hideous, golden thing, and he bum-rushed me, swinging all the while, as if the fool thought he could really outmaneuver me, or even beat me up with that pathetic trophy. He couldn’t. There was only one outcome tonight, and that was Kyle meeting his maker.

  Me.

  I was his end. I was his glorious, bloody end. The last thing he’d see before he died would be my black, soulless eyes staring down at him.

  Stepping to the side, I grabbed the wrist that held onto the trophy, meeting his assault head-on. He was strong, I’d give him that. He had muscles, but I had experience. He was caught off-guard by me and my presence, while I had been waiting for him for what felt like an eternity. I was taller, thicker, stronger. I was the beast and he was seconds from getting my horns.

  I’d had ten years behind bars. Ten fucking years. There wasn’t much to do besides workout and count down the days to my release.

  Kyle tried to punch me with his other hand, since his trophy-holding one was currently immobilized by my grip, but I caught his fist with my other hand, grinning at him beneath the mask. Kyle’s eyes widened, and I whipped my top half forward as I pulled his arms apart and dragged him closer, giving him the hardest headbutt I could.

  It was enough to daze him, and he fell back to the floor, only after I let his wrists go. He dropped the trophy, reaching up to his head and wincing, his pain evident. Me? I hardly felt a fucking thing as I stared down at him and kicked the trophy away.

  No, wait. I take that back. I did feel something.

  Thrilled.

  Thrilled to finally get this pathetic boy out of the picture forever. Ecstatic to remind Tenley that she was mine and she would never belong to anyone else, not as long as I still drew breath. A smug satisfaction knowing Kyle would meet his end tonight.

  Before he could get up, I lowered myself down, setting a knee in the center of his chest and pushing against it hard. He tried to fight back, but I reached behind me and pulled out his daddy’s gun, and he stopped instantly, eyes practically bugging out of his head.

  “Yeah,” I growled out, flashing the steel at him, “you know what this is, don’t you?” I moved the barrel of the gun towards his face, holding the cold steel against his skin.

  “Just—just take whatever you want, okay?” Kyle’s words stumbled over each other, and he stopped thrashing about, knowing it’d be as easy for me as pulling the trigger and letting a bullet soar. He knew now there was no winning in this fight. Not for him.

  I pressed it hard against his forehead, taking a hand to his neck. I didn’t squeeze, not yet, but I wanted to. “I’m not here to steal from you,” I spat out, still grinning wickedly like a madman. The excitement of the hunt, there really was nothing like it. All of this… all of this was for Tenley.

  His blonde brows furrowed, and he managed to say, “Then what do you want?”

  What did I want? Such a good question, for there were both so many answers to it and yet just one. One thing that I wanted above all else, and that was total control and domination, absolute ownership of the girl I’d known would be mine from the beginning.

  “Tenley,” I said, figuring there was no point in hiding the truth from him. He might as well know that she was mine. It wasn’t like he would live long enough to tell anyone else.

  That wasn’t what he was expecting, clearly, for he stuttered out, “What?”

  “That girl is mine, you ignorant fuck,” I hissed, kneeling on his heart a bit harder and causing him to grimace. “Now, tell me, Kyle—” Fear flashed across his features when I used his name, as if, suddenly, he was now realizing just how serious this was. “—are you right or left handed?” I’d wanted to strangle him, but that would make things too obvious; however, another idea had come to me.

  When Kyle didn’t answer, I thought back to how he’d held onto the trophy, when he’d first tried to come at me to overpower me.

  “You know what? Never mind, I got this,” I said, squeezing his throat with my free hand. I moved my knee up, keeping the pressure on his torso with my legs as I replaced the hand around
his throat with that same knee, keeping his head up.

  My movements were mechanical after that. I grabbed his right hand—the same hand that had held the trophy—and forced his fingers to curl around the handle of the gun, shoved his index finger around the trigger, never once letting him turn the gun toward me. No, I kept that fucker pointed at his head all the while.

  Kyle knew what I was doing, and that’s why he stared up at me with sheer fright, terror in his eyes. His whole body shook beneath me, but I didn’t let his fear stop me. I couldn’t. He had to pay for what he did, for even looking at Tenley, and I was not the type of man who forgave and forgot another’s sin, especially when that sin was against me and mine.

  “Goodbye, Kyle,” I whispered, pulling my knee off his throat and letting him sit up a bit before forcing his hand to pull the trigger.

  It was loud, and it was glorious. Kyle’s body spasmed after the bullet went into his skull, and I was quick to get off him before his body relieved itself as corpses often did. Blood splattered across the carpet, some of it getting on his bed. A bit had gotten on me, so I had to get out of here, get rid of these clothes.

  Before hightailing it out of there, I took a moment to enjoy my handiwork, staring down at the lifeless body lying on the floor, the gun still in his hand, his arm contorted and his eyes glazed over, still half-open. Blood oozed from the holes in his skull, brain matter that was more thick rather than liquid-y. A sight of pure gore, his jeans wet with piss.

  A pity. He could still be alive if he had steered clear of Tenley. Alas, it was a mistake he would not make again.

  I turned around, leaving the room and heading down the stairs. I could not fight the feeling inside of me as I hurriedly left the house the way I came in, leaving everything the way I found it. When I got back to my car, I saw no ticket stubs on it, meaning no cops had pulled around and written one for me, so that was an added plus.

  The biggest thing, though, was that Kyle was no more. No longer in the picture. Once again, it was just Tenley and me, the way it always should be, the way it always had been meant to be.

  As I drove home, I wanted to call her. I wanted to hear her voice and imagine her face when I told her that Kyle was no more, but I kept myself from doing it. No, no more rash actions. Everything I did after this would be calculated, well-planned and rehearsed in my head over and over.

  I did know one thing for sure, though. Time was ticking, and soon enough I would gaze upon Tenley in her full glory.

  Chapter Ten – Tenley

  I was woken up early the next day by my phone. It would not stop buzzing, and my heart leaped in my chest at the thought that it was my stranger, that he’d finally decided to call after so many days of utter silence. I’d thought having Kyle come over day after day would instill an urgency in him, but maybe I’d been wrong.

  The hope budding in my chest was dashed when I saw it was only Aubree.

  Aubree calling me this early on a Friday? That wasn’t right. Ugh. I did not feel like talking to her right now, so I put my phone on mute and went back to bed. Still had forty-five minutes or so before I had to wake up and be out the door with Kayla for school.

  Little did I know the reason behind her call, but in an hour, when I walked through the doors to the high school, I heard what happened. Nothing but bits and pieces as I walked to my locker, but as it never failed, Aubree was there, waiting for me… and she wore an expression I’d never seen on her before. She was freaked out, shocked, and even a bit sad.

  “Why didn’t you pick up your phone? Did you get my calls? What about my texts?” Aubree looked like she’d been awake for too long, and that she didn’t shower this morning, for her brown hair was nearly black with grease. She looked awful, and the clothes she’d picked out for today… it looked like she literally rolled out of bed and came in.

  Not that I could blame her, because I never got ready for school like the majority of the others did, but still.

  “Sorry, you know I’m not a morning person,” I told her, shrugging. Her phone calls had turned into texts, texts of which I didn’t see because I’d kept my phone on silent, not wanting to talk to her. Not a good thing for a friend to do, but like I said, I wasn’t very good at being a friend, anyway.

  “You haven’t heard, then?” Aubree’s voice came out trembling, and I stopped fidgeting in my locker and turned to stare at her, giving her my full attention. Around us, the air in the halls was heavy, the other students not loud like they normally were. Not excited to see their friends or even that today was Friday.

  In fact, everyone sounded rather quiet, like we were in the library or something.

  “Heard what?” I hated that I had to drag it out of Aubree. I supposed I could’ve just pulled out my phone and read her texts, but that seemed a little rude, since she stood next to me, ready and willing to tell me whatever it was that had caused everyone to act so weird.

  Fridays were normally a happy occasion, at least for everyone else. Today… today felt different, and I had no idea why.

  The words came out in a hurry, “Kyle’s dead.”

  I stared at her, waiting for her to say she was joking or something, but she didn’t say anything else. She just stared at me with big, wide eyes, wordlessly asking me why. I had no idea, though. I didn’t know Kyle was dead… not until now.

  “But he was just over last night,” I said, an uneasy feeling in my gut. It was hard to process; that’s why Banner High felt different this morning. Everyone was trying to process the fact that Kyle Sturgis was dead. “How? How did he die? What happened?” I didn’t so much care about why he was dead rather than how it happened.

  Was it an accident, or was it something more? Did my stranger do this?

  “I don’t know,” she said. “All I know is that it was on the news this morning, and that police are investigating. My parents told me.” Aubree shook her head. “He was fine when he left your house?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, he was fine.”

  It must not have been what she wanted to hear, for her shoulders slumped, and she walked away without saying anything else. I watched her go, wondering what I could’ve said differently, how to make her feel better. I was no good at comfort, and while it was true I’d experienced loss before, I didn’t really remember it. It wasn’t like I remembered losing my parents, so grief was as foreign to me as something could be.

  I got my stuff ready for first period, heading to class. I kept my head down, lost in my own thoughts. What would I do if Kyle was dead because of the stranger? In a way, then Kyle’s death was my fault—but that was trying to connect dots that might not even be related. The truth was, I didn’t know what happened to Kyle. Maybe he’d gotten into a car accident and died on the drive home. People died in accidents all the time.

  The day started just like any other, but everything was a little off. News traveled fast here; it wasn’t often a student died. In fact, in the last four years, I couldn’t remember Banner High losing anyone. You heard about those students who’d lost a parent to cancer or something, but never a student.

  I didn’t know how I should feel. It was true I’d only been having Kyle over so much to use him to get my stranger to act, but if this was indeed all because of me… I should feel guilty. I should feel responsible. I should go to the authorities and turn my stranger in. It wasn’t like I had much to go on, only a restricted number and the fact that he kept calling me.

  But… to turn him in—I didn’t know if I could do that. I didn’t know if I could tell someone else about him, because then he wouldn’t be mine. He would be under investigation, whoever he was, and I didn’t know if that was something I wanted to put on him.

  I didn’t know who he was, but I did know I wanted him all to myself.

  Second period rolled around, and it was before the bell rang that the teacher got a call from the office. Mr. Hanover was an older gentleman who loved history, and even though he could retire, he refused to. Sometimes he wore the same pants to school ever
y day for the whole week. Anyone with eyes would know they were the same pair of pants due to the giant stain on the right leg, but that was beside the point.

  The point was, after the call, Mr. Hanover looked squarely at me and said I was needed in the front office, which was weird, because I’d never been called to the office before.

  Shit.

  I didn’t know whether to leave my stuff or not, but I ended up leaving my books on my desk, figuring whatever it was couldn’t take the next hour. Of course, I had no idea what I was about to walk into, so there was that. My heart hammered in my chest in the worst way as my feet took me out into the hall the very same moment the bell rang.

  The halls were empty, not another soul in sight, which made the walk to the office a very lonely one. A lonely and nerve-wracking one.

  The moment I pushed into the front office, I was greeted by the school secretary. I’d never had to deal with her, so I wasn’t sure what her name was. She immediately jumped up from her seat and hustled around the corner, coming back with the principal, Mr. Peele.

  Mr. Peele had been the principal for the last three years, and before that, he was the vice principal. A man of his fifties, with a beer belly to match. He always wore shades of brown or tan, along with a combover of his thinning hair that just looked ridiculous.

  “Miss Goddard,” Mr. Peele spoke, forcing out a smile that even I knew was fake. “There are some men here who want to ask you a few questions, if that’s all right.” The way he said it, I knew he wasn’t telling me the whole truth. After all, who had the authority to walk into this school and pull me out of class like this? Not just any old Joe off the street.

  All I could do was nod and walk with Mr. Peele around the secretary’s desk, through the back hall and to his office, where two men in uniforms stood. One stood near the windows, his hands held behind his back, while the other leaned on one of the many bookcases lining the walls. Mr. Peele let me enter his office first, and then he stood by the door, blocking my only exit.