Crimson Vows

Chapter 1: The Hunt

Leana never meant to fall in love with a murderer. Until now, she didn't even know that was what he was.

He was a monster.

Not the kind that hid under the bed as a child or the type that you would think to find in dark corners of the house, but the type of monster that you truly fear. The type of monster that is so threatening to your own life that you spend it trying to pretend that he doesn't exist. Deep down you know the truth. He is lurking in the shadows, waiting for his chance to attack.

And yet, she looked into his eyes and saw someone else. She saw someone who she truly loved. She wished to do as he pleased. Maybe the monsters that she had been scared of weren't actually scary at all. Maybe they were just like him. Maybe she wasn't so different either.

There was a special glimmer in his eyes. It was the type of glimmer that other people would find threatening, but to her, it sparked excitement. It sparked a special type of joy and thrill that nothing in this life could ever give her. She had been searching for it her whole life. She was sick of the mundane acts that she was subjected to day in, and day out. She wanted excitement. She wanted him.

"If you want to be together, you must kill them." Mack explained, slow and drawn out in a way that would cause others to run. "That is the only way that we can ever be together."

Her heart hurt. His words penetrated her as if his fist had just gone through her chest cavity. She had seen it before. She had seen him rip out the insides of another human being, like an animal over his prey. She had seen him celebrate his kill.

How is it possible to love someone and fear them at the same time?

Part of her was terrified. She was terrified of looking her family in their faces as she did the same to them as she had seen him do to others. But part of it excited her. He was teaching her to hunt--to enjoy her kill. To relish in the feeling of the blood dripping down her hands and grazing her elbows. He was teaching her the ways of a killer.

Chapter 2: The Kill

She looked each family member in the face that night while sitting down at the table. She scanned her eyes across the table, back and forth, memorizing all of their faces. She wanted to remember the way that her father's eyebrow twitched when her mother said something slightly uncomfortable and the way that her mother would touch her father's arm while she was talking, like it was a blanket of false security.

The knife was cold pressed up against her skin. The skin on her legs felt like it was dancing with excitement, matching the rhythm of her heart beating in her chest.

Mack sat in the chair next to her. She looked at his eyes. They were darting back and forth just as hers once were. She saw the fear in his eyes. The fear that maybe this would not go as planned. That the tasks on the list would not get checked off and he would not get what he wanted.

She waited for her family to take a bite of their food.

This was the plan. She thought silently to herself. It was a checklist. She must check all of the boxes to be free.

First it was her father. She watched the way that the knife cut clean across his skin. She watched as the blood poured out of him as if it was a cup overflowing. His blood spilled onto the floor as his gaze was kept with hers. She watched as the fear infiltrated his pupils. She was not weak like him.

Next it was her mother's turn. Her mother tried to run, but there was no point. The monster was already inside of her home and there was no way to rid the household of it. Her mother screamed as the blade of the knife penetrated her chest. The blood of her father and mother mixing together. She was not afraid like her mother.

Chapter 3: The Aftermath

"Good," Mack admired her work.

"My job here is to please you," Leana replied. "I did what I must."

"There is only one more step and we can be together," Mack stated, his words were cold and emotionless. "You must submit to me."

Mack's hands wrapped around Leana's neck. She pushed the fear away from her. She refused to be weak. She refused to be afraid.

"Do what you must," she managed to whisper.

Her mind was ready to submit, but her body was not. Her limbs formed minds of their own and just as the blade she had killed her family with was about to slip from her grasp, her fingers tightened as she slid the blade into Mack's abdomen.

For the first time since she met him, she saw fear in his eyes. Everyone was afraid of dying.

Leana stood over him as she watched life slip from Mack's grasp. He had spent so much time controlling life that watching him lose the control made Leana rabid.

She had never felt excitement such as this. She felt the blood rush through her body, like a high that was incomparable to any other drug she had experienced. She felt as her heart pounded in her chest and the heat rose in her head. A smile built on her face as she heard sirens in the distance.

They were coming for her. They would take her away. She knew that from the minute Mack asked her to carry out his wishes. She knew his deceitful plan. She would not let him take the thrill away from her.

It hurt her to see him die. But she did what she had to do.

I didn't have a choice.