You Are Mine Little Sister (by Syra Tucker) novel Chapter 156

"Come on, now. Deep breaths. In. Out. With me." Her voice guided me like a rope across a collapsing bridge. My eyes locked onto hers, desperate to copy the rise and fall of her chest.

She set me back gently, dashed away, and returned with a hairbrush. My head rested once more on her legs.

"Hold this. Just squeeze it tight. Please, Rali."

I tried. My fingers clamped around the handle, but it felt distant, like I was gripping smoke.

"I can't... breathe," I managed to say.

Tears streaked sideways, soaking into my temple. My chest slammed shut again and again, as though my lungs had turned to steel traps.

It was getting worse. What if I didn't survive this one?

"You can breathe. It's your mind lying to you, telling you can't." She pressed her arms around me, grounding me. "Come on, Rali. Count with me. Breathe with me."

We did. In. Out. Again. Slowly. Painfully.

And like before, the storm eased. I lived. Barely, but I lived.

This wasn't the first time. The first had been when the Ash Twins won me for a second night. After what they did the first time, the thought of enduring it again had unraveled me completely, spreading panic through my bones.

Second time was the morning after Blayne tossed me to four men. By dawn, I could still feel their hands on me, still hear them. The panic clamped down until I thought my heart would stop from it.

I thought the attacks would stop. I didn't want to live with them. Couldn't add them to this hell.

I crumpled into sobs that left my throat burning.

"I can't stay here, Josephine. I want to leave." The words left in a whimper. Too small. Too scared.

Josephine held me tighter, burying her face in my hair. "You will, Rali. We will. All of us. Together."

.......

VOID

"You're leaking." Miles didn't look up from wiping his knife.

I checked the nearest corpse, then the next.

"Not them," he added, bored. "You."

I followed his stare and found the hole in my shoulder. Oh. I pressed two fingers into it through the jacket. White flashed at the edge of my vision and I laughed, enjoying the sting like a sip of strong liquor.

Then I turned back to the man in front of me. Kneeling. Shaking harder than the other four. That's why I picked him. Fear had already picked him for me.

"Please! I—I'll do anything you want me to do. J—Just spare me. Please!" His voice spilled over itself. He pleaded too much for a man.

I tilted my head, studying the odd angles of his face. Funny shape. I'd skinned faces before, but this one looked like it would make for an interesting addition to the gallery.

I took the blade to his face and instead, slipped the blade into his eye, twisted once, and pulled. The orb clung to the steel before dangling.

I'd barely registered his ugly screams. To me they were nothing, just static under the louder ones already screaming in my head.

He toppled back, thrashing, cursing, flopping like a fish ripped from water. My beast inside me sighed with pleasure; the sight was a hymn, and I'd played it well.

I raised the blade to study the dangling eye. It was as ugly as the man himself, but in a jar, among my collection, it would shine like a jewel.

Lowering the knife, I noticed a dark smear on the floor near me. It couldn't be from him. The stain was too close.

"You're losing a lot of blood, Void. You need to get that checked," Katya's voice hissed behind me.

"I'm busy." I didn't bother a glance.

Coming here, I'd expected to catch more than a bullet considering I came ahead of the team. Wouldn't really blame me; they argued about it in my head. Safety FM had begged me to wait; Blackout AM had promised a clearer signal if I went alone. I'd turned the volume up on Blackout AM and pressed forward.

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