Filed To Story: Pretty Poisoned Novel by Elle Mitchell
“Taking children is one of The Order’s favorite ways to collect debts,” he says. “But you’re right. She was broken.”
“I hate it when you just leave me like you did before,” I tell him. “It feels really bad. Declan and Luca never did that to me. I can’t I want to go home tonight.”
“Is that what you and your imaginary boyfriend were talking about?” he mocks.
“No. He was just telling me how pretty and sweet I am.”
“I don’t think you should go home, Teagan,” he says. “Ever.”
I turn, facing him. “What? Why not?”
“Because you’re broken, too. Like me, like Sonia. I told you what’s going to happenyou’re going to kill again.”
“No. I’m different because I was born like this. I’m not broken; I can fight it. I have self-awareness.”
“Maybe before you could. But you’ve got more of a taste for it now, don’t you? And you’re good at it. What else are you this good at?”
“I”
“There’s no finger in the proverbial dam anymore, Teagan. You’re long past controlling it. I know there’s a part of you that still believes you can have some type of normal existence, but you’re wrong. The part of you that still craves love and acceptance is wrong, too. You don’t need that, either.”
I scoff. “You’re barely human. How could you know what I need?”
“Because I’ve been watching you for months, Teagan. You need a place and a purposethat’s all anyone needs. The Order can give you that. You can disappear, move through the world without fear, always protected. You can keep scratching that itch that will never go away.”
“But I won’t have a face or a name.”
“No, you won’t. But there’s freedom in that, too.”
“Do I have a choice?”
“You do. But it isn’t much of one, is it? Where are you going to go? Who will you ever be able to tell your secrets to?”
“I still need other things.”
“You think you do,” he says, bringing a hand to caress my cheek. “It’ll fade. I promise. You’ll stop caring; it’ll stop hurting, too. Won’t that be a relief?”
I nod. “Yes.”
Another masked man appears in the doorway gesturing to his wrist as if pointing at a watch. As Bone Saw stands, the other man leaves.
“The cleanup crew is here,” he says, tucking something hard and cold between my breasts. “It’s time to go.”
I pull it out, stifling a sob when I unfurl my fist and see it.
A knife.
My knife, with the pearl embossed tulips on the handle, my name etched into the titanium blade. The knife I snorted cocaine from with Luca, the one I killed Heidi’s sister with, ruining all of our lives to save his.
The knife I used to carve my initial into Declan’s chest after he told me that he loved me and he’d never leave me.
It takes every ounce of strength I have not to bury it in my own chest.
Isit in the passenger seat beside Bone Saw, turning the blade over, examining it in my hands. It almost seems unreallike a relic of a past life.
“Where did you get it?” I ask.
“I intercepted it from the police in Wyoming before they could send it to a lab,” he says. “Just in case.”
“It has my name on it,” I say, tracing the letters etched into the blade with my fingertip. “You said I wouldn’t be able to have a name.”
“You won’t. But when I see you, I’ll know it’s you. I could call you by your name if you wanted.”
“Would we be together?”
“No, you’d go wherever they needed you. We wouldn’t be together.”
“And you think I should do it? You think I’d be happy?”
“I think ‘happy’ is a deluded concept.”
“Maybe you’re right,” I tell him. “Why’d you do it?”
“Do what?”
“Join.”
He laughs. “I didn’t join. I was like Sonia in a way. My dad gave me to them when I was six years old.”
“What? Why?”
“He was part of The Order, and he broke the rules. He’d been scared shitless for weeks that they were going to kill himeven though I wasn’t old enough to understand why, I knew that much. One night, a man came to our house with two men dressed like me and walked right into the dining room. They told him they had made a decision and that he could live, but only if he gave up one of his sons to The Order forever. And he had to choose which to keep and which he wanted to get rid ofthat was his real punishment.”
“Oh my god ”
“I loved my father, and I thought he loved me, too. But I guess he loved himselfand my brothermore because he told them to take me. He didn’t even get out of his chair when they dragged me from the room. The man took me home, raised me in isolation, educated me, and taught me to be a killer. After that, I couldn’t be anything else.”
“What happened to your dad?”
“He’s one of The Elders now. I’ve seen him a few times, but he isn’t aware of me.”
“That must be hard for you ”
“It’s not,” he says. “It’s nothing. He could drop dead, I could slit his throat, or he could become king of the fucking galaxy, and I wouldn’t care about any of those things equally. It’ll be like that for you, too, someday. People won’t be able to affect you like they do now; it’ll stop hurting.”
“What about your mom?”
“I was told she left when I was a baby, but I recently found out she’s dead.”
“I still don’t get it. Why would you be loyal to them?” I ask. “They took you from your home when you were a child. They abused you.”
“They didn’t take me. I was given to them. He had a choicehe could have died. As far as abuse goes that’s a spectrum, too, isn’t it? Dictated by societal norms, where in the world you live, what religion or customs you ascribe to.”
I scoff. “You sound like Dec”
“Teagan,” he cautions, cutting me off. “Do not.”
“Sorry. Why do I have a choice?”
“Because you’re too old and too broken for blind obedience and loyalty unless you choose it. You’d end your life one way or another.”
“But they’re evil people,” I say as he pulls into the garage. “I’m not evil.”
“They’re just a symptom, Teagan, of a sickness inside our society as a whole, in man. Everyone is hungry for powerfor a higher purpose. You don’t like what happened to those girls, and I get that. But you also can’t stop it from happening. It’s going to keep happening because of the sickness, at both the highest and lowest levels of society. Neither layer has any real desire to do anything to stop it or it would have ended a long time ago. They could go away, and there would be thousands ready to instantly fill that void.”
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.