Filed To Story: Pretty Poisoned Novel by Elle Mitchell
“Yeah?”
“Are you okay?”
She bursts into tears. “No,” she says. “I’m not okay. I just I love him so much. I don’t know what to do.”
“Well, what happened?” I ask. “You can tell me; I won’t tell anyone.”
“I’m not supposed to talk about it,” she says.
“Well, it seems like you need to talk about it,” I tell her. “It’s killing you; I can see it.”
“It is killing me,” she cries. “I think I’m actually dying. I’ve never felt like this before.”
“Why don’t you leave then?” I ask. “Why don’t you just go home?”
“Why would I want to do that?”
“He’s torturing youyou’re torturing yourself, too. Why wouldn’t you?”
“Do you think that’s what he wants? Do you think he wants me to leave? Oh my god no. This is my family. I no, I can’t”
“No,” I stop her. “I’m sure that’s not what he wants, okay? I don’t even know him. Don’t listen to me.”
Layla slides down the wall onto the bathroom floor and drops her head in her hands. “I cut him,” she says, her voice barely a whisper.
“What do you mean?” I ask, sitting beside her.
“I made him bleed. That’s why he hates me.”
“But isn’t that like just a thing you all do?” I ask.
“Not Declan,” she says. “He only takes. He even bathes in it, you know? But he won’t spill his own blood; that’s why he doesn’t have any tattoos. But I thought it would be okay because he loved me.”
Hearing her say it aloud it’s clear that she really believed itwith her whole heart. It makes my own ache. I doubt Declan is capable of loving anyone or anything. I don’t tell the broken girl in front of me that.
“He did,” she insists, perhaps seeing the disbelief on my face. “You weren’t there. I was there, and he loved me.”
“Layla, I’m so sorry.”
“So, when he gave me the knife, I just did it. He threw me off the bed. He was so mad, I actually thought he was going to kill me. In a way, I guess he did. You know I’d never even had a boyfriend before? I was homeschooled; my family was super religious, and they hurt me. I can’t go back to them, Teagan. I think maybe they’d kill me now, too.”
“It’ll be okay,” I tell her. “We’ll figure something out. I can help you.”
“How can you help me?” she asks.
“I don’t know, but I’d try,” I say. But my mind circles back, latching onto something else she said earlier. “What do you mean by he bathes in it?”
“Exactly what you think I mean.”
“Where does he get that much blood?” I ask.
“Nowhere good,” Layla says.
“Layla, let me help. I’d hate to see something happen to you. I’ve heard some things.”
“What kind of things?”
“About a girl named Bridget. Did you know her?”
Something flashes in her eyes and her demeanor changes. She scowls and pulls herself off of the floor.
Fuck. I fucked up.
“Bridget was an idiot,” she says. “I am not like her. It’s different.”
“No, I believe you. I don’t think you’re like Bridget; I never said that. I don’t even know what she was like. I justI heard that Declan did something to her.”
“I can’t believe you would say that,” she says. “No one did anything to Bridget, that’s she had problems, that’s all.”
“Layla, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”
“No, you shouldn’t have,” she snaps. “And you know what? You should be more worried about Luca. He’s a lot more dangerous than Declanhe’s unstable. And you do smell like cum.”
She leaves the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.
I sigh, shaking my head, unsure if I’d call that conversation a success or not, and then remove my tattered clothes and slip into the shower.
But I did learn something new: Declan won’t spill his own bloodhis power. It makes sense, given what he’s told me. And Bridget was apparently crazy.
So is Luca.
And Layla is stuck here because she comes from an abusive home.
When I finish, Layla is already asleep, curled up with that teddy bear.
I crawl under the covers, close my eyes, and slip into a deep, dreamless sleep.
When I open my eyes the next morning, I find myself face-to-face with River.
“Hey, beautiful,” she says.
I laugh.
“What’s funny?” she asks.
“Not you,” I tell her. “It’s just that I’m so used to being alone, and the last two days, I’ve woken up next to someone who wasn’t the person I went to sleep with.”
“Is that a bad thing?” she asks.
“No. Not a bad thing. It’s just different.”
She reaches out and pushes my hair away from my face. “You have curly hair,” she says.
“Mmm, yep. I didn’t feel like drying it last night.”
“It’s pretty,” she says. “It suits you. You know, if you stay with us, you’ll never have to be alone again. Not if you don’t want to.”
“Do you think they want me to stay?” I ask.
“I want you to,” she says. “Um, there’s foodreal food, not blood foodif you’re hungry. Brady made breakfast.”
“Oh my god, I’m starving,” I tell her, pulling myself out of bed. I haven’t eaten real food since pizza on the bus yesterday afternoon.
“There’s eggs and bacon and pancakes,” she says, climbing out of the bed. “Coffee, too.”
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.