There was nothing for her here anymore.
Nothing I could offer except pieces of the ghost that were left and the guilt I would now carry over what I had to do.
Do you want to play a game?I should have said no.
I should have asked for more terms.
I should have thought it through. Then again, would the ending have changed? Would it have been any different? Any less tragic? If not me pulling the trigger, would she prefer it be a stranger?
“Tempest.” I held up my hands; they were shaking. God, I couldn’t stop the tremors wracking my body. I still had his blood staining my clothes. I didn’t tell her it was from a hug.
Let her think me the monster I was, better that than she know the truth.
Let him die a hero.
Let me live a tyrant.
It was better this way—for her, for everyone. She could move on—God knows she’d have no choice now that I’d already finished what I started.
Tears streamed down her cheeks. “You said you had no choice.”
“I didn’t.”
Muffled sobs escaped her lips as she covered her mouth with her hands looking between the body and me and back again. “They’ll hunt you for this. Torture everyone you hold close—maybe even me, did you for one second think about what this would do to me? To us?”
“There is no us.” It was harsh. I meant for it to come out softer, but I was having a hard enough time holding it together, I was barely able to breathe let alone get words out. I needed her to hate me.
I needed her to cling to her family, her sister, her friends. For once, I fucking needed Tempest to actuallydowhat she was asked.
One time.
Please God, let it be now.
She choked on a sob. “Was any of this real? I mean, was it all a game from the start or did you actually care… did you—” Her voice cracked. “Did you fall even a little bit for me?”
Her eyes were so bright, so vulnerable. I’d earned too much of her trust, I didn’t deserve any of it.
Shit!
I bit down on my lower lip to keep from screaming. We were running out of time—shewas running out of time. She needed to get to safety, she needed to be guiltless in all of this.
She kept talking. “Were your eyes wide open from the very first drop?”
I said nothing.
“God!” She screamed. “Did you do this willingly and smile at me while doing it? All to infiltrate my family? Break me in order to break them? Use the last shred of love I have against me?”
The hardest words I would ever say. The hardest truth I would ever tell when I’d only ever been a liar. “Yes.”
“To what!” she demanded shrilly. “Say it!”
"I’m broken, and broken people break things,” my breath was heavy in my chest, my throat burned with choking flame after flame. “You were pretty so I touched you, you were easy so I took you, you were lost so I found you, you were nice so I ruined you.” I licked my lips. “It was easy you know, making you feel like you were in control, almost too easy taking it from you.” I sighed. “I let you set the rules. I told you the truth in the end. I just never told you the target.” I purposefully didn’t answer her other questions.
The truth hurt.
She was nothing but a target, right?
She was nothing.