Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 43557 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 218(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43557 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 218(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
I consider running, but where is there to run? An elevator is not an escape route, and the staircase is too far. Scowl could easily make his way there before I could. He is bigger, he is stronger, and he could run me down in an instant.
So instead of running, I stand my ground even as our plan falls apart at the very outset. I force my lower lip to stop quivering, and I force a smile. This is just another performance, and if there is one thing I know how to do, it is perform.
“Hello, Simon,” I say. “How are you?”
“Well,” he says, his eyes locked on me with a predatory stare. “How are you?”
“Surprisingly…” I let the word hang for a moment. “Alive.”
“Indeed. Won’t you come in. We have much to discuss.” He stands aside and extends a hand toward his office. I cannot help but see the extended claws, weapons capable of shredding my flesh without issue.
I’d really rather not go into the privacy of his office where he can make me dead for real without anybody seeing. I have to hope Zayne appears in the next few seconds.
“Wendy, would you get us some ice waters,” he says. He’s dismissing the receptionist, which means one way or another, we are going to be alone.
She gets up and leaves obediently. I put my hand in my pocket, wrapping my hand around the weapon I stashed here just in case. Simon’s eyes follow my hand. Good. I want him to think I am armed. I want him to second guess approaching me. I want him to feel a little fear. Why should I experience all of the terror?
“You were foolish to come here,” Simon says when we are alone.
“Why wouldn’t I? You’re my manager. You hold my contract.”
“You are dead,” he says. “It would have been better for you if you remained that way. But this is you all over, isn’t it, Lyric. You never knew when you had it good. You always had to push and push.”
He takes a step toward me. He is testing me. He does not know if I am armed, or if I have the nerve to use a weapon if I am. I feel the involuntary tremor that comes with finding myself in the predatory presence of a beast that intends to do severe damage to me. The universe thinks I am dead, and Simon is happy to ensure that is not inaccurate.
“You’re not even going to pretend to be happy to see me?” I pout a little. “I thought you’d have been worried sick about me. Especially when they never found a body to back up your story.”
“Nobody cares about the truth. They want a narrative. Something strong. Something that means more than silly facts. You think that coming here and being alive is going to matter? It won’t. And it doesn’t. Your story is at an end. The narrative has come to a close. You were a bratty, disobedient, spoiled little starlet, and you were punished as you deserved to be. Audiences were glad to hear that you had died. There were many who, like me, thought that the spoiled human whore deserved to die.”
His words hit me in the gut. Simon has yet to unleash his claws on me, but his words cut just as deep.”
“They did not,” I say, my throat suddenly hoarse.
“Of course they did. Don’t you see, Lyric? People wanted you dead and gone. They have enjoyed every moment of mourning you. They have elevated you beyond what you ever were. You were a very average starlet. Too plain in appearance, too twisted in your tone. Your voice is rough and raw, not sweet and melodic. You never fitted the mold. But you have made a gorgeous dead girl. Maybe that is why you are here. Maybe you know you deserve to die.”
He speaks in a rough purr, his eyes narrowing at me as he becomes very still. I see his hips wriggling, though. He’s preparing to pounce. He’s going to lunge at me, and those long claws are going to do their level best to sink through my flesh like knives through butter. My stalling is coming to a close. The end is coming. I can feel it, and I do not know what to do.
I have to trust the plan. Zayne and I went over it in the belly of the freighter more times than I can count. I have to stay still. I have to face my fate. And I have to do the one thing I have done since I met him. I have to trust him.
Simon Scowl lunges at me, paws open. I yank at the weapon in my pocket, but it catches on the fabric and I am too slow to get it out. Some things in life are decided in fractions of a second, and this is one of them. Simon hits me hard across the face with a vicious blow, albeit one without any claws. I scream out in pain as I am snapped around and thrown to the floor.