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My eyes widened. I knew something wasn't right. Something I’d known just now but had fallen away as I tried to chase the memory. My brow furrowed.
“Yes,” the demon said. “Have you realized you’re dead?”
I shook my head,the cold chill of my wispy skin growing more intense.
“Why?” I asked, thumping my chest to try and get movement in my heart. “How?”
He cocked his head to the side and smiled, his sharp teeth so white and viscous that they made me shudder.
“You were murdered, babe,” he said. “So now you have to deal with me.”
I looked at him, my expression blank.
“Murdered?” I hissed, my voice constricting in my throat as the flood of memory came rushing back.
There’d been a knife.
It had been so quick I almost missed it, the slice of the blade, the way it pierced my heart. My knees buckled as I felt it all over again, but this time for longer as the memory kept playing on repeat, an endless loop of torture.
“Yeah,” the monster said. “It was pretty bad… Sorry about that.”
“It was you?” I asked, looking him up and down. “You killed me?”
He smiled and shook his head sympathetically.
“It wasn’t me,” he said. “And the good news is, it doesn’t have to end that way.”
“End?” I asked, staring up at him. “I’d say death is pretty much the ultimate end, wouldn’t you?”
A little smirk tugged the corners of his lips.
“I wouldn’t, actually,” he said with amusement. “In fact, it’s my job to ensure the opposite for unfortunate souls like you.”
I stared at him with my mouth agape and at how he stepped forward, his hooves clomping against the rocks, sending echoes into the void. He was such a big creature, his waist wrapped with a loin cloth and his skin a ferocious red. It was all so absurd; surely it had to be a nightmare.
I wracked my brain for the last thing I could remember.
Was I tucked up in bed?
Was I at work, snoozing at my desk while my boss was out over lunch?
No.
A ripple of fear gripped me as my memories started to return, the knowledge dawning on me like a slap to the face.
I'd been out at a bar with Jax.
The monster watched me with curiosity as I leaned back against the cave wall and held my hand to my face, cupping the thin, wispy sensation of my cheek.
Jax had picked me up on his bike, and we’d ridden across town to the dive bar his friend owned. I hadn’t wanted to go, but Jax said we only had to stop by for a minute before we’d go to eat somewhere and then head back to his after. I remember my hands gripping his hips as he maneuvered the bike around the country roads, the headlights cutting through the dark, and the smell of stale smoke that was deeply seeped into his leathers. I knew I shouldn’t have been with him, but I’d always been drawn to trouble. We’d been dating for around two months on and off, but we’d started to spend a little more time together, and it felt like I was finally getting to know him. He may have been dodgy, but once I was involved, it was becoming harder and harder to pull myself away.
As I pondered on it under the gaze of the monster, I tried to piece together what happened.
At the dive bar, Jax had drunk tequila and smoked nearly a full packet of cigarettes. He got agitated and into a fight with his friend, who didn’t seem much like a friend at all. He’d grabbed me by the upper arm and dragged me out of there, smoke pretty much shooting out of his ears he was so mad.
I remember him pushing me towards the bike and screaming at me to get on. When I'd refused, he'd slung me over his shoulder and slammed me down on the seat before climbing on ahead of me and revving the engine, speeding off into the night.
Jax had a crazy temper, and I remember knowing that I was going to be on the receiving end of it.
