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ChapterOne
MIRA
Ikilled him.
My brother.
His blood paints my hands, thick crimson liquid seeping into my fingernails. I feel nothing. Or maybe I do, but it’s not regret, remorse, or even guilt. It’s anger, madness, a hot branding iron pressed against my chest, the searing metal burning away every trace of my humanity.
It’s his fault, after all. He had it coming. He had it coming for years, years that I thought he was dead. Years I spent mourning him.
I stare at his lifeless body lying on his side while blood pools around his corpse. There’s this tingling at the back of my neck that sends shivers down my spine. One would think it’s shock, or panic, or fear. But it’s none of those things. Not even close. It’s a stir of adrenaline, a charge of exhilaration, a high I’ve never experienced before.
I kick at his feet.
I kick again.
Harder. Angrier. Until my scream tears from my throat, slamming against the cold walls of the mausoleum. He didn’t deserve to die here in this sacred place. He should have bled out on the pavement where the dogs can piss on his decaying corpse.
“You fool.”
I jerk around, the eery voice slithering around my bones. “Who are you?” My voice echoes around the chamber of death. “Who’s there?”
“Did you really think it would be this easy?” A shadow creeps up the wall, moving across the colored glass of the window, a sudden chill causing me to shiver.
“Who are you?” My mind races, the adrenaline now laced with a deep-seated fear. “What do you want?” I step back toward the door, but my feet feel heavy, and I can’t move as I watch the shadow get closer. Like a flame, it grows as it consumes all the oxygen in the building, my lungs straining for air.
“Look,” the voice says with a low tenor of malice. “Look at him.”
I glance at my brother’s body on the floor. His blood flow has slowed, the red now staining the grout between the tiles.
“Look at him,” he demands, and the evil vibrates from his tongue all the way to the marrow of my bones.
“I know what I did,” I say, staring at my brother.
“No, you don’t.”
“I do. I killed him.” I try to steady myself, but it’s like I’ve lost control over my body. “He deserved it,” I say boldly, even though every fiber of my being is screaming at me to run away.
The voice tsks, and the sound crawls across my skin like a thousand spiders. “That’s where you’re wrong…birdie.”
Ice slams into my gut, and my soul leaves my body in a rush of fear. “N…no.” I shake my head in disbelief.
“You think you survived me, but your survival only makes me want you so. Much. More.”
The air is instantly weighted, my chest tightening as I try to breathe. My limbs tremble, and my vision tunnels. From the corner of my eye, there’s movement on the ground, and I gasp when I see my brother’s legs start to move.
“No, no, no, no!” I shut my eyes. “This isn’t happening.”
“Open your eyes, Mirabella.”
“No! No, I won’t.” I ball my fists, and I can feel the dried blood that clings to my palms crack.
“Open your eyes.”
“This isn’t real,” I chant. “This isn’t real.”
My entire body is shaking, my legs weak, and shoulders trembling.
