Psychopathy

Chapter 31- Shakespearean

"I meant it." And she had. She never said she wouldn't leave, and left she had. She had taken refuge in the warehouse, their warehouse, and she knew now that that had only ever been meant to be temporary. She hadn't believed so at first. In fact, when she had gone through the door, she hadn't planned on coming back through. But he'd reminded her with that phrase she had disclosed to him. Close to heaven. The phrase that encompassed her promise- the promise to always come back to him. And so she had left the warehouse, fulfilling her promise.

"Please don't leave me again."

"Reid, I-" But before she could finish, before she could make a promise she wasn't sure she could keep, a hand wrapped around her throat, just above the shock collar. The Devil pushed her into the wall, his grip around her throat tightening, and Ciara knew she had messed up. She should have checked to see what he was feeling before she got distracted by Reid. She had slipped, and she knew she was about to pay for that. And based on the look on the Devil's face, that price was about to be steep.

He was pissed. No, he was more than that. He was enraged. He was furious.

"You shouldn't have done that," he hissed, and she gasped as his grip tightened further. She tried to suck in a breath, but her air had been cut off. She gasped for breath, but the Devil didn't let go. "You're going to wish you had never come back."

"No, don't hurt her! Please, it was my fault! I'm the one who brought her back!"

"That may be true, Dr. Reid, but she's the one who listened to you. She could have chosen to stay in whatever place she went to. But instead, she chose to come back. And princess, the punishment for that is going to be severe," he told her, and fear gripped her heart. She'd been to hell and back a thousand ways already, but this was the worst infraction she'd ever committed. The severity of the punishment was unfathomable.

"No, punish me, not her!"

"Oh, I plan to," the Devil responded. He looked toward the camera, loosening his grip so that Ciara was able to breathe but not enough that she could escape. Ciara gasped as she tried to catch her breath, sucking in as much air as her lungs could possibly hold. "You took my victory from me, Dr. Reid. I had won. I finally had her in the palm of my hand, and you ruined it! You took her from me!"

"She's not yours to keep."

"She's not yours either, Dr. Reid," the Devil said. But he was wrong when it came to that. He was so wrong. And despite knowing that it would make the punishment worse, she decided to tell him that. If nothing else, she needed Reid to hear it.

"I'm more his than I am yers," she said, and the Devil slowly turned to face her. Those dark blue eyes were like ice, and Ciara closed her eyes, steeling herself for what was to come.

"And that's exactly what his punishment for taking my victory from me is," he hissed, and Ciara sucked in a deep breath. "He's going to watch as I take you from him. Permanently." Ciara's eyes flew open, the rest of her body freezing in fear. No, he didn't mean what she thought he did, right?

"Ye said ye weren't going to kill me," she reminded him, and the Devil laughed.

"That was before I had my victory stolen from me," he told her, and Ciara's heart started to race with sudden panic. She didn't want to die. She didn't want to die before she even had a chance to see her friends again. Before she got to see or even talk to Teresa again without telling her how sorry she was. That was what she wanted the most- to tell Teresa how sorry she was for putting her through everything she had without explaining any of it. And most of all, Ciara wanted to tell Teresa how much she wished she had been a better sister.