The Marriage Swap || ON HOLD TILL SEPTEMBER

18 | 𝚂𝚒𝚕𝚔𝚜 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚍𝚎𝚊𝚝𝚑

If my life was a graveyard, I'd be the grave-keeper shoveling mud over the graves of the deceased, watching after them every day as though it would give me anything in return. Maybe it isn't about the return, maybe it's all about the willingness of the person doing the work others usually wouldn't.

Afterall, it does give me sinister delight thinking about watching over the graves of the people who cage us in this place. Perhaps that's my goal—to perish each one of them, in the most gruesome of ways.

Perhaps, Michael's goal is to win the game of survival. It explains why he tells the main heads my intention to kill them. It explains why right before the guards came to inform me that I was to visit the torture chamber, from his cell right across mine, Michael had ominously whispered, "If I get to live, I don't mind you dying."

- from the journal entries of Daisy.

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☘︎ Eᴠᴇ Kᴀᴠɪɴsᴋʏ ☘︎

The thing about Venom X is; Nikolai's been obsessed with her for years.

Three years ago, with the nonchalance of someone on a stroll at a park, Nikolai had randomly announced to Juliette and me that he was one of the Elites of the dark web-the top five illegal hackers in the world-after deriving a highly classified information on the Italian Mafia's latest weaponry investment. To say my best friend and I had stared at the then thirteen-year-old boy in absolute dumbfoundedness, would be the understatement of the century.

While Julliete is the bloodthirsty, fearless woman who had the entire Russia terrified and under her control, Nikolai's always been the brains aiding her from behind. It is what made them the most powerful Mafia, it is what made them ahead of the Italian Mafia who were similarly compatible.

Nikolai had the personality of a magnetic charmer; someone who could flash you a trickster's smile and lure you with his honeyed words into spewing the deepest of your secrets. But the certitude of the situation is; he's always been formidably competitive. Whether in academics, sports or anything where he could be the best.

And the only competition he's ever had is Venom X.

If the dark web was an empire, the five Elites were the kings and queens ruling over certain territories and Venom X, their empress. She was untraceable, dangerous and unpredictable. Nikolai hated that he wasn't the emperor, the best of the Elites.

So every breathing moment ever since Venom X was declared the best, he'd tried his hardest to outdo her. No hacker could ever find her and Nikolai had made it his mission to prove them wrong. He hadn't been successful until. . .

"We finally meet, Venom X."

I take in the now sixteen year old crouched at the window, staring at Victoria with the same smile he uses on people to get under their skin and have them praying at his feet, but Vicky just watches him the way a forensic inspector would a dead body. Clinical assessment, at best.

Nikolai's smile widens, almost like a cunning fox accepting a challenge only he could decipher. Mischief lingering in his Russian accent, he addresses me, "Hello Eve, my true love."

"You should be with appa and maa in Mexico. What are you doing here, Nikolai?" I ask with a sigh, mostly to divert his attention from Vicky. One thing I know about Victoria is; she doesn't like strangers looking at her for long, just the way Axel doesn't. And Nikolai is outright staring as if he hadn't seen a more interesting species in decades.