Tag, You're It

Chapter 25

"It's the most dangerous kind." He says evenly, a hint of playfulness in his tone.

"I'm up for the challenge." I finally see my phone in his hand. It's a flash of motion and suddenly I'm on the ground with the man hovering over me.

"Tag, you're it."

Immediately I scream, fighting for my life and well-being. There's a sweet scent that drifts into my nostrils but I see the people running to me, see the people calling, see the witnesses pouring out.

But this was a game of chase and they weren't fast enough.

I slam my head against the wall. The awful image of Alec on me filled me with rage. "He deserves to die." I whisper to the wall. My head aches with pain- pain that he caused me. I would enjoy watching Alec die I think.

I laugh again.

Is this what it's like to be insane? Could these be signs that I was losing all sense of reality? I keep my head against the cool wall for a moment, dulling the throbbing pain I felt.

I promised him I wouldn't try anything. I promised him I wouldn't. I scrunch my face into disgust. I owe him nothing.

My rage courses through me.

All of those poor girls.

All of those innocent lives.

All of those deaths.

All of those lies.

All of those words... meaningless words.

I look feverishly in Alec's bathroom, searching for a weapon. Something that would end Alec's reign on earth. He deserved to die.

Didn't he?

I pause, my chest rising and falling in my extreme anger. The hatred that raced through my veins was dark, and yet I felt at peace with this feeling. My heart thundered. Did Alec deserve to die?

He'd said at one point he'd wanted to stop. He said he didn't want to do this anymore. He said he was done.
But he'd continued.

I look up in the mirror and pause. My hair was in tangled knots that hung at my shoulders. I swallowed as I noticed my hollowed out cheeks and bruised disfigurements decorating my skin. My body was weak and I looked the part. There was a lack of color in my face and my lips trembles suddenly.

But my eyes were wild. They danced in such horrifying dark colors and lights. It was both intriguing and awfully scary to watch. There was murder in my eyes and yet it didn't look the part. It wasn't crazed, at least not to me. I smiled, noticing how drawn my lips were.

"He did this to me." I whisper. Suddenly I hate my reflection and my fist lands on the mirror with a resounding crash. There's a satisfying pain that races through my arm but I ignore it as I grab a shard of glass. Perfect.

What better way to kill him than by his own reflection? I should kill him and let him see what he'd made me become... let him see what he'd done to me... let him see what he was, and what I was. Reflections could only show what was there.

I grabbed a large glass shard in one hand and a smaller one in the other. My mind was set and my heart was untouched by any other emotions. I went to open the door but was surprised to see Alec coming wheeling in, eyes ablaze. My throat caught as I saw his fear.

"Darling, we're not-" Alec looks in my hands and my once certain actions suddenly wavered. Why did I lose my nerve so quickly? I'd murdered two people, killed another, and here I was about to end another life. I had no right. "We have to move." Alec reaches for my hands and I step back, words stuck.

Alec looks me over, his eyes settling on my eyes. I remember that look I'd had... the way my smile had appeared in that reflection. "Darling, what are you doing?"

"Contemplating who's death to take." I look at the glass shards in my hand. I could easily drive one of these into my own neck. This pain, the hurt, the constant paranoia and fear would all be gone. I'd no longer be. The thought was soothing but I would know in my dying moments I had been doing precisely what I had thought so lowly of myself for.

Then there was Alec. I had convinced myself he deserved to die. He kidnapped me, killed, murdered, tortured boys and girls, and committed the horrible crime of creating another monster. Yet and still he was a human. Alec was afraid. He had emotions and just chose not to use them all.

Is that what insanity was? Control over your emotions? Such control that you could almost erase them?

"Darling, no, now is not the time." Alec looks behind him and I hear the thudding of feet, the warning rounds going off. They'd been silent before. Or had they been going off the entire time and I simply didn't hear them?

"I don't know when a better time will be." I say back evenly. Alec grabs my arm, trying to drag me away from the door. I squirm out of his grip.

"How about a time when we can talk about this with clear heads?" He tries to pull me again and I stumble back, falling onto Alec's bed.

"I'm thinking quite clearly." I argue. Alec rolls his eyes. The anger in me flares and the hatred that had once flowed through my veins returned with renewed vigor. I had made a decision, all signs of indecisiveness leaving me. My body was suddenly triggered and I lunged for Alec.

He tagged me and now I was going to tag him.