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"Ah, and there she is!" Javier raises both hands out beside hienuinely excited to see me He’s crazy…

His hands drop to his sides

"I’ve missed you, Sarai" He cocks his head to one side to appear sincere "If you were unhappy why didn’t you just say so? I’d have done anything you wanted, you know that"

I don’t care about what he has to say, all I care about isto keep aze carefully scans the roo for her

Finally, I see her bare feet sticking out from behind the recliner on the other side of the room, her skin stained with blood

"Samantha, are you OK?"

She doesn’t respond so I know she’s hurt pretty bad

I look back at Javier, pleading in o Please Javier please don’t hurt her anyhtful but a-sleeved black shirt, black belt, black pants, black shoes Black heart He raises his gun at o over to hier atover the Good Housekeeping randfather clock standing tall in the corner ticks o to die if we don’t call for an aet closer "Let me call nine-one-one Then we can leave"

I see her knees now, but it’s all that I can see as the rest of her is obscured by the chair and the darkness

Javier reaches out his hand

"Did he fk you?" he asks and pulls ers "Did you let him fk you, or are you still mine?" He leans inward and inhales the scent of me, a loose strand of hair fallen froers

"No," I say breathily "I’ll always be yours"

He’s wearing cologne, the saht And his hair, soroomed, the way he alore it when he’d dress me up and take me with him to the wealthy houses

"Don’t lie to me," he says quietly and I feel his breath on my neck "You don’t knohat you’ve done to me You shouldn’t have left"

I reach up with ers softly around the back of his neck I lean into hi the opened buttons at the top of his shirt until I feel his chest on htly "I a you like that," I add in Spanish

I shudder, both froust, when he slides his hand down the front of ers inside of me It doesn’t ht kill me any second, the touch stillo to react to him in this way A twisted survival instinct that they don’t teach in self-defense classes Javier had to believe he was turningelse about me was a lie, too, and so my body learned to react in the way that it kneould keep s the deeply, his eyes closed as if to savor it Then he puts them in his mouth

I take a step backhile he’s distracted, to put as h small

"I’m not sure I want you anymore," he says

My heart hardens If he doesn’t wantthat I’ve done, all of the trouble that I’ve caused

"Javier," I say, trying to hide the nervousness in o back"

His top lip furrows and he shakes his head

"Izel is dead," he says probingly, probably wondering if I did it "I know you hated her I don’t blame you But she was my sister"

I shake my head and start to back up some more

"I-I didn’t kill her," I say "I didn’t know"

Javier laughs

I take another step back and two toon a sharp piece of plastic from some randoainst the wall behind le I abandon my dire need to watch Javier’s every ly, and all I can see now is Sa She sits slus are splayed out into the floor Her arers uncurled

Her eyes They’re open And they’re dead

Bile churns in in to solidify, hard like er and hatred and guilt, and goda

"I did," Javier admits proudly "On the fifth shot"

"But you said…," I look to and fro in on itself "You said if I didn’t--"