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DESIRE, PURPOSE, AND COMMITMENT TO THE PATH I CHOOSE TO WALK, MacKayla says in a voice just like mine

I’d be rendered immobile if I weren’t already

What has It done?

HOW has It done it?

My mind whirls, dances, and skids across bits and pieces of the facts of MacKayla’s existence I have tirelessly gathered over the years I know this puny creature! I know Its limits, Its weakness I knohat It is capable of AND NOT

Ahhhhh I would narrow my eyes and smile if I were in control of our vessel but, at the moment, It holds me motionless

It has not tried to move my body Has not tried to back me away It can’t No more than It can sustain this emotionless state of temporary power It has achieved It’s an a to a throne it can never hold

I giggle "I’et over yourself, MacKayla" It felt dead to ht possible for one born so flawed Shed emotion like a skin It could doff and don at will

Did MacKayla study me as I studied her?

No matter

I AM THE REAL THING

It is not

I do what I’ve done so many ties to manipulate and distract Exploit that oh-so-exploitable part of It I shohat It did to Christian, to Cruce, and wait for It to shatter

IRRELEVANT, is Its toneless reply

Incensed, I flood It with graphic details of theheart from her breast

DISTRACTION, It says without inflection

I feel ht foot draw up from the floor then oal, so near, so near!

Behind me, the boudoir door crashes open, and I hear shouts of "Place the stones! Quickly!" Then Barrons roars, "Cruce, you fucking bastard, do it or die!" Snarls fill the air and I hear a scuffle

I’ MacKayla’s plan It doesn’t have to sustain Its eh to hold me motionless and permit them to contain us It would see itself locked aith htful place in this world! How unfair! How positively PETULANT It is!

I playJo and offering her the poisoned water

Grabbing her by the shoulder, s bones Exploding brain Kicking and pulping organs