Page 39 of Broken Pieces

If they are here then why not just come and talk to me?

Who am I kidding? I know exactly why.

They want revenge for what I did. For ruining Max’s life, for moving on without them and I don’t blame them for it.

I’m not going to run again.

If they really have come for me, then I’ll be waiting right here to receive whatever punishment they’ll give me.

12

Maddox

Violet’s really testing my patience with these late night visits to the library.

She should be locked away in her dorm, where there's no risk of anyone touching her other than us, not walking around all by herself in the dark.

Max and I watch her through the window as she sits there lost in her textbooks and scribbling down notes.

Nice to see she’s got so much time to study and not worry about anything else.

“You sure you don’t want to just forget all the theatrics and skip right to the end? You know, to the good bit?” I ask Max as he leans back on the bench next to me, absentmindedly rubbing his leg. He's pushing himself too much, but no matter how much I tell him to take a break he never listens.

“All of this is the good bit. We’ve been planning this for so long, we're not changing it now. You know she deserves it. She can’t just run away and expect no repercussions.”

I swallow, slowly. “Shit, I know you’re right.”

I want this too.

I need it,needher.

Once we’re finished, she’ll know to submit to us. Half the fun will be getting her to that point.

I thought if I kept pushing the thought of her away I could move on, but the day Max found her, living out her ideal life without us, I knew I had never really let her go.

Part of it is my fault. If I hadn't pushed so hard that day she might have stayed. But she had a choice. I took myself out of the equation so her only option was being with Max, but she still didn't take it. In the end she didn't want either of us.

Max has opened my eyes and helped me to see that she's still ours. Which means we get to do whatever we want to her, including punishing her.

We wait for the few other students to leave the library before we make our move. For such a fancy institution, this college's security is shit. They don’t even employ staff to man the building this late at night.

Anyone could just walk in and take whatever they wanted.

We pick up our aluminum bats off the bench and pull our masks over our faces. The neon crosses and smiles lighting up bright yellow in the dark. If she bothered to look up from her book she’d see us outside, watching her.

Would she assume it’s us come to claim her or has she forgotten about us so easily?

Time to find out.

I slam the doors closed behind us and the sound echoes throughout the building, loud enough to make her gasp.

Then Max kills the lights, plunging everything into darkness, apart from the streaks of moonlight coming in through the largewindows.

“Hey, someone’s still in here!” Violet calls out, a slight fearful tremor to her voice.

Good, be scared, little sister.

Max circles around to the back of the library to wait in the stacks, whilst I move straight towards her. My bat drags loudly along the stone floor, making her look up to find the sound.