Author's Note:
Okay, so this first chapter here was written by Echoless Dreamer as a sample, but the both of us decided to make it a story together. Every other chapter will be written by Echo, and the others will be written by sarcasimwizardofsarcasim. This is Echo right now.
So, please remember to show some support for her is you enjoyed this chapter. And also remember to leave a review if you read and enjoyed.
His arms trace across my bare shoulders, hands moving to my neck. Again with the choking. But he whispers into my neck again and my entire body goes numb. My own arms are on his waist, holding his body close to mine. He leans down again, biting my lips a bit before moving lower to my neckline.
"You are mine, do you understand? Mine." The tighter and tighter his grip gets, the more I feel the need to die. This feeling, this pain, only he provides it. There are marks on my neck from last night, marks where his fingers have dug into my skin, all over my naked body.
"I understand." I manage to get the words out before his fingernails begin to break skin again. All I do is moan and close my eyes. There's nothing that can be done. Nothing at all.
"Nayeli. Do you love me?" He says it with a grin, whispering the words into the skin of my chest. I can feel his breath and it warms me.
"Yes." I squeak. His face rises back up to look at me again, leaning down to me and kissing me. I taste no love on his lips, and this infuriates me. But yet, all I do is kiss him with more and more force until I've managed to part his lips with my own. This is what I needed.
"Would you die for me?" He mutters into my lips. I cannot do anything but nod, hoping for more. More than always comes. This, he accepts and moves his lips to the side of my neck, releasing me from that grasp of his.
While I am grateful for everything he has given me, I feel as though Beyond has only ever used me for this. When it's all over, he rolls away from me and continues to fall asleep. Never anymore talking, never anything else, never. If he does love me, he's never said it. I am nothing but a tool to him, but if this is to be my job every night, I'm okay with that. On the other side of the bed, when I look, all I see is his naked back, everything below the waist is covered. It's almost as if once he's done with me, I don't exist at all. If he really loved me, he'd say it.
It's been almost a year since we met, and every night since then has been the same to me. Nothing about it has meaning, not to him. But to me it does. I gave up my peaceful life in hopes of finding excitement and love out here. Never would I have thought I would have ended up with him. It's all too much. The sex, the meaningless conversations he speaks of, and then worst of all is the murders. The things he makes me do for him. I love him. I'd do it all in a heartbeat, anything Beyond asks of me, I'd do it. Does this make me weak? No. Not if he calls me strong.
I reach my hands up to my neck to touch the faint scratches there before turning to look at him again. There are marks on his shoulder blade. My marks. It's always been like that. Him and I, we trade wounds. And that pleases me more than anything, to know he can be wounded at all. To know he is vulnerable to love. And to me.
"Beyond?" I whisper through the dark, hearing him grunt afterwards. "Do you love me?" And then there is no response, just his heavy breathing. I know he's awake. I know he can hear me. But I pull the sheets of the bed up to cover all of me, roll over and wait for this night to be over.
That's how it always was. I'd ask him the question and never get a response. But when he asked me, it was instantaneous. Maybe he just knew I'd always say yes. Maybe he knew that I would never stop loving him, no matter how much he put me through. He rolls over and wraps and arm around me, pulling me back towards him. His eyes are open, and in their dark center I can see a hint of crimson. The shade that always comes and goes.
"If I didn't love you, I would have killed you long ago, Nayeli. You're the only one for me, you know." He mutters before running his hands over my hips again. There are scars there, scars from him. He thinks they are beautiful, and he's said it before. Beyond is terrifying to me, he's an incredible danger.
"Then why do you have to keep killing? Aren't I enough to satisfy you?" This is the first real conversation we've had in days.
"You are more than enough. But the deaths? Well, they're just for fun. Isn't all this fun?" He says, his eyes beginning to droop again. I shiver against his touch.
"If it was fun, then I wouldn't be hurt." It doesn't matter if he heard it, he's already asleep, and I know he wouldn't mind in the first place. All he'd do would be to point out the marks I'd left previously and tell me I wasn't the only one. This was all a game, he'd say. And now we're winning as long as I stay.
There is no comfort in his touch anymore, only uneasiness that comes with the darkness of the hotel room. It's all pointless, this love, but it feels real. Am I meant to be with him forever? Am I meant to suffer at the hands of the one I love? If that's what it takes for him to love me back, I'll do it.
So I fall asleep with his arms wrapped around my exposed body, with the sheets of the bed tucked beneath by chin, praying he won't be gone when I wake back up. He's supposed to stay forever, my mind whispers. The world can't take another one away from me.