Distorted Affliction

Chapter Thirteen

It was as if a damn was breaking inside of my mind and the sharp pain came leaping forward, enveloping all of my senses. I heard myself scream in agony as I fell forward clutching my head. I was aware of the sound of Sin's voice calling my name in panic, Lucas shouting something, but none of it was in focus. Everything was a blur, my vision filled with red before I felt the room slip away suddenly.

It was as if I registered what was happening, but I had no control over it at all. I understood that we had moved too quickly, that the magic of the compulsion had been ripped away from me all at once and my memories were flooding back to me. When my vision cleared, I knew that I was no longer with Sin and Lucas, I was reliving the things I had forgotten as if they were happening all over again.

Everything distorted, shifting from one memory to the next. They came, one by one until I felt too overwhelmed to tell the end of one memory and the start of the next.

"My name is Sinclair," he said politely, his soft gaze burning into my skin. "What brings you to such an atrocious hostelry?"

"Buy me a drink and I'll tell you," I flirted around the last of the liquor in my glass. I felt my body lean towards his, as if he held his own gravitational pull that I couldn't get away from. Every part of me felt drawn to him, like fate had placed him there.

The bar shifted, and when I glanced up, I could see the stars through the leaves of the great tree I recalled just outside of the back entrance to the bar.

"Don't be scared," Sin whispered, his fingers grazing my cheek as he leaned down to brush his teeth against my neck. "I only want a taste."

I felt my body respond as the ecstasy coursed through me, my eyes rolling back on their own accord. When he pulled away, I couldn't help but feel disappointed, wishing he would never stop. My eyes fluttered open, catching on the pile of bloody corpses just over his shoulder. I knew that he had killed them, though I couldn't make myself feel intimidated by the act. His compulsion and my curiosity kept me glued perfectly in place.

"Why didn't you kill me?" I heard myself ask. "Like you did them?"

Sin looked at me for a moment without speaking, turning his head sideways in curiosity to watch me. He seemed intrigued, his eyes tracing my face before he let out a sideways grin.

"I have a feeling the world would be a much darker place without you in it," he answered softly. "And I don't ever want to live in a world like that. I'm not sure why, but you're different."

The world turned once again, and I felt as though I was falling for a moment. Then I blinked, and the world was right side up again, my feet planted firmly on the ground.

"Please give me a chance to be different," Sin pleaded, reaching out for my hand before I snatched it away from his grasp. "This is all I've known for an eternity, August. This is the curse I've lived with for as long as I've walked this earth; I've been a monster for as long as I can remember, bloodthirsty and out of control. But something about you makes me feel different."

"I can't bury any more bodies, Sin," I said, tossing the shovel on the ground at his feet before turning away from him.

"Help me," he begged, his hand grasping on to my wrist as he pulled me back to him. "Give me a chance to be different, to be better, and I'll be that for you. Don't leave me to do this alone, not now that I've met you."

I stared deep into his hazel eyes, searching for the part of him that was being dishonest, but I couldn't find it. He seemed so sincere, so apologetic, and I realized that I was being harsh on him. Sin had been cursed to an eternity of misery as a bloodthirsty creature of the night. He had never had someone to hold him to standards, he had never had a reason to be more than the darkness of horror stories.