BLEED FOR ME

prologue

Blood dripped from her fingertips, falling to the floor in time with her tears. Her heart beat rapidly in comparison with the still one below her.

He just wouldn't stop bleeding.

Her skin stung where the gun had been held so tightly minutes prior, now discarded beside the lifeless body at her feet.

The world rang in her ears, her eyes unfocused as they stared at the messy scene below. Guilt stabbed at her chest. Her stomach. Her throat. Anywhere it could easily insert its blade of suffering. Bile rose, burning her from the inside out; her body ablaze yet her demeanor cold to the world moving so fast — too fast — around her.

The breath rushing into her lungs seemed to stop short, not enough air entering her slack mouth to allow her chest a moment of relief.

He breathes no air because of you.

Kehlani Silva was nine years old when she first killed. When she first watched life leave a person's eyes.
It was the driest of the mass amounts of blood that stained her hands.

He had broken in silently, sneaking up on her vulnerable father. The ruckus wakes the sleeping girl, her feet padding softly across the wood flooring before her eyes laid sight on the terrifying scene unfolding in the family room. Her wide eyes had landed on one of her fathers discarded guns. Her brain moved slower than her hands as they gripped the weapon, holding tightly and raising it in a near perfect fashion. She aimed it easily at the assailant's shoulder, her finger hesitating on the trigger for a moment as her mind finally caught up to her actions.

All she had to do was immobilize him long enough to allow her father and herself to escape.

He wasn't supposed to move.

Words began to echo through her frantic mind. Don't think, just shoot. Her dad's words were clear as day in her ears — as if he was standing right beside her at this moment.

Except he wasn't. He had a knife pressed tightly against his throat from the man she was hesitating to shoot. She squeezed her eyes shut as she inhaled deeply, the low light seeping back in as her exhale tumbled past her lips and her shaking finger pulled the trigger.

The loud shot echoed through the room, everything seeming to pause at the sheer volume. No sounds filled the room except the shocked breaths falling from three separate mouths.

Kehlani's eyes widened, tears dusting her cheeks as she stared at the man before her. He had moved. He wasn't meant to move. The bullet was aimed at his shoulder, aimed to injure not kill. Instead it lodged itself into his chest, straight through his heart.

His body crumpled to the floor, the knife falling from her fathers neck as he pushed away from the sofa he'd been seated on. His brown eyes glanced at the body behind the couch before landing on his staggered daughter. Before he could walk to her, block her view from the gruesome sight, she ran forward, falling on her knees beside the bleeding stranger.

Her hands pressed down harshly onto the bullet wound, more blood seeping past her hands from the pressure. She remained silent, exuding her heavy breaths as their invaders came to an end. Tears fell down her abnormally pale cheeks, her eyes intently focused on keeping pressure on the deceased man's chest.

Her father knelt beside her, removing her shaking hands from the body, the blood now dripping from her fingertips onto the carpet. She remained still for several minutes, just staring at the mess she made.

The life she destroyed.

Her hands finally lifted, spreading blood across her cheeks as she attempted to wipe away her pathetic tears. More fell as panic surged through her body, the smeared blood stinging as though someone cut her a thousand times, searching for something unknown beneath her maroon flesh. Sobs racked her chest as she tried to scrape it off, her skin becoming raw under her sharp nails.

The pain was nothing compared to what he must've felt.

Hands closed around her waist, lifting her from the stained carpet as her cries continued to fill the eerie silence.

She was a murderer.

Maybe that's what she was always destined to be.