PRIDE | Book 1 of the Seven Sins Saga (Ongoing)

3 - "I'm so proud of you, Kaylee."

I don't know how long I sat in my car, crying, waiting to calm to down enough to drive home. I wasn't an idiot. I knew better than to drive when I was so utterly emotional. But it took forever for my breathing to normalize. Finally, I turned the key in the ignition, and took off, leaving the party and all my judgmental peers behind me.

How could I do this? I was so stupid to think I could just show up at a party. I was stupid to think I could actually have a good time or do something right for once. I should have just stayed home. Or maybe I should just run away.

The thought intrigued me. Maybe I should just run away. There was nothing for me here. My parents certainly wouldn't miss me. My parents probably wouldn't even know I was gone. Lily definitely wouldn't miss me. Especially after I had spilled her celebratory shot all over. I cringed just thinking about it.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid!" I cried out, beating my hand against the wheel. I was getting worked up again. I was becoming too emotional to drive. So I pulled over at a random roadside park that I had passed so many times in my life. I slammed on the breaks, the gravel shifted beneath my tires for a moment, before catching and stopping the car. I felt like I was suffocating. Was my car heater switched on? I was sweating buckets.

I turned off the car and stepped outside, my boots crunching against the gravel. I twisted around, slamming the door and looking at my reflection in the shadowed window of my car. The light of a nearby streetlamp illuminated my face, and it hurt me to even look at myself. I felt pathetic.

I turned and pressed my back against the cold metal of my car, feeling the brisk breeze of autumn swirling around me. I sighed at the relief, lifting my hair up off the back of my neck allowing the breeze to cool my heated skin.

I truly felt pathetic. I knew there were so many people who had it worse than I did. Here I was complaining about my life when actually I should consider myself lucky. I have parents, even though they are distant and probably wouldn't notice if I disappeared... at least I had them, right? And I used to have friends... until I pushed them away. But I have the memories, right?

"I'm pathetic," I whispered aloud to the wind as it kicked up, tossing my hair around in front of my face. I closed my eyes. It felt good. It felt like the wind could just blow me away. I wished it would. "I'm so ashamed," I whispered to the wind.

Quite suddenly, the wind died off completely as if the world was holding its breath. My hair dropped lifelessly to lie across my shoulders. I opened my eyes.

A figure stood just off the gravel parking lot of the roadside park, shrouded in shadows, but his jacket billowing in a breeze that I couldn't feel. I stood up straighter, all the hairs on my body standing up with me.

"Uh, hello?" I asked.

"You shouldn't be so hard on yourself," the figure said as he stepped farther out of the shadows. The streetlight fell across his face – the face of the most handsome man I had ever seen, but also the scariest. It was intimidating. His dark brows were dropped low over his eyes, which shone brightly against the shadows surrounding him. Every angle of his face looked as if it was carved from stone. He was a giant of a man, towering well over six-feet tall – maybe closer to seven feet.

My mouth went dry as he took a couple more steps closer to me, walking confidently and with such a purpose I had never seen.

"What do you want?" I asked, my voice wavering. "I don't have any money."

"I don't need any money." His voice was as smooth as chocolate and a part of me could listen to him talk all night. "Your distress called to me."

He stopped just a little over an arms-length away. The breeze that had been circling him began to circle me as well. An eerie feeling overfell my entire being. Something was off about this man. But yet something was wonderfully right, too. I yearned to know who he was. "What do you mean?" I asked, my voice still weak and afraid. "Who are you?"

He gave me a vivid smile of luminescent pearly teeth, like that of a model. "I'm here to help you," he said. "I have many names, but I personally prefer to be called the Dark King."

I gulped. That didn't sound good. And he sounded insane. "The Dark...King?" I repeated.

"Yes, you'll address me as Your Grace," he said, giving me that smile again. "I'm not a bad guy, but I do have a bit of a bad reputation. And I'm a sucker for formalities."

I slid my hand behind my back and gripped the handle of the car behind me. My instincts were telling me to stay. I was so tempted to find out more about this man. But rational thought had me wanting to run.

"You see," he continued. "I like to help people. And it was never my idea to give people free will. That was all his idea." He rolled his eyes upward before flicking them back to me. "And it's really been a hindrance to everyone."

"Look," I said, interrupting his little spiel. "I don't mean to be rude, but I really need to go. I have somewhere to be."

"You don't have anywhere to be," he said. "No one knows where you are. No one is coming to find you."

I'd had it at that point. This sociopath was going to murder me. I knew it. I turned my back to him and hurriedly pulled at the handle of my car. But the handle didn't budge. I tried over and over but it was locked. What the...? Had I locked myself out of my own car?

"Kaylee," he said, sounding much closer to me than I was comfortable with, his breath tickling the back of my neck. "I'm here to save you."

I screamed as a bright flash of light exploded all around me and an impossible pain ricocheted throughout my body. I dropped to the ground, landing on all fours as the pain escalated, my screams heightening along with it.

"Don't fight it!" I heard the man cry out from above me. "I'm saving you, Kaylee!"

I didn't feel like I was being saved. It felt like I was dying. I was being ripped apart from the inside. And suddenly it stopped. I had fallen to my back during the attack and was now staring up at the dark sky.

The Dark King loomed over me, a sick smile twisting across his face as spots began to dance across my vision. "There we go," he said to me. I heard him whisper something to me just before I succumbed to the darkness pressing in all around me.

"I'm so proud of you, Kaylee."