Andi King didn't know how to play nice, because quite frankly, she didn't like people. She was a loner and that was how she liked it. Especially with a sadistic demon dead set on destroying her and anyone she got close to.
But that all changes when...
"So close, no matter how far Couldn't be much more from the heart."
Nothing Else Matters by Metallica
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I stared up at the small farmhouse as the memories swirled through my head. Every one of them was as sweet and loving as the one before until I fell on the last one. The one that took everything from me, just as it did the man behind me.
John had been staring at me from the moment I got there. Gun tight in my hand, and mascara smeared down my cheeks. I didn't think it would be this hard. Killing was what I did best. Vampires. Werewolves. Shapeshifters. Hell, even humans - but John... John didn't stand a chance, and it scared me more than anything to know that it would be just as easy.
"This is the first time I have been back here in over twenty-some years," I said, not turning to face him. "When I was younger, before I realized what had happened, I always told Chloe that we would come back and fix this place up."
"Your sister?"
My eyes fluttered shut at the thought of the radiant little girl I had pulled from this house. Tears demanded to fall, but I clenched my jaw tightly and turned around, not surprised to see John's gun pointed at me. I gripped mine tightly, my trembling fingers bouncing it off my thigh as I battled every urge to point it right back at him.
"She was like Sam," I started. He had asked me these questions a hundred times, but I never felt he needed to know until now, and it took everything in me to finally spill my truth. "He was her first. His strongest. The most valuable player in his sick fucking twisted game, and he did everything he could to make sure nothing would ever stop her from reaching her full potential."
"Why are you telling me this, Andi?"
"Because it's time I told someone. I carry it around with me every day, and nobody understands except you. Watching from a distance as someone you love changes right before your eyes."
John narrowed his eyes at me, unaware that I knew anything about Sam's condition. They had never told me outright. It was the one thing they kept to themselves, but I was observant and was really good at pretending to be asleep when they decided to have midnight chats about his death visions.
"He took my parents right here. Killed them. They didn't burn. They didn't suffer. They just ceased to exist right in front of me." I clenched my eyes as I tried to erase their crooked necks and collapsing bodies from my mind. "There was a bad storm that night, and that tree there fell on the front porch, just below our bedroom window."
I pointed at the giant charred oak that now laid across the whole of the house. I pushed back the memories of the days my father would push me in the tire swing he had made until my very pregnant mother would drag us in for dinner.
