The Games We Play | ✓

10. TRISTAN DREAMT OF MONSTERS

10.
[TRISTAN DREAMT OF MONSTERS]

—

TRISTAN MET A girl he really liked.

She wasn't like anything he had ever seen before. Sweet, funny, and dreamy. She listened to him and understood him. It had only been a few hours since they met and granted, he was a little bit drunk, but he had never felt like this before.

"My God, you're beautiful," he whispered, gently pushing a lock of hair behind her ear.

She blushed and buried her head at the crook of his neck.

"Where have you been my whole life?" he wondered out loud.

"Waiting for you," she smiled, stepping on her tiptoes to kiss him.

Tristan melted against her touch. He cupped her face and kissed her back, desperately hoping she felt as drunkenly much for him as he did for her. Their lips moved in sync as their hands traced each other. She tasted like crystal liquor and smelt like strawberry poison. Tristan was getting lost in her.

"Well," a voice sounded to the right. "Color me heartbroken."

They pulled apart and Tristan turned to glare at the intruder.

"Fuck off, man," he muttered, upset when his companion stepped away from him.

"I don't think I will," the intruder raised his eyebrows in challenge.

"I'll – "

"You have poor taste in men, Charlotte," the man interrupted, staring straight at the girl.

Tristan glanced between his girl and the rude asshole interrupting his night. "Her name's Ashley. Now fuck off."

"Oh, is it?" the man said in a mocking tone. He shoved his hands into his pockets and rocked on his heels. If Tristan didn't know any better, it was almost as if he was picking a fight.

"Enough," the girl snapped. "What do you want, Reed?"

Tristan glanced between the two, confused and unable to form a connection. "Ashley, who's this?"

But the softness in his girl's eyes had disappeared, replaced with a darkness and ugliness that frightened him slightly. She seemed to have forgotten about him, not even sparing him a glance as she regarded the stranger.

Reed clenched his jaw and glared at Tristan, "Get out of here before I do something you'll regret."

Tristan straightened his shoulders and swallowed nervously, but he refused to back down. "I'm not going to – "

"Fucking idiot," Reed muttered before grabbing Tristan by the collar and slamming him against the wall. Reed punched him, and then he punched him again, and again, and again.

He kept punching until the once handsome lad was covered in blood, his face bent into a monstrous shape. Before Tristan could even begin to beg for his life, Reed slammed his head on a ledge. The sound of his skull cracking was the only thing that seemed to satisfy Reed's anger.

Reed stood and wiped the blood from his hands on his jeans. He spat on the ground where Tristan lay motionless, breathless, lifeless.

Charlotte let out an uninterested breath, "Was that necessary?"

Reed trained his murderous eyes on her. He grabbed her and pushed her against the wall where Tristan's blood dripped fresh.

"Are you trying to piss me off?" he snarled into her ear.

"Oh please," Charlotte hissed back, her tone just as deadly. "Don't tell me you're jealous."

Reed's entire body shook from fury, "Stop fucking around."

"What are you going to do about it?" Charlotte sneered. "Kill me?"

"Don't tempt me," Reed said harshly. He shoved her one last time before stepping away, his chest rising up and down in breaths of anger.

Charlotte wiped a stain of blood from her cheek. "You of all people should know how I feel about commands. Don't tell me what to do." She glowered at him, her eyes training bullet holes into his skin.

"You ruined it again," she muttered as she stared down at Tristan's leaking body. "I'm getting really sick of this."

"Ashley won't be missed," Reed said simply, refusing to meet her deadly gaze.

"No," she leaned in, close enough so that she could almost taste the blood on him. "I bet you wish Ashley was kissing you right now. Her hands running through your hair. Her traitorous lips roaming yours instead of his."

His bloodied fists clenched at his sides as he regarded her in silent anger.

"But you murdered her," she sighed and shook her head disapprovingly. "Like the monster you are."

"Don't kid yourself, Charlotte," he said darkly, wiping the blood on his shirt. "We're both monsters here. The difference between us is that you create them."