Kill Me Softly

Prologue

Water falls from the heavens, parachuting off the edges of angry clouds and crash landing onto the unforgiving earth below. The droplets meet their end as they splash onto my skin and roll down my face. The fat beads of the sky's sadness mingle with my own tears and drip off the soft curve of my parted lips.

I stand, unmoving, before a small house, withered and broken with age. Abandoned, I let the rain pour down on me from the skies above as the weeds of the overgrown clearing brush my jean-clad calves. My white t-shirt is soaked and nearly transparent by now, but I can't muster the will to care.

All of my energy is focused on keeping my eyes on the ruined door with the chipped and faded cherry paint that Archer disappeared through. I don't care how wet I get, I'll wait as long as it takes for him to come back and pick up the pieces of my heart. He will come back, I know. Archer wouldn't hurt me like this. He loves me.

A hand rests on my shoulder and I reluctantly turn my head to see Ryder, soaked and blinking rapidly against the down-pouring rain. His wet lips are moving, but I don't hear what comes out. I don't care what he has to say, anyway. This is his fault. If he hadn't come to find me -if he'd just forgotten about me, I wouldn't be feeling this pain now.

I try to push him away, yelling at him to go away and that I hate him, but he just slips off his suit jacket and suffers my verbal assault in silence. Ryder drapes the sopping coat around my shoulders and puts a hand on the small of my back, barely touching me at all. The incubus pushes me away from the cabin -away from Archer- and I have to no choice but to follow him. Archer isn't coming back for me.

I look around the overgrown clearing, feeling a heat grow from behind my eyes and suddenly, I'm glad that it's raining. This way Ryder can't see my tears -this liquid weakness that drips from the edges of my face and free-falls into the grass. For so long, I'd been searching for this place -for him- and now that I've finally found it, I've lost it.

Where will I go now?

The question resounds in my head, echoing perpetually. I can't go back to my parents, I'm sure of that. They'll either kill me or force me to be their little monster again. I imagine starting a new life among the humans, but the appeal isn't there. The only place I really want to be is the home I'm leaving behind.

I look up at Ryder, who's decided my pace was too slow and now walks in front of me, and glare at the now translucent shirt that clings to the toned muscles of his back. If I look close enough, I can see the scars that cover his skin. I push away the empathy that comes automatically and cover it with anger.

I hate this man who walks so confidently before me. I will make him pay for what he's done to me. I swear this to myself as I stand in the pouring rain, I will make him pay if it is the last thing I do.