Salted Caramel Coffee (COMPLETED!)

Chapter Twenty Three} $p¡dęr$¡łk

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Unmasked
I prefer not.

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I feel like my insides are being eaten out by spiders, pincers grabbing ahold of my veins and crawling away with them. I want to cry. I want to scream. I want to throw a chair at Jansen's head, and have her teeth scatter across the floor.

     So I laugh.

    "You want me to write?" I chuckle, pretending that I'm not close to tears. "That's funny."

     Jansen shakes her head. "It is for me." She says, her eyes staring daggers into mine. "You think you're entitled to do whatever you want, Wolfe, but you're not."

     I stop laughing right away, the actual realization that I might have to go to the Graveyard finally settling in. I can't go- I'll rot faster than Black did! "L-Listen Maddy." I try, failing to hold the exterior I've made for myself.

"It's Molly."

"Nobody cares!" I shout, slamming my fist on the glass. My heart is racing so fast, I can feel it beating in my chest, pulsing over and over, the sound pounding in my ears. "Jansen, I can't write, okay? I don't think you understand. I've tried to write. Words don't make sense to me."

Jansen flicks her pencil around her thumb idly. "Maybe that's cause you only speak sarcasm."

My whole face flushes red, a warm feeling blossoming in my chest. And not a good one. "What'd you say to me?"

Jansen sighs, setting her pencil down on the table. "Look, Wolfe. I'm just trying to say that maybe if you just smiled more-"

She doesn't get to finish her sentence. Before she can, I pull my arm back and thrust my fist as hard as I can into the glass wall. I let out a shriek, pain shooting up from my fingers into my shoulder, knocking me in the head. Dazed, I glance over to the glass to see the damage I made. A huge crack spiderwebs over the wall, stemming from a dent that's knocked into it.

My hand pulses with pain, every movement making it hurt worse. I fight every instinct I have to look down at my fist. Without looking down, I run my thumb over my knuckles. It's wet. I could hit it again and shatter the glass completely, but I don't think I could handle the pain that would follow.

"Careful, or the next one goes into your face." I hiss, collapsing into the white chair.

Unfazed, Jansen shuffles her papers. "I don't think that'll be necessary."

She doesn't even look at the crack I made. I want her to, if I'm being honest. But it's no more than five seconds after she finishes speaking that a loud crackling sound echoes through the room, popping and snapping in my ears.

My jaw drops in shock as I watch- right in front of my eyes- the glass weld itself back together. Like, I'm not even tripping here- the glass is repairing itself.

Starting at the very outside of the dent, the little threads of spider silk-like cracks begin to disappear, on millimeter at a time. Impossible. I think to myself. But how can it be impossible if it's happening right in front of me.

Even more than shock, I feel anger, raging through my veins like a forest fire, knocking down anything and everything that gets in its way. "You bitch!" I shout, tugging at my hair.

Jansen narrows her eyes, flicking her pencil again. "Some things, you just can't control." She says. "You can't have power over everyone, and you certainly can't have power over the legal system. It's not your choice."