"Get the fuck away from my boyfriend."
Lila’s voice cut through the room like a blade.
Not just sharp.
Not just loud.
It split the air—like sothing physically tearing through it.
Low.
Controlled.
Deadly in a way that didn’t need volu to be understood.
For the first ti since I’d t her, there wasn’t even a flicker of hesitation behind it.
No uncertainty.
No fractured obsession bleeding through her tone.
Nothing unstable.
Just anger.
Pure, concentrated fucking anger.
The kind that doesn’t ask questions before it acts.
Even I felt it.
Even I—of all people—felt my stomach tighten at the sheer certainty in her voice.
The room froze.
Not gradually.
Instantly.
Every infected head turned at once, like sothing had pulled a string through them.
Red eyes locked between Lila and Reta in slow, synchronized shifts.
Like the entire room was waiting to see which one would blink first.
Reta, however, didn’t blink.
Her grin only widened.
Not a normal smile.
Sothing too pleased.
Too entertained.
Like this wasn’t a confrontation to her—it was an arrival she had been expecting.
"Your boyfriend?" she repeated.
The words dragged out lazily, coated in amusent.
Each syllable dripping like she was savoring it.
Her gaze drifted toward .
Up and down.
Assessing.
Then back to Lila.
"This one right here?"
She lifted a finger and pointed directly at .
Not hesitantly.
Not questioning.
Like I was an object she already understood the value of.
Lila didn’t answer.
She didn’t need to.
Her hands had already begun to move.
Open.
Closed.
Open again.
A slow, rhythmic clench that made her knuckles pale.
Her jaw flexed once.
Hard.
Controlled.
Her eyes never left Reta.
Not even for a fraction of a second.
And for the first ti—
Reta’s expression shifted.
Just slightly.
A pause in her grin.
A faint narrowing of her eyes.
Like sothing in Lila’s posture had just clicked into place in her mind.
Recognition.
Not of who she was.
But of what she was.
Then it was gone.
The smile returned.
Bigger.
Sharper.
Almost delighted now.
"Interesting..." she murmured.
I barely caught it.
But Lila didn’t hear it at all.
Her entire focus had already narrowed down to a single point: the woman standing too close to .
Reta tilted her head.
"How exactly does that work?"
Her tone wasn’t aggressive.
It was curious.
Almost conversational.
Like she was asking about sothing mildly inconvenient.
Lila didn’t move.
Didn’t react.
Didn’t even acknowledge the question.
"How can he be your boyfriend?"
Silence stretched.
Heavy.
Pressurized.
Reta let out a soft laugh through her nose.
"Seems a little unfair."
My brow tightened imdiately.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
No one looked at .
Not even Lila.
Reta’s attention stayed locked forward.
"Because from where I’m standing," she said slowly, "it seems like him and I have already shared a few intimate monts."
My stomach dropped.
Not taphorically.
Physically.
A cold, imdiate twist.
Intimate?
What the hell was she talking about?
Then her hand lifted.
Pointing directly at her shoulder.
At the bite mark.
My bite mark.
The room felt like it shifted.
Lila’s breathing changed instantly.
Not louder.
Not faster.
Deeper.
asured.
Like she was forcing control over sothing that wanted to break loose.
Reta noticed.
Of course she did.
And she smiled like she’d just been handed proof.
Then she crouched.
Slowly.
Unhurried.
Performative in the way predators move when they know they already have the advantage.
Her fingers slid beneath my jaw.
I jerked back imdiately.
Her grip tightened without effort.
Forced.
Unyielding.
My head was turned.
Directed.
Locked onto Lila.
"Tell her, sweetie," Reta said softly.
Almost affectionate.
"Tell her what we have."
Lila moved.
Not a step.
Not a shift.
She vanished forward—
CLICK.
Cold tal pressed into my temple.
The entire world stopped.
Pressure.
Instant and absolute.
I froze so hard my breath caught halfway in my throat.
Lila stopped too.
Mid-motion.
Like she’d slamd into invisible glass.
"Ah."
Reta’s voice was delighted.
"Ah, ah, ah."
The gun pressed harder.
"Co any closer..."
A pause.
Then, quieter:
"And I blow his fucking brains out."
The room died.
No movent.
No sound.
Even breathing felt illegal.
Lila didn’t speak.
But everything in her body changed.
The tension wasn’t just visible anymore.
It was physical.
Like she was being held together by will alone.
Reta noticed.
And smiled like that was exactly what she wanted.
"That’s it," she said softly.
"That’s it."
Her gaze drifted to Lila like she was evaluating a trained animal.
"Good girl."
My stomach twisted violently at the words.
Then she turned back to .
I imdiately looked away.
Her hand snapped to my face.
Forced back.
"Look at ."
I refused.
The grip tightened.
"Look."
Across the room—
I heard Lila inhale.
Sharp.
Broken.
Like sothing inside her had just cracked under pressure.
Then Reta leaned in.
Her lips t mine.
No hesitation.
No softness.
Just direct, deliberate contact.
My brain didn’t process it at first.
It simply...stopped.
For a second, there was nothing.
No thought.
No awareness.
Just wrongness.
Then she pulled away.
My chest dropped like sothing had been ripped out of it.
I looked imdiately—
At Lila.
Bad mistake.
Her eyes were no longer just red.
They were wrong.
Depthless.
Bright.
Feral in a way that didn’t feel human anymore.
Her breathing had turned uneven.
Each inhale sharp enough to feel like it cut the air.
The room felt heavier.
Like gravity itself had changed direction.
Reta stood.
Unbothered.
"Oh," she said casually.
"You’re angry."
No answer.
"Yeah," she continued, smiling wider.
"I can tell you’re—"
Lila scread.
It wasn’t just sound.
It was force.
The impact hit the room like a physical explosion.
My vision blurred instantly.
Pain shot through my skull.
My teeth vibrated.
The windows shattered outward in a violent burst of glass.
Dust and debris collapsed from the ceiling.
Every infected in the room dropped at once.
Reta staggered back, hands clamped over her ears.
Too late.
Lila moved.
The distance between them disappeared.
Reta fired.
BANG—
Miss.
Lila hit her like impact had weight.
Both of them were launched through the room, crashing into debris and overturned chairs.
The sound was chaos.
Wood breaking.
tal snapping.
Bodies hitting concrete.
Reta hit the floor hard.
Lila was already on her.
First punch.
CRACK.
Second.
Imdiate.
Third.
Relentless.
Reta’s head snapped sideways with each impact, blood spraying across the floor in sharp bursts.
She tried to block.
Barely.
Too slow.
Lila didn’t stop.
There was no rhythm.
No technique.
Just intent.
Violence without structure.
Reta suddenly drew a knife.
Flash of tal.
It drove into Lila’s hand.
Straight through.
The sound was sickening.
Lila didn’t even flinch.
Her other fist drove into Reta’s face.
Then again.
And again.
Reta’s nose collapsed inward.
Blood exploded everywhere.
Another punch split her eyebrow.
Another loosened teeth.
Reta finally managed to twist sideways.
Both won rolled.
Slamd into a support pillar.
The entire structure shook.
I pulled against my restraints.
Nothing.
The chains didn’t budge.
"Co on."
I gritted my teeth.
"Co on."
Nothing.
Then movent caught my eye.
The shattered window.
I looked.
Then looked again.
Naomi.
And Aubrey.
Holy shit.
Naomi imdiately tried peeking inside.
Aubrey grabbed her hood and yanked her back down.
Then she looked directly at .
Her hand motioned sharply.
Don’t look over here.
I imdiately understood.
If the infected noticed them—
We were screwed.
A mont later, Terri appeared beneath the window.
Then another figure.
Then another.
The others.
Relief hit so hard it almost hurt.
Inside, the fight continued.
Reta slamd Lila into a wall.
Lila imdiately returned the favor.
Concrete cracked.
Blood covered both of them now.
Reta laughed through broken teeth.
Lila answered by driving her forehead directly into Reta’s face.
CRACK.
The sound echoed through the room.
Then—
Aubrey slipped through the window.
Fast.
Silent.
Knife in hand.
She reached first.
"Don’t move."
"Wasn’t planning on it."
"Good."
She imdiately started cutting through restraints.
Nearby, Naomi and Terri dragged Hale toward the window.
The old man was still unconscious.
"Move faster," Aubrey hissed.
The room was chaos now.
Most infected were either dead or fleeing.
Others were too terrified to get close.
The final restraint snapped.
I imdiately stood.
Blood rushed back into my arms.
Pain followed.
I ignored it.
"Let’s go."
Aubrey didn’t argue.
For once.
We moved toward the window.
One by one.
Naomi climbed through.
Terri followed.
Then Hale.
Then Aubrey.
I was halfway through when I looked back.
Lila still hadn’t co.
Aubrey noticed too.
For the briefest mont—
Sothing passed across her face.
Sothing small.
Sothing ugly.
Then it disappeared.
"Adrian."
Her voice was flat.
"We need to go."
I looked back inside.
Nothing.
No movent.
No sign of her.
My chest tightened.
Then—
Heavy footsteps.
Everybody turned.
A figure erged from deeper within the building.
Covered in blood.
Covered in dirt.
Covered in pieces of people.
Lila.
She walked toward us slowly.
Breathing hard.
One eye swollen.
Blood running down her face.
But alive.
The second she stepped outside, I rushed toward her.
My arms wrapped around her before I even thought about it.
For a second she froze.
Then relaxed.
Just slightly.
Behind us, Aubrey rolled her eyes.
"Touching."
Nobody responded.
We left.
Fast.
None of us looked back.
Except inside the building—
Reta remained where she’d fallen.
Flat on her back.
Staring at the ceiling.
Blood pooled beneath her.
A knife protruded from her shoulder.
For a long ti, she didn’t move.
Then her hand rose.
Slowly.
Wrapped around the handle.
Pulled.
The blade slid free.
Blood followed.
Reta looked at the knife.
Turned it in her hand.
Examined the blood coating the tal.
Then smiled.
A slow smile.
A genuine smile.
The kind that ca from sobody who had just found exactly what they were looking for.
And sowhere inside the ruined building—
She started laughing.
Reviews
All reviews (0)