Your Heart Is Mine (Our Hearts Are Lost Book 1)

by Nicole Thorn

  He kept driving, and I gave him directions to my house. While he drove, I played with the handcuffs. He’d made them really loose, but I still clacked the metal together. I almost wanted to have him bring me home later like this. It would get some kind of reaction out of my parents.

  When we got to my house, Deputy Barker pulled up to the driveway. He shut the car off and removed the cuffs, putting them back on his belt. “I’ll walk you to the door.”

  “How very gentlemanly of you.”

  He waited for me to reach him when I got out, and he kept pace with me as we silently walked to my door. I unlocked it and turned to face the officer.

  “Thank you for bringing me home,” I said.

  He nodded. “I’m going to make this right. I promise.”

  “I believe you.”

  He asked for my car keys, and I handed them over. “I’ll get this back to you tonight.”

  I put my hands on his shoulders, pulling him down and lifting myself up. After I gave him a peck on the cheek, I said, “You are a sweetheart.”

  He looked a little lost when I released him and opened my door. He righted himself before I could close it. “Lock all your doors,” he told me.

  “Way ahead of you. Can’t leave myself vulnerable to homicidal maniacs, now, can I?”

  He half-smiled. “Yeah, not a smart thing to do.”

  I thanked him again and gave him a salute. “Deputy.” I nodded with purpose.

  He nodded back. “Lynnie.”

  I felt a grin pulling at me. When he started walking, I watched him until he got in his car and drove away.

  CHAPTER SEVEN:

  Rapture

  Isaiah

  I despised being touched. Skin to skin contact made me want to flinch and take off. It repulsed me almost as much as my contact repulsed other people.

  So why did my body feel like a lightning storm when she kissed me?

  I could still feel the spot on my cheek, like she left a tattoo on me, still pleasantly stinging. I should have told her not to do that again. In all honesty, I knew she should have stayed far, far away from me. Everyone should have. Touching went a step too far, and when I had already crossed the line by a mile. I wouldn’t let it happen twice.

  It could almost eclipse the growing anger in my center. One of Lynnie’s teachers hurt her. Touched her when she didn’t want to be touched. Even with all this anger, I felt a small bit of joy. A flicker really, but it existed. My drought would end tonight.

  I had hours before I could do it, but the anticipation felt electric in my veins. It calmed me somehow. It would give me a false sense of settlement until the real thing came.

  For now, I had a couple of things to do. First, I had to get Lynnie’s car back home. Second, I wanted to know more about the woman who hurt her. I didn’t research my projects often, but this felt like a special case. A monster that needed to be put down.

  The car would come later because it would be tricky to get around without one. The second I dropped Lynnie’s car off, I would be without transport. I couldn’t leave my car at the station, or someone would see it. Oh well, I’d figure that out later.

  When I got back, I didn’t speak with anyone. They all had their noses in something else anyway. Instead of chatting, I went to my computer and turned on our database. I knew all of the teachers’ names, which made this easy. Louise Finch went into the search as I looked for anything I could find on her.

  No arrest record, unfortunately. I had other ways of finding things out and we had resources. Another few minutes of typing and I started finding things. All of the info on her driver’s license laid out before me, including her address. I didn’t have time to wait for her to get home, so I would do it in the school. I had a plan.

  Years of hunting in isolation made me fairly decent at the game. I knew my way around computers. I knew how to get into places that I didn’t belong.

  A person didn’t go from zero to attacker in five days, normally. So I checked the pharmacy records next. Hacking into it proved easy, at least when you knew what to do and could cover your tracks. Sure enough, I found something.

  Finch took a few meds. A tranquilizer, then a muscle relaxer, and some things that really had nothing to do with her behavior. I supposed she might have just been a good old-fashioned asshole with a power complex. Simple as that.

  “Whatcha doin’?” Barbie chirped, sliding up to my desk. She sat on top of it, and I didn’t have a fucking clue that she had arrived until she pushed my things out of her way to make room. Quickly, I pulled up a file from The Ripper case, as those damn teenagers kept calling him.

  “Do you need something?” I asked with a sigh.

  She shrugged. Shrugged. “Just saying hi. You were gone.”

  “Working,” I told her. “You were there when Draper sent me to the school.”

  “Ah.” She laughed. “Forgot. Must have slipped my mind. What are you doing now? Do you wanna get something to eat? I normally meet up with my sister, but I’d love to grab something with you.”

  “I already ate,” I lied. Food seemed like such a small thing at that moment. I probably wouldn’t even eat for the rest of the day. This little airhead needed to get the hell away from me before I decided to warm up by using her. “You should just go on without me.” I hadn’t ever gone out to eat with her, so I couldn’t understand why she tried so hard now.

  She stared down at the keyboard. “Okay. Well, guess I’ll see you later.”

  I didn’t even watch her walk away.

  ****

  The sun went down and I changed into my street clothes. I didn’t want to be seen wearing my uniform. It may attract attention that I couldn’t deal with at the moment. I had to be extra careful, doing it so close to home. I would be breaking my own rule, but for a good reason.

  I had parked my car on Lynnie’s street, far enough down that she wouldn’t see it if she went outside. I used her car because no one would notice it. Her keychain had a little whisk and spoon hanging from it, and I found myself staring at them while I sat in her car, waiting. She must’ve liked cooking, or baking. I could see it in my head if I closed my eyes. Her dancing around a kitchen, making something from nothing. She would bring light to the whole damn room.

  I hid behind trees and dim lights. I could still see the school from where I stood. I could see the car that belonged to Finch, but too many other cars surrounded hers. The band had practice and I could hear them from where I hid. That meant a countless number of potential witnesses. I wouldn’t count on that one. It didn’t mean I wouldn’t do what I needed to do. This place should be safe from all the monsters. If one monster had to take out another, then I would.

  I got out of the car and started skulking around. I kept to the shadows, even without people outside. The kids would be in the gym, but they could come outside any moment. I wouldn’t enjoy killing a teenager, especially for something like that.

  Slipping into the school proved easy enough. They left it unlocked for the teachers that stayed late and the kids that came back for various after school activities. You’d think with a killer on the loose, they’d be careful. Nope. Not in this town. Not when it would be easier to ignore it.

  The halls were dark and the band music got louder. Good. That meant they wouldn’t hear Finch screaming. I could make her scream until her lungs deflated, and I would be fine. How refreshing.

  I brought gloves, since I hadn’t lost my mind. My prints had to be all over the school, but they couldn’t be in the classroom or on whatever I used to kill the bitch. They’d come in, sweep the place, and find hundreds of sets of prints. I had been here for the bomb scare, so it wouldn’t be odd for them to find my prints. Perfect.

  I got to the right classroom, and I opened up the door. That rage and joy bubbled up in me again when I saw Finch. She sat at her desk, headphones in her ears. She couldn’t hear me. I could have taken advantage of that, but then where would the fun be?

  When I closed the door, I star
ed at it. Lynnie said that she had been pinned against it. Her teacher trapped her there, making sure she knew who had the power. Lynnie had told me she felt like she couldn’t move. She felt like her body had frozen, and that she didn’t have the choice to do it, even if she had the ability. I couldn’t imagine not being able to defend myself, so I couldn’t connect with her on that level. Nothing would erase the image of fear and guilt in her eyes. Guilt. Such pain, that gave me. Something I couldn’t fix.

  “Oh,” the soon to be dead woman said over the band noise. She’d yanked her headphones out. “Sorry, trying to drown out the noise. Can I help you?”

  Even from where I stood, I could see the edge of wildness in her eyes. The slight off-ness in them. Her hands shook ever so slightly, and her skin looked pale. It would be a mercy, ending her.

  I smiled as I locked the door. “Yes, you can.”

  Those wild eyes looked to the lock. “Um.” She took a step back. “What do you want?”

  I moved forward, taking sure and slow steps. “You. I’m not one that really likes chatter during this activity, so you can shut your mouth now.”

  She made a quick break around her desk and past me, but that had been a poor choice. I caught Finch around the middle and slammed her into the wall. She made a pained sound that sounded like a symphony to me. Finally, my wait would be over. I could silence the noise in my head, and I could go on knowing I had made the right choice in target.

  My hand went to her throat, holding her in place. “I’m sure you’d like to know why I’m doing this.”

  She nodded and spoke in a raspy voice through my grip on her. “Please… don’t…”

  I smiled. “Oh, but I have to. You did something bad, so now I have to do something bad. We can’t fix what you’ve done,” I hissed.

  When I spotted the massive pair of metal scissors on her desk, pleasure swelled in me. My hand wrapped around the handles and I pulled them to me. They would work nicely.

  She struggled and struggled, but that didn’t keep me from sinking the scissors into her stomach and wrenching them upward. Her eyes widened as she screamed over drums and horns and cheering. I couldn’t have planned it any better.

  Finch didn’t die quickly though, as she reached for the metal that had her pinned to the wall. I laughed. She didn’t seem pleased. She looked at me like I was… well, a monster. It didn’t hurt. I didn’t mind.

  A stomach wound would go too slowly, and I wanted it to end now. The anticipation made my blood sizzle. My hands went to her neck and I pressed down. Hard, but not hard enough to make it go too fast. She still had room to struggle.

  Finch’s hands weakly scratched at mine and I could not keep the pleasure from my expression. I watched the life in her eyes fade. Her pulse weakened and her breathing became nonexistent. The moment she was gone, I felt the life leave her and enter me. Ecstasy. I knew it would only last a few moments, but for now, I felt solid. Real, in a ghostly way, like I could feel a soul pass through me, tricking me into feeling like it belonged to me.

  When I released Finch, she slumped over.

  I didn’t kill this close to home usually. I could think of a dozen ways to get rid of a body, but it wouldn’t be easy in a school. I’d take the easy way out.

  We already had a known monster on the loose, after all.

  It would be easy, mutilating this body. I’d been planning it out all day. I began my work, taking up some things from her desk, along with an empty jar. I began pinning her to the wall. I timed the hammering with the beat of the band, using the heavy jar.

  I started with her hands, using pens to nail her up. Then some pencils in her throat. Staples went into her clothes for extra support. I had to dig in the drawers for more tools, but she had plenty for me to use. I tried to break through her skull with another pair of scissors in her eye, but it wouldn’t go. I left them there, and tried not to pout.

  Each item dug into her flesh, sliding into the wall with violent force against the jar I slammed into it. I pierced muscle and fat mostly, making my job much easier.

  Once she hung firmly against the wall, I had to put the finishing touches on her. I grabbed hold of the scissors and ripped them up her middle. I stepped out of the way quickly enough to not get her bright red blood splashed on my shoes. That would have been hard to get out, and I’d like to get some sleep tonight.

  Crimson poured onto the floor in chunks, staining the white tile. The smell overwhelmed the normal scents of her classroom, but nothing I’d gotten used to such things. I watched for a moment as the blood spread, leaking into the cracks in the tile. They’d never get that out. My handiwork would always remain.

  An issue arose. I couldn’t take her organs with me. I decided to lay them out on the floor. They might believe that The Ripper didn’t take them because they had gotten dirty. It didn’t really matter. No matter what I did, they would assume the Ripper had done this. They’d never look my way.

  I looked at my work and took a cleansing breath. The band still played, and their noise would cover my exit.

  I didn’t collect trophies. I did this for the release. I wanted to leave it all behind and move on until the pressure built again. The cycle would repeat over and over until I died. I didn’t know any other version of bliss. This felt like the only thing I could hold onto.

  I slunk out of the classroom, looking in each darkened direction. I flicked the light off before I closed the door behind me.

  I couldn’t get blood in Lynnie’s car. Nothing that could tip her off or put her in a dangerous place. The teacher’s blood would make her a suspect if discovered in her car, and I didn’t know if I would be able to get her out of it. So, I shoved my dirty gloves into my pockets before I checked myself for blood. I had some light spray on me, but nothing that would get on the car. I had been careful. Plus, I had a backup for a little later.

  I drove to Lynnie’s house and parked beside my car. As quickly as I could, I changed in the darkness. I shoved the bloody clothes into a bag and wiped the blood from my hands, then I checked my face. I looked completely normal. I had on an outfit much like the one I wore before.

  After I looked presentable, I got back into Lynnie’s car and parked in her driveway. No other cars had appeared since I’d dropped her off, so I assumed her parents had left her alone. Not safe, I thought. Someone so small and fragile needed to be protected.

  A little light showed through a window on the bottom level of the three-story house. It looked like the light a TV would cast. I suspected it came from Lynnie’s bedroom. She has money, obviously.

  I rang the bell, twirling the keys in my hand. I could find the one to the door, unlock it, find her.

  Ever the predator.

  It didn’t matter because the door opened.

  Lynnie stood at her five feet and two inches, managing to look even smaller in her pajamas. They consisted of irresponsibly short shorts and a t-shirt. Both thin… very thin. Her curls looked wild. Her cheeks flushed, and those evergreen eyes of hers had turned bloodshot and puffy. But she looked like she’d just been woken up. Maybe she cried herself to sleep.

  Couldn’t fix it. Couldn’t make it better. She needed to work through it on her own. I didn’t know what it felt like to hurt like that. I hardly knew what it felt like to feel anything.

  Lynnie yawned, stretching her arms over her head. For no reason, she lifted to her tiptoes and wiggled her fingers in the air. Suddenly, something new and powerful hit me. Something light and peaceful. Happiness? I had a dozen sequential daydreams of putting my hands on her waist and pushing her inside the house, slamming the door behind us. Pressing her to the wall and pushing my hand up her shirt. Yanking those shorts off of her and lifting her up before she moaned, digging her nails into me, my name on her lips. I wanted to look into her eyes as she broke apart.

  “Deputy?” she yawned, pulling me away from the dreams. “For me?” She pointed to the keys in my hand.

  I still hadn’t recovered. Never in my life had I felt
that pull — never had I wanted someone as badly as I wanted her right then. I didn’t want it, this want. I would have erased it from my mind if I thought I could have. I didn’t need the complication, the distraction, or the trouble. Not only that, but I couldn’t ignore the voice in my head that screamed this would be wrong. That it would’ve been too much, even for me. I was a killer, yes, but I didn’t want to be this kind of monster as well. I wouldn’t be any better than her teacher? Lynnie was three years younger than me, but it might as well have been a decade. But this… with her…

  Why did it matter now?

  “Okay,” Lynnie whispered, taking the keys from my hand and brushing my skin. It set me on fire. Every place she touched me burned.

  “Sorry,” I said. “I was distracted. Worked late.”

  She nodded. “Yeah… I was—” She yawned. “I was sleeping. I think I dreamed about s’mores,” she slurred. “Or…” She tried to gesture with her hands, but it didn’t mean anything. Her eyes closed. “…those, those um, graham cracker ones. Chocolate coated. Cold. Put in the freezer.” She opened her eyes. “You should put them in the freezer. Chocolate cookies are good that way. And… M&Ms. Reesee’s Piecies…” She blinked her eyes unevenly and did not explain her pronunciation on Reese’s Pieces. “The cups.” She stared at my chest, looking so confused. Her lips pressed in a line and her brow pinched, like it angered her that she couldn’t say what she meant. I found it fucking adorable, and I’d never used that word before.

  I smiled at her like I’d never seen the before. “You should go back to sleep.”

  She nodded and licked her soft lips. “Yeah. More s’mores. That’d be good.”

  “Goodnight, Lynnie.”

  She smiled at the ground. “I like that. No one says that. All Roce. Don’t like Roce.” She dropped her keys on the little table by the door. “Goodnight, Dep’ty.” She nodded again and swayed, barely catching herself. Her hand touched my face. She yawned as she swept her thumb under my eye. “So tired, you are. Go to bed. Dream of freezer cookies.”