Chapter 4

~THE MONSTER~

(Hours Earlier)

My cock is throbbing painfully as I think of Elena’s mouth sucking it with those full lips that sits pretty on her face. But it’s not her mouth that gets me twitching; it's the fear in her eyes when she caught me in the dark. My palms grip my dick harder. I stroke roughly, trying to come to the image of her imbibed in the rot of my mind, but the memories alone aren't having much effect on me. I used to come faster just by thinking of her, but tonight all attempts are proving futile.

I pull out my cellphone and open my gallery. The first image that pops up is the one from last night. Elena’s full round breasts are staring at me with those hardened pink buds. I wish I’d taken them into my mouth and sucked on them until they turned a darker shade of red, flushed with need.

My sexual appetite is strong. I have to jerk off to her name four times a day. At least. I’m afraid refraining from her and jerking off to her pictures no longer sustain me. I need her. I need to feel my rock hard dick inside her warmth as she welcomes me in. I close my eyes, visualizing the exact way her skin ignited when I touched her, the sharp intake of her breath when my gloved fingers rolled her nipple. My strokes get intense, my breathing ragged.

“Fuccck.” A low growl escapes my chest as warm liquid spills out of me like lava, splashing onto the bathroom wall, dripping from my hands and onto the floor. “Look what you’ve made me become, Little Bird. Look what you made me do.”

I don't take my eyes off Elena on the screen. Almost fully naked. Helpless and beautiful. My thumb traces the curve of her waist over the glass.

She’s mine. Fucking mine.

I clean myself up and enter my room. I pick up my custom-made necklace which has Elena’s ring (the one I picked from her room) attached to the chains, and wear it around my neck. She doesn't even realize some other things are missing. Her golden ring. Two pictures of her from a one-summer solo holiday in the Bahamas. Leggings and a black hairband.

I need to rest. But I can’t seem to sleep. I turn on the monitor and there she is on the screen, in real life, hauling her bag out of her room. A wicked smirk curls at the edges of my lips.

Run all you want, Little Bird. You can never run from me.

My eyes dart to the next screen where she’s now in the living room. I hear her conversations with Nathan. It was high time he discarded her so I could pick up her pieces and fix her. Her mother calls. Elena’s more broken than before. But then Jessica arrives and convinces her to whore around.

Fuck me! Her best friend is grating at my nerves.

*****

And now I’m in the Vanguard, watching her from the shadows. She’s dressed like that! For another man! Well, it won't be for long now. She’ll dress that way for me. Only me. I’m about to appear before her, unmasked, when Elena spots him. And chooses him. I send her a warning to stay away from him, but she defies me.

I don't want to hit her or torture her for kissing him. We have a good thing going on. She wants me. I’ll just prove to her that I'll always be her shadow who keeps her tethered to a world that doesn't make sense. Hopefully, she’ll realize she needs me. Not want. Need.

And now I’m standing outside Santiago’s house, thinking of ways to punish her later for her disobedience. I adjust my mask and enter the bastard’s house. They will be here any minute now. Elena doesn't know Santiago is a parasite who targets popular content creators, drug them, record their degradation, and sell the footage to the highest bidder on the dark web.

He never wanted a fake boyfriend gig; he wanted her massive following and her pretty face to line his pockets. I wasn't going to kill Santiago before tonight. He’s a small fry. Insignificant. But now? He has put his hands on my Little Bird. He has looked at her chest. He has breathed her perfume. And kissed her pretty mouth.

Santiago has every reason to die now.

I know exactly where he’ll take her. I slip into the spacious bedroom and dump an envelope on the nightstand. Then I hear his car screeching to a stop downstairs. I become the monster hiding under his bed. I watch him carry Elena into the bedroom, kissing her like she belongs to him. It takes everything in me not to reveal myself.

I tune out her sweet, breathless moans, and focus on the reason I’m here. To show her the monster she had willingly run to. She has a habit of flinging her shoes the second she gets home. She does exactly the same thing in Sanigao’s room. I watch his pants and boxers fall to the floor.

“Ohhh,” Elena gasps. “Are we doing that… are we fucking right now?”

“If you want me to be your plus one, then yes.”

Their combined weight drops onto the mattress above me. The wood shakes under their rhythm and her moaning gets louder. She didn't moan like this when I touched her. No. I’m sure she's not enjoying it with Santiago. She's trying to outrun her mother’s cruelty, and the fact that Nathan dumped her. She’s using him to forget.

Why is the bed creaking so hard? Is he actually fucking my Little Bird? Already?

“I can't do this,” I hear Elena say as she breaks their heated kiss.

“Why?” Santiago asks, slightly pissed.

“We just met.”

“That’s not a good enough reason not to have sex with me. Wait here. Let me get you something to help you relax. You’ll enjoy it, I promise.”

“Umm—okay.”

Santiago steps out of the room, his half-limp dick dangling between his legs. Left alone in the bedroom with me lurking just inches beneath her, Elena lets out a shaky breath and sits up. I count to three and then hear the rustle of paper. I smile. That’s my girl. She’s taken the bait. I know how curious Elena is, that's why I left the envelope directly in her line of sight.

I hear her pulling out a handful of printed, incriminating photos from the envelope, stills of Santiago standing over unconscious, naked women, holding his camera with a smug, disgusting grin. She’s not dumb. She knows those girls in the photos were helpless, drugged, and abused. And Santiago is about to do the same thing to her.

I imagine the terror on her face as she hurriedly slides off the bed. Her bare feet pads over the carpet, right within my reach. The front door opens and closes. Santiago walks back into the room, a glass in one hand and two small blue pills in the other.

“Here you go, sweetheart—”

“You sick, disgusting piece of shit!” Elena shrieks, slamming the photos against his chest.

The glass shatters, some shards slide under the bed where I’m hiding.

“Where the fuck did you get those?”

“Touch me and I'll kill you! You drug women? You abuse them and record them? Fuck you!”

Santiago lunges forward, his heavy hands slamming around her throat, pinning her against the dresser. “Shut the fuck up! You think anyone is going to believe a horny content creator who followed me home? You're going to do exactly what I want, or I'll make sure you never walk again.”

Elena chokes, her fingers clawing at his wrists. This is my cue to intervene. I’m about to slide out from under the bed, but I’m taken aback when I hear a heavy thud, and then hear Santiago scream in pain.

Did Elena just rip the heavy bedside lamp right off the nightstand and smash it directly into the side of his skull? Wow! I'm impressed.

“You’re not that strong,” she lashes out. “And for that microscopic size of a dick, you sure have a lot of nerve, bitch.”

The lamp hits the floor as she grabs her purse and bolts out of the room barefooted, breathing heavily. I see blood dripping on the floor. I’m glad it’s Santiago’s. I step out from the shadows, looking at Santiago from behind as he feels light headed, wiping blood from his eyes. He screams angrily, about to run after her when my voice makes him freeze.

“Going somewhere?”