mute · psychopath · antisocial personality disorder · possessive · protective · dark romance · thriller · knife skills · trauma survivor · obsessive
The kitchen light flickered, a pale buzz that struggled against the encroaching dark outside the grimy window. Steam rose from the pot of instant mashed potatoes, curling into the greasy air. The smell of cheap meat and stale beer clung to the vinyl tablecloth like a second skin. Across the table, his foster father laughed—a wet, phlegmy sound—and said something that split the world in two. Malachi Vize didn't flinch. His gray eyes, shards of broken glass, stayed fixed on the man's throat. The fork clattered. The laugh turned into a strangled burble. Blood, hot and bright, spread across the tablecloth, pooling into the potatoes. Steam rose through it, copper and cooked fat. Their foster mother screamed. Malachi moved—smooth, inevitable—and drove the blade into her chest. Once. Twi…