♟️Let the World Burn by Chris Grey
❄︎ ❄︎ ❄︎
I killed someone.
It all happened too fast.
After a heated fight with Tristan in my mother's home, which I've been forced to call mine too, I left the house in the middle of the night for a run in the woods, to ease the anger overflowing from my body. I didn't think anyone would appear in the middle of the woods that surround the Victorian villa of the De Vere Beauclerk, because the whole territory was said to be fucking safe. I've taken strolls in it before, as I was never one to be scared of the dark.
These woods are entirely part of the De Vere Beauclerk's property.
That is, until someone began to follow me in the shadows like a creep, which I initially took it to be Tristan, since it's his family's property and he knows it like he knows himself. I yelled at the person, thinking it was the demon I'm familiar with, telling him to stop with the fucking prank, because it was not funny. But it took me a minute to realize that the steps were nowhere as confident and consistent as Tristan's have always been ever since I met him, in December of 2021, back when he still had no idea who I was.
It was what made me turn my head around, because I knew the sound of his steps by heart now, since my oh-so-precious made the damning decision to set me in a suite right in front of his, even though I asked her to put me as far away from him as possible, and those were not his steps. They were heavier, louder, pretty much stomps. Tristan's steps are like that of a predator, you have to focus to listen him around, he walks around like a panther, confident and silently, as if he's hunting a wary animal.
Which meant there was a real creep following me, in the woods, in the middle of the night. Like any woman in my situation, I grew instantly alarmed. So, when I looked behind me and saw Christian Beaufort, one of the only common enemies I and Tristan had since I began to attend Stryker Prep Elite, after my father died and I had to move in with my mother, nausea crawled up my throat and a horrible feeling installed itself into my bones.
I had never met him out of the school, definitely not without Tristan unwillingly around me, and one hundred percent not in the woods. And if there was someone in SPE with a worse reputation than Tristan de Vere Beauclerk, that someone was Christian Beaufort and his other two twin brothers, because the devil had to be a triplet. His reputation around the girls was the worst possible, as he assaulted more than a dozen and raped another handful who weren't powerful enough to fight against him, and fundamentally, against the Beaufort.
I've never been one to be scared, I am my father's daughter, he taught me that fear can be a weakness that will be exploited by anyone, it was an obstacle to being perfect, and I am an older sister of twins who used to depend on me, I couldn't afford the luxury of being scared. But fuck, if finding Christian Beaufort following me in the woods didn't made me nearly pee myself with the icy-cold fear that crept deep into my bones. Especially not when I saw the disgusting intent darkening his shit-brown eyes, that were shadowed by his dirty blonde hair falling over his forehead.
But I wasn't scared of him, but of what he could do to me, he could never scare me as he is, only with something he could do to me in a situation like this. If I were to be scared of someone, that place would be more deserving of Tristan than anyone else, and even then, I'm not scared of him either.
Even if that's probably all he wants, to make me scared of him, which he's failing.
Not because he can't be scary, but because it's not fear that he installs in me at all.
Christian, on the other hand, only installs disgust in my being, and he's the rapist, pedophile, incestuous, sickening kind of creep, nothing like the life-threatening kind that Tristan is. I feel repulsed by him, which makes it even worse that he's the one who's chasing me in this bloody moment.
The books warned me: never trust a blonde, if the blonde in case is a male.
I am not known for being dumb, even less stupid. Reckless? Sure, absolutely, but never when it really fucking matters. So, I didn't even need a second look to instantly know I wouldn't win a head on fight.
Why? Well, there are three reasons:
1st: Christian is 193cm tall, bulking and huge in muscles like a damn bull. While I'm barely 167cm tall, and my body may be toned as an athlete, but I'm an ant near him.
2nd: He's strong enough to be one of the key players of Stryker Prep Elite infamous hockey team, of which Tristan is the damned Captain, and the reason why they're known as infamous ain't a good one, but related to how all of them tend to get aggressive for many reasons.
3rd: The Beaufort family are known for their martial arts tradition, and while each of the his twins are black belt in one, Christian's both a karate black belt and a skilled boxer, and he was never known for being a gentleman who wouldn't beat up a woman, because he also has bad record on that, for all that matters.
"Fancy meeting you here, Cinderella," he purred, calling me by the way Tristan calls me mockingly, which always sets me off, because Tristan have his reasons to call me that, but those pieces of shit have nothing to do with our conflict. "I was expecting to find Prince Charming here," that's how he calls Tristan when he speaks with or in front of me, "but finding you is even better. Why haven't I seen you in such a beautiful night gown before? I bet you'll look better without it, I've been dying to have a taste of your body ever since you sky-fell in SPE. I can't let Tristan have all the fun with that pretty body of yours, can I?"
His voice may sound smooth and soft to those who don't know him, but that's the only pseudo-soft thing in his existence. To me, he doesn't sound like anything but the psychopath that he is. No diagnosis needed.
"Shit," I cursed, and when panic took over me, I did what any person would do in my place, I ran for my life, not looking back.
"I fancy some adrenaline, Cinderella," he chanted eerily. "Run, I'll catch up with you, but put up a good run, don't disappoint me, don't get me so thrilled for nothing, yeah?"
My blood turned to ice and I ran, ran as fast as I could, putting all I learned in the track and field team of my past school back in Los Angeles, into practice, desperately trying to make up for the lethal difference in the length of our legs. But he didn't give me the time, before I could even rationalize what the hell was fucking happening, Christian was grabbing me by my left arm and yanking me farther left, deep into the woods, making me hit my back and head hard on a tree. A painful cry leaving my lips.