Heavy footsteps took me to the front door of their house. I didn’t want to go in. I’d successfully avoided the place for almost a year. Only seeing him every night at mine, Syler would sneak into my room like we were teenagers and hold me trapped to him all night. Tonight, he’d asked me to come to his place. His voice was strange on the phone call when he asked me to come. I’d never heard his voice sounding so... off before.

Arriving, I did something I’d never done before. I knocked on the door.

No answer followed my knock, but just as I went to put my hand on the door again, it opened with a smiling Toska on the other side of it. She waved me in, her smile not leaving her face as she did so. Walking in with her behind me felt weird. I couldn’t trust her, and having her behind my back didn’t make that any easier.

Then I saw him.

He was out of his room. He was never out of his room when we were here.

Syler lived in there unless he was at my house. His head was down between his legs, and he didn’t look up when I spoke his name. Her hand touched my shoulder, followed by her breath tickling near my ear.

What does she want?

“Syler.”

Her laugh sounded distant, but it wasn’t, because she was right behind me smiling.

“Syler... well, Syler is preoccupied right now.” She was laughing as she spoke to me. His head dropped to the side, then something sharp hit my neck. Pulling and turning away, Toska laughed.

“You always thought you were better than me, but I have news for you.”

I shook my head. Whatever she managed to put into my bloodstream was starting to make me feel lightheaded.

“What are you talking about?”

I stepped away from her but stepped closer to Syler. He didn’t look up as I positioned myself in front of him. He didn’t even reach out to touch me, and he always touched me. My hand went to touch him, but I pulled my hand.

“You know what I mean. You think you can come in here, unfriend me when I was the one who brought you in. I didn’t bring you in to play hooky with my brother. He isn’t yours, Jaya.”

Staring down at him, I waited for him to say something. But there was nothing. Turning, I faced Toska. She had a drink in one hand, and the needle that she stuck in my neck was held loosely in her other hand ready to drop to the floor.

“I didn’t take your brother away from you, Toska. He followed me like the Wolf he is.”

Her bottom lip turned up, and I knew I’d just made her angry. Or angrier.

“You’re a fucking liar!” She laughed loudly. “He warned me to not fuck with you, that you were his now. But did he think I would listen?”

Her head leaned in. Her eyes went wide. She was high. I crossed my hands over my chest, trying to not succumb to the drugs she’d given me, but the only problem was they were working their way through my system. And soon I would be at the drug’s mercy.

Maybe that was what she was waiting for? For it to affect me in full.

Would she do to me what she’d done to her past fucks because I’d seen what happened to them, throats slit and now dead?

“What did you do to him, Toska?”

She sat down on the sofa, the same one she usually passed out on when she was high, and her eyes looked up at me.

“I may have given him a taste.” Her eyes were on me, hard, then they skimmed to him then landed back on me. “Did you know he had a drug problem? Did you know he gets addicted, to everything? What do they call it...” her finger tapped her lips, “... addictive personality? Maybe that’s why he’s kept you around, he doesn’t realize he has to kick the habit.”

Shaking my head, I didn’t believe her words, I never did. Looking back over to him, I could tell he was trying to fight it. His fists kept on clenching then letting go. My vision started to blur. Closing my eyes and reopening them, I tried to fight it.

“What did you give me?” She smiled, and it was more than evil.

“Do you really need to know? Wouldn’t you rather die peacefully? The only reason I’m not slitting your throat is because I think he won’t like to clean the mess up, and I’m already going to make him mad as it is.” She rolled her eyes, and I wanted to punch them in. But like the silly girl that I was, I looked back to Syler, hoping he would snap out of it and tell me it would all be all right. None of that happened.

“What did you give me?” I asked this time a bit more forcefully.

She laughed. “I give it roughly another five minutes for you to pass out. Then it’s goodbye, Jaya.” She waved her hand in a bye-bye fashion, and I turned, going for the door. I managed to reach it, pulling it open, but she also managed to catch me before I could get any further. Her hand tightened on my arm. I had one foot out the door and one still inside. She tried to pull me in, but I stood my ground. Even if I was feeling weak.

“Don’t try me, Jaya, this is a game you will NOT win.”

My arm collapsed, and my body felt heavy like I was about to drop to the ground.

Her breath touched my ear. “It’s kicking in now. Can you feel it spreading like poison through your system?”

I nodded my head, even though I didn’t want to. It just seemed to happen.

“Syler,” I said his name again. This time he glanced up at me with glassy eyes. They squinted at me, but nothing else happened. Toska tugged my arm, pulling me back into her house. “What happened to your face, Toska?” I gathered all the strength I had and rammed my body into hers as hard as I could. We both landed on the floor, me on top of her, my fists rose, and I slammed them into her as hard and fast as I could muster. She laughed but didn’t stop me. Her mouth was bleeding, and her eye was busted, but she didn’t stop me. Instead, she just laughed harder.

“He doesn’t love you, he loves me.” She smiled then just as I was lifted, my body going flat.

“Shhhh....” I managed to turn my head. Taj was holding me up away from Toska. I fell into his arms, and I looked one last time, hoping Syler would get up and help me, but he didn’t.

***

“YOU CAN’T HAVE US BOTH, so I chose for you.” Toska’s voice came from somewhere, my eyes were too heavy to open.

“I don’t want both.”

He was awake.

Wait! Why wasn’t he telling her she was wrong? That she couldn’t have me.

I dozed in and out, only catching tid bits of their conversation.

“Taj gave me the drug. She won’t remember anything. But I don’t plan for her to remember, Syler, I plan for you to kill her. You will do that for me, won’t you? Like you did when we were kids. You’ll protect me from her. She wants to take you away from me. You promised me when we were kids you’d never leave me. You can’t leave me, Syler, so you must kill her.”

“Toska,” he said her name, then I felt a needle in my neck again. But I couldn’t move.

“This should kill her. If you don’t do it then this should do it.”

Syler said something else, but I couldn’t hear it.

My last thought was—why did I fall in love with the devil who had a wicked Hell Hound attached to him?