Page 128 of Adam
“Mom!” I gasped with wide eyes, running further.
She tried to grab the scissors, but instinctively, I kicked them far away.
Then she reached me, grabbed me by my shoulders, and slapped me hard in the face. Sometimes, I still feel her fingers burning on my skin. I’ve been cut, bled, punched so much in my life, I have so many scars across my body and soul, but nothing stings more than that slap from that night.
Because it wasn’t just pain. It was her telling me, clear as day, what I was worth.
“No!” I thrashed in her grip, but she was stronger, her fingers digging in like claws. “Mom—please!”
She slapped me again. Harder.
“You’re hurting me,” I cried like an idiot, tears streaming, my face burning, my skin screaming where she’d touched me.
“I should have killed you the moment you were born,” she hissed, her eyes wide and wild.
That’s when the first urge hit me like a pulse under my skin. It was just a compulsion, like someone else’s hand sliding into my mind.
I shoved her with everything I had. She stumbled back, missed the step, and went down two stairs, straight into the table in the middle of the living room.
There was the sound of glass breaking.
I don’t remember what shattered. Vases, frames—whatever it was, it doesn’t matter. All I remember is the sound. That violent, ringing crack that swallowed the room.
I heard it before I understood what it was.
Her head had struck the table.
I was gasping, my breath coming too fast, my heart hammering so violently it hurt.
I thought it was adrenaline.
That was bullshit.
It was joy.Justice.
I remember standing there, small and trembling, feeling that hunger rise in me and knowing, without words, that something had already claimed me. Something that didn’t care how young I was. Something that didn’t care if I understood it or not.
Kids defend themselves, right?
I thought she might be dead. Again. Iwishedshe was dead, and I would be finally free. Free of guilt, free of jealousy, free of her.
But then, she moved a few seconds later.
Blood streaked her face where the glass had bitten into her skin. She looked at me through it, eyes burning, mouth twisted into something inhuman.
“You monster,” she growled.
“What is happening here?” Grayson rushed in, running to her. “What did you do, Adam?”
I didn’t talk. I just stood there, numb and fucking proud.
Proud of the mess. Proud of the chaos.
I was high on it, already craving more. More justice. More of that rush chewing through me, burning away whatever innocence I had left.
“I’m here, Alice,” he said, tucking her hair behind her ear. “I’m here, my love.”
“Just get him out of here,” she mumbled. “Get this sickness out of this house!”
