37

Ava's name pings on my phone screen.

Can I come over to your office right now?

That's the last thing I need right now. I can feel the pull of darkness within me. There isn't much time.

Pain radiates from one side of my temple to the other.

I want to clear my mind. I need to regain control.But thedark rise of the eclipse feelsstrongerthan it ever hasbefore, and my mind is bursting with questions about the case.

Was Hyde connected to Dr Blackwood and my past?

Flash. A lightning bolt of pain bursts through my head again. Bursting into dark sunlight. Bursting open at the seams.

The eclipse rises. My mind feels like it's been flung out of my body. Like I'm floating in the empty black void of space. Like I'm a soul without a body.

Suddenly, the fog lifts.

Everything is clear.

Hyde isn't stalking me.

Hyde is so much fucking closer to home.

A roaring sound bursts to life in my ears. I can hear myself screamingbutit all feels distant. There is only pain. My whole body is only made up of pain. Pain comprises each invisible atom that makes up Jackson Keller.

That makes up Hyde.

For a split second, I see Ava's face. So beautiful. So out of my reach.

Her full lips are swollen. Her thick lashes curl over her ice-gray eyes.

Memories begin to flood back.

Flash.

Ava's face is pressed up against the door. I tease at her clit until she's half-sobbing, then thrust my cock into her needy little pussy. She bites her lip hard to stop the sound.

The realization hits me.

It wasn't a dream. None of it was.

All this time I've wanted Ava. But I already have her.

I've fucked her. I've felt her come on my cock, clenching and moaning as pleasure explodes through her body.

And I'm going to claim her again.

Flash.

Another memory. Torn from the depths of the locked cage in my brain.

I'm seventeen.

I stand over Dr Blackwood with a knife. I can feel the effects of the drugs he gave me in my system. I can feel all of the anger, hatred, and bloodlust it provoked in me.

I'm the monster he created. But I've had enough.

He's sleeping in his bed. He doesn't wake as I walk in.

Anger is hot in my veins. I want to punish him for every time he hurt me. For the scars I know, even at that age, will be on my body until the day I die.

But it's not just anger. As I raise the knife and sink it intohissleeping body, I feel so fucking good. He doesn't even have time to scream.

I dump the knife in the dirt as I walk out, heading toward the road in a complete daze. I have to go. I have to leave this behind. I've ended it. I've destroyed it.

I'm a killer. I killed Dr Blackwood. I repressed the memory deep in my brain.

Flash.

Everything that was once a blurry haze is suddenly in sharp, agonizing focus. I see the faces of Hyde's victims once again, staring at me from the case file.

I recognize them. Every single one of them.

The men who helped Dr Blackwood run his twisted experiments. The men who made my childhood into pure misery.

I see the victims laid out in front of me. Ava's right; it's art. I made art from their worthless bodies, and I took infinite pleasure in it.

I remember everything.

Every repressed piece of my history is back in focus.

My name is Dr Jackson Keller.

But I told the cops to call me Hyde.

The eclipse roars into life. The moon blots out the sun. But this time, it grinds to a complete halt. There is no arc to this eclipse.

It's permanent.

I feel the sun's warmth begin to die out, the universe growing cold and dark without its warmth.

My mind is no longer broken into two pieces.

Now, it's whole.

The animal is out of the cage that I locked it in. The fog is gone forever.

And Hyde is the victor.

I slowly pick up my phone and type out the words in reply.

Of course, Ava.

I hit send.

Why don't you come in for an appointmentfirst thingtomorrow morning instead?

Ava Cain is going to be all fucking mine.

I'm so looking forward to seeing you.