6

The moon covers the sun's path.

I blink my eyes open, slowly sitting up in bed.

It's still dark. I glance at the clock. 1:30am. Barely any time has passed.

But I feel… different.

So fucking different.

I slowly breathe out, acclimatizing to it.

All my senses feel razor-sharp. Emotions pulse inside me with raw, untamed power. Every impulse feels magnified and unshackled, coursing through my veins like liquid fire. Morality and ethics have faded to whispers, drowned out by the roaring symphony of primal desires.

For a moment, I marvel at the feeling, flexing my handsoutin front of me. It's like a switch has been flippedandevery depraved emotion in my body has been unleashed in a flood.

It feels fucking incredible.

It's only seconds before the fog of my memory slowly begins to clear.

My heart races as the past surges back with sudden clarity.

I remember it all. Memories that havebeen hiddenfrom me for years. I rise to my feet, pacing across my bedroom as the images flood back for the first time in so many years.

Dr Blackwood held sessions with me. He said he wanted to see what darkness he could tear out of me. During these sessions,he'dgive me pills. He talked about it, probably assuming I'd understand nothing. Told me they were drugs developed in his private labs, variations on existing medications. Synthetic compounds and psychotropic agents that, when accumulated, would beginto triggerepisodes in me.

Episodes in which I'd go into wild states of rage and violence. He wanted to create a devil. He succeeded.

Afterward, I'd never be able to remember what happened.

This has happened before. And after it fades, I won't remember anything.

It all ended the night I crept into his house with a butcher's knife, sliced his chest open, and never looked back.

But why is it happening again? It's been over a decade since Dr Blackwood fed me those drugs and subjected me to his torture.

I push the question from my mind. There's no time for that.

I'm whole again. This is therealJackson. The one that remembers fucking everything.The one that's ruled by the darkest parts of my mind.

It feels so fucking good to be free again. I'm unbound and unstoppable, ready to unleash hell upon the world.

And one desire is rising above all the othersthat arechurning in my chest.

Vengeance.

The need for it is burning in my stomach like acid.

How could I have forgotten this? What kind of life have I been leading? I look back on it like a stranger. Why have I cared so much about helping theworld,and what the world thinks of me in return?

The fancy therapy practice and the art gallery galas. I'm therags-to-riches golden boy. The intellectual who has given his life to help others. I want so badly to protect my intellectual, civilized reputation.

But that's not the whole story. Underneath all of that, what I really want is blood spilled in return for what I suffered.

But now there's something else I want just as badly.

Detective Ava Cain.

Her face has been haunting my dreams each night since we met.She's like a fascinating puzzle, oneI want to break down piece by piece.I saw darkness under her pale grey eyes, and every cell in my body isdeadset on learning more. What contradictions and complexities are lurking behind her shiny police badge?

But I know what I need to do first.

I can still see the faces of the men who torturedme,floating in front of my vision.

Dr Blackwood is dead, but the men who helped him got to walk away. I heard the Utopia Project fell apart after Dr Blackwood was found dead. It was shrouded in secrets, andnocharges ever pressed. I had no memoryIwas the one who did it.

My face cracks into a smile. I'm going to need equipment. A mask, a change of clothes, a weapon.

The first name on my list is going to be scratched out tonight.

***

The businessman practically offers up his body to be sliced open.

Orion Vale. Founder of Vale Inc, a bullshit local tech company built on financial corruption. He was theeasiestname on the list to track down. The downside of being a multimillionaire is having your address plastered all over the internet.

No, Vale was never arealpart of Dr Blackwood's experiments.

But he heard aboutit allthose years ago and handed over his money to invest. Anotherpower-mad fool who thought Blackwood was making strides toward some utopian future. Blackwood bragged about the funding he was receiving and that a man like Vale was intrigued by his vision.

Vale knew he was experimenting on children. But he's just another rich man who didn't care who was broken in the name of some twisted progress.

I travel through the night to his house on foot. I blend into the darkness in my black outfit, combat boots, and simple balaclava masking my face. Not bad for improvisation, but I'll improve on it next time.

If I ever get a next time.

Vale is predictably arrogant. He's bragged to the pressbeforeabout how he forgoes a security team. Narcissists think they can get away with everything. The rumors in the city have long whispered that he likes to get high on designer drugs and stumble home alone to his secluded mansion.

I watch Vale drunkenly slam the car door. He's wearing a Hawaiian shirt over his beer belly.Hestumbles up to the gate that shields his mansion from the rest of the world. He swipes at an app on his phoneandthe gate swings open.

He unsteadily walks through, and I silently slip in behind him as it clicks shut, following close behind as he heads up the path to his home. A cold palace of modernity.

"Hello, Vale."

He turns, his bloodshot eyes widening. "Who the fuck are you?"

I slip the knife from my belt. Nine inches with a serrated blade.Into it,I've etched Blackwood's symbol, an eye in the sun.Call it poetic justice.

Fear rolls over Vale's face, his pale skin going even whiter. He can't see my twisted smile beneath the mask.

"Hand me the phone. Let's go inside and talk."

I disconnect his security system using his phone, piece by piece. Technology is his moneymakerandnow it's his downfall.

"W—what do you want from me? I have cash."

"Don't try to bargain. This is one problem that your money can't solve."

He's stumbling over his words. "Whatever I did, I'm sorry. Do you work for me? Is that it?"

"Sounds like you were expecting one of your employees to kill you. Lucky for menoneof them got to you first."

I step forward and he cowers back.

"The Utopia Project. Dr Blackwood. Does that mean something to you?"

His eyes flash with fear. "Y—yes. I was an investor before it was disbanded. But I wasn't responsible for what happened—"

"You paid money so children could be tortured."

"I had no idea, I swear."

I slip the blade under his jaw. He sputters. "No lies, Vale."

He blabbers out a rush confession. "Okay, okay! I knew he was using kids in his experiments. But he told me the parents all signed off on it. I thought it was going to be the future. Sometimesyouhave to make sacrifices to make progress."

Dr Blackwood's voice echoes through my head. Let's see how much pain you can handle, Jackson.

My jaw clenches. "It's a pitythat you'reobsessed with the future, Vale. Because you're not going to be here to see it."

I draw the knife back.Hisbloodshot eyes widen in terror.

"You're a psychopath," hewheezes.

I crack a smile. "You have no fucking idea."

I'm not here to teach lessons. I'm here to destroy.

I don't waste time. I feel the pulse of pure power flow through my veins as I slam the knife directly into Vale's heart.

Pleasure burns through every inch of me. I haven't killed since I was seventeen. How could I have denied myself for so long?

The blade sinks deeper into his chest, and he moans. Blood slowly trickles from one corner of his mouth as his eyes glaze over. I let his body slump to the floor.

Silence fills the room. Vale is gone.

And now it's time for the real fun.

My breath is heavy as I survey the scene I'm constructing.

I'm going to give you something beautiful, Ava. I would buy you a million red roses if I thought they would interest you for a second. But you're not that kind of woman, are you?

You don't want rose red.

You want blood red.

If I'm right about you, this will be the greatest gift of all.

I might have tried to deny it before, but the primal desire for Detective Cain that lurked under my skin is now a raging wildfire. I can sense the darkness under her skin, too. I'm going to rip it out of her, bit by bit. If my instinct proves correct, then I'm going to ruin her until she gives into the darkness just as much as I have.

I want to gut every demon who's responsible for my scars.

And I want Ava at my feet while I do it.