In the scorching hellscape of Afghanistan, I had become what they needed me to be—a perfect killing machine. Emotions? Stripped away. Humanity? A distant memory. I was numb, efficient, unstoppable.

A twisted mess, beyond repair.

But then she had come into my life, like a goddamn hurricane, and fucked everything up. There was something about her that had me hooked like a junkie. She was my drug, my addiction, the one thing I couldn’t resist. She saw the beast inside me and didn’t run away like the rest, because she was just as twisted and damaged. A perfect goddamn match for my deranged desires. For a moment, she made me feel like I could be saved. Like she could be my escape from the darkness I’d become trapped in.

She had brought me back from the dead, but deep down, I knew I was already dead inside.

A ghost, doomed to haunt the shadows. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t save a soul that was already been damned. And no matter how much she tried, she couldn’t save me from myself.

In the heart of darkness, love is the most dangerous weapon of all.