In my fantasy, Manson grasped my throat and whispered, “I’m going to watch them fucking destroy you, angel.”

Destroy me. Ruin me. Force me into the corruption I craved.

I wanted to feel like I was being punished. Punished for treating them like shit in high school and then being just as awful when I met them later. Punished for making decisions I regretted but couldn’t change.

I pressed my hand over my mouth before a moan could slip out. But I imagined it was Vincent’s hand instead, and he was scolding me in that playfully sarcastic voice of his.

“Sshh, don’t be too loud now. You wouldn’t want Mommy and Daddy to hear, would you?”

My toes curled. Liquid heat rushed through my veins, searing me from the inside out. For a few moments, my mind blanked out, filled only with that perfect explosion of ecstasy. I was left dazed in the afterglow, my tension melting away and my muscles going limp.

Maybe now I could finally get some sleep.

I pulled up the covers, but the fantasies didn’t leave me as easily as my satisfied lust. They were still there, lurking in my dreams.

I’d ghosted them, and yet I was the one who felt haunted.

The next few days passed in a blur. By the morning of July 4th, my mom’s team of volunteers had completely transformed the empty field alongside the church. There were game booths, bouncy houses, and face painting. The rich greasy smell of burgers and hotdogs filled the air, smoke from the grills wafting through the crowds.

I worked the ring toss game for most of the morning, and wrangling the kids quickly grew tiring. I’d never been particularly good with children, but I also wasn’t a very patient person. My mom used to scold me for it constantly.

Luckily, a familiar voice drew my attention in the midst of my boredom. “Stuck with volunteer duty, huh?”

I stood up from collecting the plastic rings strewn in the grass to see one of my old classmates, Danielle, smiling at me from the front of the game booth.

“Hey, girl! Long time, no see!” Danielle and I had been on the cheerleading team together in high school, and we’d kept up casual contact since then. She could be an absolutely ruthless bitch, but we’d always gotten along.

We both had too much dirt on each other to risk not getting along.

“My mom generously volunteered my time,” I said, rolling my eyes. “At least I didn’t get stuck with the face-painting booth.”

“You’d be poking kids’ eyes out with those claws,” she said, eyeing my signature acrylic nails. “So, you’re back with your parents, huh? Rough shit. I can’t imagine moving back in with my family now that Nate and I are living together. My mom and I would probably murder each other.”

Danielle and Nate had gotten engaged last year. They’d been high school sweethearts, so I couldn’t say it was a surprise. The only real surprise was that Danielle was settling down at all.