She could read his expression. He thought this was like the other times. He thought she’d toy with him and then let him loose. That was why he’d agreed to cuff himself.

He’d become too accustomed to the hesitancy of her indulgence.

I will roar I will scream nobody can beat me.

“Scottie, you really are the silliest boy I’ve ever met. You married a stranger. You fell for some tits and ass and some dick-sucking lips. You believed every stupid thing I ever told you. And now you’ve just made this so much easier…”

He tensed, the bed frame rattling against the handcuffs. “Casey–”

He went on for a while, blah-blah-blahing, but Casey didn’t listen. She was starting to feel it again, the thing which had started this whole thing. She remembered the glow in her belly the first time she learned the most valuable lesson a girl could: inflicting pain was so much sweeter than receiving it.

She sorted through her make-up tools, strewn all over the place when Scott threw his tantrum. Picking up her eyebrow scissors, she returned to the bed.

Wrong side; she wanted the other hand.

Scott whined and tried to move away from her as she circled the bed. His mistake was plain in every twitch in his face. But it was too late.

She took his pinkie finger and parted the scissors, getting everything into place.

“Casey, Casey! This is too much. You can’t, please. This is too far. Think about what you’re doing!”

She laughed, and it was a miracle. It was real. It was the same laughter which had struck her the first night, the laughter she’d been chasing ever since.

She was alive. She was alight. This was it, the next step, the perfect step. She was going to explore herself, fully and totally, for the first time in her life.

“You did this to yourself,” she whispered, closing the scissors until they must’ve tickled his finger. “I didn’t force you to cuff yourself to the bed.” She giggled. “You cuffed yourself to the bed. You are so stupid.”

“I didn’t think– Please, let’s play one of the other games, one of the other–”

A simple motion, and Scottie started screaming.

48

LAUREN

Lauren realised how stupid her plan had been. She was beginning to wonder if she’d ever actually intended to go through with it. She had been planning to take the hard drive for herself, no matter who got their hands on it first. To steal it from Gary, if that’s what it took.

Then use it to confront Scott.

She’d force Scott to tell her the truth about what he did to Natalie. Lauren needed to know; the video would work. It was the only thing that could save him. He’d tell Lauren his secrets as long as Casey kept hers.

But in the end, social awkwardness had won. It was such a ridiculous thing, snatching it out of Gary’s hand. She hadn’t properly thought about how he’d look at her, how bizarre it would feel.