Tattered Bodies

Tattered Bodies Shae Ruby Tattered Bodies Copyright © 2022 by Shae Ruby All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any others means without permission, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters, and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to people, living or dead, and events is entirely coincidental. ISBN: 979-8-9860000-4-6 Cover Design by: Quirky Circe Edited by: Lunar Rose Editing Services Published by: Shae Ruby Now we heal Sleeptalk- Dayseeker Eat Your Young- Arankai Never Know- Bad Omens Limits- Bad Omens Digging My Own Grave- Five Finger Death Punch Popular Monster- Falling in Reverse Panic Room- Au/Ra Love Chained- Cannons Side Effects- Carlie Hanson Make Hate to Me- Citizen Soldier Numb- Envy on the Coast Relate- FJ Outlaw Blackout- Freya Ridings Serotonin- girl in red Pill- Heuse & Zeus x Chrona ft Emma Sameth Upperdrugs- Highly Suspect The Loneliest- Maneskin Dial Tone- Catch Your Breath Can You Feel My Heart- Bring Me The Horizon Mine- Sleep Token Disease- Bear Tooth F**K About It- Waterparks ft blackbear Heartless- The Weekend Drowned in Emotion- Caskets Home- Cavetown The End of Heartache- Killswitch Engage Sabotage- Thousand Below You can find the complete playlist on Spotify. Trigger Warnings Hello reader, I write dark stories that can be disturbing to some. My books are not for the faint of heart, and my characters, many times, are not redeemable. This book contains dark themes to include graphic sex scenes, sharing the FMC, obsession, choking/breath play, blood play, dubious consent, mentions of sexual abuse, physical abuse, graphic rape, graphic murder, torture, drug use and abuse, mental health disorders, self-harm, suicidal thoughts with a plan, suicide attempt, and captivity. I trust you know your triggers before proceeding, and always remember to take care of your mental health. For more things Shae Ruby, visit authorshaeruby.com National Suicide Prevention If You Know Someone in Crisis: Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (Lifeline) at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), or text the Crisis Text Line (text HELLO to 741741). Both services are free and available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All calls are confidential. Contact social media outlets directly if you are concerned about a friend’s social media updates or dial 911 in an emergency. Contents 1. Chapter 1 Fullpage Image 2. Chapter 1 3. Chapter 2 4. Chapter 3 5. Chapter 4 6. Chapter 5 7. Chapter 6 8. Chapter 7 9. Chapter 8 10. Chapter 9 11. Chapter 10 12. Chapter 11 13. Chapter 12 14. Chapter 13 15. Chapter 14 Fullpage Image 16. Chapter 15 17. Chapter 16 18. Chapter 17 19. Chapter 18 20. Chapter 19 21. Chapter 20 22. Chapter 21 23. Chapter 22 24. Chapter 23 25. Chapter 24 26. Chapter 25 Fullpage Image 27. Chapter 26 28. Chapter 27 29. Chapter 28 30. Chapter 29 31. Chapter 30 32. Chapter 31 33. Chapter 32 34. Chapter 33 35. Chapter 34 36. Chapter 35 37. Chapter 36 38. Chapter 37 39. Chapter 38 40. Epilogue What's Next? Afterword Acknowledgments Is there no way out of the mind? -Sylvia Plath- Chapter 1 Damien The sting of betrayal cuts deep when inflicted by the one person you love most in the world. I’m not saying I don’t deserve it. In fact, I know I do. For some deluded reason though, I never imagined it would be Hallie giving me a taste of my own medicine. I thought I knew pain before now, but nothing compares to this helpless feeling coursing through my body as I watch her run up the stairs and out the door. To her fate. Her fucking undoing. I grab the bedsheets and bring them to my side, trying to stop the bleeding as much as possible, but it just keeps pouring out of the gaping wound. It’s as open as the hole in my weak fucking heart and soaking the sheets faster than I can replace them. The phone sits on the bed right next to my knee, mocking me, and I pick it up and attempt to get off the bed. Hot, searing, soul-crushing pain invades my body, stealing my breath as I clutch my side and lean into it. My feet must weigh at least a thousand pounds each, and my small shuffles toward the stairs won’t get me anywhere any time soon. Somehow, I still have a small glimmer of hope that Hallie didn’t get far. Maybe I could still find her if she ran on foot. My truck keys are too far from me, but what she probably didn’t remember from the airport is that I keep a spare hidden behind my front license plate. It takes insane effort to put one foot in front of the other and climb the stairs, more like crawl up them, on all fours. After what feels like hours, and at least seven pauses, I finally reach the top. The basement door is wide open. She didn’t give me much of a chance here. Does she even fucking care? Did she lie about loving me? She threw me to the fucking wolves. I’m actually lucky no one is in this house finishing what they started. Hallie didn’t just stab my side, she also stabbed me in the back and the heart. I can’t even believe she did it. I didn’t see that shit coming at all. Not in a million years. Yet here I am, remembering her sweaty hand on my knife, plunging it deep between my ribs. The look in her eyes when she did it, the way she apologized before pulling it out, will haunt my nightmares until I