When The Wicked Play

When The Wicked Play A Dark Romance Novella Tristina Brockway Copyright © 2023 by Tristina Brockway All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Cover by RJ Creatives Edited by Briggs Consulting LLC Formatted by Unalive Promotions Trigger Warning This book contains scenes that may depict, mention, or discuss assault, attempted murder, attempted rape, blood, child abuse, death, gun violence, hospitalization, murder, physical abuse, rape, sexual abuse, sexual assault, torture, violence, and more. Dedication For those with a story. I believe you. Playlist Wicked Ones - Dorothy Spiders - RAINNE Demon Mode - Stileto, AViVA Dark Side - Bishop Briggs Darling - Halsey Kill Of The Night - Gin Wigmore Wicked Game - Lusaint Nightmare - AViVA Mood Swings - tiLLie Villian - MISSIO Mother’s Daughter - Miley Cyrus Playlist available on Spotify. Contents Prologue Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 A Note From The Author Acknowledgments About the Author Also by Tristina Brockway Prologue Charlie The slow drip of a leaky faucet would have driven most people mad from the constant noise. It’s as if a never-ending echo from a pipe throbs against my eardrums, but I find the incessant dripping soothes my mind. It’s often the only sound I hear for days at a time. A continuous, putrid odor fills my nose with each breath I take. The humid, frigid air that clings to my skin should leave me chilled from the inside out, but it seems to be a part of me now. The growing numbness to my body is engulfing any ounce of warmth I may have left in not just my body, but my soul. I’m uncertain how long I’ve been here. Time appeared to stand still when I first arrived, but eventually one second turned to ten. Ten seconds turned to ten days and now it very well may have been ten years. I was young when I was first dumped here. My name seems like a distant memory, but I’ve somehow clung to it. As if the name alone can give me the identity that was stripped from me. I can’t remember many details, but I remember the feeling of dread and heartbreak. For myself or someone else, I’m not exactly sure anymore. The men come down to pay me a visit in my personal hell more often than I’d like, but sometimes it’s desperately needed, assuming I want to have food and water. Sometimes wanting to stay alive is more of an inconvenience than anything else, but my behavior lately says quite the opposite. They don’t like it when I fight back. After all this time, I still have the will to live, which doesn’t do me any favors. I assume they wouldn’t keep me chained and half-starved if they had any interest in killing me. Then again, any food and water are better than none and that alone might prove me wrong. After all, why would you feed a corpse? Chapter One Charlie I struggle to take a breath and begin to choke and cough on the substance that fills my throat and lungs. I’m surrounded by something, but I can’t see and can barely move. I try to lift my arm, but I’m met with a barrier. Wiggling my fingers, the sensation in my hands returns. The particles I’m slowly inhaling with each breath I attempt to take feels like coffee grounds but smell like dirt. Why do I smell dirt? I don’t just smell it. I’m suffocating on the odor and I’m thinking it’s not just the odor that’s depriving me of oxygen, but the substance itself. I move my hands as fast as I can, reaching for what I can only hope would be air on the other side. Every sensation in my body hums. I’m hyper aware of this moment. A fight to survive if I ever had one. The sudden feeling of spiders and insects creeping along my skin in their own struggle to survive me mauling at the dirt surrounding us has me digging even faster. I see light as I finally break through the earth and struggle to pull my face towards the fresh air so that I can finally get the unobstructed breath I’ve been seeking for what feels like an eternity, but in reality, has probably only been minutes. Whoever tried to kill me did a piss-poor job. You know, considering I’m still breathing. Barely. I crawl along the ground away from the shallow grave they dumped me in and try to take in my surroundings while continuing to cough up the dirt that slid past my lips while struggling to breathe. It must be night or early morning. The temperature feels cool and crisp. I can see my breath, but not so much that it’s freezing. As I look down, I realize they have left me for dead in a shallow grave, completely naked. “What the fuck?” I murmur to myself as I look down and take in my state of undress, only to cough up more pieces of dirt from my scratchy, dry throat. I wrap my arms around myself for any bit of warmth I can find and squint my eyes to try to figure out where I am. Even though the sun is not out my eyes are sensitive from being closed and blanketed in darkness while under the earth. I can only guess that’s from the drugs they flooded my system with to presumably end my life. Looking around, it appears I’m in the middle of nowhere. It’s still dark out and I’m struggling to see clearly, but I can hear