Warning: Dark content. This is a short novella. Won't be more than five chapters.


There was a tightened expression on his face, as dark eyes scrolled over the tops of cubicles. Amethyst Jackson was one of the people still jabbering into her headset, when someone leaned over to swat a rolled up pamphlet on her thigh, and when she looked over, was directed forward by a pink nail pointing and a comical widening of the eyes. Distracted, Amethyst scooted away from her desk, still talking to her customer, and leaned sideways to see the latest colleague standing beside her tyrannical boss.

So he was the newbie.

"Nice," Amethyst commented offhandedly, hiding her suspicion.

That face...

She'd seen that face before.

But where?

"Some fresh meat," Jessie fanned herself. "Yikes! Can you imagine concentrating on work when he's walking past?"

Amethyst retrieved her head, eyes back on computer and fingers typing away as she placed an order for the customer. They worked for a large garden company, that shipped out various quantities of manure, potted plants and furniture. "Behave," she said, "he might already have a girlfriend."

"Doesn't mean a girl can't look and appreciate," Jessie scowled.

Amethyst's fingers paused. She couldn't help thinking of the malicious expression on the newbie's face as he looked over everyone. There was something about him that automatically set her on edge. His expression looked like he'd been hunting for someone. But who? She shivered, once again wondering why his face was bothering her. The first fifteen minutes she got to herself, she was going to make an excuse to head into his cubicle, and whisk through it for clues.

"Everyone," the boss called, "this is Leo. Leo Dwight. He's the new Head of Resources. If you ever run out of paperclips? Dwight's your man."

Head of Resources was just a fancy name for someone who was in charge of stationary, and all the things needed to print out thousands of labels to be posted around mid-western US. Amethyst ended her call, and immediately pressed the switchboard to receive anther one. The first run-in with Leo didn't happen until Amethyst was sitting with her workmates in the cafeteria, and a chair was pulled out nosily in front of her. Amethyst glanced up from scoffing her sandwich, and quickly looked down again, when she saw it was Leo. The predatory gleam from his eyes had gone. Instead, it had been placed with a piercing intensity that again unsettled her, as he sat down, with a bottle of water and a satsuma.

"Hey girls," he said casually. "Mind if we do a quick whip around the table and I learn your names?"





Amethyst cleared her throat. "Amy."

Since she was last, Leo's eyes lingered on her. "Amy," he echoed. "You look just like a girl I used to know."

"Oh yeah?" Yet again, Amethyst failed to look at him.

"Yeah, she was a twisted bitch. Totally ruined my life."

"Oh no," came the sympathetic wail from the other end of the table. "What did she do?"

"Believe in the wrong person."

"That's terrible," Nazra said nosily. "Did she sell you out?"

"I guess you could say that." He unscrewed the cap of his water and took a methodical sip. Amethyst chanced a look up, and saw he was looking back at her thoughtfully, but at the same time gazing back into his past, like she was a pale imitation of what he saw then. "What's worse is that she had an air of credibility. She was the class president. The nicest fucking person in that whole school. So if she reacted negatively, perhaps even innocently, it was a hundred times fucking worse. Because you know the other hicks are false and are provocatively mean. But with her? She's mean without even realizing she's cutting you bone deep. That kind of ignorance can wound a guy."

Another sip.

And another startling revelation.

Amethyst's eyes flew to his, and this time it was her being firmly wrenched to the past. She remembered sitting outside the headmaster's office, and smelling the most awful odor in the world. Without helping it, she gagged, eyes watering and pinching her nose close. Then she caught the sight of Keiran Dwyer shuffling past, hair shoulder length, clearly having not washed in a while, looking like he was about to cry. He wouldn't meet her gaze, clearly having seen her reaction as he approached, and now the shame rolled off him. Amethyst had been the only person in that school to speak civilly to him. She knew he came from a broken home. Had seen his mother naked, and being raped by various men. That meals and showers came irregularly into his life. But yet she'd been repulsed just like the rest of them.

Shaking her head, her eyes cleared and she saw "Leo" for who he really was.

"You rap -"

He leaned over and slammed a hand over her mouth.

"Not a word," he whispered, "until I tell you the whole story."



There was not a chance she was going anywhere with that rapist.

She'd been the one to interrupt him. She'd received a text from Kayley sometime earlier that afternoon, asking her to meet her in the gymnasium after school. As she neared the bleachers, she heard the sounds of a violent struggle and a girl crying out in distress. She ducked under the metal scaffolding and was nearly sick. Kayley, the head cheerleader of the school had her legs akimbo as Keiran's naked backside pumped vigorously in and out of her, reaching for that completion. As Kayley continued pleading for him to stop, her wrists trapped in one of his hands, as the other disappeared between their bodies, Amethyst let out a shocked gasp that seemed to penetrate his haze. Just at the final stroke, he cried out and collapsed on top of Kayley.

Amethyst responded by running up to him and stamping down on his head - hard.

That one kick was enough to knock him unconscious, and out of their lives.

He was sent to juvie. Amethyst had stood up in court and testified against him. And somehow - fifteen years later - he'd sought her out again to seek his revenge. Amethyst didn't know why she hadn't pegged straightaway. The face hadn't changed. Still that arrogant curl of mouth. Dark, evil eyes. Straight slope of a nose. All he'd done was cut his hair off, and started dressing like he had money.

And he'd changed his name!

Stupid employer - didn't they run full background checks?

"Kayley's dead," Keiran said, shocking her. "Totally her fault. Heroin overdose. Pity it happened just after I called her, so the police came knocking like they had something to prove."

Could he sound anymore callous?

Amethyst said something under his hand, and Keiran removed it to hear her speak. "Get lost," he snapped at the remaining girls, but none of them moved. In fact, one of them ordered the other to call the police. Hah! Clearly they'd heard enough of the conversation they didn't like. Keiran ignored them, and slapped down an audio recording device on the table. Without further ado, he pressed play, and watched Amethyst's face like it enraptured him.

"Listen carefully," he said. "I'm going to do a pop quiz after."

"You -" She was cut off by a loud moan. A female moan. This was mingled with a male grunt, and the sound of slapping skin. The pace it set was ferocious. And still the female was talking, "Yes, Keiran, I love how your balls slap my ass, fuck me hard, oh Keiran, nobody has a bigger cock than you, Keiran -"

The audio recording of Kayley was interrupted by a hard growl. "Shut up, bitch."

But instead of Kayley protesting, she screamed loudly in ecstasy as she hit the first of multiple orgasms.

"How do you like taking my big cock now, bitch."

Amethyst was shell-shocked. The girls sitting around her even more so. Everything was caught in slow-motion as she stared into Kieran's eyes, as he stood up, pain etched on every line on his face, before he turned to face an oncoming tackle, and security forced him onto his stomach. Even then he turned his head, and gazed at her, lips bloody. Time was back again, and she watched him close his eyes and smile. He'd completed his mission.