No Love For The Villain - vanish into fiction

The quiet words felt like a judgment.

“Try using me more wickedly.”

He tempted her to step toward him. Deeper, further down, to a place from which she couldn’t pull her feet back.

A cold hand touched Sierra’s cheek, which was buried in her knees. Eli, cupping her cheek, made her lift her head. He brushed back the hair that had fallen and obscured her face.

Sierra docilely felt his hand pushing through her hair. Her vision cleared, and everything before her became sharp.

The black eyes meeting hers were like a bottomless sea. If swept into them, she felt she would never escape.

Being unable to look away from him filled her with guilt, just like being unable to stop thinking about death. It made her shudder to desire what she shouldn’t, yet the more forbidden it was, the easier she fell.

The grip Eli had in her hair loosened. His touch moved away.

The moment he held her, she was afraid; the moment he let go, she felt desolate. It felt like he would just leave like this. Would he leave again with those words, ‘I’ll come again tomorrow,’ like last night? Would she have to wait again?

She didn’t want him to leave. She didn’t know if it was because she wanted to die, because she didn’t want to wait, or because she had tasted the affection she craved from this unfeeling man.

Growing anxious, Sierra tightly clutched the cookie and asked, “Do… do you want this?”

Eli’s eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at the Twinkie Sierra was holding. In the face of his silence, Sierra hurriedly began to peel off the plastic wrapper.

As the corner of the plastic came off, a soft, sweet scent wafted out. Not wanting to appear nervous, Sierra clenched her fingertips tightly. When she raised her hand high to offer it to him, Eli’s brow furrowed faintly.

‘Does he not like sweet things?’

Noticing even this subtle reaction, Sierra hesitated and started to pull her hand back. But then Eli grabbed her wrist, pulling it toward himself. His downcast eyes were fixed on the Twinkie she offered.

His lips parted. The tip of her finger pressed against his tightly closed lips. The tickling sensation remained vividly.

Eli took a sharp bite of the piece in his mouth, ending the momentary contact. He was squinting one eye.

“Too sweet,” he said.

The sweetness seemed almost malicious. The intense sugar made even the expressionless man frown in discomfort. Sierra gently touched the tip of her finger that had touched his lips.

“It’s supposed to be sweet,” she said.

Having quickly chewed and swallowed the piece, Eli’s face returned to its impassive state. In that brief moment, a sharp shout pierced Sierra’s ears.

“Sierra!”

The gaze locked with Eli was severed. Sierra spotted Mrs. Miles calling for her from beyond the fence.

Sierra’s eyes wavered.

“I have to go.”

Standing up hastily, Sierra left those words instead of a goodbye and ran toward Mrs. Miles. She had to reach her before Mrs. Miles opened the fence gate and stormed into Miriam’s house.

Sierra could feel the man’s gaze sticking to her back, following her. The image of those black, sea-like eyes flickered before her, but the moment Mrs. Miles grabbed her arm, her mind went blank, bleached white.

“You’ve truly lost your mind,” Mrs. Miles said.

As she was being dragged away by Mrs. Miles, Sierra felt she would be hauled straight before the Pastor. Anticipating the pain of the punishment to come, her legs faltered.

“Leaving a sick child behind, where have you been wandering off to? Here again, again! Do you want to be pointed at by the whole village for associating with a woman raising a fatherless child?”

While Mrs. Miles hurled her accusations, the captured Sierra swayed helplessly.

“We should have driven her out of the village for good when she had that child. We’ve been paying the price for pitying her situation for far too long. At times like this, I truly think my husband is right. Sin spreads like a plague, and those with weak souls fall ill from it so easily…”

Meeting Mrs. Miles’s fierce gaze, Sierra knew she was the one with the weak soul, sick with sin.