Holding her face in my hands, I wondered not for the first time what it was going to be like to kiss her or snap her neck. Even I didn't know which I would do. This was a choice that would alter my path, define me.

Sadie knelt in front of me on the thin maroon carpet of my motel room, a rather convenient choice of color considering the unsavory things that happened in these types of establishments. The same kinds of unsavory things that might happen now.

She'd come here to murder me. That much was clear from the items I found in her duffle bag—knife, gun, rope, duct tape, gloves, etc. So I had every reason to kill her instead, according to the terms of our agreement. I was impressed, though; she'd gotten smarter since her last attempt. Then again, after that attempt she'd escaped, and this time I'd used her own rope to tie her up.

Her irises were almost as dark as her pupils with only a faint brown tint to distinguish them, but this close I could still see her pupils expand until they swallowed up any color. They were deep pits, bottomless voids of fear, and they were so, so beautiful. She was so, so beautiful. It pained me and made me wish I'd killed her before she could hurt me this way.

At an impasse, I pulled my hands from her face. They were disgusting, covered in years of scars, unfit to touch her. I hated myself for even thinking they could.

"Why haven't you killed me, Claudia?" she asked, trembling now that I'd pulled away. She'd been so still when I was holding her face, like a statue crafted of fine marble.

I hid my thoughts beneath a callous exterior, the only side of me she'd seen before today. "Why haven't I killed you?" I stepped back towards her, keeping my hands at my sides where they couldn't betray me. She flinched anyway. "I'm not in the habit of breaking things that are mine."

Though her skin paled, she clenched her fists and drew her mouth into a thin line of resolve. "And what about the contract?"

I took the duct tape from the worn desk against the wall, rolling it between my hands as I spoke. "Yes, the contract. That's all this is about for you, isn't it?"

She didn't answer.

"'The first player may make one attempt on the other's life, after which it is the move of the second player,'" I recited. "'The second player may then make an attempt on the first player's life. If both parties fail, then the order resets and the first player may once again make an attempt on the second player's life. Whoever takes the life of the other—'"

"'Will be amplified with the other's life force,'" she came in. "I know the rules. It's your turn."

"This isn't about the contract for me, not anymore. Before, it was—I just wanted a chance to achieve something, to be something that no other person has been. Now it's different. I feel different." I looked into her eyes.

Sadie at least had the decency to blush. "Not possible, Claudia. Our five years are almost up and if one of us isn't dead by the end, we're both going down."

My heart ached. But she was right. I set the duct tape down and picked up the knife. In response, she raised her chin even higher, baring her throat to me. "Is this really what you want?" I asked.

"Just make it quick, for old time's sake," she said and even smiled a little.

"Yeah, for old time's sake," I said as I knelt in front of her.

With a flash of steel, I cut the rope binding her wrist, then stood back up. She stared at her now free hands and then back up at me.

"You still have to make an attempt on my life," was all she said.

I set the knife down on the desk and picked up the gun and aimed to the left of her head, so when I fired, the bullet grazed her ear, drawing blood. Neither of us fully understood what qualified as an attempt on the other's life, but drawing blood was enough to meet the contract's requirements.

Sadie held a hand to her ear, then held her bloodied fingertips in front of her eyes. "You missed."

"So I did."

She got to her feet and faced me. When she pressed her lips to mine, I closed my eyes and kept them closed even as she reached around me to grab the knife from the desk. The blade pierced my side, and I gasped, but she grabbed me by the back of the head and held my mouth against hers. As I lost all strength and my legs gave out, she lowered me to the floor and held me until she'd fulfilled the contract.

.