A Monster's Final Goodbye

My boyfriend, Carter, hadn't spoken to me in five days. But when my national architecture competition win went viral, he finally called-not to congratulate me, but to scream that I' d embarrassed him by not telling him first. His new girlfriend, Brittney, was the one who tagged him in my post. She was also the one whispering in his ear during the call, telling him I was making him look bad. This was the final straw in a long, cold war. But the real nightmare began when Brittney sent me a video of her torturing my dog, Apollo, in our old apartment. Then came a photo of his lifeless body. I rushed over, blinded by rage, and slammed her head against the wall with an ashtray. Carter, the man I once loved, shoved me away, calling me a maniac for hurting the woman who had just murdered my dog. He chose her. He always chose her. As I carried Apollo's cold body out the door, I made a vow. I would make them pay. I would make their lives a living hell.

Chapters

Chapter 4

Elinore POV:

The video started playing. My breath caught in my throat, a knot of ice forming in my stomach. The shaky footage showed the inside of my old apartment. No, their apartment now, a cold voice corrected me. The camera panned slowly, deliberately, towards the living room.

And there he was. Apollo. My beautiful Apollo, my rescue dog, the one I loved more than anything. He was whimpering, cowering in a corner, his tail tucked between his legs. Brittney's voice, high-pitched and taunting, floated from off-screen. "Look at him, Carter! He's so dirty! And he keeps barking at me! Your ex-girlfriend's dog is so annoying."

Then I saw it. Brittney, holding a broom, poking him, jabbing him. Apollo yelped, a sound of pure terror, trying to scramble away. Brittney giggled, a chilling, cruel sound that vibrated through my phone. "Oh, is he scared? Good. He should be. You're just like your owner, a little aggressor."

My body started to tremble, a violent tremor that shook my entire frame. "What are you doing?!" I screamed at the phone, my voice hoarse, as if she could hear me. "Stop it! Stop hurting him!"

The video continued. Brittney's face came into view, twisted into a triumphant sneer. "This is for all the times Elinore thought she was better than me," she hissed, her voice low and menacing. "For all the times she thought she had you, Carter. You chose me. And now, her precious dog gets to pay the price for her arrogance."

Apollo let out a series of desperate barks, then a truly gut-wrenching whine. The sound tore through me, ripping away whatever composure I had left. My heart felt like it was being squeezed in a vice.

I slammed the phone down onto the table, grabbing my car keys. "Taxi!" I yelled into the empty room, my voice cracking. "I need a taxi! Now!" My hands shook so violently I could barely unlock the apartment door. Apollo. My sweet, loyal Apollo. The image of him cowering, whimpering, was burned into my mind.

As I fumbled for my wallet, my phone buzzed again. Another message from Carter. "Elinore, you better not be planning anything stupid. Apollo is fine. He just needs to learn his place."

He said Apollo was fine. But Brittney's video… My mind raced, grappling with the conflicting information, but the terror for Apollo won out. "If you hurt him, Carter, I swear to God, I will make you regret it for the rest of your life!" I typed back, my fingers flying.

No response. Just the terrifying silence.

The taxi felt like it was moving in slow motion, every red light an agonizing eternity. My phone buzzed again. It was Brittney. A picture.

A single, horrifying photo. Apollo, lying motionless on the kitchen floor. A dark, spreading stain beneath him. His eyes, usually so bright and full of life, were dull, vacant. Lifeless.

And the caption, a single, chilling phrase: "Oops. Looks like he couldn't handle the pressure. #AccidentsHappen #ByeByeDoggy"

My world tilted. The air left my lungs in a whoosh. No. No, no, no. This couldn't be real. My Apollo. My brave, loving Apollo. The dog who had protected me from a coyote, who always greeted me with boundless joy. He was gone. Killed. Tortured. By them.

A guttural scream ripped from my throat, raw and desperate. The taxi driver glanced back, startled, but I didn't care. I pounded on the window. "Faster! Faster! Please!"

When the taxi finally screeched to a halt outside my old building, I fumbled with the payment, my hands shaking uncontrollably. I burst out of the car, sprinting towards the entrance. My code. My fingers, numb with shock and rage, struggled with the keypad. Error. Error. Again. Tears streamed down my face, blinding me.

"Carter!" I shrieked, hammering on the door, my knuckles raw. "Brittney! Open this door, you monsters!" My voice was a desperate, primal sound, echoing in the quiet hallway. "I'm calling the police! I swear to God!"

The door creaked open. Carter stood there, his face pale, but his expression was not of remorse. He was wearing the same sleep shorts from Brittney's video. His eyes were cold, almost challenging. "Are you done with your little tantrum, Elinore?" he asked, his voice low, tinged with a strange mix of annoyance and something else-fear?

A sickening metallic smell hit me. Blood. My stomach lurched. My eyes darted past him, into the apartment. The kitchen doorway was visible from where I stood. And there, on the floor…

Brittney emerged from behind Carter, her eyes wide, feigning innocence. She was clutching a towel to her head, a small smear of something dark on the white fabric. "Oh, Elinore," she whispered, her voice trembling. "He was so aggressive. He just…he jumped at me. I had to defend myself."

My vision tunneled. Everything went red. He jumped at you? The words echoed in my head, a grotesque lie. Apollo, the gentlest soul. My Apollo. Tortured and killed.

A roar tore from my throat. I shoved past Carter, who stumbled back, surprised. My gaze locked onto Brittney. I saw red. Pure, unadulterated rage. I launched myself at her, my hands finding purchase in her hair.

"You bitch!" I screamed, slamming her head against the wall. The sound was sickening, a dull thud. "You absolute psycho bitch! What did you do to him?! What did you do?!"

Brittney shrieked, a high-pitched, piercing sound. "He attacked me! He attacked me! He bit me! I swear!" She clutched at Carter, tears streaming down her face, real tears this time. "Carter, help me! She's crazy! She's going to kill me!"

The memory flashed through my mind: Brittney, weeks ago, scoffing at Apollo, calling him "just a mutt." Brittney "accidentally" kicking his food bowl. Brittney complaining he smelled "too much like dog." It had been a slow, insidious torture, culminating in this horrific act.

My hand found her face, and I slapped her. Hard. The crack echoed in the room. "You lying, manipulative monster!" I roared. "You think I don't know what you are?!"

Before I could land another blow, a massive force hit me from behind. Carter. He grabbed my arms, twisting them, and shoved me hard against the opposite wall. My head smacked against the plaster, stars exploding behind my eyes. Pain shot through my skull.

"What the hell is wrong with you, Elinore?!" Carter bellowed, his face inches from mine, his eyes blazing with fury. He was cradling Brittney, stroking her hair as she sobbed into his chest. "Look what you did! Look at her head! You're insane!"

Brittney, still weeping, wailed, "She's just like her dog, Carter! Wild and dangerous! He tried to bite me, and she tried to kill me! We're not safe!"

Carter glared at me, his face filled with disgust. "You're a maniac! She's hurt! You need to apologize, Elinore! Right now!"

Apologize? To her? For this? My gaze, still swimming from the impact with the wall, drifted back to the kitchen. And there he was. Apollo. A small, still form on the cold tile. The blood, so much blood. It wasn't just a stain. It was a pool.

Something inside me snapped. The pain in my head, the throbbing in my chest, the cold, empty ache where Apollo's love used to be. It all coalesced into a single, terrifying thought.

"You killed him," I whispered, my voice raw, broken. "You both killed him. My Apollo." I raised my eyes to Carter, the last vestiges of love, of anything, burned away by the inferno of grief and rage. My voice rose, clear and chilling. "You're dead to me, Carter Mack. And I swear, I will make you pay for this. Both of you. I will make your lives a living hell!" My hand, still trembling, instinctively reached for the closest weapon. The heavy glass ashtray from the coffee table.

Continue to next part

To save my family's dying company, I was forced to marry a billionaire I hadn't seen in fourteen years. But right outside the City Clerk's office, he tossed our marriage certificate at me like a cheap receipt and shoved a four-year-old boy into my arms. "Your new life has begun. You're on babysitting duty now." He sneered and left me stranded on the sidewalk. I realized with absolute horror that my new husband was Ellsworth Marshall, the sickly boy I had relentlessly bullied in middle school. He didn't spend five billion dollars to save the Bradford family. He bought me to execute a slow, suffocating revenge. He used his orphaned nephew as a pawn, explicitly threatening my father that if I failed to play the perfect, compliant nanny, he would instantly destroy our family's legacy. He even had his guards lock me out of his Long Island estate on my first night, forcing me to stand in the cold dark just to prove he owned me. I was trapped in a gilded cage, suffocated by the guilt of my past and the terror of my present. Why did he involve an innocent child in his twisted vendetta? How much humiliation was enough to pay for my childhood cruelty? Looking at the terrified little boy clinging to my skirt, I tightened my grip on my suitcase. If he wanted to destroy my will piece by piece, I had to find a way to survive the monster I created.

Horror Modern Romance

8.6

Contract With A Monster: The Heiress's Revenge

8.6

It was my birthday, but instead of celebrating, I was bleeding on the floor of my own bedroom. My sister Serena had just smashed a champagne bottle over my legs, her eyes filled with a dark madness because our father allowed me to wear the family diamonds. To escape her, I bolted into a pitch-black guest suite, only to be grabbed by a man who felt like a wall of solid muscle. He was drugged, unstable, and pinned me against the wall, his teeth sinking into my neck in a primal claim that left a permanent mark. I managed to flee, but the nightmare was just beginning. My father didn't care about my injuries; he only cared that I had "insulted" the man in that room—Delos French, the most powerful CEO in New York. He threatened to stop paying for my mother’s critical care facility unless I went to Delos and begged for his forgiveness. My brother Julian was even worse, intentionally pouring scalding coffee over my bandaged wounds just to see me flinch. They forced me into a revealing gold dress, treating me like a high-priced commodity to be sold to the highest bidder to save their failing company. I didn't understand how the people who were supposed to love me could be more predatory than the monster in the dark. I had spent my life fixing their scandals, yet they were ready to throw me to the wolves the moment I became useful as a pawn. But when I stood before Delos French at his gala, he didn't see a trophy. He recognized my scent, my touch, and the fire in my eyes. He trapped me in his private lounge, kneeling to clean the blood from my injured feet. "Marry me," he whispered, his voice a low, terrifying growl. "And I will give you the power to burn your family to the ground." I looked into the eyes of the man who had hunted me and realized he was the only one offering me a weapon to destroy the people who had broken me. "Okay," I whispered.

Action Billionaire Horror

8.1

His Unwanted Bride, Another Man's Queen

8.1

My fiancé, the ruthless Mafia Underboss, tore my dead mother's necklace from my throat and fastened it around another woman's neck. "Diana needs it," Arthur said, his eyes cold. "My blood remembers loving her. It calms her anxiety." He was referring to the bone marrow transplant that saved his life. Diana was connected to the donor, and Arthur believed his new blood made him belong to her. I became a ghost in my own home, forced to watch him crown a usurper. When Diana faked a fall at a gala, accusing me of pushing her, Arthur didn't hesitate. He decided to "discipline" me publicly to teach me respect. He raised the whip. "Arthur, please, I'm pregnant!" I screamed, shielding my stomach. "Don't lie to me," he spat, and the lash came down. I lost our baby on that cold marble floor in a pool of blood. He didn't believe me. He stepped over my body to take Diana to dinner. He didn't stop there. He let my grandmother die in the ER to tend to Diana's bruised nose. He even dug up my grandmother's grave because Diana wanted the view for a garden. I finally fled, vanishing into the night. It wasn't until months later, when he found the autopsy report of our unborn child and the toxicology results proving Diana had been drugging him, that the fog lifted. He tracked me down to a small town, where I was finally healing with a good man. The feared Underboss fell to his knees in the pouring rain, holding the whip he had used on me, shaking violently. "Beat me, Ella," he begged, tears mixing with the mud. "Hurt me. Make us even." I looked at the monster I used to love and dropped his ring into the dirt. "You can't bring back the dead, Arthur," I whispered. "And you are dead to me."

Horror Mafia Romance

8.0

Serenity's Hunger

8.0

Tim Mercer has always been alone. Awkward in conversation and uncomfortable in crowds, he spends most nights inside his small apartment with only his cat and the glow of a television for company. Until the night the power goes out. Bored and curious, Tim pulls an old Ouija board from a dusty closet and asks the darkness if anyone is there. Something answers. She calls herself Serenity, a beautiful woman trapped between worlds. At first, she is gentle. Comforting. Everything Tim has ever wished someone could be, but every night she visits, Tim grows weaker. Serenity isn't looking for love, she's feeding.

Billionaire Horror Modern Romance Vampire

8.3

The Billionaire's Blood Proxy

8.3

One million dollars for one hundred days. For Elena, a street-smart girl facing a mountain of debt, the offer from the mysterious Vance empire sounds like a miracle. The job is simple: use a high-tech "neural sync" to impersonate Lira, the beloved sister of tech-tycoon Alexander Vance, for a series of high-profile events. But as the contract progresses, the "handshake" between their minds turns into a stranglehold. Elena begins to see memories that aren't hers. She feels a hunger for power that belongs to a dead woman. When the synchronization hits a lethal 99%, the terrifying truth emerges: Elena wasn't hired to be a mimic. She was brought to be a biological host. With a ghost clawing for control of her brain and a cold, brooding corporate assassin, Alexander, watching her every move, Elena must navigate a web of digital hauntings and billionaire secrets. From the neon streets of London to a high-stakes explosion in Malta, she has one goal: Delete the ghost before the ghost deletes her.

Billionaire Horror Modern Sci-Fi

7.9

The Disgraced Teacher's Ruthless Return

7.9

Ten years ago, Cameron Vinson destroyed my Wall Street career to build his empire, leaving me a disgraced schoolteacher. Now, he was back, paying for my father' s life-saving surgery to play the benevolent hero. But his fiancée, jealous of his attention, decided to reveal the truth to my father on his deathbed, killing him instantly with the shock. "Emilia, look what you've done! You're hysterical!" Cameron shouted, shoving me away from my father's cooling body while comforting the woman who had just murdered him. Hailee had shown my father a video proving we were both framed, just to watch the light leave his eyes. Yet, Cameron stood there protecting her, gaslighting me into believing I was the crazy one. They thought I was still the helpless victim they could manipulate. They thought my father' s death was just another loose end tied up. But as the heart monitor flatlined, my phone buzzed with a message from a ghost of our shared past. "I have enough evidence to bury Cameron Vinson. Do you need help?" I looked at the monsters preening over my father's corpse. I wiped my tears and typed back a single word: "Yes." The time for grief was over. The time for a hostile takeover had begun.

Action Horror Mystery

A Monster's Final Goodbye

Chapter 4

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