His Little Hellion

She laughs loudly, the sound hollow, her lips twisting into a bitter smile. “Death is amazing,” she murmurs, her tone almost wistful. “Until you’ve touched it, you have no idea how free it can be.”

Her words make my chest tighten. What the hell does that mean?

Jace never expected to come back. He left years ago, leaving behind the wreckage of a friendship turned toxic, a girl who once meant everything to him, and memories he’s tried to bury. But when he’s forced to return, he’s faced with a chilling reality—Serena isn’t the girl he left behind.

She’s unpredictable, reckless, and too calm about things no one should be calm about. She talks about death like it’s a close friend, vanishes without warning, and refuses to let anyone get too close. The streets have swallowed her whole, and when she looks at him, it’s like she barely remembers who they used to be.

But something isn’t right. The more Jace digs, the more he realizes Serena’s spiral didn’t start overnight. Someone broke her long before he left. Someone shattered her in a way that no diagnosis, no medication, and no amount of running could fix.

She was there the night Paul Easton died. She reacted when she shouldn’t have. And when Jace speaks his name, she unravels.

Now, he has to find out why.

Because Serena isn’t just self-destructing, she’s waiting for the fall. And if Jace can’t figure out what really happened to her, she may not come back from it this time.

Triggers

• Abuse (physical, emotional, and psychological)
• Attempted sexual assault
• BDSM dynamics
• Chemical manipulation (using drugs to mimic mental illness)
• Child Sex Abuse (Past Story!)
• Coercion (sexual or otherwise)
• Coercive survival games
• Covert medication (drugging without the person’s knowledge)
• Drug use and drug abuse
• Drugging to induce memory loss (with financial exploitation)
• Drugging without consent (covert drug administration)
• Forced child combat (Past story!)
• Gaslighting and manipulation
• Human trafficking
• Kidnapping
• Medication control (withholding, altering, or forcing medication)
• Mental illness (portrayals of psychosis, PTSD, anxiety, depression, etc.)
• MFM (male-female-male relationship)
• MM (male-male relationship)
• Non-consensual sexual activity
• Obsessive or toxic relationships
• Power imbalance in relationships
• Prostitution and forced prostitution
• Reckless endangerment / self-destructive thrill-seeking
• Sadistic abuse
• Sexual assault/rape
• Thanatophilia (death obsession/fixation with dying)
• Torture
• Violent death
• Virgin male lead