Chapter 17
CHAPTER 17
Ivy
Silas has walked out of the room to answer a phone call, leaving me to myself. I don’t know when he’ll come back or if he’ll come back at all. Not that I care.
My hand slowly reaches across the floor, and I grasp the bills, crushing them in the palm of my hand. I hold them as I get up from the floor and tear the outfit from these thin bones. I cast everything aside and grab my own clothes, putting them back on before rubbing my face with the towel in his bathroom. I look at the girl in the mirror, the submissive girl I’ve been forced to become.
My fist lands on the glass, which cracks beneath my skin, and blood erupts from the crevices in my hand.
Dammit.
I let my rage overpower me.
I wash off the blood and exit the room. Luckily, Silas is nowhere to be seen.
I breathe out a sigh of relief as I head toward the stairs but stop in my tracks the second I come face-to-face with Max. “Ivy?”
The bewildered look on his face makes me rush past him.
“Wait!” he yells.
I run down as fast as I can, tucking the money into my pocket before I head out the front door.
“Ivy, please. What happened? You’re bleeding.” I can hear his footsteps behind me, but I ignore them.
“Did someone hurt you?”
Your friend.
“No.”
“Let me help you,” he says.
But when he nearly catches up with me, I turn around and say, “I thought I made myself very clear last time that I don’t trust you.”
His lips curl. “But …” He holds up a bag of noodles. “I have food. Wanna share?”
I make a face. “You really don’t understand, do you?” Food will never fix this. Food can’t prevent me from unraveling. “Your friends are destroying me. You think food will make it okay?”
“No, but …”
I sigh out loud and turn around. “I’m not hungry. Now, please go away. I want to be alone.”
Finally, he doesn’t follow me anymore, but my heart still aches as I leave to grab my bike. He’s so eager to please that it’s hard to deny him, but he’s part of that society, part of that deranged friend group, and I can’t trust any of them, no matter how nice they pretend to be.
What if it’s all a ruse? A way to get me to spill the beans? He tricked me once before with that money. What’s to say he won’t do it again?
As I bike, I pause momentarily near The Shack.
Should I still try to spend the night there instead of at home?
Those fuckers already have me in their pocket. It’s not like hiding out is any use.
But what if they still end up following me home?
I swallow back the nerves.
I race down the mountain and let the fresh air take away the sins imprinted on my skin until the noise from the city drowns out the voices in my head.
Thief.
I gulp.
I don’t want to hear his voice, but every time I turn, it’s like a silent whisper in the night. And the more I hear it, the more emboldened I get. With a scowl, I park my bike near the grocery store, grab a cart, and go inside.
With each step, the reality of what I did sinks in deeper, and I fish into my pocket and take out the money Silas threw on the floor in front of my face. This money … it’s tainted. It feels wrong to even touch it.
Like I’ve sold my body and turned myself into their whore.
Fuck those boys.
I rip open the fridge door and take out a big carton of milk. I grab eggs, bacon, pancake mix, syrup, and some Eggos. I pick out the freshest berries and head into the breakfast aisle, where I grasp the largest box of chocolate cereal I can find and dump it into the cart. Then I head to the register and pull out the bills Silas gave to me, slapping them on the counter along with two bags for carrying all this shit.
If I’m going to be someone’s whore, then I’ll eat to my heart’s content.
I go back outside and hang the bags on my steering wheel before I hop on and try to hold my balance while biking across the city. Finally, I get to my building, but first, I double-check my surroundings and wait a while to see if anyone has followed me here before I head inside.
The remaining bills crunch up in my palm as I struggle not to throw them into the bin in the hallway, but that would destroy the only remaining value of my sacrifice. So I hold it as tightly as I can, forcing myself to walk up to Mrs. Schwartz’s apartment, where I place down my bags so I can knock on the door.
She opens up, and the cat immediately runs out, purring, as she rolls around my legs, along with Cora, who hugs me tight. “You’re here!”
“She’s given me the runaround, Jesus.” Mrs. Schwartz rolls her eyes. “How much longer do I have to do the nights too? I can’t keep this up.” She moans and rubs her back.
“Please, can I sleep in our bed, Ivy? Please?” Cora begs, holding my legs like she’s afraid she’ll be sent back.
I really didn’t want to risk it, but her sweet little face beaming up at me makes it hard to say no. “All right.”
She squeals and hugs me even tighter.
Mrs. Schwartz holds out her hand without saying a word, and I place two of the bills on top.
“For the effort,” I say.
“Thanks.” She eyes me down like she thinks I’ve become a drug dealer. “Where’d you get all those hundreds?”
“Pole dancing.” I laugh it off.
“Hmpf.” She sticks up a cigarette. “Didn’t think you’d dance for them boys. Oh well. Guess these halls are full of freaks.”
She closes the door on us without saying another word, and I shrug at Cora, who seems awfully confused by her behavior. I’m just glad I have a decently reliable nanny.
“Let’s go home,” I say, picking her up in my arms and unlocking the door to our apartment.
Bagel dashes inside, searching for his favorite spot by the window.
“It’s so boring staying with Mrs. Schwartz. She doesn’t have a lot of toys and only wants to watch TV,” Cora says as I put her down on the couch. “But I do know how much all the jewelry costs from the sales channel now.”
I chuckle. “That will come in handy when we get rich.”
“Oh! Then we can finally get that chocolate cereal!”
I grin and pull up the bags of groceries, planting them firmly on the kitchen counter. “Don’t have to wait anymore …” Her eyes begin to glow like stars as I pull out the cereal she’s been dying to taste, and she jumps off and snatches it out of my hands, hugging it like it’s her world’s best friend. “Thank you!”
“Told you I’d get them.”
She runs to hug me next, nearly dropping the box.
“Promise is a promise,” I whisper, patting her back. “And look what else I got.”
I empty the bag on the counter, and my ears are blasted with a shriek. “Berries? Eggos? Omigod!”
“So …” I grab the pan and a spatula. “Who’s hungry for a late-night dinner with Eggos, pancakes, and cereal?”
She sticks up her little hand. “Me!”
Heath
“Why can’t we hang out at my place?” Mavis asks as we head up the stairs. She’s still nose-deep in one of those Wiccan books of hers. “I wanted you to listen to the new band I found. They’re amazing.”
“We always hang there,” I reply. “And you can play the same songs on my setup. Besides, I need to talk with Silas. Stay here.”
Mavis frowns, folding her arms as she leans back against a wall near the stairs. “I didn’t want to see his filthy room anyway.”
His door is open, and when I look inside, I’m surprised he’s not there.
It’s nine p.m. Did Ivy not show up like she was told?
Or did he already finish toying with her?
“Where is she?”
“Gone.” He pops out of the room where we keep all our weapons.
I frown. “Gone as in …?”
He raises a brow. “I let her off the hook. Don’t start insinuating things. I’m insane, not stupid.”
Good. I was almost starting to worry I might have even more on my hands.
A kill outside campus, that I can solve.
A kill on campus? Under Dean Rivera’s nose? No way that’ll slip by him.
“What’d you do with her?”
“Everything I fucking wanted and then some,” he growls, a wicked glimmer in his eyes. “But I’m not nearly done yet.”
“Who the fuck are you talking about?” Mavis asks, pushing herself off the wall.
“The thief,” Silas says.
“Wait, it’s a her ?” She approaches us. “Holy shit.”
“We’re making her pay for stealing from us.”
“How?”
Silas tilts his head, a smug grin slowly spreading on his face. “I have my ways.”
She scowls. “Ew.”
“Her saliva’s still on my floor,” Silas hisses.
Mavis clenches her eyes like she can’t even look at him without wanting to vomit. “Don’t give me the gross details I didn’t ask for. Do whatever the fuck you want, but keep me out of it.”
I laugh at their banter. “What were you doing in the weapons room?” I ask Silas. “Overthinking your sins?”
“Shopping.”
“Shopping for what?” Mavis asks.
He ignores her and pulls his phone from his pocket. “Mom called. Apparently, we were supposed to be there tonight for dinner with the whole family. She sounded pretty pissed we weren’t there.”
Her eyes widen. “Oh shit. I forgot.” She immediately runs down a flight of stairs.
“Ugh,” I grumble.
“Upset you can’t have another fucking date night with my sister?” Silas growls.
“That’s not—no.”
God, I fucking hate when he brings that up.
“That was once. Once . And I’m over it. Forever.”
He crosses his arms, smiling smugly. “Oh really?”
“We have a far more interesting plaything,” I say, grinning.
A spark of rage flashes through his eyes. “I already fucked with her.”
“Doesn’t mean I can’t, too,” I retort.
“Whatever.” He shrugs. “I’m off. Mom and Dad are probably gonna kill me.”
“Is that why you were looking at the weapons? To defend yourself when they come for you?” I joke.
“No.” He sucks in a breath. “Because I need a release after tonight. Are you with me?” he asks.
I nod, licking my lips at the prospect. “Fucking bet on it.”
“I’ll call you when I’m done.” He grins at me as he passes by. “Bring the machete.”