Chapter 18
CHAPTER 18
Silas
“Finally, I cooked this new recipe, and none of y’all had the balls to actually show up!” Mom throws the leftover sludge she “baked” in the oven on the dinner table, the rancid smell nearly making me throw up on the spot.
“Mom …” Xavier begins.
“No, I want none of it! I tried my best, okay? At least you could’ve tried it. Did any of you even remember we had a date planned?”
She looks at Xavier, Aspen, Melody, Mavis, and me like we’re her long-lost children she hasn’t seen in years even though it’s been maybe two weeks tops.
“Sorry, Mom,” Aspen says. “It just … slipped my mind.” She adds a chuckle for good measure.
“I don’t think any of us did it on purpose.” Mavis smiles.
Mom throws her purple hair over her shoulder and tilts her head. “Really?”
“Penelope, please give those kids a break. They’re doing their best at school,” Alistair, one of my mom’s boyfriends, says as he walks in with tousled hair and a certain swagger in his step. His knuckles and the sides of his hands are still covered in pencil streaks from all the drawing he’s done today for his comic book.
He's not my dad, but my mom decided to raise us half siblings together. Only Mavis is my actual sister.
“Dad, don’t go easy on them,” Melody jests, poking me with her elbow.
If she wasn’t already fragile enough, I would’ve thrown her halfway across the room.
“We’re here now, aren’t we?” I say, folding my arms.
Mom stares at me, incensed. “True, but that doesn’t excuse—”
“Who wants to make the biggest fucking pyre in the yard this world has ever seen?” Dylan, my mom’s other boyfriend, yells as he walks into the kitchen through the back door in the kitchen, wearing only flip-flops and a pair of Havana shorts, oblivious to her rage.
Mom merely stands there, flabbergasted he’d even try to upend her.
“Me!” Aspen quickly yells, bolting to the door.
Right as she passes Dylan, he pats her on the back. “That’s my girl.”
“Really, Dylan? Fucking really?” My mom’s eyebrows begin to twitch.
“What?” Dylan shrugs. “I bought all this wood. It would be a shame if we didn’t use it.”
“Dylan…” Penelope grits, seething.
“Me too,” Mavis swiftly says, rushing to the back door.
“And me,” Xavier replies.
“I’m in too,” I say, definitely feeling the heat.
I didn’t just get my temper from my dad, who’s already out in the yard gathering the logs.
Melody tags along. “Don’t forget about me!”
“Not you too,” Alistair groans. “Oh fuck. This is not going to end well.”
Mom begins to scream and picks up a piece of her own sludge pie with her bare hands. Dad immediately drops everything and runs towards the back door, shoving Dylan aside. “What happened?”
Too late because Mom just threw her own food … right at his face.
She pauses and blinks, her face growing white. The rest of us are frozen in the backyard, staring through the back door at the horror that just unfolded. My dad’s face turns redder by the second—not from embarrassment but from rage.
Fuck.
“Penelope …” Felix growls as he wipes the sludge off his stone-cold face.
She seems absolutely mortified. I’d be, too, if I’d thrown lukewarm food at my dad’s face. He will literally kill people over that shit.
All of us kids get up close to peer inside and see what’s about to go down.
“Get out. A bomb’s gonna explode, and as much as I love a good blowout, you do not want to be caught in the crossfire of this one,” Dylan says, shooing us away with a grin on his face.
Felix’s lips curl up. “Motherf—”
Alistair puts his hands against his mouth. “FOOD FIGHT!”
He picks up a handful of the pie and throws it at Dylan’s face, which hits him right in the teeth. Dylan splutters and coughs, and everyone bursts out into laughter.
“Okay, that’s it.” Dylan, and practically everyone else, storms at the table to grab a handful of food, throwing it around at whoever is in their vicinity. And after five throws, even my mom pitches in, chucking bits and pieces at whoever gets in her way.
“Here! Have a fucking taste of my pie!” she yells, laughing out loud just like the rest of us. “Doesn’t it fucking taste good?!”
I manage to dodge most hits, trying to empty the pan before they all come after me.
“Aw, this was my good shirt!” Xavier pulls the fabric over his head.
“Stop whining, bitch.” Mavis throws a full hand at his chest, making everyone else laugh.
“I’m so glad you all came home. It’s no fun without you guys!” Melody says, throwing small hands left and right despite hitting very few people.
I’m still clean, but the second they all look at me with suspicion, I turn around. “Oh fuck no.”
I bolt outside through the back door with everyone on my heels.
“Come here, you little shit!” Felix roars, throwing the biggest load of pie.
I laugh maniacally. “Fucking catch me if you can, cowards!”
Maybe this dinner wasn’t so bad after all.
Heath
Max is on the couch in the common room of the Skull and Serpent Society, reading a book intensely. I throw my bag down on the floor and grab his shoulders, but he swiftly closes the book and tucks it away under his ass.
“You scared me, Heath,” he says, looking over his shoulder.
“Why? What’re you reading?”
“Nothing,” he says with big doe eyes.
I roll my eyes. “Fine. You don’t wanna tell me, then don’t.”
He scratches the back of his head. “It’s nothing you’d find interesting anyway.”
“Thanks,” I say, squeezing his shoulders as I lean in. “So, have you talked with Ivy recently?”
He tenses up. “No. Why do you want to know?”
“I’m curious if she still lets you get close to her.”
He lowers his head. “She doesn’t trust me because of what you did.”
“What we did.” I pat him on the chest. “You’re part of our group, remember?”
“Right, but I don—”
I grab his face and turn it sideways until those submissive eyes bore into mine. “You always do what I want. Don’t you?”
He gulps. “If you ask me nicely.”
“And if I don’t ask nicely? What will you do then?” I’m so close, he’s beginning to sweat, and I lean in to bite the air between us, making him jolt up and down in his seat. “Cry?”
He jerks his head free from my grip, and I’m thrown off by the sudden defiance, which is unlike him.
“Fine. Whatever you want. Can I read now?”
I sigh. “Why don’t you just come along with Silas and me tonight?”
“Where are you two going?” he asks.
I pick up the bag, and the metal inside makes a lot of sound. “We’ve got something special planned.”
His eyes home in on the bag before they narrow. “Like what?”
A grin slowly spreads on my face. “Something fun … and wicked.”
He licks his lips. “I… I’ll pass, thanks.”
“Aw, c’mon. You never come along.” I throw my arm around his neck. “I’d love to have you there.”
“I’m busy. Sorry.”
I frown, disappointment marring my face. “Fine. Suit yourself.”
I walk off, my stomach churning with resentment. He’s never been this apathetic about hanging out with me, and it dulls the happiness I nearly felt at the prospect of showing him just how devilish I can be.
I open the bag and pop open the pills I got, taking out two and swallowing them whole.
If I can’t feel even a little bit thrilled, then I won’t feel anything at all instead.
But what is up with Max’s detached attitude? Something’s not right, but I can’t pinpoint what. Outside, I stare at his motorcycle and think it over for a moment.
Maybe … just maybe…
I fish my tracker from my bag, stick it to the inside of his luggage compartment, and pull up the tracker app on my phone.
Then I hop into my car, chuck the bag on the back seat, start the car, and race off.
Fuck, this car is the only thing that makes me feel alive, makes me feel anything at all. Adrenaline surges through my veins, the fuel that keeps me going. I don’t know why I am this way. All I know is that I need the kick to survive. To feel something other than dead inside.
I pop open the bottle and take another pill, feeling the high slowly come on.
It’s not enough.
I need more, so much fucking more.
I turn on the heavy metal music and hit the gas to chase the darkness, nearly catching flight as I race down the mountains and head into the city. I know exactly where I’m going, and I don’t wait for red lights to turn green before I pass an empty street.
At the edge of the city is a giant mansion with a huge fence around it, and I park my car near the gates, pressing the button on the wall.
“Hello?” a voice calls out.
“Heath here. I’m picking up Silas.”
“Of course, Sir. I will send him down.”
Send him down? He’s upstairs? At his parents' house?
Frowning, I wait until Silas finally comes out of the house and walks up to the gate. “Just in time.”
“Looks like you had a great time in there,” I say.
His family waves at me from the distance, and I wave back with a fake smile.
“It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” he says. “Until Mom decided to force everyone to Melody’s room and gush about her paintings.” He rolls his eyes. “I’ve already seen them a million times.”
I look at his shirt, which is decidedly… pink. And has a unicorn on it. “Wait a minute … Weren’t you wearing something else?”
“This is the only thing Mom had that I could fit into. Don’t ask what happened.” He jumps into the car. “Did you bring an extra hoodie?”
“No, just the masks,” I reply.
He sighs out loud. “Fine. I’ll keep this on. Are we ready?”
I eye the bag in the back, and his wicked smile makes me grin too. “Let’s go fuck some shit up.”
Max
Ten minutes later
From my motorcycle, I look through her window, checking for any movement, anything out of the ordinary. I’m antsy, desperate to know if Silas and Heath planned on doing something to her tonight, but it appears they chose another target instead.
I have to admit, when Heath said he and Silas had planned something wicked, I was worried it would involve her. Not because I don’t like watching what they do, but because every time I talk to her afterward, there’s more hatred in her voice than before.
Hate is Silas’s business, and every time he touches her, he injects it straight into her veins.
I blow out a sigh, but the second the light comes on, I switch into hypervigilant mode.
She’s never awake at this time of the day.
I know because I’ve watched her do her routine with that little girl every goddamn night since I set my eyes on her.
What is going on?
I bring out my binoculars and watch her through the window. She’s putting on a hoodie and slings a bag over her shoulder that appears quite heavy.
The lights go off, and I tuck my binoculars away, then wait, and wait, and wait … And there she is, exiting the building to hop on her bike and race off.
Something’s not right.
She’d never leave that kid alone unless it was important enough. Unless it could put them in even more danger if she didn’t go.
I swiftly put on my helmet and race after her.