Betrayal - Chapter 30
Saturday
I was holding Matt’s hand so tightly that I was sure I had to be hurting him. But he just laughed as we ducked under spider webs in the hallway.
I screamed as a vampire popped out of the coffin.
“It’s all fake,” Matt said as he tucked me into his side.
“Even the blood?”
He put his fingers through one of the fountains. “It’s just red food dye.”
I knew that. And yet…it was all still creepy. “Your house was pretty much made for Halloween parties. I’m surprised this isn’t always the décor in here.” I jumped when a spider fell from the ceiling.
“Are you really scared?” Matt asked.
“I’m terrified.” I held his hand even tighter.
He stopped in the middle of the hall and pulled me to his chest. “You have nothing to be afraid of. Not when you’re with me, Brooklyn.”
A fake scream echoed from somewhere down the hallway and I flinched.
Matt walked me backward until my butt collided with the side of a smoke machine. “I’ve got you,” he said as his lips brushed against mine. “And I’ll never let anything bad happen to you.”
It didn’t seem nearly as scary in this hallway when I focused on him. Tonight had been perfect. He was perfect. Halloween was quickly becoming one of my favorite days of the year. “So this is what you wanted to steal me away from the party for?” I asked. “To make out behind some spider webs?”
He laughed. “No, not exactly. I was hoping I could get you pants-less like me.”
“Very smooth.”
He winked at me and then pulled me away from the fog machine. We started running down the hall. I only flinched one more time, which I considered a win.
“I can’t run in these shoes!” I yelled to him.
We were both laughing as he picked me up and ran out into the foyer.
He didn’t waste any time as he carried me up the stairs to his bedroom.
He somehow managed to open the door while holding me.
And he kicked it closed. He skipped the lights, carried me right to the bed, and threw me down into the middle of it.
And my excitement quickly turned to disgust. “Matt, why is your bed so wet?” I blinked, trying to make my eyes adjust to the dark room. Oh God, it smelled gross too. What was that?
“Huh?” He leaned over me. “What the fuck?”
My hands were definitely wet. But I couldn’t see a thing. Ew. My back was wet too. Oh crap, all the curls in my hair! I reached up to touch the back of my head and realized my mistake. Whatever was on my hands got even more into my hair. Gross.
“Let me go get the lights.” Matt crawled off of me. He flicked the lights.
The first thing I noticed was that his hands and forearms were covered in…
blood? “Matt!” I screamed. There was even some blood splattered on his shirt.
I looked down at myself and screamed even louder.
I was covered in it too. I wanted to laugh it off.
The house was oozing with fake blood. But this wasn’t water with red food dye.
It was thick and sticking to my hands. The whole bed was soaked in it. It was everywhere.
“What the fuck?” Matt said.
I crawled backward on the bed and my hand touched something soft.
I looked down and screamed again. There was a dead dog in Matt’s bed.
No, not any dog. A sob escaped my throat.
It was Isabella’s dog, Sir Wilfred. Her adorable little puppy had his stomach sliced open.
Oh God. His guts were pouring onto the bed and his white fur was matted with blood.
I covered my mouth with my hand so I wouldn’t puke.
But the blood smeared across my face, spreading the horrid smell of blood right under my nose.
I was going to be sick. I started gagging, but nothing came out.
Matt ran over to the bed and pulled me off, holding me tight. “Don’t turn around,” he said as he led me away from the bed and toward his bedroom door.
It was a little too late to protect me from seeing Sir Wilfred dead on his bed.
I hadn’t just looked at the poor dog, I’d practically bathed in Sir Wilfred’s blood.
How could someone do this to a sweet little animal?
My stomach rolled. I looked up at Matt as he opened the door.
And I realized he wasn’t staring at the bed.
He was staring at the opposite wall. I turned to see what he was looking at.
On the wall above his dresser were the words, “You’re next,” written in Sir Wilfred’s blood.
You’re next.
The words rolled around in my head.
Isabella’s going to kill me.
My heart started racing. You’re next. As much as Matt’s arms comforted me, I didn’t need Matt right now. I needed my dad. He was the only one that knew what to do with Isabella. I needed to get to Miller or Donnelley so they could call my dad. I pushed myself away from Matt and ran out the door.
“Where are you going?” Matt yelled as he ran after me.
I barely stepped out of his room when I ran straight into Freddy Krueger. I screamed so loud that I was pretty sure they could hear me in the ballroom downstairs. Freddy Krueger grabbed me. “What the hell is going on?” he yelled down at me. His scarred face looked even more grotesque in real life.
“Get off me!” I screamed and tried to shove him off.
He just gripped my arms harder.
“Miller!” I yelled at the top of my lungs. “Donnelley! Help me!”
“Jesus, Brooklyn, it’s me,” Mason said and pulled his mask off. “What’s going on?”
I breathed a sigh of relief, which only made the blood fill my nose. I pointed behind me and then made the mistake of covering my mouth again, smearing more blood on my face.
Mason stared into the room. “What the fuck is that?”
“How long have you been up here?” Matt asked. “Have you seen anyone go into my room?”
“The only person I saw go in was Brooklyn like twenty minutes ago.”
“I was downstairs twenty minutes ago,” I said.
Mason shook his head. “But I saw you…”
“Isabella’s dressed like me. I mean, she’s dressed like Sandy.
” God, she hadn’t just dressed like me to annoy me.
Well, I was sure that was a fun bonus. But she’d done it so she could sneak into Matt’s room and murder her poor dog on his bed.
Isabella had done a lot of terrible things to me.
But this was fucking insane. And I didn’t need the evidence that a person dressed like Sandy had gone into Matt’s room twenty minutes ago.
I knew it was her. “It’s Isabella’s dog,” I said.
“It was Isabella. She wants to kill me.” Saying the words out loud made it even harder to breathe.
This wasn’t a game. I’d tried to ignore Isabella ever since homecoming.
But it wasn’t working. Not fighting back was going to get me killed.
“Shit,” Mason said.
Matt clenched his hands into fists. “I’m going to fucking kill Wizzy. Stay with Brooklyn.” He turned to go find her.
I wanted to call after Matt, but he was already running down the stairs.
“Shit,” Mason said again, his eyes still trained on the words on the wall.
I felt a little safer with Mason standing here with me. But I didn’t need a babysitter. I wanted to find Isabella too. I was going to fucking kill her first. I ran after Matt.
“Wait!” Mason called.
I reached the bottom of the stairs before I realized there was no air in my lungs. I pressed my hand against the wall.
“Are you okay?” Mason asked as he lightly touched my back.
“No.” Tears started to stream down my face.
“Here, sit down,” Mason said as he pulled me down to sit on the step.
I leaned forward. I wasn’t sure if I was going to throw up or faint.
Mason abruptly stood up. “Isabella!” he yelled.
I looked up to see Isabella standing in the foyer. She smiled at me and then disappeared back into the spooky hallway. Mason took a few steps toward her and then stopped and looked back at me. I knew why he wasn’t running after her. Matt had asked him to stay with me.
“Go,” I said. “I’m fine.”
He cursed for the millionth time tonight and then took off running.
Matt and Mason could take care of finding Isabella.
I needed to find Miller. I needed my dad.
He was the only one who would know what to do with her once the Caldwells found her.
I pushed myself up. My legs were shaky as I made my way toward the front door.
My security was still forced to stay outside.
And they’d be out there somewhere. I opened up the door.
James was standing on the front step. He immediately pulled something out of his mouth and threw it onto the ground, grinding it into the gray stone with the heel of his dress shoe.
Smoke swirled around his face and he coughed.
He waved his hand through the air, trying to disperse it.
“Oh. It’s just you,” he said with a laugh.
But then he lowered his eyebrows as he took in my appearance. “What the hell happened to you?”
“Isa…” I gasped for air. “Isabella.”
He grabbed my hand without waiting for a response, pulling me into his chest. “Just breathe,” he whispered into my ear.
My tears felt hot on my cheeks as the cool autumn air blew around us. For just a few minutes, James held me. Until I was able to catch my breath.
“Oh God, I’m getting blood all over your tux.”
James laughed. “I don’t care about my tux. But why exactly are you covered in blood?”
I made sure not to wipe my face as I pulled away from him. “We went upstairs and found Isabella’s dog dead on our bed with the words, ‘You’re next,’ written in blood on the wall.”
“We?” James asked. “You mean you and Matt?”
I wasn’t sure why that was the part that he was questioning. I nodded.
“And he left you?”
“He left me with Mason. But then Mason saw Isabella and I told him to go after her.”
James ran his fingers through his hair. “Are you okay?” He shook his head. “Sorry, that was a stupid question.”
I tried to blink away my tears.
“We should probably take a shower real quick to get you cleaned up,” he said.
I laughed, which made him laugh too. “What are you dressed as?” I asked.
He looked down at his ruined white tux jacket. “James Bond. From The Man With the Golden Gun specifically.”
Oh. That made sense. And Rachel was one of his Bond girls. “Where’s Rachel?”
“Dancing. I just stepped out for a second. I needed some air.”
Air? I wasn’t blind. I’d seen all the smoke in the air out here. “What were you smoking?”
He shoved his hands into his pockets. “What does it matter?”
“It matters to me.”
He smiled. “Because I matter to you? Last time I checked, you turned down my proposal.”
“That doesn’t mean I don’t care about you.”
“I’m Rachel’s problem. Not yours.” He sat down on the step.
I didn’t really know how to respond to that. “So are you two good?”
He exhaled slowly. “You mean do I think she actually likes me instead of just wanting my money?” He shrugged. “I don’t know. But it doesn’t make me like her any less. I don’t know how to quit her. She’s like a freaking drug.”
I nodded. I didn’t really understand, because I never did drugs except that one time I accidentally had pot cupcakes. But I was more addicted to Matt than I think I even knew.
We both sat in silence.
I was glad James was staying with Rachel, even though his words were slightly disturbing.
I wanted him to be happy. But as I thought about happiness, I realized that there was one thing holding me back from it.
Isabella. She’d always be standing in my way.
And I needed to make a stand. Enough was enough.
I wasn’t going to suffer the same fate as poor Sir Wilfred. I was not going to be next .
“I want to do the prank,” I said into the cool autumn night.
James smiled. “Yeah?”
I nodded. I didn’t tell him that I wished that Isabella was just dead. Hopefully an innocent prank would get this feeling out of my stomach. I just needed Isabella to know I wasn’t rolling over. I wasn’t going anywhere.
“You sure? I thought you didn’t want to stoop to her level.”
“I’m not threatening to murder her. Although I don’t know why Rob keeps asking me for blueprints to my dad’s apartment.”
“Who knows.”
“But it’s still just the pudding thing, right?”
James nodded.
I took a deep breath. Pudding. It was just a silly prank. But it meant I was fighting back. “And the deal is still on? About trying to make up with Matt?”
“A deal’s a deal, Brooklyn.”
I put my hand out for him to shake.
He looked down at my bloody hand, shrugged, and shook it.