Chapter 14
Evie
The Reset
“This isn’t fucking Heathers.” I stood up, gagging at the vomit that had spilled from Glenn’s mouth after he’d consumed a bleach-watermelon-energy-drink cocktail.
“If it were Heathers, it would have been Drano, and we’d already have fucked.” Sebastian snickered. “I did the best with what was available. I didn’t have a handful of little blue pills lying around to give him a heart attack.”
I cocked my head. He was smirking as he watched me put two and two together.
How did he know about Glenn’s dad?
“That was you?”
He nodded.
“Why?” My chin trembled.
“Because he was involved in killing Lita.”
I looked up at him. His eyes were nothing but honest. They held no sympathy for Glenn or his father. Something stirred within me. Suddenly, I wasn’t looking at Sebastian Shaw, Hollywood heartthrob. I was looking at…the dreamiest man I’d ever seen.
But the discussion we’d be having about Glenn’s father would have to wait.
“We have to hide this. This wasn’t part of my plan. This is all wrong.” I stormed out of the room to grab carpet cleaner and a rag from the closet. I hurried back and dropped to my knees to begin scrubbing the vomit and pink drink staining my mother’s beautiful carpet.
“What do you mean this wasn’t part of your plan?” Sebastian sat on the edge of the bed, watching me. “What plan exactly?”
“My revenge plan. He wasn’t supposed to die,” I said, not looking up from my task. “I needed more time with him. I shouldn’t have told you to get the bleach. Now I’ll never know how his dad was involved.”
Sebastian slid off the bed and dropped to the floor. He put his hand over mine to stop my scrubbing. His other hand went to my chin, raising it to force me to look at him. Tears stung my eyes as I tried not to let the panic set in.
“Hey, it’s okay. I can help clean this up.”
I stared at him, my mind going blank. How could he be so calm right now? I threw the rag down and fell back against the wall. The curtain over the window spilled across my face. I shoved them back in annoyance. “Fuck!”
Sebastian sat with me while I sobbed into my knees. This was all so fucked. Glenn would have told me what I needed to know, probably, at some point, if we hadn’t dumped fucking bleach down his throat.
What had we done?
We were monsters.
I was a monster.
I knew there was something suspicious about that red can and chose not to question it.
“I’m partial to blueberry.”
“Evie, is that why you came back? Revenge?”
I looked up, wiping the tears from my face. Pain and disappointment flashed across his expression. It put a pit in my stomach that twisted until painful, but I couldn’t lie to him.
“Yes,” I murmured. “I’m going to kill every last one of them.”
His expression deflated, his Adam’s apple bobbed, and he nodded. “All right, then let’s do this.” He slapped his thighs and stood.
I stared up at him. “What do you mean?”
He offered me his hand and pulled me to my feet. “You’re here for revenge. You want to find out the truth about what happened to your mom?”
I nodded, sniffling and continuing to wipe my face.
“Then we’re going to do that. Let’s find all those fuckers who hurt her.”
“And kill them?” I asked, my words hopeful. In my heart, I knew killing was wrong. I was upset about the man on my floor right now. I didn’t crave random death. I just craved theirs.
He nodded.
“You’re going to help me? You realize that…we will—we could—” I couldn’t say it, but his green eyes shone with understanding. We very well might die doing this.
“Yes. But first, let’s dispose of this one.”
“Where?” I blurted, shaking my head. “This wasn’t the plan. If I’d known—”
“Shh…” Sebastian pulled me into his arms. “It’s okay. No more tears. Especially not because of that bastard. He was about to rape you. Have you forgotten already?”
My gaze shot to Glenn, wearing only his socks.
Oh, right. How had he phrased it?
He was going to split me in half.
I curled my lip, suddenly less guilty about his murder.
Like father, like son, I supposed.
“Let’s get him dressed. We’ll figure it out from there.”
We worked together to pull his clothes back on. Once we were finished, Sebastian tossed him over his shoulder with a loud groan.
“Do you have a vehicle? I’d rather not put him in mine.”
“Just the moving van.” I shrugged.
“Perfect.”
Sebastian propped him up against a wall in my kitchen as I opened the garage and pulled the van in. Thankfully it was a smaller vehicle and was able to fit, albeit snuggly. I pushed the button to shut the garage and then opened the back of the van.
“Plenty of space.” Sebastian groaned as he hoisted Glenn over his shoulder and tossed him like a rag doll into the back. I jumped as his body hit the metal flooring with a loud thump!
“Your mom have a shovel?” Sebastian asked, looking around the garage.
“She did!” I hurried to the wall and grabbed it. I’d never been more grateful that I hadn’t thrown anything out. Not only did we have materials to help with getting rid of the evidence, but I knew exactly where to find them. I handed him the shovel, and he tossed it into the van.
“Cool. Get in.” He flashed the keys and nodded to the other side of the moving van.
“Where are we going?” I asked, sliding into the passenger side.
“Water or desert?” he asked, reaching for my hand and squeezing it. Digging out my own keys, I pushed the button to open the garage, and slowly, he backed out and drove down the long driveway, passing his car as we went.
It took me a moment to understand. “Well, we have the shovel.” I shrugged. Was there a correct answer?
“Desert it is. Thankfully, we’re close to I-10 East, there’s not a lot of cameras. I’ll watch for those, you handle the music.”
The stereo began to ding, and suddenly my voice assistant on my phone chirped.
“Where would you like to go, Evie?”
Sebastian hit the brakes and turned to look at me.
“Your GPS is on?”
I shrunk in my seat, cringing.
With a low growl of annoyance, Sebastian stopped, drove back into the garage, and handed me his phone.
I grabbed it along with mine before heading into the house, tossing them onto the living room couch.
Returning, I buckled my seat belt, and we backed out of my drive again but stopped at the end of my driveway.
“Where’s his phone?” He looked back and nodded at Glenn. “Grab it and use his finger to unlock it. We’ll see what music he’s got.”
I climbed into the back, grimacing and avoiding touching his lifeless body as much as I could while digging into his pockets. I pressed the button on the side and pushed Glenn’s pointer finger onto the glass. I huffed as the phone rejected the attempt.
“It wants his face.” I glanced up at Glenn’s head, slumped backward.
Would it still work with his eyes rolled back and tongue hanging out?
Reluctantly, I turned the overhead light on and grabbed Glenn’s hair, pulling his head up.
My stomach rolled as I stared at the man who had been alive only an hour ago.
Steeling myself, I quickly tried the face recognition, and much to my relief, it worked.
Rejoining Sebastian in the front, I pressed the buttons on the radio to connect and then went to Glenn’s music.
“He likes country,” I muttered, scrolling through his Spotify.
“Liked,” Sebastian said firmly.
I looked up into his cold eyes and nodded. “Right. Liked.”
I typed emo into the music app’s search bar, something I knew he liked.
Sebastian gripped the wheel, and only when My Chemical Romance poured from the speakers did he press on the pedal.
A grin spread over his face as his shoulders relaxed, and we drove off the property and onto the road.
As soon as we were on the highway, he began to belt the song, and soon, I found myself joining in.
For three hours, it felt like we were kids again—just cruising, goofing around, and singing to MCR and all the other emo bands from the early 2000s.
Back then, this was what we listened to on set.
The adults in Simon Says had been teenagers in the early 2000s.
They loved blasting the music they grew up on while in hair and makeup or between takes.
I couldn’t wait to be a part of that. This time, I would be in a makeup chair too.
With our turn back in time, I’d all but forgotten the dead body in the back until we drove past the sign for Joshua Tree National Park.
Oh, right. We’d killed someone.
“You wanted the desert,” he said as he parked and got out of the van.
I joined him and gazed out at the dark, moonlit landscape. There was no one for miles. A good thing for disposing bodies.
While it looked peaceful and quite pretty, with its dried foliage, large cacti, and even larger mountains in the distance as our only audience, the silence was deceiving. There was tension in the air—telling us we needed to be on watch, lest a predator sneak up on us.
“Scavengers will take care of him soon enough,” Sebastian added. “Honestly, we probably don’t even need to bury him.”
Together, with Sebastian taking his arms and me taking his legs, we dragged Glenn out of the van.
He fell onto the ground, causing dust to blow up into our faces.
I coughed and stepped back. Once the dust settled, I continued to help Sebastian drag the body a short distance away from the van.
Setting him down, I rubbed my sore shoulders.
“So, we just toss him out here? What if someone finds him before the animals…” A twinge of guilt twisted in my belly as I looked down at the man. Just four hours ago, maybe five, he was alive and well. He’d had his whole life ahead of him—and we’d fed him bleach.
He’d also tried to rape me.
Sometimes dead is better.
“We could speed up the process, but it’s not gonna be pretty.”
I gulped as a pit began to form in my stomach. “How so?”
Sebastian pulled out his switchblade, popping it open. “We need to give the coyotes something to sniff for.” He pulled off his leather jacket then his shirt, handing me both. He stripped down to his boxers, tossing the rest of his clothes to the side, then he dropped to his knees, knife raised.
“Don’t look.”
I turned away quickly, my stomach rolling, but looked over my shoulder, curious.
“Stay turned that way if you don’t want to see this,” he warned. “You’re gonna fuck around and find out.”
Steeling myself, I faced forward again and stepped farther away, snapping my eyes closed.
A moment later, I heard the grunt of Sebastian swinging down and the squish of the knife plunging into something wet.
A whimper escaped my throat, and I quickly covered my mouth as I continued to hear the sounds of Glenn being…
Curiosity got the best of me, and I turned my head slowly, popping an eye open.
It took a moment for my eyes to zero in on the details of the scene, but the moment I saw eyeballs, I spun back around.
The movement was too quick, and my body revolted.
Dizziness filled my vision, and I dropped to the ground, catching myself on my palms.
“Evie, you okay? Did you look?” Sebastian called, an accusatory tone in his voice.
“I looked,” I admitted, keeping my eyes closed to stop the spinning.
“I warned you.” He clicked his tongue as he continued working on Glenn. While I couldn’t see it, I could hear every little squish of blood releasing, every bone being cracked by force, and every… I wasn’t quite sure what, but it was making the sound of Velcro ripping.
“You fucked around, and then what?”
“I found out,” I replied miserably as I gagged, trying not to vomit and leave more evidence behind. Taking deep breaths, I steadied myself and stood, making sure to keep my back facing Sebastian and Glenn.
“Is there any water in the van?” Sebastian asked.
I didn’t want to turn but forced myself to, keeping my eyes shut as I drifted over to the van to search.
I found a half-finished bottle in the back, and bracing myself for the gruesome scene, I brought it to him.
My hand trembled as I handed him the bottle.
I stared down at the body as Sebastian stood and slowly poured the water over his hands, chest, and thighs, rinsing off the blood.
Glenn was really gone. He no longer had eyeballs, and his face was crushed to an unrecognizable level.
I could kind of pretend before when he just looked unconscious. But there was no coming back from having your brains peeking out through your eye sockets.
“Have you done this before?” I asked, unable to pull my eyes away.
“No, it was awful. Truly, truly awful. Ready?” Sebastian asked, the crinkling from the empty bottle pulling me from the gruesome sight.
I nodded. “Yeah, let’s go. Oh, wait.” I grabbed Glenn’s phone from the passenger’s seat. “Should we leave this here so it doesn’t track us back? I don’t want it at my house.”
Sebastian thought for a moment, wiping sweat off his brow and looked toward the sky.
“How did he get to your place? I didn’t see another car.”
“It should still be at the studio lot. He rode with me from there.”
He rolled his eyes and paced for a moment. “Fuck it. There’s no avoiding cameras once we get to the parking lot. Let’s wipe it clean from our fingerprints and I’ll toss it out the window somewhere between here and home.” He returned to the van for his clothes.
“Shouldn’t we destroy it? Otherwise they’ll see the GPS. What would he have been doing here in the middle of the night?”
“I don’t know. That’s for the police to figure out, come on.” He adjusted his leather jacket and brushed his hair back.
Smart. Sebastian was way better at this murder thing than I was. I wasn’t sure if that was comforting or terrifying.
Both.
We climbed back into the moving van and started back.
The music wasn’t as loud as it was on the way to dispose of Glenn.
Instead, the mood was somber, and we discussed what we’d tell the police and what my next moves would be once we knew we were in the clear.
Sebastian was confident we wouldn’t be linked to Glenn’s death, but he was also a professional actor, so I had a hard time believing him.
His entire job was to convince his audience.
We pulled the moving van into the lot, right next to Glenn’s car, just as the sun was starting to rise. Sebastian took my hand. He smiled down at me and lifted his wrist to flash his watch.
“Would you look at that? It’s call time. Let’s go play pretend, Final Girl.”