Chapter Nineteen #2
She moved toward me with open arms, and before I could think of an excuse for why I didn’t want her to touch me, she pulled me in for a tight hug.
“I’m just so grateful to finally meet you,” she whispered, her voice catching.
And for a moment, it felt really genuine, like another survivor aching for a connection. But then I felt a pinch on the side of my neck, almost like a mosquito bite.
“Ouch,” I muttered, pulling away and rubbing the spot. There was no blood, but it stung.
“Oh, my God, I’m so sorry,” she said and held up her wrist. “This stupid bracelet has been catching on everything. Are you OK?”
“It’s fine.” I rubbed the spot, which already felt numb. I tried to push down my irritation and laugh it off. Besides, a clasp stabbing someone was something that would definitely happen to me, so I shouldn’t be so pissy about it.
I watched her as she moved around the living room. Her gaze traveled over everything, like she was trying to take it all in. Suddenly, I didn’t like the idea of her in my and Valen’s safe haven. This was our spot, and having an outsider in it seemed wrong.
She turned to face me, her smile not quite meeting her eyes. “Do you mind if I use the bathroom? It was a long drive in.”
“Yeah.” I nodded down the hall. “Second door on the right.”
As soon as she disappeared, I grabbed my phone and typed out a text to Valen. OK, don’t be upset with me. Alright, you’re definitely going to be upset, so I’ll apologize up front.
For some reason, my fingers seemed to be moving in slow motion. I tried to hit the kissy face emoji but hit send by mistake. Something strange started to happen that made my heart hammer in my chest. The edges of my vision blurred slightly, and there was a buzzing sensation in my ears.
What the actual fuck?
A message came through from Valen almost immediately. Little lamb, you better not have burned down the cabin.
The bathroom door opened, and Amy came out, looking way more excited than she had a minute ago. She studied me, her smile growing bigger. “You got any coffee, Sera? I could use a caffeine boost.”
Sera? OK, I definitely don’t want her in my space.
“Actually,” I said as I gripped my phone with one hand and tried to steady myself against the kitchen counter with the other, “I think I’ll have to take a raincheck. I’m not feeling so hot.”
Her expression shifted slightly, but not like she was concerned. More like she was… happy? “You do look pale, Sera.”
“I think… I think something’s wrong.” The room was starting to tilt slightly, and my throat had this heavy feeling in it. “What the fuck…”
“Shh,” she said, her smile growing bigger. “Just let it happen. It’ll be easier if you don’t fight it.”
Panic shot through me like a lightning bolt. This bitch. What the hell had she done to me? God, Valen was going to kill me for letting this happen.
“What did you do?” I snapped, trying to move around the counter, but my legs felt like quicksand. I glanced down at the phone in my hand, Amy’s gaze following mine.
Her face twisted into something dark, and she lunged for me.
I made it only about four feet before she grabbed for me with a scream.
We both hit the ground hard, my phone flying out of my hand and going under the couch.
The impact knocked the breath from my lungs, which wasn’t helping since I already felt like I was going to pass out any second.
Fight, Seraphine! Don’t let this psycho kill you or take you anywhere.
Amy was on top of me, trying to pin my arms, but I wasn’t going to make this easy for her. “You bitch,” I screamed in her face. I bucked and rolled, smashing my elbow into her face. But whatever she had given me was making everything fuzzy and slow.
I managed to roll over, reaching out for anything I could use as a weapon. My fingers closed around the familiar shape of a canister under the couch.
The bear spray.
Valen and I had hidden some around the cabin in case we needed weapons and couldn’t get to our guns.
Amy fisted my hair, trying to slam my head into the floor.
Maybe it was the adrenaline from being in this situation before and promising myself I’d never be a victim again.
Or maybe it was knowing that nobody was coming to save me, and I needed to save myself.
Whatever it was, adrenaline shot through me, and I threw my head back, slamming it right into Amy’s nose.
She screamed, releasing me as blood gushed, the warm drops hitting my back.
“Oh, you stupid little idiot,” she yelled.
I twisted beneath her, and with my last bit of coordination, I brought up the can and pressed the trigger.
She screamed bloody murder as the spray blasted her in the face, making her roll off me and clutching her eyes. The mist drifted back over to me too, burning my throat. The room was spinning and my limbs felt like they were made out of lead, but I had to move.
Move or die, Seraphine.
We know how this goes.
Get the fuck up and move!
Through the buzzing building in my ears, a car door slammed outside.
Valen was back. Thank fucking God.
I crawled toward the front door just as it opened and a tall figure stood against the afternoon light. Relief flooded through every part of my body as I struggled to my knees.
Strong hands pulled me to my feet, and for one moment, I thought I was safe again. Then I caught his scent—not cedar and smoke, but something… wrong.
I looked into the eyes that were Valen’s but weren’t. These eyes were cold and empty. He had the same features as Valen, but more like a mask. Same height, same build, same fucking scar.
“No,” I whispered, barely able to make the word out. “No, no, no…”
“Yes,” Cyrus whispered back. His smile was the most terrifying thing I’d ever seen. My body trembled uncontrollably, as if it remembered something I’d managed to block out all these years. “Surprise.”
He let me go and I fell to the floor with a thud.
The last thing I saw before the darkness claimed me was his twisted face above mine, just like that night he’d slit my throat and murdered my friends.
But this time, his smile was even bigger.
*** ***
I woke up to the smell of mold and decay covering me.
My head felt like it had been split open with an ax, and my mouth tasted like chemicals and copper. I spit, blood flying from my mouth. When I tried to move, I realized my hands were tied behind my back.
It took several seconds for my vision to clear, and I shook my head, trying to orient myself. My heart nearly stopped when I saw where I was.
I was in the basement of the Kappa Theta house, tied to an old radiator. My wrists ached, and I struggled against the ropes, trying to free myself.
“You’re not getting free this time.”
My head snapped in the direction of Cyrus, who sat in a folding chair about ten feet away.
He was watching me with those eyes that were so much like Valen’s but utterly devoid of emotion.
Up this close, the resemblance was fucking horrifying.
He looked just like Valen, but a twisted, dark version of him.
I didn’t answer at first. Instead I gazed around the room, trying to see how the hell I was going to get out of this mess.
The room was mostly empty except for an overturned table and half-filled boxes.
No windows, and the only way out was up the stairs.
I must have been dragged down them because my entire body ached like I’d gotten ran over by a truck.
I shifted on the concrete floor, freezing when I felt a tiny jab at my upper thigh.
The wooden knife.
If I could get to it…
“I said, you’re not getting free this time.” There was an edge to Cyrus’s voice, like he was insulted I wasn’t answering him.
“Where’s Amy?” I croaked.
“Judith,” he corrected with a twisted smile. “Her real name is Judith, and she’s upstairs recovering from your little bear spray attack. You got her good. She’ll be feeling that for hours.”
“And who is Judith exactly? One of your groupies?” I tugged on the ropes, twisting my wrists. If I could keep him talking long enough, maybe Valen would find me before Cyrus did something crazy.
Well, even more crazy than kidnap me and tie me up in the sorority house he’d once slit my throat in.
“Hm, more like my devoted assistant. She’s a true believer. Really understands my artistic vision.” His eyes gleamed, making the hair on the back of my neck stand up. “We met at Willowbrook. The institution my sweet brother left me to rot in. She’s a nurse there. Well, was.”
The rock in my stomach grew to the size of a boulder. We’d speculated that Cyrus had had help all those years ago, and now he’d just confirmed it. Judith was the nurse who had helped him commit all those murders. The thought made my skin crawl. I’d let her into the cabin.
“Valen will come for me.” I kept my voice steady, even though my heart was beating wildly.
Cyrus’s smile widened, and he leaned forward in his chair.
“Oh, I don’t think so, Seraphine. Judith left him a note, perfectly forged in your handwriting.
‘Valen, now that Cyrus’s been captured, I need to find myself, who I really am.
I’m sorry, but we can’t be together. Don’t look for me.
Xoxo, Seraphine.’ Quite touching, don’t you think? ”
A wave of nausea ran through me. Valen would think I’d abandoned him, left him. My heart ached, and the fear that had been growing inside me turned to anger.
“Why?” My entire body was vibrating with rage at this point, and I yanked even harder at my wrists. The radiator made a clunking sound, but Cyrus didn’t seem to notice it. “Why didn’t you just kill me all those years ago?”
“Because death would have been too nice for someone like you, Seraphine. I wanted to watch you suffer for taking what belonged to me.”
He wasn’t making any sense, just rambling like the insane person he was. I realized I probably wasn’t going to get a straight answer out of him, because there wasn’t one. He was clinically insane and hyper-focused on me for some reason.
From upstairs, Judith called down. “Cyrus, we have a small problem.”
His jaw tightened as he glared up the stairs. “What now?”
“Her phone. I forgot to grab it from the cabin. It’s still there, probably under the couch.”
Cyrus’s face darkened, and he turned toward the stairs. “You forgot the phone?” His voice was lethal, making my body tense up. “The one thing I specifically told you to get?”
“I was dealing with my eyes! That bitch. My eyes were—”
“I don’t care about your fucking eyes!” he roared, his composure cracking. “If he finds it, he’ll come looking for her.”
“It’ll be fine, Cyrus,” she called back down, but she sounded terrified. “He won’t come looking for her. Calm down, remember your breathing.”
Cyrus ran his fingers through his hair, then tugged on the ends, muttering under his breath. “Remember my breathing,” he mocked. When he looked at me again, there was something wild in his expression that made my blood run cold.
“You know what the beautiful irony is, Seraphine?” He crouched down in front of me, close enough that I could see his scar was self-inflicted, the lines too precise to be done by anything but his own hand.
“I spent five years watching Valen suffer in prison, knowing he was paying for my art. And now I get to complete my masterpiece, right where it all began.” He tapped the tip of my nose, and I jerked away from him.
“You’re fucking insane,” I breathed.
“Maybe.” He gave me a pointed look. “But everything I do is for him. To be like him. To show him what we could be together if he’d just accept what I’ve known since I was born—that we’re the same person. Two sides of the same coin.”
The obsession in his voice made my skin crawl, a shudder running through me. I realized then this wasn’t just about me or revenge. This was about his twisted need to become Valen.
“You’ll never be him,” I taunted, staring directly into his dead eyes. “No matter how many people you kill, no matter how perfectly you copy his scar, you’ll always be a cheap imitation.”
Cyrus’s hand shot out, and he backhanded me so hard that I saw stars behind my eyes.
“We’ll see about that, won’t we, you little bitch,” he seethed. He stood, his rage disappearing as quickly as it had come. “Judith will be down soon with the supplies. Then we can begin the real reunion.”
He plopped down into the raggedy chair, still muttering under his breath.
I tested the ropes again, a spark of hope igniting in me when I felt them loosen a bit. If I could work quietly, maybe I could get free…
Then what? Overpower him? He was double my size and had that psychotic strength that came from years of pent-up rage. Maybe Valen would get here in time, but I squeezed my eyes shut, knowing that once he saw that note, he might not come looking for me.
And by the time he realized the truth, it would be too late.
For the both of us.