Chapter 26 #2
With nimble fingers, Nika plucked her phone out of her pocket. She tucked it close to her chest, keeping it sandwiched between their huddled forms and the float in an attempt to hide the light from the screen. Rick desperately hoped the glow wouldn’t give them away.
Nika hit the button to redial Rick’s number.
Far behind them, a jaunty robotic jingle came to life as Rick’s phone rang. As soon as they heard footsteps, they ran for the doors…only to come face-to-face with the barrel of a gun and the wide, bleached smile of Mrs. Haysmith.
She tutted, holding the gun out in front of her.
Rick stepped away, trying to move Nika behind him.
“So sweet,” Mrs. Haysmith crooned. “Won’t do you any good.” She motioned with the gun. “Go on. Onto the float.”
Rick and Nika stumbled onto the float. Rick grabbed her shoulders to steady her, and she hissed. The cloth under his hand was soaked through, the blood still warm against her skin. There was so much of it, so much—Nika’s life, dripping through his fingers.
And he couldn’t do a damn thing about it.
Mrs. Haysmith sighed. “I had such lovely plans, you know. I’ve spent months gathering information, copying keys and codes so I can get around the school, setting this up, only to almost have it ruined at the last moment.
” She put her hands on her hips, exasperated.
“Only that Zara, nosy creature that she is, stumbled onto me trying to position Landon and Alexis in the auditorium.” She waved the gun nonchalantly to the side. “Escalated the whole plan.”
Rick tried frantically to think of something, anything they could do, but he had nothing.
He was cold, shaking, and out of ideas. And suddenly so tired.
What had they even done? Why were they even here?
Nika put an arm around his waist, leaning into him.
She was shaking even harder than he was. How much blood had she lost?
Mrs. Haysmith watched them, sneering when Rick put his arm around Nika, careful to not hit her bleeding shoulder. He’d never seen such unbridled hate aimed in his direction. Which, considering he’d almost made it through four years of high school, was saying something.
“Why are we here?” Rick asked. “Why do any of this? You’re going to kill us. You’ve won. At least tell us why.”
Mrs. Haysmith lunged forward, jabbing the gun at Nika.
“Allison should have been valedictorian. My daughter. Mine. Not you,” she spat.
“Always you, showing up and snatching things she deserved with your dirty little paws.” The barrel of the gun swiveled in Rick’s direction now, and though it made his insides freeze with terror, he felt a small amount of relief that it was no longer pointed at Nika. “And you.”
Rick stared at the spittle on Mrs. Haysmith’s lips and knew without a doubt that she’d lost the plot.
In general people usually murdered other people because something had gone horribly wrong, and while things hadn’t been going great for Allison, Rick didn’t think it was anything worth killing over.
Mrs. Haysmith had ascended to a level where logic no longer applied.
“What about me?” Rick tightened his hold on Nika and fought to keep his voice steady.
He just had to keep Mrs. Haysmith talking.
If she was talking, she wasn’t shooting, and he desperately needed to buy time until one of them, probably Nika, thought of a way out of this.
“There’s no way I got better grades or took her spot on a team, or whatever weird-ass trophy thing you’re talking about. ”
She peered at him, lip curled, not liking what she saw. “What is it about you? Bryce was a worthless little shit, but at least he had good grades. Drove a nice car. He was going somewhere in life.”
She waved the gun at him. “But you? You’re going to work in a gas station. I’d be surprised if you even graduated high school.”
“That’s pretty judgmental,” Nika croaked. “And classist.”
The gun barrel started to move back toward Nika.
“What do you mean?” Rick quickly jumped back in. “We never went out.”
“Sheep eyes,” Nika wheezed. “Told you so.”
“She mooned over your grubby face for weeks, keeping pictures of you in the hidden file on her phone—like I wouldn’t find it!” Her lip curled again, disgust in every line of her face. “Which was bad enough, that she has such…tastes.”
Rick thought it was an extra level of shitty that he was about to be murdered all because Allison Haysmith couldn’t stop herself from lusting after peasants. He didn’t say that, fearing that he’d only set Mrs. Haysmith off. He didn’t think it would take much.
Mrs. Haysmith gestured wildly with her free hand. “And if that wasn’t bad enough, you turned her down. Too good for the likes of you!”
Nika’s arm around him tightened.
Rick stared at Mrs. Haysmith. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Allison never asked me out.”
The gun steadied on him again. “Are you calling me a liar?”
“He’s not calling you a liar, Mrs. Haysmith.” Nika’s voice shook, her teeth starting to chatter. “He’s just really oblivious.”
Rick glanced at her, frowning, before jerking his head back to the gun. “What do you mean?”
Nika leaned into him, like she needed the support. “People hit on you all the time. You don’t notice.”
Rick’s frown returned. “I don’t think that’s true.”
“I’m right here, you know,” Mrs. Haysmith huffed.
Rick held up a single index finger. “And you’re going to kill us anyway, so you might as well give us a second.”
“I’m the one with the gun.” Mrs. Haysmith held it up as if to illustrate the point.
“And I’m the one bleeding to death,” Nika snapped.
She turned to Rick. “I tried asking you out once last year, and then again this year. You shrugged it off. I thought you weren’t interested, and then I realized you weren’t even seeing the signals.
” She patted him with a trembling hand. “I told you Allison was making eyes at you at her dad’s house.
I bet she asked you out and you had no idea. ”
Mrs. Haysmith lowered the gun a fraction. “You saw Allison? At her dad’s house? When?”
“Yes,” Rick said, glowering at Mrs. Haysmith. “And I think it’s unfair that I’m going to die for something I didn’t even know I did.”
“None of you paid attention.” Mrs. Haysmith punctuated her words by waving the gun about. “Selfish, obnoxious shits, never thinking of my Allison.”
“It all came back to Allison.” Nika sounded so weary, and it was freaking Rick out even more. Was it an act, or was she that hurt? Fear was a second heartbeat as he held her, thinking furiously for a way out of this, but he couldn’t see any.
Nika kept talking. “Martina stole her spot on yearbook, Landon kicked her off of cheer—”
“His bitch of a girlfriend didn’t like Allison talking to him,” Mrs. Haysmith snarled. “Too much competition, I guess.”
Nika peered at her. “What did Paxton do?”
“He was blackmailing me.” Mrs. Haysmith looked affronted at this, like she couldn’t believe someone had the nerve to do such a thing. “He had pictures of Allison.”
She didn’t say what the pictures were of, and honestly, Rick no longer cared. Any minute now, she’d shoot them. He didn’t want to spend those moments thinking of the Haysmiths. Rick looked down at Nika. He didn’t think they had long. “I can’t believe I didn’t know you asked me out.”
“It’s okay,” Nika said. Her teeth were chattering louder now. From the cold or blood loss? Either way, Rick’s worry for her doubled.
“If it makes you feel any better, I’ve been working up the courage to talk to you for over a year.”
Nika gave him another tired smile. “We wasted a lot of time, didn’t we?”
“Okay, enough,” Mrs. Haysmith yelled. She lowered the gun, pointing it at them. The barrel wavered, as if she was deciding which of them she should shoot first.
Rick didn’t look at her. All he wanted to see was Nika’s face turned up to his. If he was going to die, he didn’t want to do it staring at Mrs. Haysmith.
Which was why he didn’t see Martina until she swung the crowbar, connecting with Mrs. Haysmith’s head with a meaty thunk.
Her eyes glazed, her mouth fell open, and she collapsed on the ground. Martina stood over her, crowbar in hand. Camryn and Zara came up to her side, Camryn pausing to kick the gun under one of the nearby floats. Once it was out of sight, they all stared down at the collapsed form of Mrs. Haysmith.
Rick stared in shock. Had that really happened? Or was he hallucinating and seeing what he wanted to see, his brain’s last-minute attempt to protect him? He felt Nika trembling in his arms, both of them breathing fast.
He closed his eyes, then opened them.
Nothing changed. It was real.
They were going to live. They were going to live. He laughed. “Holy shit.”
“Is she dead?” Camryn asked, peering down at Mrs. Haysmith’s prone form.
“Maybe we should drop a house on her, just to make sure,” Zara grumbled, holding a cloth to her forehead. She nudged her with the toe of her boot. “What an absolute bitch.”
Martina ignored them. “Who cares? Are you two okay? That’s blood! Who’s bleeding? Are you going to die? I just got here, and you’re going to die.”
Rick cut her off before she spiraled out. “I’m fine. It’s Nika—”
“We need to call an ambulance,” Nika panted. “Landon and Alexis—”
“You need an ambulance!” Rick stared incredulously down into her sweaty face. “Have you seen yourself right now?”
“It’s just a scratch.” Nika shivered. “And I’m sure Alexis and Landon will share.”
Camryn blinked in alarm. “Oh shit. They’re here? Where are they?”
“Auditorium.” Rick adjusted his hold on Nika. “Call the ambulance and we’ll go—”