Epilogue
Violet
Six Days Later
“NO, ABSOLUTELY NOT.” Damon shakes his head, his arms crossed over his chest. The position accentuates his thick, tattooed biceps, but I can’t let them distract me right now.
“Come on, Damon, it’ll be fine,” I plead. “I’ll lure him in, and then you can take care of him. I know you won’t let anything happen to me.”
The night I killed Aaron, Tyler, and Zach, Damon told me all about his work with the Venatores and his target here in Ridgewater. The thought of that pervert walking free made my blood boil. I want to help get rid of him.
I found killing my abusers so cathartic that I probably need therapy, but I think helping Damon hunt down other people’s sounds like more fun.
So does traveling the country with him and the fair, which I plan to do.
We went to my and Aaron’s apartment the other day and got my stuff.
Damon told me not to worry about people wondering what happened to the guys.
Apparently the Venatores make people disappear easily and often.
He takes in a frustrated breath. He does not like my idea of me finding Robert at the fair and flirting with him to lure him into the haunted house.
“What if something happens before you get to the house? What if he . . . fuck, I can’t even think about it.
I’d tear this fucking fair, the whole goddamn town apart to get him if he fucking touched you. ”
The murderous rage flashing in his eyes right now should not be a turn on, but damn, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love this side of Damon. He’s possessive and protective, but I know if I asked him to let up a little bit, he would. He’d never do, or make me do, anything that I didn’t want to.
Except when it comes to me interacting with his targets, apparently.
“I’ll stay really close to the house. I won’t even approach him until we’re both inside,” I promise him.
He presses his lips together.
“Damon, you only have one more night in town to get him. You know he’s been to the fair, but he hasn’t been in the house. Do you really want to risk him getting away?”
He shakes his head. “He wouldn’t get away. If he doesn’t come in tonight, I’ll just kill him in his own house. It’s messier that way, but we’ve done it before,” he tells me.
I step in closer to him, running my hand up his arm. “But wouldn’t it be so much more satisfying to chain him up and make him pay for what he did?”
The glint in his eyes tells me I’ve finally convinced him.
He uncrosses his arms and pulls me into his chest. “Fine, but you will be wearing a costume and a mask, and I’m assigning one of the scare actors to keep an eye on you while you walk around.
And if he even so much as lays a fucking finger on you, I’m stabbing him on sight. ”
“Deal!” I stand on my tiptoes and give him a kiss on the cheek. “I’m going to go find a costume.”
· · ·
After searching every thrift store in Ridgewater, I finally have the perfect costume for tonight.
I found a little white dress with puffy sleeves that looks like a doll’s, and an adorable pair of chunky red heels to match.
I stopped at the grocery store and got dark-red food dye to splash over it that will hopefully look like blood.
Some ribbon tying up my hair in pigtails completes the look, and fuck, I look creepy as hell.
And I match the first room of Damon’s house, so it won’t be suspicious when I lead Robert there tonight.
When I get to the fair, Damon is in his control room. He put the controls on my phone, so I can move in and out of the house as I please.
I give him a twirl to show off my outfit. “What do you think?”
“It’s cute,” he comments, his eyes locked on where the dress ends at my upper thigh.
“Cute? I was going for creepy doll come to life.” I cross my arms and pout at him.
“Yeah, but you’ll always be cute to me. Even covered in fake blood.” He smiles at me, his cheeks turning the faintest shade of red. “I made you something.”
He walks to the other side of the room and grabs a box, then brings it back to me and opens it.
Inside is a white comedy mask with dark-red eyes and mouth.
“Awe! Now we match!” I exclaim.
He chuckles at my reaction.
“Why doesn’t mine have the cracks and fake blood?” I ask him.
He purses his lips to the side and grabs the back of his neck, like he’s not sure if he wants to tell me something.
Realization hits me. “The blood on yours isn’t fake, is it?”
“Nope. Had to earn that. The cracks and scratch marks are real, too,” he tells me. “But no one will ever get close enough to you to crack yours.”
“Well, I guess I’ll just have to get mine bloody tonight,” I say as I put it on.
And I do.
I get Robert to follow me into the house easily, probably because the doll costume plus my height makes me look like a young girl. God, he truly is disgusting.
Correction. He truly was disgusting.
He followed me without hesitation into the torture room, where Damon immediately chained him up, and then we took turns cutting limbs from his body until he bled out.
One less monster in the world.