26. Carey
Carey
“I wasn’t actually asleep,” April went on, waving the pistol at me. I flinched, and she went on. “I was watching you go through my room on the monitor, and I was hoping you wouldn’t find anything. But… you did. So now you’re going to have to come back up here. Okay?”
I swallowed hard and nodded, eyes fixed on the gun barrel. “Okay,” I whispered.
I slowly climbed back up, heart pounding. When I reached the top, April grabbed me under my left arm with her free hand and hauled me out of the hole. “Take a seat,” she said, waving the pistol toward the couch.
“Okay,” I repeated, unsure of what else I could say without incurring her wrath. This wasn’t the April I knew and loved. The version I knew didn’t carry guns and point them in people’s faces. She was sweet, kind, and witty.
This version of her was a total wildcard.
“What gave me away?” she asked, staring down at me. There was such venom in her eyes that I was afraid she was going to reach into my chest and rip my heart out with her bare hands.
“The last game,” I said. “All the bodies were there except yours.”
“Dammit.” She let out a heavy sigh of frustration, as if she’d simply missed an important phone call instead of being caught out for a diabolical murder plan. “I told Mom and Dad that could be a problem, but they thought it would be fine.”
“So you’re here with your parents?”
“Yes, of course. Do you really think I could’ve pulled off this whole thing without any help?” she replied. “C’mon, Carey. Use your brain.”
“I just…” I faltered and started again. “I don’t get it. None of this makes any sense.”
“It does if you know exactly why I wanted to kill everyone here,” she said. She paused and cocked her head. “Well, almost everyone.”
I stared up at her, still unable to believe it was truly her all along. So many memories of our friendship were flashing before my eyes, each one now tainted with the sickening realization that I’d been best friends with a monster. How many times had I confided in her, unaware that I was confiding to the very person who’d ripped apart so many lives? How many times had she hugged me and reassured me while plotting to kill me?
“Are you going to tell me why?” I asked, finally realizing it was my cue to speak.
April fixed me with a steely expression. “I told you to use your brain, Carey. If I was going to murder a bunch of people from our school, what would be the most likely motive behind it?”
“I honestly have no idea.”
“You do.” She tapped the side of her head with her free hand. “C’mon. It’s in there somewhere.”
My mind raced through every conversation that April and I had ever had. Every story we’d shared, every moment of laugher, and every tear shed together flooded my thoughts in a chaotic whirlwind. Amidst the memories, one story burned brighter than the others.
“Abby,” I said in a hollow voice. “This is about her, isn’t it?”
“Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner.”
“But… I don’t understand what anyone here has to do with what happened to her. I thought she died from an accidental overdose.”
April nodded. “She did. But this isn’t about her death. It’s about her life. Every single thing that led up to the moment of that overdose,” she said. “I mean, people don’t just start taking drugs out of nowhere, do they?”
“I guess not,” I said softly.
“You want to know what everyone here did to contribute? Let’s see.” April frowned and lifted a finger. “We’ll go with Jasmine first. You know what that bitch is like, right?”
“Yes.”
“She had a target on Abby from the second she met her, because she was so pretty. She spread some of the nastiest rumors I’ve ever heard about her. Seriously fucked up stuff. For years. A lot of people believed the shit, seeing as Jasmine is the big Queen Bee on campus.” She sighed and shook her head. “Abby was scared to go to school some days because of all the gossip about her. You know what it’s like to feel that way, don’t you?”
“Yes. It’s awful,” I murmured.
“A lot of people jumped on the bandwagon of treating her like shit after the rumors first started. Some were worse than others. Like Evan, for instance. He used to follow her every single day and tell her how fat and ugly he thought she was.” April’s nostrils flared. “Remember in the Truth or Die game, when I said I was at an eating disorder treatment center over winter break two years ago?”
“Yes.”
“It wasn’t really me. It was Abby. All those shitty comments from Evan affected her so much that she started throwing up her dinner every night. One day, I even caught her Googling where she could find a tapeworm to infect herself with, just so she could be skinnier.”
I winced. “That’s horrible.”
“Yeah. And things got even worse for her after her friend Ava’s sweet sixteenth party. Hudson was there, and you know what he does to girls he wants.”
My eyes widened. “He attacked her?”
April nodded, lips pressed in a grim line. “She wasn’t as fortunate as you after he drugged her. She didn’t wake up and escape. We tried to report it to the police, but Rhys helped him cover it up. He lied to the cops and said he was with Hudson all night. They believed him.”
“I know what that’s like too,” I murmured, hands twisting on my lap.
“It destroyed her. That was when she started taking stuff to try and escape the pain. Tate was her dealer. Pills, speed. Coke sometimes.”
“I’m guessing she also found out about Zach and Courteney at some point?”
“Yeah. That’s why they were brought here.” April paused and gritted her teeth. “Cheating assholes. They broke her heart.”
“What about Brooke? I thought she was one of your best friends.”
She nodded. “She was. But she has a nasty little secret. You know how she’s the top student in chemistry?”
“Uh-huh.”
“She really does love that subject. A little too much, in fact. She’s the one who cooks everything up for Tate to sell.”
Shock rippled through me. “Seriously?”
“Yeah. Apparently, his old supplier ended up in prison. He needed someone new, so he approached Brooke and offered her a fifty-fifty split if she became his cook. Her parents are super stingy, even though they’re rich as hell, so she was glad to have the extra cash,” she said. “Tate gets the necessary ingredients, and Brooke borrows equipment from the labs at school to do it. The teachers don’t even notice. After all, no one would ever suspect sweet, innocent little Brooke of doing something like that.”
I nodded slowly. “So if she didn’t agree to it, Tate wouldn’t have had anything to sell anymore, and Abby would still be alive. That’s how you see it?”
“Exactly.” April waved her free hand around the room. “Everyone here either directly contributed to the development of her drug habit or allowed it to continue in some way. That’s what eventually led to her death. So as far as I’m concerned, it’s their fault. My parents agree.”
“What about Kiara?”
April’s nose wrinkled. “I almost forgot about that bitch. She was blackmailing Abby, which was actively making her life even worse. She saw her buying from Evan one day and told her that she had to write all her essays from that moment on, or else she’d tell someone. She also made her steal English tests from Dad’s office. I guess that gave her more time to focus on her stupid influencer shit instead of studying,” she said. “She’s also besties with Jasmine, so she helped spread those horrible rumors about Abby.”
“And Maverick?”
She sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. “I could see how depressed Abby was, even after she finished the treatment at Elmwood. She was too ashamed to tell our parents how she felt, because she thought they were judging her after the bulimia thing, even though they totally weren’t. So I convinced her to talk to the school psychologist. Then, on the day of her first appointment, she was sitting in the waiting room, and Maverick came storming out of the psych’s office and told her to get the fuck out.”
“But that was—”
April cut me off. “I know what you’re going to say. He was just trying to help everyone in that room by getting them away from Dr. Barry, because he was a fucking creep,” she said. “But he scared the shit out of Abby, and it put her off seeing someone ever again. She literally refused point blank every time I recommended a new psych for her to visit.”
“So you would’ve preferred it if Maverick said nothing and let her see Dr. Barry?” I asked, face twisting in an incredulous expression. “So she could potentially become his next victim?”
She scoffed. “Oh, please. Abby was too old for Dr. Barry. He liked them a few years younger.”
“That’s really sick, April,” I replied in a low voice, stomach roiling.
“Maybe so. But I was thinking pragmatically,” she said. “Dr. Barry might’ve been a fucking creep, but he was good at his job. He could’ve helped Abby. Maverick stole that chance from her.”
I slowly shook my head, wondering if she realized how truly insane she sounded right now. Then again, I wasn’t sure what I expected. A person who’d pull off this sort of scheme obviously wasn’t mentally stable.
“What about me?” I said, tipping my head. “What did I do to your sister? I didn’t even know her.”
“You didn’t do anything, Carey.” April smiled sweetly. “When my parents and I decided to punish everyone who contributed to Abby’s death, we realized we’d need someone like you. Someone who had nothing to do with Abby at all. That way, when the investigators combed through possible motives for the killings, they’d rule out revenge. Revenge over Abby, that is.”
I swallowed thickly, eyeing the gun. “So you’re going to kill me now?”
“Of course not. You’ve totally derailed everything with your snooping, so we’ll have to come up with something to explain why you’ve disappeared to the rest of the group. But we were never going to kill you. The plan was always for you to survive.”
“Why?” I asked, frowning. “And how?”
“We had measures in place to protect you in every game. If there was ever a situation where it seemed like you might be about to die, we would’ve flipped a switch to shut off the power. Then the game would be canceled due to the blackout, and you’d be fine,” she explained. “In some games, it was even easier than that. For example, your assigned table during the Beer Pong game didn’t have a single poisoned cup. You were always safe. Same as me.”
“Okay,” I said in a skeptical tone, eyes narrowing. “But why keep me alive at all?”
“Because we realized that we needed someone to be the sole survivor. You’d tell the police exactly what happened, thinking that all of us were dead, including me, because obviously you weren’t supposed to realize that I faked my death. That way, with everyone thinking I’m stone-cold dead, I would never be a suspect, and neither would my parents,” she said. “They’d suspect you of something at first, given your shady background and the fact that you were the only survivor, but then you’d go free due to lack of evidence. They’d probably wind up thinking that some random psycho set the whole thing up for a sick thrill.”
“And then?”
“I’d remain in hiding for a while, and April Garrick would officially be dead. Eventually, my parents would tell everyone they were moving away because they couldn’t stand to remain at Babylon after losing both of their daughters there. Too many reminders. So they’d move down to South America, where we have our own private island. I’d move with them and assume a new identity. Those are easy enough to buy. Then I could either stay there forever, or I could return to the States once I’d aged a bit and changed my appearance enough to get away with it.”
I rubbed my forehead and sighed. “So this is why you befriended me on my first day at school,” I muttered. “Here I was thinking you were just a nice person.”
“We actually chose you a long time before that day.” April arched a brow. “Who do you think came up with the idea for the Babylon Foundation Justice Project?”
“That was you?”
“My parents, actually. We knew we’d need a random new student for this scheme, for all the reasons I just outlined, and we also knew the person would need to have… well, a colorful background, if you catch my drift.”
“Why?”
“It’s like I said a minute ago. The police would initially focus their attention on our little pawn with the shady history before eventually ruling the case unsolved. Basically, we had to do anything we possibly could to keep their attention away from my family,” she said. “So, we came up with the idea of plucking some no-hoper kid from the wrong side of the tracks and giving them a chance at Babylon. Funnily enough, a lot of the parents at school loved the idea and immediately wanted to get involved with the project. It makes them feel good to think they’re helping the less fortunate, you know? Even if it means there’s a literal criminal being educated alongside their kids. Typical bleeding-heart attitude.”
“So all that talk about how you care so much about the less fortunate… it was all bullshit,” I said. “You’re just as willing to exploit and destroy a poor person as someone like Jasmine. But hey, at least she’s honest about being an entitled bitch.”
April shrugged. “No one’s perfect, I guess,” she said. “Actually, that’s not true. You were perfect. For our plan, that is. The right age, the right area, the right murky past. We made a few calls, gave some money to the right people, and voila—your charges disappeared, and you were free to start at Babylon as our little pawn.”
“Great. Thanks a lot.”
“I know you’re being facetious, but you really should be grateful to us,” she said, face hardening. “Not only are you getting a free education at the best school in the world, you’ll also be super famous after this. The only survivor of the world’s creepiest mass murder. Everyone will love your story. You could write a bestselling book about it. Maybe even get your own Netflix special.”
“Again, thanks. It really means a lot,” I said, voice dripping with sarcasm.
“You’re welcome,” she said, matching my tone.
I frowned and cocked my head. “Why not punish Abby’s friends? Didn’t they notice what was going on with her and fail to help her in the end?”
“Yes, but they didn’t really do anything wrong. They tried to help her with her issues just as much as I did,” April replied. “Half the stuff I knew about Abby’s life came from them. Like Evan’s bullying, for example. Abby never actually told me about it. I found out about it from Ava. Same with the Kiara blackmail stuff. Her friend Liana told me about that.”
“Right.”
“Her friends were sitting on a virtual treasure trove of information,” she went on. “You remember how I said Abby had that idea about starting her own version of Gossip Girl?”
“Yeah.”
“She wanted to do it because she thought it would give her enough power to stop the bullying. So she and her friends started gathering secrets. Of course, it never ended up going anywhere, but those secrets still existed, and her friends were more than happy to share them with me after Abby died.”
“Ah. So that’s how you knew everything for the Truth or Die game.”
April smiled thinly. “Yup. It’s also how I knew everything in general about who was most responsible for Abby’s overdose. Like Brooke, for example. She didn’t tell me she was cooking drugs, even though she was supposed to be my best friend. I had to find out from Abby’s friends.”
I gestured around the room. “What about all of this? How did you get it built?” I asked. “Some of the games required some serious engineering. Not to mention all the surveillance equipment around the place.”
“My family has a lot of contacts. Comes with the territory of being military contractors.”
“I figured that much, but how did you do it without anyone finding out?” I asked. “Aren’t you worried someone will come forward eventually?”
“Nope.” April’s eyes glittered triumphantly. “The right amount of money can buy almost anyone’s silence. As for those who can’t be bought… well, everyone has secrets they don’t want to come to light. So blackmail is always an option. You tell our secret, and we tell yours. Tit for tat.”
“Right.” I glanced around the room. “Where are your parents now?”
“Downstairs putting the finishing touches on the gaming room for tomorrow. It’s a simple one, but it should be fun to watch.”
I motioned toward the desk. “Is that where you guys keep track of everything?”
“Yes. All the cameras and mics are linked up to that computer. Mom and Dad were taking turns watching and listening while the other slept, but now that I’m supposedly dead, I can help out too.”
I lifted my chin and looked into her cold eyes. “What happens now?”
“Now that you know the truth, you mean?”
“Yes. I can’t be the sole survivor now, because I can tell the cops the truth about you.”
She nodded. “Yeah, that’s definitely a problem. If we stick to the plan of keeping you alive, we’ll need to set things up so that it looks like you orchestrated the whole thing. That way no one will believe you when you point the finger at me and my parents,” she said. “It’s going to be a lot of work, but I think we can pull it off. After all, you have a sordid criminal past, don’t you?”
“How can you possibly pin this shit on me?” I asked. “Criminal past or not, there’s no way they’ll think I could’ve pulled off something like this.”
April tapped her chin with one finger. “Hmm. Off the top of my head, I guess we can say your motive was that you were tired of being bullied by the rich kids at Babylon. As for the means to do it… we can set up a fake financial trail to make it look like you had a rich sponsor. Someone you later killed in order to cover your tracks. Maybe Maverick.”
My blood ran cold. “No.”
“Why? He’s actually the perfect fall guy. I know you’ve been sleeping with him, as much as you’ve tried to cover it up. I guess you didn’t realize the bedrooms have cameras and mics in them, like everywhere else in the building,” she said. “By the way, so much for us being friends, huh? You wouldn’t even tell me what’s going on in your love life. That’s so shitty of you.”
“I… it only happened a few days ago.”
April rolled her eyes. “Whatever. We’ll make it seem like he used his family money and connections to help you set this up. His parents are friends with my parents, so they’d probably know our family purchased this island and the old school building last year to turn it into a nature reserve for sea birds. So he knew it would be empty for a while and therefore usable for this diabolical plan of yours. Then, at the last minute, you betrayed him and killed him.”
“No one will ever believe that.”
Her forehead wrinkled. “Won’t they? You and Maverick have been sharing a dorm for weeks at school. Plenty of time for you to fall in love and hatch a crazy plan together,” she said. “Anyway, I feel like I’ve been talking forever. Are we done with question time?”
“No,” I said, glaring at her. “I want to know something else.”
“What is it?”
“Why risk so much by setting this place up and making everyone play these games?” I asked. “Wouldn’t it be easier for you and your parents to hire a hitman?”
April let out a brittle laugh. “Isn’t it obvious?” she said. “We want them to suffer before they die. Mentally as well as physically. A hitman can’t provide that.”
“Right. I guess that makes sense to an unhinged maniac,” I said in a hollow voice. “You know that’s what you are, right?”
“Whatever, Carey. It doesn’t matter in the end,” she said. “Anyway, now that I’ve got you here, I’ll have to come up with a reason to explain to the group why you’ve suddenly disappeared from the games. Any suggestions?”
“Nope.”
She hesitated and scratched her head. “I guess we’ll just say that you broke the rules by leaving your room after curfew yet again, and you paid the ultimate price. They’ll all believe that,” she said. She took a couple of steps closer. “And for now…”
With that, she twisted the gun in her hand and smashed it into the side of my head.