Chapter 45 Gabi
GABI
Present Day,
Dornell University
Monroe silently points at a silver Audi sedan parked along the side of the street.
For all I know, it could be two a.m. or it could be five a.m. Each time I asked Monroe if it was safe to move, she shook her head.
Even though Jace can’t call or text me because I’ve blocked him, I was too paranoid to check my phone.
But the most difficult part of the last few hours, by far, has been not being able to ask my best friend, who has been missing for the last five months, where the fuck she’s been.
“Put this hat on,” Monroe instructs after we both shut our respective car doors. I secure the red Dornell baseball cap in place. My long, dark brown hair is already pulled into a tight bun at the nape of my neck, similar to how Monroe has her blonde tresses styled to look as incognito as possible.
“Okay, first of all, what the fuck?” I begin as she starts the car, glancing into each mirror to check for headlights, flashlights, really lights of any kind. “And why does your car smell like beef jerky?”
“Because I have twenty-some-odd bags of beef jerky in this car. Want some?” she responds, lifting a can of Diet Dr. Pepper to her mouth as if getting hunted by Sigma bloodhounds and having an obscene amount of dehydrated cow in your car is just a normal Wednesday for Monroe.
I rub my temples, listening to Monroe aggressively gulp down the drink.
“I don’t even know where to start,” I admit.
“So don’t. Let’s save it for later,” she responds.
I gape at her. “Save it for later? Monroe. You’ve been MIA for months and months. The last message you sent to our group chat was in March, and it was only to like a photo. Are you even still enrolled as a student at Dornell? Fine, you know what? Let’s start with an easy one. Where were you?”
“My Aunt Nikki’s.”
“In Queens?”
“Yes,” she confirms.
“This entire time, you’ve been in Queens?”
“More or less,” she shrugs. “I did help my step-cousins with a few odd jobs here and there around the tristate area, but for the most part, yes. I’ve been in Queens.”
I let this knowledge settle, part of me furious to know she’s only been a handful of hours away, chilling at her aunt’s house, and not locked in a cage in Sigma’s basement like I had thought.
“I would have visited, you know,” I add. “Do you have any idea how fucking worried I’ve been?”
“I know, but I couldn’t risk it,” she responds.
“Why? What happened?”
“I don’t think you’re ready to hear the answer.”
“Fuck that. I’m your best friend. I need answers. Why did you disappear?”
“Well,” she begins, “long story short, Kieren held me captive in his bedroom for weeks on end, and when I tried to fight back, he lost his mind, trapped me in a dog cage, and drugged me with psychedelics.”
I squeeze my eyes closed in concentration. “I can’t even begin to comprehend what you just said.”
“I know! That’s why I said you aren’t ready to hear what happened to me. And the captivity part is only the tip of the iceberg.”
I lean back against the headrest, my brain in overdrive. “Did you go to the police?” I ask.
“No. They’re in on it. Everyone at this fucking university is in on it,” she states, taking another sip.
“Why were you in the woods?”
“Simple. I was going to break into Sigma, but then I heard the alarm go off and saw you running like a banshee. I figured some shit was going down, so I chased after you.”
I abruptly pivot in my seat to glare at her in disbelief. “How long have you been here? Back on campus, I mean.”
She huffs a long exhale in contemplation.
“Since you texted me that Kasey went missing.”
“You fucking got my text messages and didn’t respond?!” I shout.
“I had my text messages forwarded to my new number. Kieren still has my phone, Gabi. And my old school computer. I don’t know what he’s monitoring. I’m sorry. I wanted to respond, truly I did, but I didn’t want to put you in danger.”
“Why didn’t you just text me from your new number, or email me from a new email address?” I demand, unable to control the harsh edge to my tone.
“You don’t understand, Gabi.”
“Then help me understand!”
“He was going to kill me, Gabi! Those other girls who went, quote-unquote, missing are dead. This bullshit Little Sisters operation is just a cover. A feeder operation! They pluck unsuspecting women out of the pool and kill them!”
“I fucking knew it,” I say, grinding my teeth. “I knew it, but no one would believe me. When you say, ‘they,’ do you mean Kieren and his sycophants?”
“Yeah, Kieren, Barrett, Harrison and Jace are all in on it. Others probably are as well. But they’re just puppets for this guy X and the other Sigma alumni who get off on this shit.”
“Are the alumni the ones who wear the black demon masks with horns?” I interject.
Shock fills her eyes. “How do you know that?”
“Because I saw them. I was hiding outside Sigma, trying to find a way to break in, when a bunch of guys in black robes and devil masks got out of an SUV and went in through the back door.”
“Why were you trying to break in?” she asks.
“To find you! Obviously,” I scoff. “I thought Kieren had you trapped in there, and I guess I wasn’t that far off from the truth. Just five months too late.”
“They’re dangerous, Gabi. If they catch you snooping around, they’ll kill you without hesitation.”
I huff in exasperation. “Tell me something I haven’t heard.
Jace has practically threatened to kill me himself if I’m caught.
” I chew at my fingernail, wondering why Jace didn’t drag me upstairs by the hair tonight and parade me in front of his high lord, Kieren the Great.
“I don’t understand why they are killing them.
If this was a human trafficking situation, their motivations would be clear, but killing? What benefit does that have?”
“I don’t know,” Monroe admits. “That’s part of the reason why I’m back.
I need to get proof and put the pieces together.
I’m going to take them all down, Gabi, if it’s the last thing I do, but no reputable journalist will take a risk on publishing this story if I don’t come with receipts. I wish I had better connections.”
“Who caught you tonight?” Monroe asks, pivoting course.
“Jace,” I swallow.
She cocks her head in confusion. “And he didn’t try to kill you?”
“Well, I mean, he caught me snooping around in the basement, and then I shoved my hand down his pants to distract him, and just when he got hard, I kicked him in the balls with my knee and ran. Oh, and I sliced his arm with this,” I add, pulling the switchblade from my purse.
“Cute knife,” Monroe compliments, but I hear the sarcasm in her tone. “But he’s probably outside your apartment, waiting for you to return.”
“You mean, our apartment,” I correct.
Monroe shakes her head. “I don’t live there anymore.”
“That’s not true. All your stuff is there!”
The conflicted pain contorting Monroe’s face breaks my heart.
“The person I was and the life I had before Kieren did what he did are over, and I’ve made my peace with that reality.
I can never go back. Not to Dornell. Not back to the way things were.
Kieren took that life from me. He took the worst parts of myself and turned my own fears and insecurities against me.
I’ll never forgive him, but I’ve got to move on, which I will do right after I kill him,” she says in such a matter-of-fact way, that I almost think she’s joking.
“So... you’re just going to kill him and then what? Are you really throwing in the towel, and not going to graduate after you’ve worked so hard?”
“You don’t understand, and that’s okay. I hope you never understand, Gabi.”
Tears slip past my lower lashes. “It’s not right, Monroe. You can’t let him do this to you.”
“It’s too late, Gabi. It’s already been done.
The best I can do is figure out a new path for myself, but not until I expose the truth.
Those women deserve justice. Kasey deserves justice.
Their families weren’t even able to hold a proper funeral, because they’re still ‘missing’ in the eyes of law enforcement. ”
“They found a body, you know,” I say, unsure if Monroe has the latest information.
“Oh, I know,” Monroe confirms, and the look on her face makes part of me wonder if she had a hand in the appearance of the body found floating in the gorge several weeks ago.
“Okay, so, what now?” I ask. “What’s the plan? How do we kill him?”
“The plan is to get you home safely,” Monroe responds.
“You’re not coming? Not even to see Ele and Viv?”
“The fewer people who know I’m back, the better. Besides, if all goes according to plan, I won’t be here for long.”
“You keep mentioning this plan of yours, yet you haven’t told me any details.”
“Why would I tell you the details? That would make you an accomplice,” she deadpans like she’s in the fucking mob. Who is this person, and what did she do with my friend?
“Fuck that, I want in on the plan,” I say firmly.
Monroe laughs in a way that makes my skin crawl. “No, trust me Gabi. You don’t.”
“Jesus, Monroe! You just got back and now you’re already pushing me away?
You don’t get to tell me what I can and can’t do.
Besides, you told me that fucking asshole Jace is in on what’s happening at Sigma.
Also, he clearly made no effort to help you last semester, even though he knew what you were going through.
He let you be tortured, for fuck’s sake!
I’m not going to let him get away with it,” I say, clenching my fists at the thought.
If I didn’t want to kill Jace before, I sure as fuck want to kill him now.
“You really do know how to hold a grudge,” Monroe smirks. “I’ll tell you what. Sleep on it, and if you feel the same way in the morning, you can meet me at my storage unit at ten a.m. tomorrow. Let me use your phone, and I can pull up the location. Take an Uber. Come alone.”
“Spoken like true member of the mob,” I snort.
“Let’s just say I learned a thing or two over the summer,” she says. “Oh, and one more thing. I have a set of spare car keys in the top right drawer of the desk in my bedroom. If you come, bring those. It will save me the trouble of having to break in and get them.”
“You could just come through the front door like a normal person,” I chide.
“I’m no longer a normal person, Gabi.”
The traffic light changes from red to green, and thankfully, I don’t see Jace’s motorcycle or car parked anywhere along the empty street. I guess he’s not waiting to ambush me after all.
“No sign of Jace’s car. You got lucky,” she comments, glancing around as she pulls up outside our apartment. The bars are long closed by now, and College Avenue is practically silent, content to sleep off its hangover until sunrise.
I slip out of Monroe’s car, glancing over my shoulder to see she’s waiting to make sure I get inside without issue.
My head spins with unasked questions, but I suppose I’ll have to wait until tomorrow.
This is far from the reunion I had imagined, and the knowledge that Monroe doesn’t plan to come back to Dornell makes my stomach knot with heartbreak.
Whatever Kieren did to her must have been much worse than she shared to make her want to shed her prior self like a bodysuit that doesn’t fit anymore.
Anger doesn’t begin to describe my mix of emotions.
He took everything from her. Why is it that the victims are always the ones who lose and are forced to restart?
It’s not fair. I want to make him pay for what he did to my best friend.
Kieren, Barrett, Harrison and especially Jace.
I hope Monroe’s plan involves suffering of the worst kind, because if it doesn’t, those four are dead men walking.