Cass
“You fuck off,” I tell my brother. He’s such a dumbfucker.
“Nah, never, sis,” he says mockingly and punches me back.
“Hit me again and you’ll get a live-view of the ants.”
“All empty threats. The times of my bully big sister are over,” he says and flexes his biceps.
I sigh. Smirk. Shake my head and grab him by the neck with my fingers digging into that one spot—
He sinks to his knees and I headlock him.
“The thing with all muscle is, my dear baby bro, you are stiffer than your penis in the morning, and just as volatile as it.”
He can’t answer a word because I have locked my arm so close around him that his face is swelling.
Everyone else laughs, especially Nikki. She loves when I handle him. I don’t even want to know what they do behind closed—or not-so-closed—doors, but Nikki is a feral kitten who enjoys all things rough.
I let go of Jackson the last possible moment as he starts getting limp in my grip and slap him forward onto the ground.
“So, back to where we were,” I say to the others as if nothing has happened. “I know it’s a lot to ask, but—” I continue, and then I see it from the corner of my eye.
No.
A silver-grey 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback with a tall, blonde, long-haired woman standing next to it, cap on, her back to us.
Goosebumps spread over my arms.
This is not real.
I’m seeing a ghost.
“Eleanor,” I breathe out before I walk, almost run over to where she stands—
My mind is blank.
No thoughts.
This must be a dream, and I am waking up—
I reach the girl and the car—
It’s Elise’s Eleanor.
The Eleanor.
The little bump in the front from where I kicked it.
The girl turns around—
And I freeze.
A shudder runs down my back, and I switch into a very different personality.
“Who the fuck are you?” I ask the girl who resembles Elise in ways I can’t fathom.
She tilts her head slightly, narrowing her eyes.
“You are a ray of sunshine,” she says causally.
How dare she! Coming here with Elise’s car!
“Tell me your fucking name, or I’ll crush you into pieces!” I shout at her.
“Addy,” she says. “And you must be Cass. No wonder no one dares to race you with a mouth like that.”
Addy. Elise’s sister, Audrey, the little bitch. My hands clench into fists. I am not one to be talked to like this, least of all by her.
“How dare you come here,” I say threateningly dark, almost growling. Anger is boiling in my chest.
“You seem awfully prejudiced for not even knowing my name.”
“I know you,” I say, pointing at the car as I close the distance between us. She is taller than me, but I don’t care about size. I know what I am capable of. “You aren’t wanted here. You have done enough damage.”
Her eyes harden as she looks down on me. She has this arrogance in her—I want to hit it out of her face.
“Oh, and what is it I have done?” she asks as if she doesn’t know what she did to Elise.
“Audrey Jade Whitney-Morgan,” I say derogatorily and purse my lips. “The one who left her sister behind. We don’t want people like you here; we die for family.”
Her lips part slightly as she scoffs out; one corner of her mouth tugs into a smirk only the rich have when they believe themselves to be superior. She is as arrogant as I imagined her from Elise’s stories.
She leans down and whispers in my ear.
“And where were you when she died?” she asks me, freezing me to the spot. She takes her time to lean back, knowing she has landed her punch exactly where it was supposed to.
She steps back in her arrogance.
I react without thinking.
My fist meets her face as I attack her.
She reacts quickly in her retaliation, telling me it’s not the first fight she's ever gotten into—with a mouth like hers, no wonder.
She hits me at the temple and pulls her knee up.
But I am used to fights. I have been fighting my brother since he could walk and the bullies since school.
I grab her leg and pull her off balance.
She smashes backward onto the ground, hitting her head. But instead of giving up, she catches my leg with hers and brings me down, launches herself onto me, and hits me back, hard onto my cheek.
I don’t even feel the pain as I wrestle with her until I have the upper hand and sit on her. The rage in me just needs an outlet. Needs to hurt her. Needs a release. I hit. And hit. Blindly. Again. And again. And again.
Blood splatters from the impact; her nose is bleeding heavily when she pushes me off by thrusting her hips up.
I fall onto my back, and she lunges onto me; her fists hit me so hard my face flies to the side.
Fuck me, that was a punch. My vision distorts for a second.
She is being pulled off me by my brother, fighting him with all she has.
My chance. I jump up. I’ll—
But before I can do anything, Nikki builds herself up in front of me.
“Move out of the fucking way!” I shout at her.
“You need to fucking calm down,” she says. “We settle things on the street, not with fists.”
“I don’t fucking care what we fucking do; I am going to kill the bitch! Elise was family!” The rage in me overcomes me, with spit spraying from my mouth as I try to get past her.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” shouts Nikki back at me, pushing me back by the shoulders.
“That’s her Eleanor!” I shout, pointing at the car. “HERS! And she,” I add, pointing at the bitch who presses her arm against her bleeding nose, panting and kept back by my brother. “She’s the elites, little traitor, leaving family behind,” I tell Nikki before I turn to the bitch.
“Don’t look at me like that, you know very well what you did, you—you!”
She scoffs derogatorily. “You call me a traitor leaving her behind, but all I hear is judging what you did yourself. She was family, you say? Where were you when she needed someone? Where were you when she was all alone in Hawaii? Where were you at her funeral?”
All of this is too much. My skin feels as if it were incinerated by the daring this bitch has. I need to crush her. Destroy her.
So, I pull my gun and point it straight at her.
“Cass!” shouts Nikki, but I am not one to reason with.
“Come on,” the bitch says, wiggling herself out of my brother’s grip and walking straight into my gun. “Do it. Pull the trigger so you can see my face for the rest of your pathetic life.”
I stare into her eyes. She has the same blue eyes as Elise. The same blonde hair. It’s like I am looking at an older version of Elise.
And the realization of it crushes me. It’s when I realize everyone is standing around us. Everyone watches me. Waiting for me to prove what I can do.
But I can’t.
Because doing it would be like killing Elise. I would kill her twice, and now that my immediate rage flushes out of me, I am left with nothing but the void she left me in.
Elise. The only one I ever loved.